MASONRY
When asked to describe their homes, most German Villagers would mention brick walls and stone foundations, sills, and lintels. These common masonry features create much of the warmth characterizing the neighborhood. Because of their major visual impact, as well as their importance to your building, take care to preserve these vital elements.

Builders used stone extensively for the sills beneath windows and doors, the lintels above them, and commercial storefronts. Some sills and lintels are carved with geometric or floral patterns. Stone masonry is generally left unpainted.

The brick walls of most Village houses are very simple in design and execution: As photo 5 shows, standard-sized bricks were almost always laid in a "common bond" pattern of five to seven rows of stretchers (the long side) separated by a single row of headers (the short end).

Many buildings from the 1890s through the turn of the century have pressed-brick facades with common brick making up the side and rear walls. Pressed brick is denser, less porous, and has a more uniform color than common brick. See photo 6 for an example.

The first thing that many building owners think about is cleaning their brick walls. Fortunately, cleaning technology for historic buildings has improved over the years; several effective chemical cleaners are now available. Although once popular, the sandblasting and sealing method, which can cause irreparable damage to brick, is no longer used in the Village. Probable damage includes removal of the harder, weatherproof outer surface; loss of corner definition; and extreme roughening of the brick surface. Stone also should never be sandblasted, especially decoratively carved stone.

Before you decide to clean your building, take a good look at your brick walls. Will you be washing away part of your building's character? Some building owners prefer to preserve the patina of age that weathered brick acquires over time.

Some brick houses have been painted to protect their low-quality brick walls from the weather. Elsewhere brick walls were painted for aesthetic reasons - to cover damaged masonry or wall alterations.

Skilled masons took pride in tooling, or finishing, their mortar joints, and these joints became an important part of each brick wall's design. Drawing 9 shows the most common types of finishing. In each case masons were careful not to overfill the joints and smear mortar on the face of the masonry.

Recommendations
1. Consider not cleaning masonry; the darkened, weathered surface is a part of your building's history that ought to be preserved.

2. If cleaning is undertaken, begin with the gentlest effective technique - try hand scrubbing with a natural bristle brush and plain water before using potentially harmful and more expensive detergents or chemicals.

3. Acceptable masonry cleaning specifications include use of detergent or chemical cleaners that have been tested on an inconspicuous patch of wall for effectiveness and for lack of masonry damage. Wash water pressure should not exceed 300 pounds per square inch. Choose a reliable professional who is entirely familiar with testing and cleaning procedures.

4. Avoid masonry sealers such as silicone that will keep out liquid water but not water vapor. Once it penetrates the masonry, vapor can condense into liquid water that the sealer traps in the wall.

5. Painted masonry buildings should be left painted because the building may have been painted originally or early in its life; or the paint may cover damaged, soft, or unsightly masonry.

6. Masonry that has not been painted in the past should not be painted, especially window lintels and sills and other stone trim.

7. Avoid repointing with mortar that has too much cement - it may be so hard that it causes the masonry itself to crack and spall.

8. Be careful that any repointing work matches the building's original joint tooling as closely as possible. Especially avoid "peanut butter" joints packed so full that they smear onto the masonry surface.

9. Acceptable masonry repointing specifications include a mortar mix that has been selected by color, sand grain size, and texture to match the original which is being replaced. The mortar mix by volume should be between three and five parts of sand, one part of lime, and no more than one-half of one part of Portland cement. Joint tooling specifications should include a sample area that matches the original tooling on the building and that sets the standard for the entire job.

10. Stuccoed buildings should remain stuccoed, since the masonry underneath was often chipped and scarred to make the stucco adhere. Stucco-coating a historic building is not an appropriate treatment if it has not been previously stuccoed.