Chimney Tuckpointing Cost Calculator
Repointing is priced by the linear foot of joint. Enter your joint footage and rate and see why an exposed chimney above the roof adds up fast.
1 Enter your numbers
Tuckpointing grinds out failed mortar and repacks the joints — it’s priced by the linear foot of joint. 60 ft at $12.00/ft plus access is about $1,012. A chimney with lots of exposed brick above the roof runs up quickly.
Tuckpointing (repointing) grinds out failed, crumbling mortar from between the bricks and packs in fresh mortar — restoring the joints without touching the brick itself. Unlike a lump-sum repair, it is quoted the way it is done: by the linear foot of joint. That single fact explains why two chimneys the same height can differ wildly — a chimney with lots of exposed brick standing above the roofline has far more running joint to rake and repack than a squat one, and every foot is billed.
The trap in tuckpointing is measuring it. You are not measuring the chimney’s outside dimensions — you are totaling the length of every joint that needs work, horizontal and vertical, across every exposed face. Get that footage right and the rest is simple multiplication.
Formula
Footage times your rate, plus access, with a cushion:
total = (joint_ft × rate_per_lf + access − discount) × (1 + contingency)
The rate is yours — pulled from the quote — so this stays correct whatever the going per-foot price is in your area.
Worked example
The exposed portion of a chimney above the roof has roughly 74 linear feet of joint that has gone soft. Your mason quotes $14.50 per linear foot and $260 for scaffold on a mid-roof stack. No discount, 10% contingency:
(74 × 14.50 + 260) × 1.10 = (1,073 + 260) × 1.10 = 1,333 × 1.10 ≈ $1,466
Notice the joint work ($1,073) dwarfs the access here — on tall, brick-heavy chimneys, footage is the whole story.
Measuring joint footage and knowing when to stop repointing
- Total the joints, not the chimney. Add up horizontal bed joints and vertical head joints across each exposed face. A rough shortcut: count courses and multiply by the perimeter, then add the vertical joints.
- Only the failed joints count. If the mortar below the roofline is still sound, you may only be repointing the weathered top section — do not pay to repoint good joints.
- Match the mortar. On older chimneys, hard modern mortar against soft historic brick can crack the brick faces. A good mason matches the mortar type — worth asking about.
- Repoint or rebuild? Tuckpointing fixes joints. If the brick is spalling or the stack is leaning, you are past repointing — see the rebuild tool.
Reference table
A labeled per-linear-foot band for repointing, with crown work for context (a failing crown is a common reason joints go bad):
| Masonry job | Typical planning band |
|---|---|
| Tuckpointing (per linear foot) | $8–$25 / linear ft |
| Crown repair / replacement | $200–$3,500 |
These are labeled planning bands — a reality check on a written quote, never a price you should expect to pay. Chimney cost swings with roof access and scaffolding, chimney height, roof pitch, how far the damage runs and local labor. Enter the real figures from your itemized quote above, and get that quote from a CSIA-certified sweep and a licensed, insured mason.