Water Repellents and Anti-Graffiti Coatings

Seal Your Masonry Building

Masonry is the preferred method of construction of many buildings from a retail store, warehouse, condo, or even your home. Masonry is a strong, durable, and relatively low maintenance material compared to other construction types on the market. There is however a strong argument to seal your masonry building.

When dealing with a brick building, it is important to seal the building. This is because the brick is held together using a mortar. Mortar is a very porous cementitious material and thus absorbs moisture very quickly. This moisture can sweep all the way through the wall system in some cases and cause interior damage. The moisture also can cause the deterioration of the mortar itself over prolonged periods of time, especially with the freeze-thaw cycle we see in the Midwest.

It is equally if not more important to seal a block building. Many of the reasons to seal a block building are the same as sealing a brick building with the added problem of the entire block being porous as well as the mortar. With unsealed block you also run the risk color loss from the block itself, which can result in a loss of the overall appearance of your building.

Sealing stone is important as doing so can greatly slow the growth of hard to clean mold in mildew that can occur in natural stone. If is important to use the proper sealer when dealing with stone as you want the natural stone to breath while still stopping water from penetrating the stone which can cause damage to the substrate.

Another major reason to seal a building is to prevent vandalism from destroying your building. An anti-graffiti coating can be applied to masonry to combat deep penetration of spray paint into a masonry substrate that sometimes can never be fully removed.