If you want to change up your fireplace's brick mantle but don't want to paint over the brick, take a cue from this simple, ...

You may not have ever given much thought to how bricklayer’s mortar is made. Standard mortar is a combination of three ingredients: sand; powdered Portland cement, lime and some other ingredients; and ...

You mix some up, lay a few bricks, and let them sit for a month. At the end of the wait period you do a light acid wash on the mortar to replicate what takes Mother Nature 30 years to accomplish.

The person who repointed this brick at the old sardine factory in Bass Harbor, Maine, ruined it. He was supposed to match the white hydrated lime and use the correct sand.