How Nebraska winters damage brick — and what to do before the freeze

By Jake Wiles, owner · The Best Caulking & Restoration of Omaha · Updated August 2026

Brick and mortar are some of the longest-lasting materials on a house. What kills them in Nebraska isn't age — it's water that gets in and freezes. Omaha sees dozens of freeze-thaw cycles every winter, and each one is a tiny hydraulic jack working on every open joint and every saturated brick. Here's what that does, where it does it, and the fall checklist that prevents most of it.

The four ways winter breaks brick

1. Freeze-thaw in the joints

Water gets into a hairline crack in the mortar. Overnight it freezes and expands about 9%, prying the crack wider. The next afternoon it thaws and more water gets in. By March, a hairline is an open joint. This is why tuckpointing done in October lasts and the same wall left until April costs more to fix.

2. Spalling

Brick is porous. When it's saturated and freezes, the expanding ice pops the face off — that's spalling. It happens fastest where the mortar is harder than the brick (water gets forced into the softer material) and on parapets, chimneys and sills that stay wet.

3. De-icing salt

Salt on steps, walks and the driveway splashes onto the brick and block at the base of the house, then crystallizes inside the pores and spalls the surface. Salt also eats mortar. Use sand or a masonry-safe de-icer near brick.

4. Snow and ice against the wall

Snow shoveled against a foundation wall, or ice dams dumping meltwater behind the brick at the eaves, keeps masonry saturated for weeks. Saturated masonry plus a hard freeze is how you get a leaning chimney or a bowed foundation.

Where it hits first in Omaha

• Chimneys — wet from every side, freeze first, thaw last. Crowns crack, top courses loosen.
• The grade line on brick and block foundations — splash, salt and snow.
• Window sills and lintels — water sits on the sill, and rusting steel lintels swell and crack the joints above doors and windows.
• South- and west-facing walls — the sun thaws them every afternoon, so they cycle the most.
• Driveway and patio joints — water under the slab freezes and heaves it. That's a caulking problem.

The fall checklist

1. Walk the house with a key and check the mortar. Here's what to look for.
2. Look at the chimney crown from the yard with binoculars. Cracks mean water is getting into the stack.
3. Clean gutters and extend downspouts at least 4–6 feet from the foundation.
4. Regrade any spot where soil slopes toward the house.
5. Seal the concrete joints on the driveway, walks and steps so water can't get under the slab.
6. Book the repointing before mid-October. Mortar needs a few days above 40°F to cure; the calendar closes fast.
7. Swap the rock salt for sand or a masonry-safe de-icer near any brick.

If the walk-around turns up failed mortar, our Omaha tuckpointing crew can usually look at it the same week. Fall is our busiest season for exactly this reason — call early.