What This Site Covers
Brickwillow is a reference resource focused on one specific area of building conservation: the brick masonry of nineteenth-century commercial façades in Canadian heritage districts. The scope is deliberately narrow. Retail, warehouse, and office buildings constructed between roughly 1850 and 1920 across cities like Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Halifax share recognisable construction conventions—wire-cut or hand-moulded brick, lime-based mortars, solid-wall assembly—and also share common deterioration patterns.
The three topics addressed here—mortar composition analysis, repointing methodology, and moisture management—account for the majority of repair decisions practitioners face when working on designated heritage properties or properties subject to local heritage overlay regulations.
Scope and Limitations
The content on this site draws on publicly available documents: Parks Canada's Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada, ASTM standards, CMHC technical bulletins, and published guidance from provincial heritage branches. No original research is presented. Where specific figures or ratios appear, a source is identified.
This site does not cover structural assessment, seismic upgrading, or interior masonry systems. It also does not address stone, terra cotta, or concrete masonry in depth, though some principles overlap.
Contact
Queries about specific heritage district requirements or masonry conditions can be submitted using the contact form on the home page. Responses are not guaranteed. Questions that clarify a topic covered here may be addressed through future articles.
Key Sources Used
- Parks Canada — Standards and Guidelines for Conservation of Historic Places in Canada, 2nd ed.
- ASTM C270 — Standard for Mortar for Unit Masonry
- CMHC — Technical Series on Building Moisture and Envelopes
- ICOMOS — Venice Charter (1964) and Burra Charter (1999)
- National Building Code of Canada — heritage-related provisions