If you own a home in South City or Saint Louis in general, it's likely you'll need to repoint your house at sometime. That being said, if you decide to do it yourself, head to F.W. Clemens! Otherwise, make sure your contractor or professional of choice uses products supplied from F.W. Clemens.
For the love of god, do not buy mortar from Home Depot or Lowe's for your gorgeous Saint Louis home. The mortar they sell is too hard for our soft brick homes. This will lead to your bricks spalling and cracking. Go to F.W. Clemens and they will walk you through what you need. They are always friendly, and will explain what product is best for you by asking the right questions. They also have trowels, and raker joints available for fair price. A bag of historic mortar dry mix is about $5.
They also sell plaster, and sealants for brick! This is your one-stop masonry shop.
If it's your first time visiting, park on Cherokee and walk through the gates/warehouse and you'll see a sign for the "office" building. Once you walk in, you'll see the desk and they will be more than happy to help! They also load up your bags of heavy mortar in your car for you, which is awesome if you're not used to picking up 50lb+ compact bags mortar that are not the easiest to handle.
One thing to note is since F.W. Clemens serves mostly masonry professionals, their hours reflect this. They open early and close early (7am-330pm), and they are only open Monday - Friday. I'm not docking their rating for this because that's silly, and they would probably lose money by staying open longer. They are a small operation that has been around for almost 150 years, and that's pretty cool consider our Saint Louis homes are that age or younger! read more
