Vent: That moment my brick arch settled wrong - still kicking myself

I was building a brick arch over a new garage door in a house near Austin last month, and right after I pulled the centering frame, the whole thing dropped about a quarter inch on the left side. Turns out I didn't let the mortar cure long enough in the humid morning air before taking the support out. Has anyone else had an arch go sideways like that and had to shim it back into place without the customer noticing?

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reeselewis27d ago

Man that sucks, I feel your pain. I had a similar thing happen with a brick arch over a window in San Antonio a few years back, real humid day and I got impatient. What ended up saving me was I used some thin copper shims I cut myself from leftover flashing, tapped them in gently on the low side just behind the brick where nobody would ever see, then repointed the joint over top with some color matched mortar. Most people never look that close at an arch anyway, they just see the big shape. As long as the mortar blend hides the shim line you'd never know it was there six months later.