Welcome!

My name is Mario Cantin. I’ve been performing brick and stone work restoration in Toronto, Canada. I’ve established my company, Invisible Tuckpointing Ltd., in 2001 to serve my local area. I’ve been working in the trades since the 80’s.

I also have been offering my services as a consultant throughout North America since 2003.

I am also, personally, an accredited heritage professional.

I have experience in dealing with buildings constructed prior to 1930, an era which marked the end of a particular choice of materials which had been prevalent up to then.

I also offer a perspective which is uniquely my own. I like to do my own research and think things through, as opposed to simply let information get shoved down my throat.

I deal largely with homeowners who pay out of their own pocket to maintain their 100-year-old brick home without government subsidies. In that regard, I can provide insight which could prove useful to residential homeowners, as it is based on a combination of empirical experience and research.

The blog posts will start by showing some of what I have been doing in my capacity as the owner of a small heritage masonry company in Toronto, Canada.

Then I shall proceed to explain what I believe the big question is when applying masonry preservation concepts to the residential market.

I’ll also examine concepts such as “purism” as it relates to how far should one take restorative masonry work on residential structures; and also “intrusion”, meaning how much of a mess does one need to live with while the work is carried out, and how much disruption needs to occur.

Furthermore, I’ll discuss techniques for restoring institutional heritage masonry I’ve adapted to the residential market in such a way so as to create leverage — in other words, to create “more bang for the buck” — as well as reducing intrusion, as alluded to above.

I’ll also outline multiple standards for restoring the same property, based on its heritage status within the community (and even within the country), and modified by how far its particular owner wants to take it as far as rehabilitating her brick or stone structure.

Also occasionally included will be predictions and commentaries of relevance or interest, made by individuals during the Victorian or Edwardian periods and originally published then as well, which I came across in my various readings.

I welcome comments, and can as well be reached by visiting the first two links in this post — the former for Toronto residents, and the latter for all others.

Welcome to my blog!