US 4,579,378 · Granted 1986-04-01
The 1986 Pointing Guide That Makes Brick Mortar Look Professional
This is a simple metal frame you press against a brick wall to guide where mortar goes between bricks. It has an opening that frames exactly one horizontal joint and two vertical joints, so your mortar stays neat and the grout lines look straight and even.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a physical guide plate with a specific shape: a front opening framed by a horizontal top margin and vertical end flanges that create right angles, designed to align precisely with one horizontal and two vertical brick joints. What's protected is the particular geometry of how those margins frame the opening, plus the addition of a central handle and a front extension that work together to hold the guide steady against the wall while you apply mortar.
Why it matters
Professional bricklayers and masons have long relied on guides to keep mortar joints uniform and visually clean. This patent protects a mechanical solution that lets amateur homeowners or less experienced workers achieve straight, even grout lines without years of training. By standardizing the opening shape and adding stabilizing features like the handle and retention flanges, the design solves the practical problem of keeping mortar application consistent across large wall areas.
Real-world use
When someone is repointing an old brick house or laying new brickwork, they press this guide against the wall, fill the exposed joints with mortar, then slide it down to the next row, creating perfectly aligned grout lines.
Original USPTO abstract
A mortar joint pointing guide having a mortar supporting plate formed with a front opening defined by an elongated horizontal margin and end flanges presenting margins at right angles to the horizontal margin so that a clear opening frames a horizontal and two vertical joints of a brick for guiding the application of the pointing mortar. The guide has a centrally located handle and a front margin extension for cooperation with the handle to steady the guide in use, and in addition the sides and rear margins of the guide are formed with low flanges to retain mortar on the plate.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 4,579,378
- Filing date
- 1984-10-31
- Grant date
- 1986-04-01
- Assignee
- Snyders Robert V
- Inventor(s)
- SNYDERS; ROBERT V.
- CPC class
- E04F21/165
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