Rupert! What were you thinking?

[Miles]

Tonks wrote:
> Oh, dear. One more thing to worry about that the landlord will never
> fix. If I have lived here 30 years and the brick buildings are about
> 40 years old, does this mean that I am going to find myself sleeping
> in what use to be the lawn before long, when the buiding comes
> crashing down?  I have never heard of tuck-pointing. I don't think we
> do it in the U.S.  Maybe we just let them fall in? And I didn't have
> enought to worry about. The new landlords here don't do anything. We
> have leaves from a year ago still under the trees. I can just imagine
> what they would say if I asked if we have been tuck-pointed recently.
> Say,what?? lol.

Miles:
I do not think you have to worry. There are many brick buildings in my home 
town which are much older than 40 years, and I never heard that the cement 
had to be replaced..
This one 
http://www.schoenes-deutschland-in-bildern.de/gelsenkirchen_ehem_postgebaude.jpg 
is about 100 years old, and believe me, it does not fall apart ;).

Miles, who really does not think that millennia of human brick experience 
lead to crumbling buildings all over the world