Masonry Contractors in Louisville, KY

Masonry Contractors Louisville repairs and builds brick, block and stone for homeowners in Louisville, Kentucky and the towns around it. That covers tuckpointing and brick repair, chimneys, stone veneer, retaining walls, garden walls and mailboxes, and masonry steps and porches. Louisville has a lot of brick to look after. The city was founded in 1778 on the Ohio River, and its Old Louisville neighborhood is described on Wikipedia as the largest historic preservation district made up solely of Victorian homes and buildings in the country. Most of those houses are brick. Further out, postwar ranches and split-levels are brick too. Good masonry contractors in Louisville spend most of their time keeping that brick dry and tight.

What wears out masonry here

Louisville's weather is hard on brick in a quiet way. On Wikipedia's climate table for the city, January averages a high of 43.6 degrees and a low of 27.8. That means many winter days start below freezing and end above it. Add 48 inches of precipitation a year and you get brick and mortar that are often wet when the temperature drops.

Water in the joints. Mortar is meant to wear before the brick does. Over decades rain washes it out, and open joints let water into the wall.

Freeze and thaw. Water inside a brick expands when it freezes. Repeat that enough winters and the face of the brick pops off, which masons call spalling.

Hard mortar on soft brick. A common mistake on older houses. Portland-heavy mortar is harder than old brick, so the brick takes the stress and cracks instead of the joint.

Ground movement. Steps, walls and porches built on shallow footings or poorly drained soil settle and pull away from the house.

Old houses and newer ones

Point2Homes, summarizing Census data, lists 1969 as the median build year for Louisville homes. About 13 percent were built in 1939 or earlier, and another 21 percent in the 1940s and 1950s. Those groups need different care.

In older neighborhoods the brick is often softer, the mortar was lime-based, and walls may be solid brick several layers thick rather than a veneer. That brick needs a soft mortar matched in color and joint shape, careful hand removal of old mortar, and gentle cleaning.

In the 1950s to 1970s suburbs, most houses have a single layer of brick veneer tied to a wood frame. The common problems are cracked mortar at window corners, missing or blocked weep holes, front stoops that have dropped, and chimneys whose crowns have cracked. Newer homes from the 1990s on often have manufactured stone on the front, where water getting behind the stone is the thing to watch.

Preservation districts and permits

Louisville Metro has eight local preservation districts: Butchertown, Cherokee Triangle, Chickasaw, Clifton, Limerick, Old Louisville, Parkland and West Main Street. Per the city's Local Preservation Districts page, exterior alterations in those districts and at individual landmarks need a Certificate of Appropriateness. The Landmarks masonry guidelines set out how historic brick should be handled:

• Repoint only joints that are no longer sound
• Remove old mortar with hand tools, not power grinders
• Use mortar no harder than the original, matched in color, texture and tooling
• No sandblasting, and no water over 300 psi
• Do not paint brick that has never been painted

We follow those methods on older homes whether or not the house is in a district, because they protect the brick. Outside the districts, Louisville Metro Construction Review says retaining walls over 4 feet tall need a building permit. If your project needs a review or permit, we tell you before we schedule.

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Six kinds of work

• Brick repair and tuckpointing: grinding or raking out failed mortar and repointing, replacing spalled bricks, fixing cracks.
• Chimney repair: crowns, caps, flashing, repointing and rebuilding the section above the roof.
• Stone veneer: natural and manufactured stone on facades, wainscots, columns and fireplaces.
• Retaining walls: block, stone and brick walls with drainage behind them.
• Brick and block walls: garden walls, privacy walls, columns and mailboxes.
• Masonry steps and porches: brick and stone steps, stoops, porch piers and landings.

What a visit looks like

First look. We come out, look at the masonry with you, and find the cause of the damage. For a chimney or tall wall that can mean looking from a ladder or the roof.

The quote. A written price, broken out by task. If repair and rebuild are both reasonable, both are on the page.

The work. Old mortar out to the right depth, new mortar packed and tooled to match, damaged units replaced, and drainage or flashing fixed where water was getting in.

Afterward. Fresh mortar needs to cure slowly, so we tell you what to avoid in the first weeks, like pressure washing.

When to call

Mortar and brick work goes best between spring and late fall, when nights stay above freezing and the mortar can cure. Small repairs can happen year round on mild days. If water is getting in now, through a chimney or a wall, call before the next winter and we will tell you plainly what has to happen first. Reach us at (502) 443-8557.

Most of our work is in Louisville itself, from the older brick neighborhoods near downtown such as Old Louisville, Butchertown, Clifton and the Highlands, out to the postwar suburbs on the east and south ends of Jefferson County. We also work in the towns around the city: St. Matthews, Jeffersontown, Shively, Middletown and Prospect in Jefferson County, Shepherdsville and Mount Washington in Bullitt County, and Jeffersonville and New Albany across the Ohio River in Indiana. Each town page covers what we found about its housing and any local rules that affect masonry work. Since Louisville Metro and the small cities within it can handle permits differently, we confirm which office covers your address.