Masonry Contractor in Lafayette, LA - Brick and Block That Holds on Clay Ground

If you're building something new, like a garden wall, a carport or a tall fence, plan on a permit. The city's permitting office handles permits for almost any structure that goes with a home, and its guidance leaves cosmetic work out. Repairs can land on either side, so we check with the permit office before work starts and take care of any permit the job calls for.

Lafayette doesn't require a business license, so the license to ask about is the state's. State law counts repairs to an existing home worth $7,500 or more as contractor work, and it keeps home improvement contractors off structural work such as footings, foundations and outside walls. On a foundation or wall job, ask which license a contractor holds with the state contractor licensing board. We're fully licensed and insured.

The price is set by what caused the damage and how much has to come out, so I give you a number only after seeing the job. A crack from a footing that moved costs more than worn joints, matching old brick takes more hunting than matching new, and digging out a sunken walk or paver drive to rebuild the base adds up. I come out, look at it with you and write the estimate myself, and if a small repair will do, I'll say so.

Start at the roofline, because a loose chimney cap or loose brick up there is what a strong wind can pull down. Walk around and look for open joints, cracked mortar on the chimney and garden walls that lean, and call us before the season if you find any. The city also points residents to the LUS Hurricane Handbook and lists its sandbag sites on the city's website, and every site is self-bagging, so bring your own shovel and help.

Grind out the worn mortar and pack in a mix that's softer than the brick, so the joint wears instead of the brick face. Older soft brick cracks and flakes when it's pointed with mortar that's too hard, and that's a bad repair I run into a lot on older houses here. If only a few spots are gone, we do brick pointing on just those, and if the whole wall is sandy, it's full tuckpointing.

The length comes down to the permit check, the weather and what we find once the wall is open, more than the laying itself. Mortar needs dry days to set up, and if a wall cracked because the ground under it moved, we fix that first or the crack comes back. I'll walk you through the order of work for your job when I write the estimate.