Masonry Contractor in Fairfield, AL - Older Brick Repaired to Match

The city's Department of Planning, Engineering, & Permits is the office to ask, because it issues residential building permits in Fairfield. Its permit form lists work like additions, fences and roofing or siding but doesn't name masonry repair. The forms page also lists excavation and land-disturbing permits, which can come up when a job means digging. Before we start, we check with the department about your job, and when a permit is required we handle it with them.

Fairfield's permit form says the contractor on a residential job valued at $10,000 and over must hold an Alabama Home Builders license. On a commercial job of $50,000 and over, the contractor needs an Alabama General Contractors license. The state's Home Builders Licensure Board licenses residential construction and remodeling across Alabama, so on a home job that size, ask to see that license before you sign. We're licensed and insured, and I'm glad to go over that at the estimate.

There's no single number, because the price depends on how big the job is, what it's built from and how much damaged brick, mortar or soil has to come out first. On Fairfield's older houses, finding brick that matches and getting materials into a tight or sloped spot can add to the cost. If the city requires a permit, the minimum fee is $50.00. The application needs a copy of the contract spelling out the work and its costs, so ours lays that out plainly.

Water, mostly. The Birmingham area gets about 56.6 inches of rain and snow in a normal year. January nights average around 35°F and July highs around 91°F, so old joints spend a lot of time wet and swinging between cold and heat. Once the mortar goes soft, water gets in behind the brick, which is why tuckpointing the worn joints early saves the brick around them.

You can look up your address on AlabamaFlood, which has FEMA's regulatory floodplain data searchable by address or county. It's worth a look before you plan a retaining wall, a new drive or anything else that changes how water moves across your lot. When I come out, I'll also walk the yard with you and look at where the water goes.

Fix the reason it's leaning first. That's usually water trapped behind the wall, so we rebuild it with a way for that water to get out. Pushing a wall back or patching its face doesn't last, because the pressure behind it is still there, and with the rain this area gets, the drainage matters more than the face. If the rebuild means digging, we take the permit question to the city first, as covered above.