Stone masonry in Clovis CA - stone walls that dry out and hold together

Most stone calls start with mortar that's turned sandy and falls out when you brush it, a stone that rocks when you push on it, or dark wet streaks low on a wall. Sometimes it's a new project instead, like a stone planter or a garden wall. The price moves with the size and height of the wall, how deep the damage goes and which stone you choose, and the schedule mostly turns on fixing any drainage problem first and getting the right stone delivered. I'll give you your own figure when I come out and look.

I start by looking at the whole wall, not just the bad joints, because loose stones and wet spots usually point to where water's getting in. On an older stone wall the mortar has to let moisture out, so we pick a mix that lets the wall dry instead of whatever's quickest to mix. Where it's safer for the stone, our crew takes the old joints out by hand, which is slower than a grinder but a lot easier on the stone's edges. Then we pack the new mortar in, shape the joints to match the rest of the wall and clean up before we leave. On new stone work we prep the surface, set the stone, point the joints and leave the site clean.

Stone often sits next to other masonry that needs the same care. If your house or chimney is brick with sandy joints, brick pointing is the same patient joint work done on brick. When cracks run through the stones themselves or part of a wall has dropped, I'll tell you plainly if it looks like settling, because foundation repair has to come before any new mortar goes in.

Whether a stone job needs a permit isn't something I'll guess at, because the city or county office that covers your address makes that call, and when yours does need one, we take care of it with that office and talk it through with you at the estimate. Licensing is the other thing to check. California's state licensing board has its own class for masonry contractors, C-29, and only lets someone work without a license on a job up to $1,000 that needs no permit, with nobody working for them. The board also says a bigger job can't be broken into pieces under $1,000 to fit that rule. And if the plan changes partway through, California law says any change to a home improvement contract has to be in writing, easy to read and understand, and has to tell you about your right to cancel, so don't agree to extra work on a handshake.

Around Clovis we see a lot of older stone planters, garden walls and fireplace fronts whose joints have sanded out, often right where a downspout or sprinkler hits the base, so we track down the water before we touch the mortar. We also find old walls patched with hard gray mortar that we take out carefully so it stops trapping water against the stone. We see the same on jobs in Old Fig Garden and Sanger, and we work the cities around Clovis, from Madera down to Kingsburg and Reedley and plenty of places in between.