What goes into the price of a brick job in Mobile

Masonry work does not come in standard sizes. Two houses on the same street can both have cracked brick by the back door, and one turns out to be a few bricks and some mortar while the other is a wall that has been taking water for years. From the street they look about the same. The difference only shows up close.

So a price quoted before anyone has looked at the brick is a guess. This guide goes through what actually moves the price on a brick job around Mobile, so you know what to show Donald and what to ask anyone who prices it.

Size comes first. Repointing depends on how much wall has joints that need cutting out and filling. Brick repair depends on how many bricks have to come out and go back in. A strip of joints under one window is a small job. Every wall of a two story house is a big one.

The joints and the layout matter too. Narrow joints in old brick take longer to cut out cleanly than wide joints in newer brick. And a wall with a lot of windows, corners and trim has more edges to work around than a plain stretch of brick.

Worn joints with sound brick are the simplest case. The old mortar comes out and new mortar goes in. Once brick has spalled or worked loose, each damaged brick has to be cut out and replaced, which is slower work.

When water has been getting in for a long time, the damage can run deeper than it looks. Brick that is loose over a wide area may need to come down and be laid back up. On a brick veneer house, a section that has pulled away from the frame wall behind it is more work than the cracks on its face suggest. Sometimes the full extent only shows once the first bricks come out.

Work a mason can reach from the ground goes faster than work on a ladder, and ladder work goes faster than work from scaffolding or a roof. Second floor walls, high gable ends and chimneys on steep roofs all take more setup and more care.

Access at ground level counts too. Many older houses downtown and in the historic districts sit close to the house next door, with a narrow side yard. Fences, gates, decks, a big oak right against the wall, and thick shrubs can all slow down getting materials to the brick. These are the usual things in the way:

• Air conditioner units sitting against the wall
• Shrubs, flowerbeds and vines on the brick
• Downspouts, hose bibs, lights and wiring
• Shutters, iron railings and gates fastened to the brick
• Decks, patios or walks built tight against the wall

Matching drives a lot of the cost on older houses. New brick in common colors and sizes is easy to find. Old brick is another matter. The handmade brick on older Mobile houses comes in sizes and colors nobody makes anymore, so a good match usually means tracking down salvaged brick.

Mortar is the same story. A close color match takes test batches with different sands, left to dry and compared against the old joints. Old soft brick also needs soft mortar, which takes more care to mix, place and cure in Mobile's heat. On newer veneer houses the match is usually simpler.

Some very old brick simply cannot be matched exactly. When that is the case, Donald says so up front.

A chimney is a small amount of brick in a hard place to work. Most of the job happens on the roof, so getting up there safely, protecting the shingles and moving materials up and down all take time a wall does not need.

What the chimney needs matters a lot. Repointing the joints on the stack, replacing a few spalled bricks, and fixing or replacing a cracked crown are each different amounts of work, and many chimneys need some of each. If the brick near the top is loose all the way through, more of the stack has to come down and go back up.

Flashing is usually a roofer's job. So when a leak involves both the brick and the flashing, there may be two trades and two prices.

Some brick damage starts outside the masonry. A gutter that runs over, a downspout dumping against a wall, ground that slopes toward the house, or a rusted lintel over a window can keep damaging new work if they are left alone. Fixing them may be part of the plan or may be another trade's job, and either way it affects the total.

Houses inside one of Mobile's local historic districts can need the city's sign off before outside work, so call the City of Mobile first. And when cracks point to a house that is still moving, some jobs call for a structural engineer or a foundation company before brick work makes sense.

When two prices for the same job are far apart, the work being priced is usually different. Ask each person what they plan to do. Ask how deep the joints will be cut out, what mortar goes back in and whether it suits the age of the brick, where the replacement brick will come from, and what happens with the dust, the plants and the cleanup.

A low number that skips cutting out the joints and smears mortar over the top, or patches cracks without asking why they formed, often means the same wall gets worked on twice.

Photos get the conversation started. Text Donald W Carpenter at (251) 305-5966 with these:

• A wide shot of the whole wall or the whole chimney
• The worst brick or joints up close, with a coin held next to them
• Anything in the way, like an AC unit, a fence or a deck
• How high the work is, and what part of Mobile you are in
• Anything you know about the house, like roughly when it was built or an old repair

After the photos, Donald looks at the job himself. He checks the brick and mortar, finds where water is getting in, and lays out what the work will be, so nothing starts before you have agreed to it.

For more on each kind of work, read the brick repair, tuckpointing, chimney repair and foundation repair pages.