Masonry Contractor in Mission, TX - Brick Repairs That Blend In and Walls Built Right

Yes, the city requires a permit for any concrete slab with a value of $100 or more, and its Inspections Division reviews permit applications for every new building, from a storage shed up to a house. That takes in nearly any patio or outdoor kitchen pad, and when your job needs a permit, we do the paperwork with the city and set up the inspections. For repairs to brick that's already there, the Inspections Division is the office to ask, and I'll check before we start.

The city's residential permit application won't be accepted without an energy code compliance report, a Manual J A/C report, an engineer-sealed windstorm plan and a full set of plans printed at 11x17. On a home permit, the general contractor gets the residential permit first, before the city issues permits for sub-trades like electrical, plumbing or mechanical. The city's business license application, which has a $50.00 fee, is a separate form and not a building permit.

Don't count on it, because the city's permit form says a property isn't to be assumed grandfathered under older rules. On newly annexed land, what's already there can stay while it remains as is, but expanding it takes a building permit, with the zoning, building codes and setback distances from property lines in force at that time. The city also needs the land platted into a recorded lot under its subdivision rules before it issues permits, even when a building already stands there.

If your house is in the city's Historic Preservation Overlay District, most projects there need approval from the Historic Preservation Commission as well as any building permit. We'll confirm with the city whether your address falls inside the district before we plan anything. On older brick I match the mortar and brick closely anyway, so the repair looks like it's always been there.

Mostly years of sun, heat and water, because mortar is meant to be the softer part of the wall and wear out before the brick does. Sprinklers that hit the same wall every night and downspouts that dump at the foundation speed it up. The worst fix is patching with mortar harder than the brick, which pushes the damage into the brick itself, so when we redo the joints we match the mortar to your brick.

I can't give you a fair number until I've seen the job, because the price comes down to its size, the materials, how much old brick or mortar has to come out and how hard your brick is to match. The schedule mostly turns on whether the job needs a permit and inspections and how long matching brick takes to track down. I'll walk you through both at the estimate.