We're M&K South Bend Concrete & Masonry, and we repoint, repair and rebuild brick, block and stone on Plymouth houses, from chimney tops down to foundations. I look at every job myself and work on the crew that does it. Call (574) 213-0235.
(574) 213-0235
A lot of our Plymouth calls come from older homes in town, where the brick itself has held up fine but the mortar between it is wearing out, or the chimney top has started to come loose. Farther out it's more often block foundations, steps and walls on newer houses that have settled or cracked.
I grew up fixing barn walls and old foundations on a family farm, then learned the trade under an experienced mason around South Bend, so slow, careful repair on older brick is the work I like best. In Plymouth that usually means finding out why the joints failed before we fill them, so the fix doesn't start the next problem.
We reply to every call and message within one business day. I'll set a time to come out to your Plymouth address, walk the job with you and write the estimate up in plain words. There's no pressure and no obligation to go ahead.
(574) 213-0235Most of what we do in Plymouth is repair on brick that's stood a long time, like repointing worn joints, rebuilding chimney tops and swapping out bricks whose faces have flaked off. When a whole wall or front needs it, masonry restoration brings it back as one job instead of a string of patches. We also build here, from retaining walls and walkways to block foundations and stone veneer, and every service we offer is listed below.
Plymouth runs its own Building Inspection Department, and its Building Commissioner is the one who answers whether your job needs a permit and what the code asks of it. You can reach that office at 574-936-2824. When a permit is needed, the city's review becomes part of the schedule, so I'd rather sort it out early than find out halfway in. The city also requires contractors working inside its limits to register with it, and the department can tell you more about that registration if you want to check on anyone you're thinking of hiring. Before we start, we check with the office that covers your address, and when your job calls for a permit we pull it as part of the work. If your home is in a historic district, we'll help you reach the commission first, before anything else gets planned.
It's a straight drive down US 31 from South Bend, so the trip isn't what sets your price. What does is how much of the wall or chimney has failed, how high we have to work and how closely we can match your old brick and mortar. The schedule turns mostly on the permit question and on what we find once the old joints are out. I'll walk it with you and write up the estimate in plain words so you can see where the money goes. We do the same kind of careful repair in La Porte and back home in South Bend.
I come out to Plymouth myself, look at the brick, chimney or foundation with you, and write the estimate in plain words. Then I'm on the crew alongside our masons and laborers, so the person who priced your job is there doing it.
We're best known for repointing and chimney work on older brick. Old brick is usually softer than what's sold today, so we use a mortar that gives before the brick does. That way the new joints don't end up cracking the faces you were trying to save.
On the farm I learned that a patch done wrong costs more than doing it right once, and I run this business the same way. We're fully licensed and insured. Your satisfaction, guaranteed. Call (574) 213-0235 or use the form to tell us about your job.
Some masonry jobs do, because Plymouth's permit list names retaining walls, porches and decks, accessory structures, additions and renovations, demolition and new construction. Repair like repointing isn't named on that list, so we ask the city about it instead of guessing. If your house is outside the city limits, Marshall County's Building Department enforces building standards out there and issues permits for the Towns of Argos, Bourbon, Bremen, Culver and LaPaz.
The Indiana Floodplain Information Portal is a public map from the state DNR that shows FEMA and DNR floodplains and flood elevation points along waterways. Inside the city, the Building Commissioner is also the floodplain manager and zoning administrator, so the same office answers floodplain and land-use questions about a wall or an addition. We look this up early on any wall planned near water.
Mostly age and water. The soft lime mortar in many older houses was made to wear away before the brick does, and once the joints open up, water gets into the wall and speeds things along. The other common cause we see is an earlier repointing done with mortar too hard for old brick, so the brick cracks instead of the joint.
I can't give you a fair number until I've seen it, because the price comes from the job itself. The big pieces are how many joints need raking out and refilling, whether we need scaffolding or roof access, how many bricks need replacing and how hard it is to match your brick and mortar. A chimney that only needs its top rebuilt costs a good deal less than one that has to come down to the roofline.
There's no set number of days, because it comes down to the size of the job and what's behind the old mortar. I'll give you my best read on the estimate. Old walls sometimes hide loose brick or failed flashing, the metal seal where a chimney meets the roof, that only shows once the joints are open. When that happens, we show you what we found and talk it through before going further.
