Brick Repair
Brick repair on houses, garages and small commercial buildings around Pittsburgh. We cut out spalled, cracked and loose brick, set matching brick in its place, and rebuild wall sections, piers and steps.
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Our Services
Stucco repair usually starts with a wall that has cracked, bulged or gone hollow in spots. Davis Demolition and Masonry does stucco work on houses and small commercial buildings in Pittsburgh and about 40 miles around. We patch damaged areas, re-stucco walls that are past patching, and parge block and stone. Call or text (412) 720-1866 and we will come look at the wall.
Most stucco trouble is water trouble. It gets in at a bad roof edge, a leaking gutter or a chimney, then works behind the stucco. Finding the source is the first job on any wall we repair. Stucco is part of the brick, block and stone work we do on older Pittsburgh houses.
Tell us about the job. We will call or text you back.
Water is behind most of it. When water gets into the wall it rots wood lath and rusts metal lath and nails. The rusted metal swells, the stucco loses its grip on the wall, and it pulls away. That is the hollow sound you hear when you tap a bad spot.
Settling is another cause. So are leaking gutters and downspouts, vines growing on the wall, and ground water splashing up at the base. Old repairs cause trouble too. Hard Portland cement patched over soft old lime stucco moves differently, and the wall cracks along the patch.
All of that shows up on Pittsburgh's older housing stock. Plenty of the brick and stone houses here were parged or stuccoed years ago, and many have been patched before. Freeze and thaw through the winter works on every crack in the wall. So we tap the whole wall out and mark the loose areas before we price the job.
Patching is the first choice when there is sound stucco left to patch into. National Park Service guidance on old stucco sets a line for the rest. Once the stucco has lost its bond over 40 to 50 percent of the surface, the whole wall comes off. A heavy textured finish hides a patch well, so patching works better on those walls.
Small patches scattered across smooth unpainted stucco rarely blend in. On a wall like that, re-stuccoing the whole section is the better call. The patch gets squared off with a chisel or a saw and cut back to sound material. When the brick underneath turns out to be bad, it needs brick pointing before new stucco goes on.
Stucco goes on in coats, most often three, straight onto masonry or over lath on a frame wall. Raking the mortar joints out about 5/8 of an inch gives it a grip on brick or stone. Each coat is keyed for the next, and the finish coat is worked to match the texture beside it.
Parging is a coat of mortar troweled over a masonry wall. It is the same family of work as stucco, and it gives rough block or stone an even face. We parge block foundation walls, stone basement walls, porch piers, garden walls and the sides of chimneys.
A lot of the parging we do is on foundations. Older Pittsburgh houses sit on stone, brick or block, and the outside parge coat is often cracked or gone. When water comes through the wall, parging is one part of a bigger foundation repair and waterproofing job. Digging out along the wall, coating it and getting the drainage right is the rest.
A bulging wall or a moving house is a different story. Stucco and parging cover a wall, but they do not hold it up. When a crack looks structural, a structural engineer should look at it first. Then we do the masonry work the repair calls for.
We look at the job and give you a price before any work starts, across Pittsburgh, the South Hills, the eastern suburbs and about 40 miles around.
(412) 720-1866From the first call to a clean site at the end, here is how it goes.
Call or text (412) 720-1866, or send the form. Tell us what is coming down and where it sits.
We come out and go over what is being removed, what it is built of and the access. You get a price before any work starts.
We go over what your municipality requires and who handles each step. Utility shutoffs, One Call marking and any asbestos survey happen before demolition starts.
The teardown or the masonry repair gets done. We keep you posted during the job and handle added scope as it comes up.
Construction and demolition debris is loaded out and hauled away. On a teardown the lot can be graded, topsoiled and seeded.
Common questions about stucco repair across Pittsburgh, the South Hills, the eastern suburbs and about 40 miles around. If yours is not here, call and ask.
Brick repair on houses, garages and small commercial buildings around Pittsburgh. We cut out spalled, cracked and loose brick, set matching brick in its place, and rebuild wall sections, piers and steps.
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We repoint, parge and rebuild stone, brick and block foundation walls across Pittsburgh. Exterior waterproofing means digging the wall out, coating it and backfilling with drainage stone.
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We do brick, block and stone work across Pittsburgh and about 40 miles around. Brick pointing and brick repair are the core, along with chimneys, stucco, retaining walls, small concrete work and foundation walls.
Learn MoreDemolition is the main line of work at Davis Demolition and Masonry. Houses, garages, sheds, interior gut outs, concrete and commercial interiors are the everyday jobs.
We hold the City of Pittsburgh general contractor license the city requires for demolition permits. We are an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm and a registered Pennsylvania home improvement contractor.
A building background sits behind the demolition work. On an interior job that decides what comes out and what gets left standing.
A failed wall or chimney can come down and go back up with the same company. Debris leaves with us, and the site is left clean at the end.
Tell us what is coming down, what it is built of and where it sits. Call or text (412) 720-1866, or send the form with what you need taken down.
Tell us about the job. We will call or text you back.