Masonry contractors in Nashville for brick, stone and chimneys

Masonry in Nashville is priced by the job — tuckpointing by the square foot of wall, a chimney rebuild by the course, a stone wall by the face foot — and the scaffolding and the access are their own lines on a two-story house.

A masonry estimate in Nashville is usually within a week or two; the work waits for weather above freezing and is scheduled in the quote.

Masons working Nashville also cover Franklin, Brentwood, Murfreesboro, Hendersonville; the range is 65 towns across 12 counties.

Every mason on our crews carries liability insurance on file with us and works under the Tennessee contractor’s license the job value requires; the ones working on historic brick have done lime-mortar work on houses we can name.

No — free, written, and no obligation.

Send the form; the workmanship is backed in writing.

Tuckpointing is grinding out deteriorated mortar joints and replacing them with fresh mortar. You need it when mortar is crumbling, recessed noticeably behind the brick face, or you can scrape it out with a screwdriver. Brick outlasts mortar, so a wall with sound brick and failing joints is a repointing job rather than a rebuild — and left alone, water gets behind the brick.

Foundation movement, most often — Middle Tennessee clay soil moving with moisture. Stair-step cracks following the mortar joints indicate settlement; vertical cracks through the brick itself suggest more significant movement. Cracks over windows and doors usually mean the lintel above has rusted and expanded. The masonry repair is straightforward; identifying what moved and why is the part that matters.

Usually the crown, the flashing, or the brick itself absorbing water. The crown is the concrete cap on top and it cracks with freeze-thaw. Flashing where the chimney meets the roof is the most common leak point in the whole roof. Older chimneys also absorb water directly through porous brick and deteriorated joints, which shows as damp on the interior wall beside the fireplace.

Color matching mortar is usually achievable; matching brick on an older house often is not exactly. Reclaimed brick from a matching era gives the best result. The more important match is mortar strength: using modern hard mortar on soft historic brick causes the brick face to spall, because the mortar becomes stronger than what it is holding.

Brick itself lasts a century or more; mortar joints typically need repointing every twenty-five to fifty years depending on exposure. South and west elevations weather fastest here. A well-built retaining wall lasts decades if it was drained properly behind, and fails within a few years if it was not — drainage is what determines masonry lifespan more than the masonry.