Chimney Rebuilds
Full and partial chimney rebuilds: deteriorated stacks torn down to sound masonry and rebuilt with new brick, cast crowns and stainless caps.
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More than half of St. Louis Park's homes went up before 1970, so their masonry has seen over 55 winters. Census Bureau estimates put the city at 25,933 housing units, and about 14,400 of them are that old. The 1950s were the biggest building decade, with 6,108 units, and 2,361 units are older than 1940. About one in three homes dates from the 1940s and 1950s. Metro Masonry repairs that stock from the chimney down and restores the city's apartment and commercial walls too.
Minnesota masonry sees 80 to 100 freeze and thaw cycles a year, and worn mortar takes the worst of it. Each freeze widens a cracked joint a little, and the next rain gets in deeper. Homeowners call about mortar in the gutters, and property managers call about cracked lintels. St. Louis Park sits right next to Minneapolis, and our work across the Minneapolis line follows the same process. Each job starts with a site visit, then a written scope.
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The chimney takes more weather than any other part of a house. It stands above the roof in wind and driving rain, and it heats and cools from the inside as well. On homes from the 1940s through the 1960s, that often shows up as crumbling top courses and a cracked crown. Then water reaches the attic and the ceiling below. Our chimney repair work fixes the stack you have, from the mortar joints to the flue liner.
Some chimneys are past repair. When the bricks above the roofline are cracked through or leaning, patching only buys a season or two. Then we take the stack down to sound masonry and lay it back up with matched brick and mortar. Rebuilding the chimney above the roofline is the bigger job, so we show you photos of what we found first. If a storm did the damage, check with the city before work starts. St. Louis Park requires permits and inspections for storm-related repairs such as roofing and siding.
St. Louis Park has 35 neighborhoods, and we cover all of them, including Fern Hill, Browndale, Brookside and Cedar Manor. Mortar joints are meant to wear out before the brick does. Once a joint opens, water gets in behind it and brick faces start to pop off. Tuckpointing the worn joints stops that before bricks come loose. We match new mortar to the old in color and hardness, so a patched wall still looks like one wall.
Some brick is past what mortar can fix. Bricks with spalled faces, bricks cracked through and broken units at lintels and porch piers need to come out. We repair damaged brick by cutting out the bad units and setting new ones that match the wall. Loose stone sills get reset in fresh mortar. Masonry repair is not named on the city's permit list, so check with the inspections staff before a large rebuild. Buying an older house? Look up its permit history on the city's ePermits site by address.
St. Louis Park is home to retail stores, restaurants, medical facilities, corporations, and churches and synagogues. Apartment buildings add a lot more wall above the street. On larger buildings, trouble starts up high at parapets, coping, lintels and window sills. Water that gets in at the top works down, so a second-floor stain can start at the roof. Restoring brick and stone on commercial buildings means fixing those entry points first, then the wall below them.
We work those walls from lifts and scaffolds. A medical office or a house of worship cannot close for a wall repair. The work runs in sections around its hours and services, and apartment work goes one wall at a time. Before anything starts, we look at each elevation and mark what is failing now and what can wait. Photos and notes come with the written scope, so a board or a manager can see what we saw. That lets you plan the work across more than one season.
Communities & areas we serve around St. Louis Park: Fern Hill, Browndale, Brookside, Cedar Manor, Minikahda Vista, Elmwood, Sorenson, Birchwood, Bronx Park, Brooklawns, Westwood Hills, Aquila.
St. Louis Park ZIP codes served: 55416, 55426.
Free, no-obligation estimates throughout Hennepin County.
(320) 465-1161 Full and partial chimney rebuilds: deteriorated stacks torn down to sound masonry and rebuilt with new brick, cast crowns and stainless caps.
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Leak tracing, crown repair, joint repointing, spalled brick replacement and stainless caps, the fixes that stop water before it forces a rebuild.
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Stainless steel liners sized to the furnace, boiler, water heater or fireplace insert on your chimney, plus replacement of cracked or missing clay flue liners.
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Failed mortar ground out and repointed to match the original on chimneys, houses and full commercial elevations. The fix that saves the wall you already have.
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Spalled brick cut out and replaced, cracks stitched, bowed sections rebuilt, porch piers and steps restored, matched so the repair does not read as one.
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Restoration for factories, apartment buildings, churches, schools and storefronts: wall rebuilds, stone and brick repair, parapets and lintels, run by a crew that works occupied properties.
Learn MoreA few of the questions we hear most around St. Louis Park. Don't see yours? Call us, we're happy to help.
Have a chimney, wall, set of steps or driveway that needs work? Call or send the form and we will look at the site with you and give you a written quote.
Tell us about your project and we’ll get right back to you.