Brick and Stone Masonry in Franklin, Tennessee

The Old Town and the New One

Franklin has a real nineteenth century core. The commercial buildings on and around Main Street, the churches, and the older houses on the streets running off downtown were built with solid masonry walls, hand molded brick and lime mortar. Some of it predates the Civil War era fighting this town is known for. It is load bearing, not veneer, and it behaves nothing like modern construction.

Then there is everything built since Williamson County started growing the way it has. Westhaven, Berry Farms, Ladd Park, Fieldstone Farms and the newer streets off Cool Springs are full of houses with full brick wraps, natural and cast stone, arched openings and mortar finishes chosen from a sample board. That work is modern in assembly but traditional in appearance, which is why repairs to it are difficult. The trades are the same. The judgment is not.

• Solid multi wythe brick walls downtown with eroded lime joints
• Segmental and jack arches over old window and door openings
• Cast stone sills, quoins and water tables with cracked or open joints
• Reclaimed and tumbled brick that has to be matched unit by unit
• Limewashed and mortar washed walls where a patch stands out badly

Solid Nineteenth Century Walls Downtown

An old Franklin building does not have a cavity, a moisture barrier or weep holes. It has thickness. Two or three wythes of brick tied together, with the wall itself managing water by absorbing it and drying it back out. That system works well for a very long time as long as nobody interferes with it.

Interference is usually what we are called about. A hard modern mortar packed into joints that were built with lime. A cement parge coat on a basement wall that traps moisture and pushes the damage upward. A sealer applied to keep water out that instead keeps it in. On a solid wall the joint is meant to be the sacrificial part. Make it harder than the brick and the brick becomes sacrificial instead, and you cannot replace that.

The other downtown specialty is arches. Openings in these buildings are spanned by brickwork, sometimes with a wooden lintel behind that has since rotted. When an arch starts to drop you see a sag at the center and joints opening at the top. That work needs shoring and planning. It is not a repair to hand to whoever is cheapest, and not one to leave for another two winters either.

On a High End Home, the Detail Is the Job

Repairing modern Franklin masonry is rarely difficult in a structural sense. The difficulty is that everything is visible and everything was specified. A raked joint on one elevation and a weathered joint on the patch reads instantly. A cast stone sill replaced with the wrong profile is the only thing anyone will see from the driveway.

So we treat matching as the main scope rather than an afterthought. We identify the brick by manufacturer and blend where we can, source reclaimed units where we cannot, and build a sample panel for mortar. Sand source, cement color, tooling and how long a joint sits before striking all change the finished look. We cure samples on site and look at them in daylight before touching the house.

Mortar washed and limewashed finishes are their own trade. Those walls were coated after laying, so a repair that stops at the brick will not disappear. We match the coating over the repair and feather it into the surrounding field.

Approvals, and Living in the House While We Work

Downtown Franklin has historic zoning and the newer neighborhoods have architectural review committees. Both can require approval before exterior work begins. We will not tell you what your district or your committee requires, because it varies and getting it wrong is expensive. Ask before you commit to a scope. If they want documentation, we will supply a written scope, brick and mortar match notes and photographs.

The other half of a Franklin job is what happens around the work. These are usually occupied homes with mature landscaping, irrigation, stone drives and hardscape that cost real money. Mortar is unforgiving on limestone pavers and on plants. We cover before we cut, keep the mixing station off finished surfaces, flag irrigation heads, and clean the site at the end of every day rather than the end of the job. It is worth asking about when you compare quotes.

• Confirm historic or committee approval before the schedule is set
• Landscaping, irrigation and hardscape covered and protected daily
• Mixing and cutting stations kept off drives, patios and stonework
• Sample panels approved by you before work goes on the house
• Daily cleanup rather than one push at the end of the job

What a Franklin Estimate Includes

We walk the whole property, ladder the elevations we cannot read from the ground, and look at the roof edge, the grade and the drainage. On older buildings we check joint depth in several places, because one wall face rarely represents the whole structure.

You get a written scope separating the work that is admitting water from the work that is appearance. Where a wall is stable and simply old, we will tell you it can be monitored instead of repaired. Repointing is priced by wall area, with depth of cut, access and difficulty of the match as the drivers, and only a site visit produces a real number. There is no separate charge for coming to Williamson County, and we keep no yard in Franklin.