Masonry and Brick Repair in La Vergne, Tennessee

Partial Brick Is the Defining Detail Here

A large share of La Vergne was built to a price. That usually meant brick on the front elevation and siding down the sides and across the back. It is a perfectly sound way to build a house. It just creates a transition, and transitions are where water finds a way in.

Look at the front corner where the brick stops and the siding starts. On a good job there is a proper return, flashing behind the joint and a clean termination. On a rushed job the brick was run to the corner and caulked to the siding trim. That caulk lasts a few years, not the life of the house. Once it opens, water runs behind the end of the brick and the evidence shows up low on the wall long before you see it inside.

We fix these from the outside. Cut out the failed material, rebuild the return, get flashing where it belongs, and finish with a joint meant to move rather than a bead of caulk pretending to be mortar.

• Open or cracked caulk joints where brick meets siding trim
• Staining or moss on the siding directly below a brick return
• Loose brick at the end of a run with no proper corner return
• Efflorescence, the white powder, low on the front wall
• Soft or crumbling mortar in the first two courses above grade

Crawl Space Skirts and the First Two Courses

Plenty of La Vergne homes sit on a crawl space with a short run of brick skirting the foundation. That band of brick lives a hard life. Sprinklers hit it. Mulch gets piled against it. Rain sheets off the roof and splashes dirt and water back onto it dozens of times a year.

Constantly wet brick is what freeze and thaw destroys first. Water soaks into the face, the temperature drops below freezing overnight the way it does here through December, January and February, and the ice pushes the face of the brick off in flakes. Do it enough winters and the bottom courses are noticeably softer than the wall above them.

The repair is straightforward, and it fails again if you only do the masonry. We cut out and replace the spalled units, repoint what is salvageable, and then deal with where the water came from. Sometimes that means moving a downspout discharge. Sometimes it means pulling mulch back down off the brick. That part is the difference between a repair that lasts and one you call us about again in four years.

What Twenty Five Years Does to a Fast Built Subdivision

The neighborhoods off Waldron Road, Murfreesboro Road and Old Nashville Highway went up in a hurry during the metro boom. Volume building is not bad building, but it does mean quality varies house to house, sometimes wall to wall, depending on who was laying that week.

The stuff that shows up at this age is predictable. Chimney chases built as framed boxes with a brick face and a cap that was never detailed to shed water. Mailbox and entry columns cracked at the base or clipped by a truck. Front steps that have tipped. Control joints that were never cut, so the wall found its own place to relieve stress and cracked there instead.

None of that is alarming on its own. What we do on a first visit is sort it. Some of it is holding water and needs attention this year. Some is cosmetic and can wait. You should get that distinction in writing from anyone you hire, and we put it in writing every time.

Rentals, Turnovers and Small Commercial Work

A good number of La Vergne houses are investor owned, and we work for landlords and property managers as much as for owner occupants here. That work has its own shape. The decision maker is often not standing at the house, the schedule is driven by a turnover date, and the question is what has to be done rather than what could be done.

So we quote it that way. Clear scope, photos with the estimate, and an honest split between the repair that protects the building and the repair that is about appearance for the next tenant. If a wall can be repointed rather than rebuilt, we say so.

We also do the light commercial work that comes with a warehouse and distribution corridor. Block wall repairs, struck corners on loading areas, dumpster enclosures and brick columns on small storefronts. Those jobs turn on access and on working around hours when trucks are not moving.

• Photo documented estimates for out of town owners and managers
• Turnover work scheduled around a move in date where possible
• Repointing quoted before rebuilding when the wall will take it
• Block repair, enclosure walls and struck corners on commercial sites
• One trip that covers several small items instead of several trips

Getting a Number for a La Vergne Property

Call or send the quote form with a few photographs. A wide shot of the elevation and a close shot of the problem is usually enough for us to tell you on the phone whether you are looking at a half day repair or a real project. That saves everybody a drive.

When we come out we walk the whole exterior, not only the wall you called about, because water rarely does damage in one place. You get a written scope with the work separated by priority. We do not keep a yard in La Vergne, travel is inside the number, and we are on that end of the county often enough that scheduling is rarely the holdup.