Stone masonry in Pittsburg CA - walls set on a stiff backing that keeps water out

Most people who call about stone have a plain block wall, a bare house front or a slope they want held back, and they want stone that looks like it belongs there. The price moves with how big and tall the wall is, whether you pick natural or manufactured stone, whether we have to build a block or concrete wall behind it first and how much digging and drainage the site needs. The schedule turns on whether the city wants a permit, when the stone arrives and how much ground work comes before the first stone goes up, and I write all of it up in plain terms at the estimate so you see your own figure.

On a stone job I start with what the stone goes on, because natural stone is stiff and does best with a block or poured concrete wall behind it. Wood and steel framing flex more, and wood swells and shrinks with the damp, so when there's no stiff wall there we usually build one to keep cracks from showing up later. Before the first stone goes up we settle how water stays out, since one veneer maker's guide names water getting in as the most common reason stone fixed to the face of a wall fails. Then we set the stone, press each joint smooth with a curved jointing tool so it sheds water better than a rough or raked joint, and brush the crumbs and mortar tags off the stone face as we go so it's clean when we leave.

Stone often goes up beside older brick or on top of an old foundation, so we look at both. If the brick next to your new stone has worn joints, our brick pointing work refills them so water stops getting in there too. If the foundation under the wall is cracked or settling, we take care of that through foundation repair first, because stone set on a base that's still moving cracks right along with it.

The City of Pittsburg requires an Engineering Construction Permit for grading, new structures and concrete work, and its list names those but not stone masonry, so the list alone doesn't settle whether your stone job needs one. Most stone walls sit on a concrete footing, so don't assume either way. The city decides, so we check with the city before we start, and when a permit is needed we pull it and handle the paperwork. You can read the rules on the city's engineering construction permit page, and for a retaining wall the city publishes its submittal requirements for retaining walls, so you can see what it asks for before plans go in. A contractor doing work tied to an engineering or encroachment permit must also hold a City of Pittsburg Business License, which is fair to ask any mason you hire about.

Footings mean digging, and the city says to call USA, the utility locating service, at 1-800-227-2600 at least two working days before any digging, so we make that call and plan the dig around it. Around Pittsburg we're often asked to face plain block walls and house fronts in stone or build low walls along a yard, and we see the same kind of work on jobs in Antioch and Concord.