MASONRY in Rogers Park, Chicago
Purpose Design+Build designs and manages masonry projects in Rogers Park, Chicago. Masonry work covers repointing failing brick, rebuilding parapets and stairs, sealing seams at grade, and laying new paver and concrete surfaces. Purpose Design+Build designs the approach, locks the budget, and manages the build.
Rogers Park is a diverse lakefront neighborhood of vintage courtyard buildings and single-family homes at the city's northern edge. Most homes here are vintage courtyard buildings and single-family homes, built between the 1910s and 1930s, with original plaster and a high share of vintage courtyard condos.
Century-old Chicago brick relies on mortar that was always meant to be the sacrificial layer, so once it cracks water gets in, freezes, splits the brick and works down toward the foundation. We grind the joint all the way out and repack it rather than smearing over the old. The vintage courtyard condos mean association approval and freight scheduling factor into feature work, so we confirm building rules before design.
Most masonry on the North Side is repair before it is anything else. Mortar is the sacrificial layer, softer than the brick on purpose, and when it goes water gets into the wall and a cosmetic problem turns structural. So we do it the slow way. The old mortar is ground all the way out of the joint and repacked, not smeared across a joint nobody opened. Done properly that is preservation rather than patching, and it holds for around twenty years. Individual brick can be chopped out and replaced where it has already split. Parapets are what stop a building crumbling at the roofline, and where the ground meets the house we seal the seam so water cannot wick in. On new concrete and paver work we design the surface first, then set slope and drainage so water runs away from the building instead of back at it.
Assessment of what is failing and why
Full grind out and repack, never a surface smear
Mortar, brick and paver selection matched to the building
Managed build, and permits pulled under our own license
Do you do masonry in Rogers Park?
Yes. Purpose Design+Build designs and manages masonry projects in Rogers Park and across Chicago's North Side. Rogers Park is a diverse lakefront neighborhood of vintage courtyard buildings and single-family homes at the city's northern edge, and we design to fit that housing stock rather than around it.
How is a masonry priced in Rogers Park?
Every project is priced after a paid design consult, since scope and materials vary. Request an estimate and we send a ballpark range within two business days, then, for larger jobs, book an in-person visit in Rogers Park.
How do I get started?
Use our online estimate tool. We send a ballpark range within two business days and, for bigger jobs, book an in-person visit in Rogers Park.