What Actually Happens During a Free Masonry Estimate

A masonry estimate is not a measurement exercise. Two walls with identical square footage can need completely different work, at completely different cost, for reasons that are invisible until somebody looks properly.

A good masonry estimate is a diagnosis. The number at the bottom is the last thing that gets decided, and it follows from what the mason worked out about why your masonry is failing. Paul Lally's Masonry has been giving free on-site estimates across Chicagoland since 1988, and this is what one should actually involve — including the parts that tell you which kind of contractor is standing in your driveway.

Before the visit

What to gather:

• Photos, especially of conditions that come and go — a stain that only appears after wind-driven rain, efflorescence that shows up in spring
• Any home inspection report or facade inspection findings, if you have them
• A rough timeline — when you first noticed it, whether it's getting worse
• History of previous repairs, including who did them and roughly when. This matters more than people expect; a wall repointed with hard mortar ten years ago is a different job than one that's never been touched.

What to have ready:

• Clear access to the affected walls — move vehicles, unlock gates, secure pets
• Access to the basement or crawl space if the concern is at grade
• Interior access to any room showing stains

What should actually happen at the house

1. You walk it together first

The visit should start with you showing what you've noticed, not with the mason measuring. What you've observed — when it leaks, where it stains, what's changed — is genuine diagnostic information nobody else has.

2. Every elevation, not just the one you called about

A mason should walk all sides of the building, including the rear and any side that's tight against a neighbor. Masonry problems very often originate somewhere other than where they show, and failures cluster on the weather elevations — usually north and west — which may not be the wall that prompted your call.

3. Hands on the mortar

Expect the mason to touch your joints — running a key or screwdriver along them to test hardness. Mortar that crumbles out as sand has failed; mortar that resists hasn't. This takes seconds and it's the single most informative thing anyone does on the visit.

If nobody touches your mortar, nobody assessed it.

4. Up to the chimney and the roofline

For anything involving a chimney, parapet, or coping, someone has to get up there. These cannot be assessed from the ground, and they are where water most commonly enters a building — a cracked crown, an uncapped flue, open coping joints.

On a flat-roofed or commercial building, an estimate that didn't include getting on the roof is incomplete, however thorough the paperwork looks. See parapet wall repair.

5. Looking above every problem

Water runs downhill. The source of a stain or a failure is essentially always higher than where you see it — often several feet, sometimes on a different part of the building. A mason should be looking up from every symptom: at the joints above, the sill, the lintel, the coping, the gutter.

6. Identifying the wall type

Solid masonry or brick veneer? This changes nearly every repair decision, because the two manage water in opposite ways. A mason should be able to tell you which you have and how they know — header courses, wall depth at an opening, weep holes at the base. See brick veneer vs. solid masonry.

7. Reading the era and the brick

On a Chicago-area building, how old and how soft the brick is determines which mortar is correct. Pre-1930s common brick is soft and wants a lime-rich mix; a hard modern mortar will spall it. A mason who doesn't raise this on a century-old building hasn't considered the most consequential decision in the job.

8. Checking the water management

Gutters, downspout discharge, grade, splashback, where snow gets piled, vegetation against the wall. A surprising share of masonry failures trace back to a downspout that's been soaking one corner for years — and no repair holds while that continues.

9. Telling you the cause

This is the moment that separates a diagnosis from a sales pitch. Before any discussion of scope or price, you should hear why the damage happened: failed joints, a rusting lintel, a cracked crown, a blocked weep, grade against the wall, or a previous repair done in the wrong mortar.

If the conversation goes straight from "here's what's wrong" to "here's the number," something got skipped.

The questions to ask back

Ask these, and listen for whether the answers are specific or vague:

• "What caused this?" — ask it first, and ask it before price comes up
• "How deep will you cut the joints, and why that depth?" — a real answer references the joint width
• "What mortar type are you using, and how did you decide?" — on old brick, an answer that doesn't mention the brick's softness is a bad sign
• "Is this repair or restoration?" — and what the difference means for your building
• "Are you sealing anything, and in what order?" — sealing before repointing is a red flag
• "How will you clean the masonry?" — sandblasting or high pressure on historic brick is disqualifying
• "What about the gutter / lintel / grade?" — does the scope address the cause or just the symptom
• "What happens if you find more once the wall is open?" — and how does that get priced
• "How long, and what does weather do to the schedule?"
• "Can you show me a wall you did five years ago?" — masonry work reveals itself with time

What you should get afterward

A written scope should tell you:

• Where — which elevations, which openings, how much of each
• What — what's being removed and what's being installed
• How deep — joint preparation described, not assumed
• Which materials — mortar type and matching approach, brick sourcing
• How joints will be finished — tooled to match the existing profile
• What's being done about the cause, not just the damage
• How additional findings are handled
• A realistic schedule, with weather acknowledged

Our page on what a masonry estimate should include covers the document side in more detail.

Visit behaviors that tell you a lot

Good signs:

• Walks every elevation without being asked
• Touches the mortar
• Gets up to the chimney or roofline when it's relevant
• Explains the cause before the cost
• Says "you don't need that" about something
• Raises the gutter, the grade, or the drainage
• Distinguishes urgent from can-wait
• Tells you when you need a structural engineer instead
• Puts it in writing afterward rather than on the spot

Warning signs:

• A number quoted from the driveway in ten minutes
• Never touches the mortar
• Won't go up to a chimney they're proposing to repair
• Pressure to sign today, or a discount that expires
• A large deposit demanded up front
• Proposes sealing a wall with visibly failing joints
• Talks only about scope and price, never cause
• Proposes caulking your brick joints instead of repointing them
• Recommends sandblasting or pressure washing historic brick
• A quote dramatically below the others with no explanation of why

That last one deserves emphasis: on masonry, the cheapest bid is frequently pricing different — and worse — work. Skim pointing over failed joints costs less because it skips the grinding, which is most of the labor. It looks identical on completion day and sheets off within a couple of seasons. See why masonry repairs fail.

Comparing multiple estimates

Get more than one. But compare them properly:

Ask each contractor the same questions, and pay most attention to what they say caused the damage. If two masons describe genuinely different causes, that gap matters far more than the price difference — one of them is wrong, and hiring the wrong diagnosis costs more than the wrong price.

Then compare described scope: joint depth, mortar specification, what's removed versus covered, and whether the cause is addressed. A quote that says "tuckpoint front elevation" and a quote that says "cut joints to depth, repoint in matched lime-rich mortar, replace 14 spalled units, address the downspout at the northwest corner" are not competing for the same job.

Our guide to hiring a masonry contractor in Chicago covers the vetting side.

What a free estimate is — and isn't

It is a contractor's assessment of your masonry, an explanation of what's happening and why, and a written proposal for the work — at no cost and no obligation.

It isn't an independent engineering report. If your wall is bowing, leaning, or displaced, or you're seeing sticking doors and sloping floors inside, what you need is a licensed structural engineer — a paid, independent service. Any mason worth hiring will tell you that rather than sell you masonry work that won't hold. See mason or structural engineer.

Why this matters more in Chicagoland

Two regional realities raise the stakes on getting the diagnosis right.

The building stock is old and soft. Bungalows, greystones, two-flats, three-flats, and storefronts built roughly 1890–1930 from soft, locally-fired common brick in lime mortar. On that masonry, the wrong mortar causes permanent damage — the brick face spalls along every joint line, and no repointing brings it back. A contractor who doesn't diagnose the brick before quoting the joint can genuinely make your building worse.

The failures are water-driven and often hidden. Repeated hard freeze-thaw cycling, wind-driven rain off the lake, and de-icing salt at grade mean the visible damage is regularly a long way from its cause — a parapet feeding a second-floor stain, a lintel cracking a wall, a downspout eating a foundation. That's why the walkaround matters more than the tape measure.

Related services

Whatever the estimate turns up, the work usually falls under tuckpointing and repointing, brick repair, brick replacement, chimney repair and rebuilds, lintel repair and replacement, parapet wall repair, limestone and sill repair, foundation masonry repair, caulking and joint sealant, masonry waterproofing, or residential, commercial, and historic masonry restoration.

The bottom line

Expect 30 to 60 minutes, every elevation walked, hands on your mortar, someone up at the chimney or roofline if that's in scope, and an explanation of the cause before any discussion of cost.

Ask "what caused this?" first. The quality of that answer predicts the quality of the work better than anything else you'll learn during the visit — and it's the one thing a bad contractor can't fake.

Paul Lally's Masonry Inc. is a family-owned, insured masonry contractor serving Chicago and the Chicagoland suburbs since 1988 — tuckpointing, brick repair and replacement, chimney repair and rebuilds, lintel replacement, masonry restoration, and waterproofing for residential and commercial properties. Built on Craftsmanship. Backed by Experience.

We'll walk the whole building, show you what we're seeing, tell you what's urgent and what can wait a season — and tell you when you don't need us at all. Our family name is on every job.

Free on-site estimates — call (708) 448-8866 or request an estimate online.