Commercial Masonry Restoration in Oak Forest, IL

Paul Lally's Masonry provides commercial masonry restoration in Oak Forest, IL: tuckpointing, brick and block replacement, storefront lintel and parapet repair, and correcting failed sealants and coatings on retail, office, medical and light-industrial buildings. We're family-owned, insured and have served Chicagoland since 1988, from a home base just up Harlem Avenue in Palos Heights. For a free on-site estimate, call (708) 448-8866.

Most commercial building owners in Oak Forest aren't property-management companies with a capital plan. They own one building, or two, along Cicero Avenue, 159th Street or a side street off them, and they find out about the masonry when something leaks, peels or falls onto the sidewalk. This page is for them: how to tell what kind of building you have, where that type fails, and what order to fix it in.

On a commercial building, the right order matters more than the right price. Fix what can fall first, what lets water in second, and what looks bad last.

What kind of commercial building do you own in Oak Forest?

Most of Oak Forest's commercial stock went up in the decades after the village incorporated, and it falls into a few types. Each type has its own weak points:

| Building type | Typical construction | Where it usually fails first | |---|---|---| | Strip retail on Cicero or 159th | Brick front, concrete block sides and rear, flat roof with a front parapet | Parapet and coping, the steel lintel over the storefront glass, the sign band | | Freestanding outlot (bank, restaurant, auto service) | Brick veneer or face brick on block, often with stone or precast trim | Sealant joints at trim and windows, drive-thru and canopy openings, brick at grade from salt | | Small office or medical building | Brick veneer on a frame, ribbon or punched windows | Window perimeter sealant, lintels, cracking at corners without control joints | | Light-industrial or flex building | Painted or split-face concrete block | Peeling paint, failed control joints, impact damage at overhead doors, block parapets under metal coping | | Older mixed-use or two-storey | Solid brick, sometimes with apartments above | Mortar joints, chimney stacks, parapets and rear-wall lintels |

Knowing your type tells you where to look before you spend anything. The weak points rarely sit in the middle of a flat wall.

Signs your Oak Forest building needs commercial masonry restoration

• Loose or cracked coping, or brick fragments on the roof or sidewalk below the parapet.
• Rust staining and a crack fanning up from the corners of the storefront or overhead-door opening, a sign the steel lintel is corroding.
• Peeling, blistering or bubbling paint on block walls, usually worst near the top of the wall and at grade.
• Sealant that's cracked, pulled away or missing around windows, trim and vertical joints.
• Stair-step cracks in block walls, or vertical cracks at corners and long runs.
• Efflorescence (white salt staining) or dark damp areas that stay after rain.
• Leaks along the front wall inside the unit that roofing repairs haven't fixed.
• Spalled or crumbling brick at the base of walls next to salted walks and parking lots.

The order we fix things in, and why

1. Overhead hazards. Loose parapet brick, cracked coping and badly corroded lintels over doors and walkways come first. On a retail building that's where customers walk.
2. Active water entry. Water coming in through the coping, open joints, failed sealant or missing flashing. Water left alone turns a repair into a rebuild.
3. Deterioration. Worn mortar, spalled units and cracking that isn't letting water in yet.
4. Appearance. Staining, mismatched patches and old paint. These can usually wait for the next budget year.

Most owners are surprised that the street-facing look is the most deferrable item. We'll tell you which category each item falls into and put it in writing, so you can decide what to do now and what can wait.

Painted and coated masonry: the Oak Forest problem nobody talks about

A large share of Oak Forest's block and brick commercial buildings have been painted, some of them several times. Paint makes a tired building look clean, but a film-forming paint on a masonry wall that's taking on water traps that water. It can't dry outward, so it blisters the paint off and freezes in the face of the block or brick every winter.

Repainting a peeling wall without fixing why it's wet buys a season or two. The lasting sequence is:

1. Find and stop the water source: coping, parapet, joints, cracks or failed control joints.
2. Remove loose and failing coating.
3. Make the masonry repairs: repointing, unit replacement, sealant.
4. Let the wall dry, then apply a breathable masonry coating or water repellent made for block or brick.

Our commercial restoration process in Oak Forest

1. Walk every elevation, the roof and the parapet, and photograph each condition by location.
2. Sort the work into the four categories above and flag anything that needs an engineer's eye.
3. Plan access and protection: lift or scaffold by elevation, overhead protection at entrances, and parking and drive-lane staging.
4. Lintels and parapets: shore the masonry above, replace corroded steel with galvanized or primed and painted steel, install flashing with end dams, and rebuild or reset coping with flashing beneath.
5. Repointing and unit replacement with mortar and brick or block matched to the building.
6. Sealant and coatings last, once the masonry around them is sound.
7. Walk the finished work with you. We stand behind our work, because our name is on every job.

Materials we use

Face brick and concrete block matched to the existing building, including split-face where needed; Type N or Type S mortar chosen for the wall; galvanized or primed and painted steel lintels; through-wall flashing with end dams and drip edges; stone, precast or metal coping; commercial-grade sealant with backer rod; and breathable coatings and water repellents for block. We don't put a film-forming paint over a wet wall.

What drives the cost of commercial masonry restoration

We don't publish prices, because no two buildings are scoped alike. What changes the number:

• Building height and access: ladder, lift or scaffold.
• Square footage of repointing and the number of brick or block units to replace.
• Lintels and openings: how many, how long and how corroded.
• Parapet and coping: repoint, reset or rebuild.
• Coating removal and recoating on painted buildings.
• Protection and phasing around open businesses and tenants.

Call (708) 448-8866 for a free on-site estimate and an itemized written scope by elevation.

Commercial masonry restoration across Oak Forest and the southwest suburbs

Oak Forest's commercial corridors are wide and open. Cicero Avenue and 159th Street carry heavy traffic, plow spray and road salt, which shows up first as spalled brick and block at the base of walls. The flat-roofed retail along them takes rain on the parapet from three sides. The village sits between Tinley Park, Midlothian and Crestwood, and the same building types run on along Cicero in both directions.

We also handle commercial masonry restoration in Tinley Park and Orland Park. In Oak Forest itself, we do lintel replacement, caulking and tuckpointing. For block buildings, read our guide to warehouse and industrial building masonry repair. For the bigger picture, see the commercial masonry restoration guide for Chicagoland.

Why Oak Forest building owners call Paul Lally's Masonry

Paul Lally's Masonry Inc. is a family-owned, insured masonry contractor serving Chicago and the Chicagoland suburbs since 1988. We handle tuckpointing, brick repair and replacement, lintel replacement, parapet repair, caulking, masonry restoration and waterproofing for commercial and residential properties. Built on Craftsmanship. Backed by Experience. Free on-site estimates. Call (708) 448-8866.

• Since 1988, on commercial and residential buildings across Chicagoland.
• Local: based in Palos Heights, minutes from Oak Forest.
• Insured, with a certificate of insurance before work starts.
• Written priorities, so you know what to do now and what can wait.
• Family-owned: we stand behind our work.

Related services: commercial masonry restoration, lintel repair and replacement, parapet wall repair, tuckpointing, masonry waterproofing and caulking and joint sealant.

Get your Oak Forest building assessed

Request a free on-site estimate or call (708) 448-8866. Built on Craftsmanship. Backed by Experience.