Foundation Masonry Repair in New Lenox, IL — Block Foundations, Clay Soil, and Knowing Which Problem You Have

Foundation Masonry Repair in New Lenox, IL

Paul Lally's Masonry Inc. provides foundation masonry repair in New Lenox, IL — repointing and rebuilding deteriorated block and brick foundation walls, parging, and repairing the exposed brick ledge at the grade line. Family-owned and insured, serving Chicagoland since 1988. Free on-site estimates: (708) 448-8866.

Here is what happens when a New Lenox homeowner notices crumbling mortar in the basement and searches "foundation repair." Every result that comes back sells piering and underpinning — the structural answer, and by a wide margin the most expensive possible answer. Meanwhile the masons who could tell you whether your wall is actually a structural problem never use the word "foundation" on their websites at all.

So homeowners get routed to the biggest fix in the industry before anyone has established whether they need it.

We would rather tell you the truth up front: most of the foundation walls we get called to look at are not moving. They are wearing out. That is a mason's job.

Deterioration or displacement — the one question that decides everything

Every foundation problem sorts into one of two piles, and they have almost nothing in common.

Deterioration — the wall is eroding in place. The masonry itself is wearing out where it has been wet for decades.

• Mortar you can rake out with a screwdriver or a key
• Grit and sand piling on the basement floor at the base of the wall
• Spalled, flaking block faces or crumbling brick, especially near grade
• White efflorescence blooming across the wall
• Parging cracked, hollow and falling off in sheets
• The wall is still plumb, straight and true

That last line is the one that matters. This is a masonry repair — repoint, rebuild the failed courses, re-parge, and fix the water that caused it.

Displacement — the wall is moving. Something is pushing on it.

• Bowing or bulging in the middle of the wall
• A horizontal crack running along one mortar course for much of the wall's length — the classic sign of lateral soil pressure on a block wall
• Courses stepped or sheared out of line
• Cracks that measurably widen over months
• Doors and windows on the floor above going out of square
• Interior finishes cracking in the same place repeatedly after being patched

That is a structural question, and it needs a structural engineer before it needs a mason. Repointing a moving wall does nothing but erase the evidence and reset the clock on your ability to read it. We will tell you that on site, and we will tell you plainly when we are not the right contractor for your problem.

The New Lenox condition: clay, block, and a brick ledge that takes the beating

New Lenox is a Will County town that has grown enormously, and its housing stock reflects that: a modest older core near the Lincoln Way corridor, then wave after wave of subdivision building from the 1970s through the 2000s. What that produces, foundation-wise, is a village of poured and concrete-block foundations carrying brick-veneer or partial-brick houses, sitting in heavy clay soil.

Two things follow from that.

One: the clay moves. Clay soil swells when it takes water and shrinks when it dries. A wet spring following a dry late summer is a full cycle of soil pressure against the wall, every year. It is why drainage — where your downspouts discharge, how the ground slopes for the first six feet away from the house, whether the sump discharge runs back toward the foundation — does more for a New Lenox foundation than any product you can buy.

Two: the wall you are actually looking at is usually the brick ledge. When a homeowner here says "my foundation is crumbling," they are almost always pointing at the exposed course or two of masonry right at the grade line, where the block or foundation wall meets the brick above it. That band is the wettest masonry on the entire house:

• It takes rain splash bouncing off the ground, thousands of impacts a season
• It sits in direct contact with wet soil where grade has crept up over the years
• It catches shoveled snow that sits against it for weeks
• It gets the de-icing salt off the driveway and walk
• It is the slowest part of the wall to dry

That band failing is not a structural event. It is the most predictable masonry wear on a suburban house, and it is a repair.

Our process

1. Look at the wall inside and out, at the exposed portion above grade and the interior face, and check plumb and line before anything else.
2. Sort it — deterioration or displacement — and say so honestly.
3. Find the water. Downspout discharge, grade and slope, sump discharge location, window wells, gutter condition, splash zone, sprinkler heads aimed at the house.
4. Correct the water source first. Repairing masonry while the source is still running guarantees a repeat.
5. Cut out failed mortar to depth and repoint with mortar matched to the wall — never skimming a thin coat over failed material.
6. Rebuild what is genuinely gone. Failed block or brick removed and replaced with matched units, shored where the section is load-bearing.
7. Parge the exposed wall where appropriate, over sound joints, to give it a continuous sheddable surface.
8. Cure and protect — fresh mortar kept damp in heat, protected and heated in cold.

What drives the cost

How much wall is involved, first. Then whether the work is repointing and parging or removing and rebuilding courses. Then access — an exposed wall along a driveway is straightforward; a section that needs excavation to reach below grade is a different scale of job. Then how much of the damage is discovered once the wall is opened, and whether drainage correction is part of the scope. We do not publish figures for foundation work because the honest range is too wide to be useful. We come look at it and put it in writing, free.

Trust signals

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. Our name is on every job. Free on-site estimates — call (708) 448-8866.

Related services

• Brick repair — spalled and failed units at the grade line
• Tuckpointing and repointing — failed joints above and below the ledge
• Masonry sealing and waterproofing — after the drainage and masonry are corrected
• Brick replacement — matched units where the face is gone
• Residential masonry restoration — whole-house scope and phasing

Get a free on-site estimate in New Lenox

If you are finding sand on the basement floor, mortar you can dig out with a key, or a crumbling band of brick right at ground level, get it looked at by someone who will tell you which of the two problems you actually have. Paul Lally's Masonry Inc. — (708) 448-8866 — or request an estimate online.