Parapet Wall Repair in Palos Hills, IL

Paul Lally's Masonry provides parapet wall repair in Palos Hills, IL for the village's condominium, apartment and townhome association buildings. We repoint and rebuild brick parapets, reset and replace coping, repair the fire walls that rise through the roof between units, and track down the masonry leaks that show up in top-floor ceilings. We're family-owned, insured and have served Chicagoland since 1988, from our home base next door in Palos Heights. Call (708) 448-8866 for a free on-site estimate.

Palos Hills has one of the larger concentrations of multi-unit brick buildings in the southwest suburbs: condominium and apartment complexes along Roberts Road, 103rd Street and 111th Street, many of them built in the 1970s, '80s and early '90s. Those buildings are now 30 to 50 years old, and on most of them the oldest, most exposed masonry is at the top.

On a Palos Hills condo building, the parapet is the hardest-working wall and the least-looked-at. Water that gets in up there shows up three floors down, in someone's ceiling.

Parapet wall repair in Palos Hills: what we found when we looked

When we searched for parapet wall repair in Palos Hills, there was no local contractor information at all. The results were engineering papers on parapet failures, a national lead-generation page and a UK repair firm. A condo board or property manager looking for help gets theory but no practical answer.

So here's the practical answer, written for the people who manage these buildings:

| Where it is | What fails | What it causes | Typical repair | |---|---|---|---| | Roof-edge parapet | Mortar joints, brick face, top course | Leaks at top-floor ceilings and windows | Repoint, replace spalled brick, rebuild loose sections | | Coping (stone, precast or metal cap) | Open joints, cracked units, loose fasteners | Water straight into the wall core | Reset, repoint or seal joints; replace cracked units; flashing under | | Fire walls / party walls above the roof | Caps, mortar on both faces | Leaks into walls between units | Repoint, recap, rebuild worn tops | | Parapet corners and ends | Cracks from movement | Loose brick, water entry | Rebuild the corner, check movement joints | | Base of parapet at the roof | Mortar behind roof flashing | Hidden leaks below the membrane | Masonry repaired before the roofer re-flashes |

What a parapet is and why it fails first

A parapet is the part of a brick wall that continues above the roofline. On a flat or low-slope roof it forms the roof edge; on many townhome and multi-unit buildings, the masonry walls between units do the same thing as fire walls.

Unlike every other wall on the building, a parapet is exposed on three sides: the outside face, the roof side and the top. It gets wet from rain, snow piled against it on the roof, and water sitting on the coping. Then every winter it freezes and thaws more times than the walls below, because there's no heated building behind it. That's why parapets need repointing and coping work years before the rest of the building does.

Signs your Palos Hills building needs parapet repair

• Top-floor leaks at ceilings, around top-floor windows or at the top of interior walls.
• Open or cracked coping joints, or coping units that rock when pushed.
• Mortar washed out of the parapet joints, especially on the roof side, which nobody sees from the parking lot.
• Spalled or loose brick at the top courses and corners.
• A parapet that leans in or out, or a bulge along the roof edge.
• White efflorescence or dark wet staining just below the roof line.
• Cracked caps on fire walls between units.

Risks of waiting

Water that gets into a parapet doesn't stay there. It runs down inside the wall into top-floor units, rusts lintels over top-floor windows and wears the roof flashing at the base. Each winter, water in the parapet expands as it freezes and loosens more brick. Loose brick at a roof edge over walkways and parking is also a safety and liability issue for the association. Repointing and coping work caught early costs far less than rebuilding a parapet and repairing the drywall in the units below.

Our parapet repair process in Palos Hills

1. Roof walk with the manager or board. We look at both faces of the parapet, the coping and every fire wall, and photograph what we find.
2. Find the water path. We match interior leak locations to coping joints, cracks and open mortar above them.
3. Write the scope by section. Repoint here, reset coping there, rebuild this corner, so the board can see exactly what it's paying for.
4. Coordinate with the roofer. Masonry at the base of the parapet is repaired before new roof flashing goes on, not after.
5. Do the work. Grind out the mortar joints to a sufficient depth for the new mortar to bond properly, repoint, replace damaged brick, rebuild unsound sections, and install through-wall flashing under the coping on rebuilds.
6. Reset or replace coping with sealed or pointed joints that shed water off the wall.
7. Clean up and walk it again with the manager, with photos for the association's records.

Materials we use

Mortar matched to the existing joints in color and strength, never harder than the brick; matched replacement brick; new or reset stone, precast or metal coping; through-wall flashing and drip edges on rebuilt sections; and flexible sealant at coping joints where the detail calls for it. We use breathable water repellents only where they make sense, never film-forming coatings that trap water in the wall.

What drives the cost of parapet repair

• Length and height of parapet and the number of fire walls.
• Roof access: building height, roof hatch or ladder access, and how materials get up there.
• Type of work: repointing, coping reset or replacement, or rebuilding sections.
• Brick and mortar matching on older buildings.
• Coordination with roofing work and the association's schedule.
• Hidden conditions found once the coping comes off.

We don't publish prices. Your board gets a written, itemized scope after a free on-site estimate.

Parapet wall repair in Palos Hills and nearby

Palos Hills sits between the Cook County forest preserves and the Harlem Avenue corridor, with the condominium and apartment complexes mixed among single-family homes. Many of these buildings share the same roof-edge and fire-wall details, so a board that fixes one building usually needs the same work on the others in the complex. We also repair parapets for associations and building owners in Palos Heights and Chicago Ridge, and for the rest of the building, see our Palos Hills tuckpointing and Palos Hills masonry restoration pages, or who does masonry repair in Palos Hills.

Why Palos Hills associations 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 — parapet wall repair, tuckpointing, brick repair and replacement, chimney repair and rebuilds, lintel replacement, masonry restoration, and waterproofing for commercial, association and residential properties. Built on Craftsmanship. Backed by Experience. Free on-site estimates — call (708) 448-8866.

• Since 1988, and our family name is on every job.
• Insured, with certificates of insurance available for the association and management company.
• Board-ready scopes with photos and clear sections, not a one-line price.
• Right next door in Palos Heights.

For more detail, read our guides to parapet wall repair in Chicago, condo and HOA masonry repair and rooftop masonry on commercial buildings. Related services: parapet wall repair, tuckpointing, caulking and joint sealant and commercial masonry restoration.

Get your parapets checked

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