Masonry Contractors in Old Louisville, KY

Old Louisville covers about 48 city blocks south of downtown, and almost every block is a lesson in Victorian brick. Wikipedia describes it as the largest historic preservation district in the U.S. made up solely of Victorian homes, and notes that most of its buildings are brick. That is why masonry contractors in Old Louisville have to work differently than they would in a suburb. The neighborhood was built as a suburb starting in the 1870s, with most of its Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque houses going up in the 1880s. It became a local preservation district in 1975 and was added to the National Register in 1984.

Brick and red sandstone

By the 1880s, red sandstone trim was so popular that the Courier-Journal wrote that few new residences in Louisville were going up without it. Old Louisville is full of it: carved sills, lintels, belt courses, porch columns and steps. Sandstone weathers by flaking and delaminating along its bedding planes, and cement patches on sandstone almost always fail. We repair it with compatible materials, dutchman pieces where needed and soft mortar joints that let it breathe.

The brick is soft too. Repointing it with hard mortar forces stress into the brick faces. Louisville Metro's masonry guidelines call for repointing mortar equal to or softer than the original (M12), removal of mortar to a depth of two and a half times the joint width (M10) and matching color, texture, joint size and tooling (M11).

Preservation district review

Old Louisville is one of Louisville Metro's eight local preservation districts. Exterior alterations, demolition and new construction there go through design review, and work needs a Certificate of Appropriateness before a building permit can be issued. Staff or the Architectural Review Committee approves it. We prepare a written masonry scope that spells out mortar, brick, stone repairs and methods so the review goes smoothly.

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What the guidelines rule out

Metro's masonry guidelines also say not to paint masonry that has never been painted (M1), not to sandblast or pressure wash historic masonry over 300 psi (M19), not to repoint with synthetic caulk (M15) and not to cover historic masonry with stucco, synthetic stucco or permastone (M28). Those rules protect the houses. We follow them on every Old Louisville job.

Courts, stoops and chimneys

Eleven pedestrian-only courts were built here from 1891 into the 1920s, and St. James Court, developed starting in 1890, was fully occupied by 1905. Houses on the courts and the big avenues share the same needs: tall chimneys with eroded tops, front stoops and steps with loose stone, brick walks lifted by roots and parapets and cornices that leak. We rebuild chimney tops in matched brick, reset stone steps and repair walls with methods suited to their age.

Planning a project in Old Louisville

Because of design review, a masonry project here takes a little more planning. We visit, document the existing conditions with photos and notes, and write a scope that names the mortar mix, any replacement brick or stone and the methods we will use. You or we submit it for the Certificate of Appropriateness. Once it is approved and any building permit is issued, we schedule the work.

What we do in Old Louisville

• Historic repointing with soft, lime-rich mortar
• Sandstone and limestone repair
• Chimney rebuilding in matched brick
• Stone steps and stoops
• Brick walks and garden walls
• Foundation repair on brick and stone

Call (502) 443-8557 to set up a visit in Old Louisville.