Masonry Contractor in Lake Elmo
10 Years
Workmanship warranty, in writing
Of all the cities we cover, only one has newer housing than Lake Elmo. The median house here dates from 2004. It also includes roughly 148 homes built before 1940, while the entire 1940s contributed nothing.
That gap is the city. Lake Elmo chose to remain rural while the rest of Washington County suburbanized, doing so for the better part of a century before the recent build-out. So, the masonry here comes in two completely separate kinds, with almost nothing in between.
What Lake Elmo Homeowners Call Us About
Repointing on the Old Village buildings and the early houses
Only about 148 properties here predate the war, and they are properly old. The Census gives us a build year and not an address, so we will not tell you where they all are, though the Old Village was platted in 1925 around a station that arrived in 1872, and there were farmsteads out on the land long before either. Soft mortar built them, and soft mortar is what should go back into the joints.
Chimney crowns on the modern housing
About 1,578 homes here were built between 2010 and 2019, and another 613 in the 2000s. Newer than most cities we cover, so the crown calls here are still ahead rather than in full flow.
An entry that has shifted
Where drainage alters across a single large plot, the bed an entry was laid into settles the matter entirely.
Retaining and garden walls on sloping ground
Hills and steep slopes are the city's own description of its landscape. Anything holding back a slope needs its base and its drainage right before the stone matters at all.
Fieldstone and older stonework on the farmsteads
Some of the older properties out here have stone that predates anything suburban. It is usually worth keeping, and it is worth having somebody who works in natural stone look at it.
What We Do In Lake Elmo
Genuinely split, because this city is. The first group is the old village and the farmsteads, the second is the recent build-out.
Tuckpointing and mortar repair on the older properties
Grinding out failed mortar and replacing it in a mix suited to the age of the wall. On nineteenth-century masonry, a hard modern mix does real damage, and that matters more here than in cities where the old stock is scattered.
Stone foundation repair
Reconstructing the sections of an old foundation where stones have actually shifted, as opposed to walls that have merely lost their pointing.
Fieldstone and natural stone work
Working with whatever stone is already on the land, keeping what deserves keeping. Natural stone and nothing else.
Steps, stoops and entryways
Reinstated on a footing that reaches past frost. Out on acreage where the soil alters between one end of a plot and the other, where a step stands matters as much as how it is built.
Chimney crowns and raincaps
For modern housing, and on stock this young sealing a sound cap is usually the right call. Hairline crazing with no structural cracking seals for a fraction of a recast. One that has come apart does not.
Chimney repair and rebuild
On the older buildings, this is soft brickwork, which follows its own rules. On the newer ones, the trouble is almost always confined to the cap.
Retaining walls and garden walls in natural stone
Dismantled, the foundation and the drainage sorted out, then rebuilt. Interlocking block sits outside our trade, and we hold a name for it.
Patios and walkways in natural stone
Flagstone and natural stone, repaired, reset or laid new.
On Top Of The Buried Valley The Atlas Names It For
Washington County's geological atlas describes a buried bedrock valley running through the county, and when it gives examples of what lies atop that valley, it names this city: several lakes lie atop this valley, most notably Lake Elmo and Long Lake.
What is genuinely worth knowing is nearer the surface. The soils here formed in outwash and glacial till, and the city's own surface water plan ties its high-water-table areas to the poorest-draining soil group. Combined with a landscape the same plan describes as depressions that became lakes and wetlands, along with hills and steep slopes, that is ground that varies a great deal from one property to the next.
Two more things follow from the rural history. Much of this city is on large lots with private wells and septic systems rather than on municipal services, which changes where a crew can dig before it changes anything else. And no quarry, gravel pit or brickyard appears on record here at all. The county's account of this city runs stagecoach, resort, rail shipping and dairy, with nothing extractive in it.
What It Costs
No travel charge, and no minimum job size.
Tuckpointing a small area starts at $2,800 and minor brick replacement at $1,500. A rebuilt section of stone foundation starts at $3,200, chimney repair on a single-story house at $3,500, a recast crown at $5,500. Steps run $7,500 to $11,500.
For the genuinely old properties out here, none of that is much help, and offering a figure anyway would be guesswork dressed as a quote. A nineteenth-century wall only says what it wants once you are near enough to lay a hand on it. Those are quoted at the visit, which costs nothing.
Every one of those figures depends on square footage and on what we find when we look. They are rough guides to help you decide whether to call, not quotes. The exact number comes after the visit, and the visit is free.
What Customers Say
No review anybody has left us names in Lake Elmo. What appears below is the live Google feed, not a testimonial we picked out, so it shows whatever is genuinely on it.
Google review, September 2025Tell us what is going on with your masonry
Tell us what you are seeing and attach photos if you have them. Sam comes out himself, and you get the options priced in writing. No charge either way, and no service call fee.
Common Questions In Lake Elmo
Yes, and it is worth understanding why it matters. Old walls were built with soft lime-based mortar that gives before the brick or stone does. Point one of those in a hard, modern mix, and the wall stops moving, so the units crack instead of the joints. On a house of that age, the mortar is meant to be the sacrificial part.
Honestly, probably not much. Housing that new has not reached the age where its masonry starts asking for anything. The one thing worth a look is the crown on top of the chimney, because that is the part that fails first regardless of how well it was built.
Deep, and we will not put a number on it. The county atlas describes a buried bedrock valley and names Lake Elmo as one of the places atop it, but it does not provide a depth for this city. The city's own wells go 285 to 290 feet down, which tells you something about the scale.
Only in where we dig and how carefully. On a large lot with a drainfield somewhere in it, knowing what is underground before putting a footing in is not optional. Tell us on the phone, and we will ask the right questions before turning up.
No quarry, no pit, and no brickyard appears in the county historical record for this city, whose economic history runs stagecoach, resort, rail shipping, and dairy. What the older properties do have is fieldstone, gathered off the land when it was cleared. Cut and dressed stone is a different matter and was almost certainly brought in, which is worth knowing if you are trying to match it.
Ask us, and you will get an answer with nothing behind it, because we fit no drain tile, no sumps, and no membrane. If water is being delivered to that wall, mortar is the second job and not the first, and there is nothing in it for us to say so.
Get A Free Estimate In Lake Elmo
Give us the approximate build year. In Lake Elmo, that one number divides the work almost perfectly down the middle because so little was built between the Old Village and the recent expansion.
For the older properties, a close-up photograph of the wall, plus one from a few paces back, earns its keep. A decent photograph of old masonry tells a mason a great deal. The same photograph of a modern wall tells him almost nothing.
(612) 509-0718 · No travel charge, no minimum job size · In-person estimate at no charge