Building Restoration and Masonry Repair in Shorewood, WI

Masonry Contractor Services in Shorewood, WI

As a masonry contractor serving Shorewood, we lead with building restoration for multi-unit buildings and older facades, and we work on the whole wall: tuckpointing and repointing with mortar matched to the original and softer than the brick, parapet and coping repair, rusted steel lintel replacement, brick repair, chimney repair and rebuilds, stone sills and trim, stoops, garden walls and concrete and patio work. We also handle masonry waterproofing. Parapets, their copings and where downspouts discharge all decide how wet the top and base of a wall stay.

What Shorewood Is Built Of, and What Fails

The Village began in 1900 as East Milwaukee, took the name Shorewood in 1917 and filled in along the Oakland Avenue streetcar line and Atwater Road, now Capitol Drive, between Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River. Census estimates put 72.5% of its homes before 1960, and the Village’s own permit guide says more than 80% of its housing is over 60 years old. For a suburb, that is a lot of duplexes and apartments. On apartment buildings and many duplexes, the weak points include parapets, copings and sills, the horizontal surfaces where water gets into a wall, and the Brick Industry Association says white bloom that appears more than a year after construction can generally be traced to excess water or poor drainage. Steel lintels over window openings in those walls can rust, and rust can take up to ten times the volume of the steel it came from, cracking the brick above. The one verified Cream City brick building in the village is Village Hall, a 1908 school building in Milwaukee cream brick. That brick is soft and porous and darkens with age. Sandblasting damages it, and chemical washes are an accepted way to clean it. Shorewood also has five National Register houses built from 1924 to 1926 by Arnold F. Meyer and Co. in the Flagg system, with natural stone walls set in concrete poured in wooden forms; four are limestone. The Indiana Limestone Institute recommends nothing stronger than Type N mortar for pointing limestone, no acids, and protection from acid used on nearby brick, which applies to those Flagg houses and to any limestone sills or trim. Where the roughly 1,490 units built in the 1940s and 1950s have brick veneer, it depends on a 1-inch air space and flashing and weeps at the base, lintels and sills to drain. Winters work on all of it: NOAA readings at Milwaukee Mitchell airport, not a Shorewood station, average 74.8 days a winter that cross freezing, in a range of 51 to 94 (winters 2015-16 to 2024-25). We match mortar on evidence, as in our historic mortar and stone matching work.

Cracks, Lintels and When a Shorewood Building Needs an Engineer

The Brick Industry Association says a professional engineer should investigate cracks wider than about 0.075 inch, cracks through several bricks, stepped or diagonal cracks, widespread spalling, rust building up on lintels or shelf angles, and brick that has moved out of plane. On duplex and apartment walls, rusted lintels and cracks near parapets are among the signs worth checking. When we find any of those signs, we document them and recommend an engineer’s assessment before we repair the masonry, and we work from the engineer’s findings. Retaining walls can need Building Inspector review, and taller ones an engineer, so we confirm that with the Village before building.

Serving Shorewood as Part of the Milwaukee Area

Shorewood is the first suburb north of Milwaukee on Lake Michigan, with the lake to the east, the Milwaukee River to the west and Whitefish Bay to the north. North Shore Masonry serves it from our Milwaukee operation, along with Glendale, Wauwatosa, West Allis, Brookfield and Waukesha across the Milwaukee area. Start at our Milwaukee masonry services hub for every service and town we cover.

Talk to Us About Your Shorewood Building

If you are seeing a parapet with open joints or a loose coping, rust staining or cracks above a window, white bloom that keeps coming back, spalled brick, a cracked chimney crown or a tipped stone sill, call us at +1 414-404-9029 or request a free on-site estimate. Shorewood’s permit rules reach repairs as well as new work, and many exterior alterations go to the Village’s Design Review Board, so we confirm permit and review needs with the Village’s Planning and Development Department (414-847-2640) before work starts. The Village permit sheet lists driveways, patios and stoops as building-permit work, and a Design Review Board referral can add weeks to a front-yard stoop or wall, so we plan for it up front.

Building Restoration and Masonry FAQs for Shorewood, WI

Does masonry or facade repair need a permit in Shorewood?

It can. Shorewood’s permit rules reach repairs as well as new work, and the Village permit sheet has no row for tuckpointing or brick and lists general repairs as a maybe. So we confirm permit needs with the Village’s Planning and Development Department, 3930 N. Murray Ave. (414-847-2640), before work starts.

Will my masonry project go to the Shorewood Design Review Board?

It can. Shorewood refers many exterior alterations to its Design Review Board, a Village board that includes architects, before a permit issues, and it expects facing materials to be compatible with neighboring buildings. Planning and Development will tell you whether your project goes to the board; we confirm that before work starts and plan the timing around it.

What mortar should be used to repoint a 1920s Shorewood building?

Mortar matched to the original and softer than the brick, no stronger than the original. On older brick, our crews repoint with lime-rich mortar and match lost brick with salvaged brick where it is available. The National Park Service says repointing mortar should be softer and more vapor permeable than the masonry, because hard Portland cement mortar on older brick can pop the brick faces. The Brick Industry Association points to Type N, O or K for this kind of work. For limestone, including the stone walls of Shorewood’s 1920s Flagg-system houses, the Indiana Limestone Institute recommends nothing stronger than Type N and no acids.

My Shorewood building is on the National Register. What changes?

Work on a Register-listed building can need additional Village review, including a showing that significant exterior features are not harmed, so we confirm the requirements with Planning and Development before work starts. The Village has eight Register listings and no Register historic district, so most older homes are not listed. Owners of listed homes may also look at Wisconsin’s Historic Homes tax credit, which needs approval before work starts.

Why do parapets and copings matter so much on Shorewood apartment buildings?

They are among the most exposed horizontal parts of a wall. The Brick Industry Association says preventing efflorescence depends largely on keeping water out of the brickwork and away from wall tops and horizontal surfaces, and white bloom that appears more than a year after construction can generally be traced to excess water or poor drainage. A sound coping sheds water off the wall top, which is why we check copings and parapet joints first on Shorewood’s apartment buildings.

When is a crack in brick a structural problem?

The Brick Industry Association says a professional engineer should investigate cracks wider than about 0.075 inch, cracks through several bricks, stepped or diagonal cracks, widespread spalling, rust on lintels or shelf angles, and brick that has moved out of plane. If we see any of those on a Shorewood building, we document them and recommend an engineer’s assessment before any masonry repair.