The buildings here
Older frame and brick homes near the center of town on stone foundations, 1920s to 1950s brick bungalows and Colonial Revival houses, mid-century brick ranches on larger lots, and a steady supply of additions and rebuilds tying new masonry into old.
An older core and a lot of later building
Kirkwood is older than most people assume. The streets around the downtown and the station carry frame and brick houses from the 1800s sitting on rubble limestone foundations, the same construction you find in the city neighborhoods. Around and beyond that core, the housing is mostly 1920s through 1950s: brick bungalows, Colonial Revival houses and brick ranches on larger lots, with a steady flow of additions, pop-tops and full rebuilds over the last two decades.
That gives us two different kinds of work. On the older houses it is foundation repointing, chimneys and porch masonry. On the later stock it is veneer cracking, lintels, chimney crowns, and tying new brick into old where an addition meets the original wall.
Clay soil is the local story
Much of west St. Louis County sits on soil with a high clay content that changes volume with moisture. A wet spring swells it and lifts whatever is sitting on a shallow footing. A dry August shrinks it and lets the same thing settle. Over enough cycles, porch piers lean, front steps pull away from the house, garden walls lose their line and brick shows stair-step cracking along the mortar joints.
The important thing about that cracking is what it means. Stair-step cracks follow the joints because the joints are the weak path, and they indicate differential movement rather than a mortar problem. Repointing them is cosmetic if the ground under the corner is still working. We look at where the water goes first: downspouts discharging at the foundation, negative grade against the wall, a driveway pitched back toward the house. Those are cheap to fix and they take a lot of the movement out.
Chimneys, piers and matching new to old
The rest of the Kirkwood list is familiar. Chimney crowns that were never cast properly and cracked decades ago. Porch piers that have crushed at the top or rotated. Foundation walls that have quietly washed their lime joints out into a pile of sand on the basement floor.
Matching is its own job here because of the rebuild market. Getting a new addition to read as part of a 1928 house means matching brick size and color, matching the mortar color with cured sample boards, and matching the joint profile and tooling. We price that as part of the work rather than treating it as a detail to sort out on the last day.
What matters locally
Kirkwood issues its own permits
Kirkwood is a separate municipality with its own building department and its own landmarks and historic review. Permits for masonry repair come from Kirkwood, and nothing goes through the City of St. Louis Building Division or the Cultural Resources Office.
Expansive clay soil drives the cracking
Much of this area sits on clay that changes volume with moisture. Shallow footings under porch piers, steps and garden walls rise and fall through the year, which shows as stair-step cracking in brick and as porches that have racked out of level.
New masonry tied into old
Kirkwood has an active addition and rebuild market, so a lot of our work is matching new brick and mortar to an existing house, or repairing the joint where an addition meets the original wall and the two have moved apart.
Older stone foundations near downtown
The oldest housing around the center of Kirkwood sits on rubble limestone laid in lime mortar, the same construction as the city neighborhoods. Those walls want lime repointing and not a cement parge.
Jobs we do most often in Kirkwood
- Rebuilding porch piers and columns that have settled or leaned
- Repairing stair-step cracking in brick veneer and solid walls
- Chimney crown recasting and above-roof rebuilds
- Repointing limestone foundation walls and crawl space walls
- Matching brick and mortar where an addition meets the original house
- Rebuilding garden walls, steps and retaining walls on sloping lots