Veneer with a schedule
Stone hung on 316 stainless Z-anchors and dowel pins at sixteen inches on centre, over a two-layer barrier, flashed and wept at the base. The spacing number is printed on the drawing and signed — a veneer wall is a roofing decision wearing a stone coat.
Arches on centering
Voussoirs cut and numbered on the ground, laid from both spring lines toward the crown, keystone set last, timber centering struck only after the ring has taken. Compression does the carrying; we keep the geometry honest while it closes.
Lime the wall breathes through
Joints hand-raked to twice their width and flushed full in two passes — NHL 3.5 in the field, NHL 5 at copings — never ground, never portland. In a wall built before 1930 the mortar is meant to be the sacrificial part, and we keep it that way.
The rate card — per square foot unless marked
Load-bearing stone & brick$34–$41
full mortar beds · through-stones every third course · drawn
Anchored veneer, 316 stainless$36/sq ft
Z-anchors at 16 in o.c. · two-layer barrier · flashed and wept
Lime repointing$18–$24
hand-raked joints · NHL 3.5 field, NHL 5 copings
Arch rebuild on centeringfrom $1,950
numbered voussoirs · keystone last · ring closed before striking
Firebox in graded firebrickfrom $2,600
moderate- or high-duty to the drawing · cast crown
One number, every line in it
Drawings, anchors, lime, scaffolding and wash-down live inside the written number, held sixty days. The only extra we have ever charged is salvage brick we must buy to match, quoted per thousand before you approve a single unit.
yard@wythewhistle.example · answered by a mason
The schedule is the warranty
If an anchor we scheduled lets go, a joint we pointed fails, or a ring we closed settles inside twenty-five years, we return and correct it free. The drawing names every component — which is exactly why the promise can be this plain.
Bring us the wall, or just a photograph of it.
A photograph gets you a same-day square-foot estimate; a site visit gets you a drawn elevation and a number that holds for sixty days. Cinderfold and forty minutes around — the visit is free either way.
Recent work
The wall book
Six jobs from around Cinderfold — a blue-brick railway wall, a hung stone elevation, two arches and a firebox that runs all winter. Every owner will let you put a level on our work; we would rather you did.
Visit one
The drawing
The elevation is measured and drawn — every wythe, every weathered arris, every previous repair called out. A mortar chip leaves an inconspicuous joint; the wall’s age picks the lime, the chip picks the colour, and the drawing picks up the rest.
Week 1
Rake & schedule
Joints opened to twice their width with chisels and vacuumed clean, depth checked joint by joint. Anchors, flashing and weeps are scheduled onto the drawing with numbers attached — nothing gets hung on a shrug.
Weeks 2–4
The lay
Stone bedded full, brick swapped from era-matched salvage approved wet in daylight, arches closed on centering with the keystone last. Pointed in two passes, struck to the profile the wall was born with.
Week 6
Strike & warrant
Carbonation finishes under mist and covers; centering comes out only when the ring has taken. The drawing is signed into your name with the twenty-five-year warranty, and you keep both.
The method
Drawing to strike
Four movements, the same on every wall — the only variable is the wall. The drawing is the quote, the schedule and the warranty’s memory, which is why it comes first and leaves with you.
Odile Ferrand
Master mason, second generation
Thirty-one years on the line, the last nineteen running the drawing room. “My father laid by eye and was right about four walls in five. I draw first and am right about all five — he says that is cheating, and he says it proudly.”
A wall is a system: the stone you see, the anchors you never will, and the mortar deciding which of them does the work. Engineering the system is the trade; everything else is patter.
The quote arrived as a drawing with anchor spacing written on it, which no other bid managed. Three winters of westerlies later the veneer reads quarried and the weeps weep. I have sent two neighbours and both thanked me.
They closed our inn’s carriage arch with the voussoirs numbered like a museum crate and struck the centering on a Tuesday, no ceremony. Two years on, the ring has not moved a hair the plumb line can find.
Wythes, anchors, lime
Asked at every drawing table
What is a wythe, and why is it in your name?
A wythe is one continuous vertical section of masonry, a single unit thick. Most garden walls are one, most old houses two or three, tied across with header courses or wall ties. We build and repair whole wythe systems — the name is the trade, spelled properly.
Why 316 stainless on the anchors?
Because the ordinary stainless grades pit in chlorides and creep in alkali, and an anchor is the one component you cannot re-point later. 316 holds against both, hot-dipped where it meets the frame, spaced at sixteen inches on centre and written on the drawing.
Can you match our blue engineering brick?
From a standing stock of pressed blues and two salvage yards. The match is laid out wet, in daylight, beside your wall and approved by you before a single unit is bedded — a blue that reads wrong at noon is wrong forever.
How long does the drawing take?
A day on site and a week at the board for a typical elevation; arches and vaults get a geometry sheet of their own. The drawing is part of the quote — it is how we price, so it cannot be an extra.
Or simply ring the yard.
Monday to Saturday, seven to five. The phone is answered by someone who draws walls for a living, not someone who sells them.