Stone & brick masonry · Whetstone Falls · Est. 1988
WALLS THAT OUTLIVE THEIR BUILDERS.
Kestrel lays load-bearing stone, rebuilds fire features and repoints brick the old way — lime mortar where the wall wants lime, portland only where it earns its place. No veneer shortcuts, no dye pretending to be 1890.
(555) 662-0148 · kestrel@stonemasons.example · 2,400 walls, chimneys and hearths across the gorge
Services
The work list
01
Lime repointing
Joints raked by hand to twice their width — never ground — then flushed full with natural hydraulic lime matched to the chip from your own wall: NHL 3.5 for the gorge climate. Portland in a century wall traps water and spalls the brick to save the mortar; we will not sell it to you.
02
Stone walls & retaining
Fieldstone and granite laid in full mortar beds with through-stones every third course. Dry-stack where the grade wants drainage, mortared where it wants mass — the wall tells us which, and the survey writes it down.
03
Fire features & chimneys
Rumford-spec fireboxes, full relines, firebrick set in refractory — and a crown that sheds water instead of drinking it. The chimney you can read from the road is the one still standing in fifty years.
04
Steps, stoops & landings
Bluestone treads on stone bases, set in full mortar beds over compacted subbase. No dot-and-dab, no voids for frost to fill — a step you salt in January and load with a piano in June.
Recent work
The wall book
Six jobs from across the gorge. Every one carries the twenty-five-year repoint warranty — and every owner will let you stand in the yard and stare at the joints.
Two masons looked at our 1904 wall and reached for portland. Kestrel reached for a chisel and a lime bucket. Three years on, the wall dries after rain, and the bricks they matched are indistinguishable from the originals — in daylight, from a ladder.
The chimney rebuild came with a drawing of the crown and an explanation of why the last one failed. The crew laid firebrick like it was jewelry, then cleaned up like the garden was theirs.
They repointed the school one elevation at a time so we never closed. The joints were struck by a mason named Doyle who has been pointing brick longer than I have been head teacher — and it shows.
Lime, brick, time
Asked at every estimate
Lime or portland — does it really matter?
In a wall built before 1930 it is the whole job. Lime mortar is softer than brick and sacrificial: it weathers out so the brick does not have to. Portland is stronger than old brick, so the freeze-thaw cycle breaks the BRICK to save the mortar — which is exactly backwards.
Can you actually match old brick?
From three salvage yards and a standing stock of 1890–1930 common brick. The match is laid out and approved by you on site, in daylight, wetted — before a single unit goes in the wall.
How long does repointing take?
A day of raking per 200 square feet, then repointing at the same pace — a typical 1,500-square-foot elevation runs two to three weeks with scaffolding. Hand work is the pace; a grinder is faster and ruins the wall you called us to save.
Do you do stone veneer and recladding?
On fire features and hearths, yes. As a driveway-to-roof reclad over framing, no — we build and repair load-bearing masonry. The structure is the product; everything else is paint that costs more.
Matched or re-done, free
If a joint fails inside twenty-five years, or a matched brick reads wrong in daylight, we come back and correct it at no charge. Our work is the warranty — the paper just says so in fewer words.
kestrel@stonemasons.example · Whetstone Falls
Point the wall before winter.
A survey visit with a mortar chip and a written square-foot number. We are booking two to three weeks out — the frost does not negotiate, so neither do we.