Masonry Contractor in Myrtle Grove, NC - Brick and Block Built to Shed Coastal Rain

I can't give you an honest number until I've seen the job, because the price comes down to how much there is, how deep the damage runs and what's behind it. Raking out a few washed-out joints by a downspout is a small job, while a whole wall of soft mortar or a retaining wall that needs new drainage behind it takes far more labor and material. When I come out, I'll point to the parts that drive your number.

Water, mostly, and there's a lot of it here, since normal yearly rainfall in Wilmington is now over 60 inches. Rain soaks into the joints, especially under leaky gutters and at the base of walls, and the mortar slowly washes out until bricks start to loosen. We rake out the bad mortar, repoint with a mix that suits the brick and track down where the water's coming from so the new joints aren't fighting the same leak.

Storms are part of owning a house here, because the wider Cape Fear area averages a hurricane with winds of 74 mph or more about every six years and a major one with 115 mph or more about every 17. Wind-driven rain gets into cracked chimney crowns and open joints, and a chimney top or wall that's already loose is usually what comes down. A look before storm season lets us fix the weak spots while they're still small.

Where the county handles zoning, it says fences fall outside its zoning ordinance, but it asks you to keep them off easements and to check your HOA's rules. Many neighborhoods here have an HOA with its own say on height and materials, so pull those papers before we pick a brick. For a freestanding masonry wall or anything that holds back soil, I check with the county before we dig, since fence rules may not be the whole story.

If your house sits in the FEMA-mapped 100-year floodplain and the work counts as a substantial improvement, the county's floodplain rules apply, and the main one is a raised lowest floor. Those county rules cover land outside Wilmington and the beach towns, with Building Safety handling the building side and County Engineering handling grading and fill, which matters when a wall means moving or bringing in dirt. We sort out which office handles your address before we price a job that size.

Start with the gutters and drains, because the county's own flood advice is to keep them clear of debris, and it suggests a sump pump with a battery backup. On the masonry side, I look for soil sloping toward the wall, splash from downspouts and cracks in the block or brick where water gets in. Fixing the slope and the cracks together does more than either one alone.