Stone masonry in Napa CA - walls and veneer that look like they belong on your house

Installing stone veneer across the US usually costs about $25 to $40 per square foot. That's a national range for veneer work and not our price, so treat it as a rough guide for facing a wall rather than a quote. Your own figure comes in the written estimate after I look the job over.

A retaining wall in Napa is exempt from a permit from the city's Building Division if it's 4 feet or less from the bottom of the footing to the top and isn't holding back extra load, like a slope or a driveway above it, and fences up to 7 feet are exempt too. Exempt work still has to meet the city's codes, and the city invites you to get in touch before applying to talk the project through. We check with them early, and when your job needs a permit, we take care of the application and set up the inspections.

It can be, since national earthquake guidance warns that unreinforced masonry chimneys, the ones built with no steel inside, can fall into the house or onto outside areas and hurt people inside or walking by. A retrofit lowers the risk of earthquake damage, so if yours is old and unreinforced, it's worth weighing one alongside any chimney repair. I'll tell you plainly if it can wait.

The wall has to be structurally sound, which is what one maker's installation guide requires before its veneer goes on, so any repair to the wall underneath comes first. On an old brick wall that can mean brick pointing, refilling the worn mortar joints, before we set stone over it. What have you noticed? Cracks, loose brick or damp spots are all worth a photo.

The best way is to set every stone so it locks in with the ones around it, because a dry-stacked wall, sometimes called a rockery, is stacked rock with no mortar, concrete or steel holding it together. A dry stone walling guide from Australia says stones laid with their long sides showing make a much weaker wall, so ask any mason how the stones will run. That's the puzzle part of the job, and it's the part I like best.

In California, a home improvement contract has to include notices and disclosures that protect you as the buyer. Any change to it must be in writing, legible, easy to understand and state your right to cancel. Stone work falls under the state licensing board's masonry classification, and we're fully licensed and insured. Satisfaction guaranteed.