Stone masonry in Salinas CA - a stone wall that suits your house and sits level

Most people who call us have a spot in mind, like a slope by the drive or a bare fence line, and a picture of stone they like, but they haven't settled what kind of wall it should be. The price mostly turns on how long and tall the wall is, which stone you pick, whether it's dry-stacked or grouted, how much digging the footing takes and how easy it is to get stone to the spot. The schedule turns on stone delivery, any permit or soils review, and the weather in the wet months. When I come out, I write down the work, the materials and the reason for each, so you have your own number and can line it up fairly against other bids.

We start by deciding with you whether your wall should hold together by the weight of the stones or by the grout between them, because that one choice shapes the footing, the stone we order and how the crew lays it. I'll bring stone samples to set next to your house before we pick, since a stone that looks right in a yard can look wrong against your siding or trim. Then we mark out the line, dig out and build the footing or base, and set the stones row by row while I check the level twice as it goes. We finish the joints and clean up the site before we call it done.

Stone work often sits right up against other masonry. If your house has older brick with joints that have worn thin, we can take care of the brick pointing while we're there, so the new stone isn't next to a wall that's letting water in. If we dig in and find cracks or settling at the house, I'll tell you plainly whether it needs foundation repair or whether a smaller fix will do.

Salinas Permit Services issues and inspects building permits in the city, and owners apply online through the city's Paperless Permits portal, so that's the office to ask whether your wall needs one. When a job does need a permit, we handle the application and the inspections with the city or county office that covers your property, and we keep you posted on where it stands. Monterey County also notes that the state building code generally requires foundation and soils investigations for structures in high seismic areas like this one, though it lists free-standing fences up to 8 feet tall and some retaining walls among work that may not need a soils report. I'll find out which side of that your wall falls on before I price it, because a soils report adds cost and time.

On jobs around here we see a lot of older houses with brick or stone that's been patched over the years, and yards that need a wall to hold a slope or mark a line. We're based in Salinas and work here and in the cities around it, including Prunedale and Marina, and if your city isn't on our list, call and ask.