Loose stones, crumbling joints or a wall that's started to sag? We rebuild it with the right stone and mortar so it stays fixed.
Stone masonry in Santa Barbara is building or rebuilding walls and fences from natural or manufactured stone, laid with or without mortar, so the stone and the joints hold up outdoors and the wall fits city rules.
Most calls I get start with an older wall: a stone that's worked loose, joints that crumble when you rub them, or a cap that's come off. Others want a new garden wall or a low wall along the front. If the stone you're worried about is part of the house's foundation, that's a foundation repair job, which we also do.
Price mostly comes down to the size of the wall, the stone you pick and how much old wall has to come down first. The schedule turns on getting the stone delivered, whether the job needs a permit and decent weather for mortar work. I come out, look at your wall in person and give you an estimate, so you see your own figure before you decide anything.
Reach us at (805) 456-2871, by email or through the form, and send a few photos of the wall if you can. We get back to you and set a time for me to come out.
I check the stone, the joints and what's around the wall, and I tell you what needs doing now and what can wait. You get an estimate for the work, so you know the cost before you commit to anything.
If you go ahead, we find out which office covers your address, handle any permit application and meet the inspector, and we tell you up front how the review time fits the schedule. Then I work on the wall alongside our crew.
Before we pack up, we walk the finished job with you and clean up the site. If anything doesn't look right to you, that's the time to say so.
Santa Barbara has a lot of old stone walls, many of them sandstone retaining walls from the years when sandstone was easy to come by here. When one of those needs rebuilding, the city's historic design guidelines advise photographing it first and salvaging the original stones. That's how we do it, so the wall goes back together the way it was.
Mortared or dry-laid, we sort the stones by size before laying and set each one so it bears on the stones below it. We keep the face of the wall straight as it goes up and clean mortar off the face as we work, so you aren't left with smears that set hard.
What our stone masonry work covers:
If the stones are sound and only the joints are failing, repairing the joints is usually the better call, because it keeps the wall you have and costs less than taking it apart. It's the same idea as brick pointing, done in stone. When stones have come loose across a whole section or the face is bulging, patching just buys time, so I'd rebuild that section. And if a crack is only cosmetic, I'll tell you it can wait.
The length and height of the wall set most of it, along with the stone itself, because some stone costs more to buy and takes longer to cut and fit. A mortared wall uses more material than a dry-laid one. Rebuilding an old wall adds the time it takes to take it apart carefully and sort the stones. Tight access means more carrying by hand, and a permit, when the job needs one, adds paperwork and review time.
I grew up on a farm where you fixed a fence or a cracked barn wall so it stayed fixed, and I learned masonry working beside older masons. I started C&D Santa Barbara Concrete & Masonry here in 2017. I'm the one who comes out to look at your wall, and I work on the job with our crew.
On your property we keep the work area tidy, protect the plants and paths near the wall and clean up as we go. I'll explain what your wall needs and why, and I'd rather tell you a repair can wait than sell you work you don't need. Your satisfaction, guaranteed.
Include its height and whether it sits near a driveway, so I come out ready to talk through the height and permit questions.
Tell us where the wall is, what's wrong with it or what you want built, and we'll reply within one business day to set up a free on-site estimate, with no obligation.
Stone veneer installation across the US usually costs about $15 to $45 per square foot installed. That's a national figure for veneer, a thin layer of stone set onto a wall, not for a full stone wall, and the stone you choose and how hard the wall is to reach move you within it. For your own figure, I'll look at the job and give you an estimate, and you can read more on our stone veneer installation page.
The city doesn't require a building permit for a fence 42 inches high or lower, or for a retaining wall 4 feet or lower measured from the bottom of the footing, as long as there's no added load like a slope or a driveway on the ground above it. Most other building, altering or rebuilding of a structure generally needs one from the city's Building & Safety Counter. We confirm which office covers your address before any work starts.
The city allows no fence or wall taller than three and a half feet inside the visibility triangle, the sightline area on either side of a driveway. If a fence or wall sits on top of a retaining wall, the city also counts the part of the retaining wall above finished grade toward the total height, so we plan the two together.
The best stone is one with a history of standing up to the weather here, because not every natural stone is suggested for outdoor use, according to one industry guide. Ask your mason which stones have a proven outdoor record locally, and we'll help you choose one before anything is ordered.
The old mortar is cut out of the joints and new mortar packed in, a job called repointing, and on an older wall the new mortar has to let moisture and vapor move out of the wall and dry off, or the stone gets damaged. Preservation guidance says hand chisels and mash hammers, short heavy hammers, take more labor but usually pose the least threat to old masonry and give the best result, while unskilled use of power saws and grinders can be disastrous. Ask any mason which tools and mortar they'll use, and I'll go over both with you.
Yes, the state's contractor licensing board has a masonry classification, and it covers installing natural and manufactured stone. We're licensed and fully insured, and you're welcome to ask about it when I come out.
We're based in Santa Barbara and work in Goleta, Montecito and the other cities around it. Pick your area below, or call if yours isn't listed.
