Retaining Walls, Steps and Masonry in Mount Adams

Masonry on Mount Adams in Cincinnati: walls, steps and old brick on a steep hill

On Mount Adams, masonry problems usually come back to the hill. A retaining wall that holds up a back yard starts to lean. Front steps heave and crack. Left alone, a leaning wall only gets worse: the soil keeps pushing, and a slow lean can end in a collapse.

Swiss Masonry, a Cincinnati masonry contractor that also runs general construction jobs, works on Mount Adams along with the rest of the 50-mile area around the city, from Northern Kentucky to southeast Indiana. The city’s 2009 neighborhood plan describes the housing: much of it from the mid to late 1800s, Italianate and Victorian beside newer styles, about evenly wood frame and brick, built close to narrow streets. On some streets it notes a steep hillside prone to landslides. The owner comes up the hill to see every job before he prices it.

Retaining wall repair on Mount Adams hillside lots

Retaining walls fail from water more than anything else. A wall holds back soil and the water in it. When the drainage behind it clogs, or was never built, pressure climbs, frost works the joints, and roots pry the stones apart. Watch for a bulge or lean, cracks that keep growing, a wet face, mortar washing out, and soil slumping at the top.

The city’s retaining wall standards set the rules. In residential districts, no permit is needed for a wall no taller than 48 inches from the bottom of the footing to the top, set at least 5 feet from any building or lot line. Walls in Hillside Districts follow Chapter 1433 of the zoning code. A wall needs DOTE approval if a paved road falls within its zone of influence. Hollow concrete block is not allowed, drainage needs granular backfill at least 12 inches thick with weep holes or a perforated pipe, and walls over 30 inches that sit within 3 feet of a walking surface need a guardrail.

Three ways to fix it, from repair to rebuild

• Repair: repoint open joints, reset or replace loose cap stones, and clear the weep holes. This fits a wall that is still plumb and sound.
• Partial rebuild: take down the bulged section, add drainage stone and pipe behind it, and rebuild it in solid masonry or stone.
• Full rebuild: a new wall on a new footing, built to an engineer’s design where the height, the slope or the street calls for one.

See retaining walls and stone work for more.

Front steps, stoops and the public stairways

The city counts nearly 400 sets of public hillside stairways and keeps an inventory of their inspections and repairs. Those belong to the city. The steps from the sidewalk to your door, the stoop and the walls beside them belong to you. Masonry steps fail at the treads first, when water gets under them and frost lifts them. Concrete steps settle where the base washed out. We rebuild masonry steps, repair or overlay concrete ones, and fix the walls and rails beside them. See porch and step repair and concrete work.

Chimney repair on Mount Adams homes

With houses set this close together, a chimney is often reachable only from the roof. The usual failures are a cracked crown, open joints near the top, and spalled brick where water has been getting in for years. We rebuild crowns in reinforced cast concrete with an overhang, a drip groove and a bond break at the flue liner, then repoint with a lime-rich mortar that suits old brick. Options and published price ranges are on our chimney repair page.

Tight streets, no driveway: how a hillside job runs

The same neighborhood plan notes narrow streets, sidewalks mostly on one side, little or no setback, on-street parking and, on several streets, limited off-street parking. So staging gets planned before the price is written. Material comes in small loads and is carried by hand where a lift cannot reach. If we need the street or sidewalk for staging, we get the DOTE right-of-way permit first. Crews are small, usually two masons, which suits a narrow street.

On the downhill side of a house, the same water that pushes on yard walls can work on the foundation; see foundation repair. Every job is priced after the owner sees it. Common masonry ranges are on our pricing page. Down the hill, we also work in Over-the-Rhine.