Storm Damage Repair for Masonry and Exteriors in Cincinnati

Storm damage repair in Cincinnati, after the wind and the falling limbs

A summer wind storm or an ice-loaded limb can knock a chimney over, tear brick veneer loose from its ties, crack a parapet, or strip a whole run of gutters off the house. The first concern is safety. The lasting one is a repair that matches what was there and is built to stand through the next storm.

Swiss Masonry is a masonry contractor and general contractor serving Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana within about 50 miles of the city. We do storm and wind damage repair on masonry and the building exterior: chimneys, walls, parapets and coping, veneer, cladding, porches, gutters and soffits, plus the interior plaster that suffers once water gets in. Swiss Masonry has done masonry in Cincinnati since 1993, and we’ll still be answering this phone long after storm season ends.

First steps after a storm hits your house

1. Stay out from under it. A leaning chimney or a wall with bricks hanging loose can drop without warning. Keep people, pets and cars away from that side of the house.
2. Leave downed wires to the utility. If a tree brought a line down, call your electric company and stay well clear until they’ve made it safe.
3. Photograph before anything moves. Wide shots of every side of the house, then close-ups of the damage, with something in the frame for scale.
4. Save the brick and stone. Stack fallen brick, stone and coping where nobody will haul it off. Salvaged pieces are the closest match there is.
5. Call your insurance company. Ask how they want the loss reported and whether they need to see the damage before repairs begin.
6. Call us for the repair scope. The owner looks at the damage in person and writes up what it takes to put the building back.

What storms do to masonry, and how we put it back

Chimneys knocked down or cracked

A chimney stands tall above the roof with little bracing, so wind and falling limbs hit it hardest there. We take the stack down to sound brick and rebuild it with matched brick, Type N cement-lime mortar, and a new reinforced concrete crown with an overhang, a drip groove and a bond break at the flue liner. Rebuild pricing is on our chimney repair page.

Parapets and coping

A parapet sticks up past the roof with nothing behind it and catches wind on both faces. Once a coping stone shifts, water runs straight into the wall below. We reset or replace coping, relay loose parapet courses, and anchor what needs it with stainless steel helical pins.

Brick veneer pulled loose

Veneer hangs on metal ties fastened to the house behind it. Old ties rust thin, and a hard gust or a tree strike can peel a section away. We rebuild the panel and tie it back with stainless steel helical remedial ties drilled into the structure.

Walls struck by trees

A trunk landing on a brick wall cracks it outward from the point of impact. We cut out broken brick, stitch cracks with stainless helical bars where the wall needs tying back together, and fill the opening with reclaimed brick that matches. Details on our brick repair page.

Gutters, soffits and cladding

Wind gets under gutters and soffit panels and pries them off. We hang 6-inch K-style aluminum gutters with 3×4 downspouts, rebuild soffits and fascia, and reline built-in box gutters with fully adhered 60-mil EPDM; see box gutters and soffits. Torn siding is covered on our siding page.

Ceilings after a leak

Water that came in through a broken chimney or a torn-off gutter often shows up weeks later as a stained or sagging ceiling. Once the outside is closed up, we handle the plaster and drywall repair inside.

Working alongside your insurance adjuster

We are a repair contractor, not a claims service. We don’t negotiate your claim, discuss coverage with your carrier on your behalf, or tell you what insurance will pay. What we do is write the kind of estimate insurance restoration needs: a line-item repair scope an adjuster can follow. And we work alongside your adjuster, and your general contractor if you have one.

What our storm repair estimates show

• Each repair as its own line, with the quantity, the material and the method.
• Labor stated as crew size and working days, so the hours can be checked.
• Photo numbers referenced on the lines they support.
• Matching work called out plainly: mortar analysis and a trial repair where old mortar must be matched, reclaimed brick where new brick won’t blend.
• Exclusions spelled out, such as electrical work or a roof, so nothing gets counted twice by two trades.

If a general contractor is already running the restoration, we can work as the masonry trade under them and price our part for their submission. If you don’t have one, we can run the exterior repair as your general contractor, with licensed trade partners for any electrical, plumbing or HVAC work.

Matching what the storm took

Storm repair on older Cincinnati brick should be done to restoration standards, or the patch shows for the life of the wall. We match mortar by sending a sample of the old joint for analysis of its binder, sand and color, then build a trial patch you approve before production work starts. On pre-1920 brick and soft stone the mortar is lime-rich, Type N or O, picked from a sample panel; a hard, portland-rich mix can crack soft old brick.

Joints are raked out by hand and repointed in lifts, tooled to the existing profile. Brick that fell gets cleaned and reused where it’s sound. If your building is a local landmark or sits in a historic district, exterior repairs there need a Certificate of Appropriateness, and the work waits for it; our historic masonry restoration page explains that process.

When storm season ends, we’re still here

After a big storm, crews from out of town often knock on doors for a few weeks and then move on. A masonry repair can need a follow-up visit long after that. Before you sign with anyone, ask for a written contract, a certificate of insurance and a local number that will still answer next year.

Our side of that is simple. Insured. Certificate of insurance on request. A one-year workmanship warranty, in writing. Small crews, usually two masons on a masonry job, and the owner prices every job himself after seeing it. We repair storm damage on homes and on commercial and mixed-use buildings from Hyde Park and Anderson Township to Covington and Lawrenceburg.

Every job is priced after the owner sees it. Common masonry ranges are on our pricing page.