Masonry Contractor in Palm Springs, FL - Sound Walls for Older Block Homes

The Village of Palm Springs Planning, Zoning & Building Department issues them, since the Village handles permits inside its own limits. It issues building permits for structural repairs and has a separate application for fence and driveway approval, which matters if you're replacing a driveway with pavers. Every building permit application has to be notarized by both you and the contractor, no matter how small the job, and if you're not sure yours needs a permit, the department is the place to ask.

Apply for a permit with the Village before the structural repair starts, which is what the Village's hurricane guidance tells homeowners, and the building department can help you through it. Before we rebuild, I look for why the wall gave way, like a shallow footing, missing steel or crumbling joints, so the new work isn't sitting on the same weakness. When the permit's needed, we pull it and rebuild the damaged section to code.

Yes, contractors have to register with the Village before they start work or pull a permit if their trade is licensed by the state or they hold a local or county license, and a business working there from an office outside the Village also needs a Village business tax receipt. The type of state license matters too, because a certified license is good anywhere in Florida while a registered one covers only the cities or counties where the holder has a certificate of competency. We're licensed and insured, and I'm happy to go over our paperwork with you at the estimate.

The Florida Building Code applies, in the current edition the Village has adopted. It sets how footings, block, steel and grout go together, and we build to it whether or not your job needs a permit. If the masonry is part of new construction or an addition, the Village also wants an Elevation Certificate with photographs in the permit package.

The cost comes down to the size of the job, the material and how much old work has to come out, so I won't guess at a number until I've seen your wall or driveway. Matching old brick or mortar color, a tight side yard we have to wheelbarrow through and a footing that needs replacing all add to it, while a straight repair on sound block costs less. The schedule mostly turns on the permit and on summer rain, since we don't lay block or point joints in a downpour, and my written estimate gives you the figure for your house.

Water is usually behind it, because it works into old mortar joints, rusts the steel inside block and softens the sandy ground under thin footings. Long-term averages for nearby West Palm Beach come to close to 62 inches of rain a year, with August, June and September the wettest. That's why I check drainage, footings and joints before I quote a patch, since a crack sealed over without fixing the water usually opens again.