Masonry on the Upper East Side, Manhattan

Local Conditions

What Masonry Work Do Upper East Side Buildings Need?

The housing here is older and finely built, and that means maintenance. Townhouses need stoop and areaway wall repairs, cornice and parapet work and pointing. Pre war co ops on Fifth and Park Avenue need facade repairs, lintel work and Local Law 11 follow up. Tenements on the eastern avenues need brick and parapet repair.

Limestone and brick townhouses are the signature of the side streets. Each has details that are expensive to lose: carved window surrounds, projecting cornices, stone stoop cheeks. Repairs should preserve them, not replace them wholesale.

Large co ops are another category. They have tall facades, setbacks and terraces, and every one of those surfaces sheds water in its own way. Access is the main issue, along with the sidewalk below.

In an areaway, retaining walls hold earth against the building. These walls crack, bulge and leak, and they need masonry attention before the cellar suffers.

Iron fences set into stone are a regular companion repair. A fence post that has rusted in its socket cracks the coping stone around it. We reset the post and patch the stone in one visit so the repair holds.

Chimneys on older townhouses are another frequent call. Brick above the roofline takes the full weather exposure, and a leaning stack is a hazard to the sidewalk below.