Stone and masonry work in White Bear Lake, Minnesota

Stone comes first

Stonecrete Inc is a masonry contractor in White Bear Lake, and stone is the work Don Barger puts first. The business sets new stone on and around houses, and it repairs old stone that has come loose or lost the mortar holding it in place.

Don is based in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. He works the town and the area about 30 minutes around it, which takes in the lake towns north and east of Saint Paul and reaches out to the St. Croix River at Stillwater.

Where you find stone on a house

Some stone holds up weight, like an old foundation wall or a solid garden wall. Some is a face set against the wall behind it. Either way it is stone masonry, and it lasts as long as the stone is set right and the joints keep water out.

• A stone front, or a band of stone along the bottom of the house
• Stone around an entry or on porch columns
• Stone walls and garden walls in the yard
• Stone steps and landings
• Old limestone and fieldstone foundation walls under older houses

New stone and old stone

Stone work is the new side of it. Stone laid up fresh on the face of a house, in a garden wall, at the door or as a set of steps. It also covers stone added beside what a house already has, where the old and the new need to sit together.

Stone repair is the other side. Stones reset where they have come out, worn joints cut out and repointed, heaved steps lifted and rebuilt, and old limestone walls given mortar soft enough for them. Each one has its own page, linked below.

What a Minnesota winter does to masonry

Masonry here goes through long winters and a lot of freeze and thaw in the fall and spring. Water runs into a joint or soaks into the face of a stone. It freezes, takes up more room and pushes. Then it thaws, runs a little deeper and freezes again.

Frost works on the ground as well. Wet soil under steps, walks and the base of a wall freezes and lifts, then settles when it thaws, and it seldom settles back where it was. That is how stone steps come to tilt toward the door and a garden wall begins to lean out.

And snow sits. It piles up against the foundation and the bottom of a stone front for months, then melts into the joints in the spring thaw.

Road salt by the front door

Every street and driveway around White Bear Lake gets salted, and the salt rides in on boots and tires. It soaks into stone, brick and concrete. Salty water freezing in a joint does more damage than plain water, so the faces of steps flake, joints open up and white stains come up as the stone dries.

The steps and stoop by the front door take the worst of it, since that is where the salt gets thrown. The road salt guide on this site has a few winter habits that go easier on them.

Lake cottages, ramblers and newer subdivisions

The houses around here fall into a few groups. Close to the lake and near downtown White Bear Lake there are older houses and lake cottages, some on fieldstone or limestone foundations laid in soft lime mortar. Further out there are ramblers and split levels with block foundations and brick or stone on the front. Newer subdivisions in Hugo, Lino Lakes and Woodbury have stone veneer on the fronts and stone in the landscaping.

Each one wants something different. Old stone in soft mortar needs soft mortar back, because a hard patch can crack the stone around it. A veneer on a newer front is mostly about keeping water from getting behind it. And a lake lot that slopes down to the water puts wet ground behind every step and wall on the way down.

Brick, chimneys, foundations and concrete

A house here has more masonry on it than stone. Brick fronts and brick chimneys, chimneys that get used all winter and need sweeping, mortar joints that need tuckpointing, fireplaces, block foundations, retaining walls on sloped yards, and concrete steps, walks and stoops.

Frost, water and salt work on all of it the same way they work on stone. Stone fireplaces, concrete steps and walks, and block retaining walls each have their own page, from Don's own job photos. For brick, chimneys, tuckpointing and foundation repair, text a photo to (612) 432-9467 and ask Don whether it is a job he takes.

Finding the cause first

Most masonry trouble has a reason behind it. Stone that keeps dropping out of a wall is often under a joint that lets water in from the top, beside a downspout that dumps water at its base, or on ground that moves every winter. Put the stone back without dealing with that and it comes out again.

So Don looks at what is causing the trouble, like how water is reaching the stone and what the ground under it is doing, as well as the stone itself. He tells you plainly what it needs, and what it does not, before any work starts.

Some jobs need a structural engineer to look first. A wall that keeps moving, a foundation bowing in or a big crack that keeps growing are the usual ones. Some work also needs a permit, and that varies by city, so ask your city before a big job.

Getting Don to look at yours

Start with photos. One from far enough back to show the whole wall, front or set of steps, and one up close on the worst spot. Add your town and how long it has been going on.

Text them to (612) 432-9467 or call Don at the same number. If you are near the edge of the 30 minutes around White Bear Lake, ask anyway.