Where Don does stone and masonry work: White Bear Lake and about 30 minutes around

In Don's own words

When Don was asked where he works, his answer was short: White Bear Lake and the surrounding area, about a 30 minute radius. This page lays out what that circle takes in. The towns below all sit inside it, and each one has its own page about the houses and the ground there.

Stone is the work Don named first, so stone work and stone repair are what this site leads with. For other masonry on your house, ask Don.

The lakes north of Saint Paul

White Bear Lake is the middle of it. The city sits on the shore, mostly in Ramsey County, with older houses and lake cottages near the water and downtown, and ramblers and split levels further out. Mahtomedi is on the east side of the lake in Washington County, with older lake houses on wooded lots. The smaller cities around the shore are inside the circle too.

West of White Bear Lake, Vadnais Heights wraps around Vadnais Lake and Sucker Lake, with houses mostly from the 1960s on. Shoreview is next, with Snail Lake, Turtle Lake and Island Lake and houses from the 1950s on. To the north, Lino Lakes runs along the Rice Creek chain of lakes in Anoka County, and Hugo mixes newer subdivisions with bigger rural lots and open land in Washington County.

Around all of these lakes the lots slope toward the water. That slope is where stone steps, landings and walls take the hardest wear, with wet ground behind them and frost under them.

South toward the city

Maplewood sits between Saint Paul's East Side and North St. Paul, with a lot of mid century houses and two regional parks, Battle Creek and Keller. North St. Paul is a small older city around Silver Lake, with older houses close to its downtown.

Saint Paul is the far end of the circle to the south. The older neighborhoods on the East Side and around downtown have houses and buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s, many on limestone foundations laid in soft lime mortar. Limestone was quarried locally and used all over the old city, and plenty of it is still holding houses up.

East to the St. Croix

Stillwater is the old river town on the St. Croix River and the Washington County seat. It has steep bluffs and public stairs, old brick and stone buildings downtown, and older houses up on the hills sitting on stone foundations.

Woodbury is the big newer suburb south of Interstate 94, also in Washington County. Most of its houses are newer, a lot of them with stone veneer across the front and block retaining walls in the yard.

What every town here has in common

Every town on this page gets the same long cold winters, and the masonry shows it. Water gets into joints and stone, freezes, grows and pushes, then thaws and does it again dozens of times through fall and spring. Frost heave lifts steps and walks. Road salt goes down on every street and driveway and soaks into stone and concrete steps. Snow piles against walls all winter and melts into them in the spring.

So the problems look alike from Shoreview to Stillwater: loose stone, joints gone sandy, steps that moved over the winter. The houses are where they differ. An old limestone foundation in Saint Paul and stone veneer on a newer house in Woodbury need very different handling.

If your town is not on the list

The towns below are the ones with their own pages. They are not the only places inside Don's 30 minutes. Smaller cities and townships around the lakes fall inside that circle as well.

Call or text (612) 432-9467 with your town and a photo of the job. If you are outside the area, you find out before anyone drives out.

• Your town or neighborhood
• A wide photo and a close one of the worst spot
• How long it has looked like that

Permits change at the city line

Each city here sets its own permit rules. A job that needs nothing in one town may need a permit in the next, and lake lots can have shoreland rules on top of that. Ask your city before work starts.