Brick Repair · Mokena, IL
Brick Repair in Mokena, IL — Newer Veneer Fails at the Details
On a twenty-five-year-old Mokena home the brick almost never wore out. Something behind it failed — a flashing, a weep hole, a shelf angle — and the brick has been paying for it since.
Quick Answer
Emerald Masonry LLC provides brick repair in Mokena, IL — cutting out and replacing cracked, spalled and displaced brick on veneer and older solid walls, after correcting the flashing, weep, shelf angle or water path that caused the failure. Licensed, bonded and insured. Free on-site assessments — call (708) 288-1696.
Brick repair in Mokena, IL
Mokena homeowners tend to open with a slightly puzzled version of the same question: this house isn't old — why is the brick coming apart? It is a fair question, and the answer is both reassuring and irritating. The brick did not wear out. Something behind it or above it failed, and the brick has been paying for it ever since. Emerald Masonry LLC provides brick repair throughout Mokena and Will County, led by career masons with decades of hands-on Chicagoland experience. Licensed, bonded and insured. Free on-site assessments — call (708) 288-1696.
Newer brick veneer is a drainage wall
Most Mokena homes built from the 1990s onward are brick veneer: a single wythe of brick standing an inch or two off the sheathing, tied back to the structure with metal wall ties, with flashing at the base and over openings and weep holes to let water out.
That wall carries no building load. It is a rain screen, designed on the assumption that water will get behind the brick and needs a clear route back out. When that route is blocked or was never built correctly, water sits in the cavity — and then the brick starts failing.
Here is what actually goes wrong on newer homes:
- Blocked weep holes. Mortar droppings in the cavity, caulk applied by a well-meaning contractor, or mulch and soil piled against the base course. The drain is closed and the wall holds water.
- Short, missing, or improperly lapped flashing. At the base, over windows, over garage openings. Water that gets in has nowhere to go but down and in.
- Corroding shelf angles. The steel supporting veneer at floor lines and openings rusts when it stays wet, and rusting steel expands and lifts the brick above it.
- Wall ties that failed or were never right. Corroded, spaced too far apart, or never properly embedded. The veneer begins to separate from the wall behind it.
- Missing or failed control joints. Brick expands. Without joints to absorb it, the wall cracks where it can — usually diagonally, through the mortar, at an opening corner.
- Water management outside the wall. A downspout discharging at a corner, a roof edge with no kickout flashing dumping onto a wall, or grade sloping back toward the house.
Any of those will destroy good brick in twenty years. All of them are fixable — but only if the repair addresses the cause rather than the symptom.
Mokena's two housing eras
The newer subdivisions — the growth out from town from the 1990s through the 2010s, and the neighbourhoods along the LincolnWay corridor — are that veneer construction, often with a brick front elevation and siding on the sides and rear. Those transitions are a common trouble spot: where brick meets siding, where the veneer terminates, and where flashing has to hand water from one system to another.
Old Mokena — the village core near Front Street and the older homes around it — is different masonry entirely: older, softer brick, solid multi-wythe walls in places, and stone details. That work needs soft, lime-rich mortar and matching salvage brick; a hard modern mix on it will spall the faces within a few seasons.
Same town, opposite approaches. Both sit in Will County's freeze-thaw climate, and both take the full weather load on exposed lots where a west elevation has nothing between it and driving rain.
Repair or replace? The line
- Scattered individual failed units in a sound wall → brick repair, cut in one at a time
- A continuous failed area — spalled, cracked, or displaced → brick replacement, rebuilt as a section
- A wall bulging, separating, or out of plane → rebuild the section and correct the ties, shelf angle, or movement causing it
- Cracked, lifted brick in a line above an opening → lintel repair first, then rebuild the masonry above
We will tell you plainly which one your wall is. Selling a rebuild where a repair holds is dishonest; patching a wall that has gone structural is worse.
Our repair process
- Diagnose the cause. Weeps, flashing, shelf angle, ties, control joints, drainage. Everything else depends on this step.
- Find the true edge of the failure. Sounding and probing beyond the visible damage, so the repair reaches sound masonry.
- Support where needed and remove. Failed brick and mortar out cleanly, without disturbing the brick that stays.
- Correct the detail. New flashing, cleared cavity and weeps, shelf angle treated or replaced, ties addressed, drainage fixed.
- Reset with matched brick. Sourced to match and dry-laid against your wall for approval before anything is set.
- Match the mortar. Colour, sand, texture, joint profile — and hardness matched to the brick.
- Clean down and blend so the repair reads as part of the original wall.
What drives the cost
Number of units and the size of the failed area · veneer versus structural masonry · height and access, from a grade-level wall to a second story or gable · brick-match difficulty, usually easier on newer homes than on Old Mokena stock · underlying corrections such as flashing, weeps, shelf angle, ties or drainage · season and curing conditions. The on-site assessment is free and written.
Emerald Masonry LLC is a family-owned commercial masonry contractor serving Chicago and the Chicagoland suburbs, led by career masons with decades of hands-on Chicagoland experience, in commercial tuckpointing, façade and parapet repair, lintel replacement, chimney and stack rebuilds, CMU block repair, brick repair and replacement, foundation and limestone/sill repair, caulking, sealing, and commercial, residential and historic masonry restoration. Free on-site assessments — call (708) 288-1696.
Serving Mokena and Will County
We repair brick throughout Mokena's 60448 — the newer subdivisions, the LincolnWay neighbourhoods, and the older streets around Front Street — and across the surrounding Will and Cook County suburbs. Related work often includes tuckpointing in Mokena, chimney repair in Mokena, lintel replacement in Mokena and masonry restoration in Mokena. We do the same work in Frankfort, New Lenox, Tinley Park and Orland Park.
Why Mokena homeowners call Emerald
We find out why the brick failed before we repair it, because on a newer home the cause is almost never the brick. We correct the detail, match the units and the mortar, and dry-lay the match against your wall so you approve it first. Family-owned, licensed, bonded and insured, led by career masons with decades of Chicagoland experience.
Brick on your Mokena home cracking, spalling, or pulling away? Request a free on-site assessment or call (708) 288-1696.
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Free on-site estimates for commercial and large-scale projects.
Brick Repair in Mokena, IL — Frequently Asked Questions
How much does brick repair cost in Mokena, IL?
It is set by scope. How many units have failed, whether the area is veneer or load-bearing, height and access, how hard the brick is to match, and whether flashing, a shelf angle or a drainage problem must be corrected first all move the number. Emerald Masonry provides a free written on-site assessment.
My house is only twenty-five years old. Why is the brick failing?
On newer homes the brick itself is usually fine — what failed is a detail behind or around it. Blocked weep holes, short or missing flashing, a corroding shelf angle, or wall ties that were never properly embedded will destroy brick decades before it would have worn out on its own.
Do I need brick repair or brick replacement?
Scattered individual units in an otherwise sound wall are a repair — cut out and reset one at a time. Once the failure covers a continuous area, or the wall is bulging or displaced, that section needs rebuilding instead. We tell you which one you have before pricing it.
What are weep holes and why do they matter?
They are the small open joints or vents along the bottom course of a veneer wall that drain water out of the cavity behind the brick. A veneer wall is designed to let water in and drain it back out, so weeps must never be caulked or mortared shut.
What is a shelf angle?
It is the steel angle supporting brick veneer at floor lines and above openings on many newer homes. Like any steel in a wall it corrodes when it stays wet, and corroding steel expands and lifts the brick above it — the same rust jacking that ruins lintels.
Can you match brick on a 1990s or 2000s Mokena home?
Usually more easily than on a century-old house, because much of that brick is still produced or has close current equivalents. Where a run has been discontinued we source the nearest match and, where needed, salvage sound units from a concealed elevation.
Should I worry about cracks that step up through the mortar?
Step cracks running diagonally through the joints usually mean movement — settlement, a missing or failed control joint, or something pushing the wall. They should be assessed rather than simply patched, because filling a moving crack just gives it somewhere new to open.
Do you offer free assessments in Mokena?
Yes. Emerald Masonry provides free on-site assessments throughout Mokena and the surrounding Will County suburbs. We look at the wall, explain what failed and why, and leave a written scope — call (708) 288-1696.
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