Masonry Contractor in Colton, CA - Reinforced Walls and Careful Brick Repair

You get it from the city's Building & Safety Division, and in Colton every fence and wall needs one, along with every retaining wall, whether it's going up or coming down. The division reviews the plans and inspects the work against the state building code and the city's own rules, and where a wall can sit and how tall it can be are questions for the city's Planning Division. When we build your wall, we handle the paperwork and line up the inspections.

Call Building & Safety at (909) 370-5079, because the city's permit list doesn't name chimney, brick or mortar repair either way and says it isn't complete. The list exempts cosmetic work like painting, and it requires permits for building, remodeling or enlarging a structure, so it's worth asking before a bigger repair. If it turns out to need one, that's part of what we take care of.

Yes, anyone doing work inside Colton city limits needs a City of Colton Business License, down to gardening help at a home. It matters for your permit too, since a building permit gets its final approval only after the list of contractors on the job reaches the Business License Division and every one of them holds a city license. Ask whoever you hire to show theirs before work starts.

No more than $1,000 or 10 percent of the total contract price, whichever is less, under the rules of the Contractors State License Board. After that, every other payment on a home improvement job has to be written into the contract and tied to work finished or materials delivered. On a big wall, that means the down payment stops at $1,000 even when 10 percent would be more, so a bid asking for half up front doesn't fit the rule.

Start with the ground, because the city maps areas prone to liquefaction along both banks of the Santa Ana River and in the Reche Canyon areas. Liquefaction is when loose, wet soil loses its strength in a strong quake, so on those lots the footing and what's under it matter more than the block on top. We look at the soil before we size a footing, and on some lots a soils report is worth having before anyone digs.

Mostly the size of the job and what the wall has to do, so a retaining wall holding back soil costs more than a yard divider the same length because it needs more steel and a bigger footing. The finish moves it next, since brick or stone on the face takes more time than plain block, and old brick usually takes longer to match than new. Tight side-yard access and the permit add to it too, and I'll price all of that on site so you're not guessing.