A row of brick townhouses at dusk with a continuous bracketed cornice along the roof line

Old St. Louis buildings

The top of your building is the part nobody looks at.

Cornices and parapets take a century of weather and get no attention until something cracks, leans, or falls. A licensed engineer inspects yours and tells you what is sound, what is not, and what to do first.

Licensed Professional Engineer in Missouri and Illinois
Independent: we do not sell repairs
A written scope every mason can bid the same way

Rather talk it through? Call (314) 834-5853.

MO and IL: Licensed Professional Engineer in both states
Independent: We do not sell repairs
1 business day: To reply with the scope and the fee
One scope: Written so every mason bids the same work

Where to start

What brought you here?

Most calls start one of three ways.

A weathered pressed-metal cornice with rust streaks and an open seam

Something looks wrong up there

A crack, a lean, a gap, rust stains, or pieces missing.

Cornice condition assessment

Fallen brick on a sidewalk inside cones and caution tape

Something fell

Brick, terra cotta, or metal came down. Keep people away and call.

Fallen masonry assessment

Two people across the street looking up at a brick storefront building

I am buying or selling the building

Find out what the top of the facade needs before the deal closes.

Review before you buy or sell

Why cornices fail

Water, rust, and a hundred winters

A cornice projects past the wall, so it catches rain from above and holds it. What happens next depends on what it is made of. How each kind of cornice is built and fails.

A glazed terra cotta cornice with a cracked block and a rust stain

Corbelled brick. Mortar washes out and the stepped courses loosen from the top down.
Terra cotta. Water gets behind the glaze and rusts the steel that holds each block.
Pressed sheet metal. Seams open, the metal rusts through, and the wood behind it rots.
Stone. Joints open and pieces shift on a bed that no longer holds them.
Parapets. Exposed on both faces and the top, they weather twice as fast as the wall below.

How it works

Three steps to a scope a mason can bid

You know the scope and the fee before the first one costs you anything. More on how it works.

1
Send the address and photos
Photos from the ground only. Tell us what prompted the call. We reply within one business day.
2
The engineer inspects
The cornice, the parapet, and the wall and roof edge behind them.
3
You get it in writing
What was found, how urgent it is, and a repair scope for bids.