On a Queens row of attached brick houses, two neighbors can need very different brickwork. The house in the middle shows a front and a back. The house at the end adds a whole side wall and two exposed corners, and that is where most of its brick trouble starts.
Long rows of attached brick houses run through Ridgewood, Middle Village, Woodhaven and Astoria. In the middle of a row, each house is sheltered on both sides by its neighbors, and only its front and rear face the weather. The house at the end of the row has no such cover. Its side wall stands open for its full height and length.
As brickwork contractors in Queens we note where a house sits in its row before anything else, because it changes the scope. An end house has far more brick facing the weather, and that side wall and its corners behave differently from the rest of the building. Pricing it like its neighbor in the middle misses most of the job.
On an end house, three parts of the brickwork carry most of the wear.
Rain blown along the street lands squarely on the end wall of a Queens row, which the houses in the middle never face. Its joints wear across the whole face rather than in patches, and brick pointing renews them.
Bricks at a corner are exposed on two faces and take knocks as well as weather. They crack and work loose before the rest of a Queens end wall, and individual units there are renewed through brick replacement.
An end wall has no neighbor on its outer side. Where its connections to the floors inside have weakened over the decades, it can start to bow outward, and on a Queens house the answer is rebuilding, which is brick repair and installation.
Whether the house ends the row or sits in the middle of it, the work falls into one of these.
End or middle, and which way the exposed side faces. On a Queens row that one fact tells us how much of the brickwork has been taking the weather and how large the job is likely to be.
Joints across the full height and length of the side wall, and every brick at each outside corner. Those are the parts of an end house that wear first and hardest.
A line from top to bottom shows whether the wall is plumb or has begun to lean. On a Queens end house that check decides whether the work is surface repair or rebuilding.
What an owner can expect from a brick contractor in Queens who starts with the row.
Neighbors on the same row often compare quotes and are surprised by the gap. The houses look alike from the street, but they are not carrying the same load. The end house has a side wall taking every storm that comes down the street and two corners exposed on both faces, and its end wall has nothing beside it to lean on. The middle house has none of that. A fair quote reflects where the house actually sits, and on a Queens row that difference is usually the biggest single thing in the price.
Attached brick rows run through Ridgewood, Middle Village, Woodhaven, Maspeth and Astoria, and detached houses spread further east through Bayside and Whitestone.
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Because it has more brick exposed to the weather. A house in the middle of a Queens row shows only its front and back, while the end house adds a full side wall and two outside corners. That extra exposure wears its joints and bricks faster than its neighbors’.
Usually because it has nothing on its outer side to lean against. Where its connections to the floors inside have weakened over the decades, an end wall can start bowing outward. On a Queens row that is a structural question, and the section involved is normally taken down and relaid.
Because corner bricks are exposed on two faces instead of one, and they take knocks from passing traffic as well as weather. On an end-of-row Queens house the outside corners are usually the first place individual bricks crack or work loose, well before the flat wall beside them.
Usually, yes. A mid-row Queens house is sheltered on both sides by its neighbors, so only its front and rear take the weather. Its brickwork generally lasts longer and its repairs cover less wall, which is why its quote should be noticeably smaller than an end house’s.
It can become so if left, which is why it is worth checking early. A slight lean that has stopped may only need monitoring, while one that is still moving needs the affected section rebuilt. On a Queens end house a plumb line from top to bottom shows which it is.
