New brick and stone work: permits, inspections and costs

Where a code lists work that needs no permit, that's not a pass to skip the code itself. Connecticut's code, for one, says an exemption doesn't authorize any work that breaks the code or other laws, regulations or ordinances,¹ and Minnesota's rule says the same.²

Several codes exempt fences under a height. Whether your building department treats a brick or stone garden wall as a fence is a question to ask it. Each height in the table is where that rule draws its line, measured as its code says.

Where your state's row leaves it to local rules, or your state isn't listed, ask your city or county building department before work starts. Each state's rules page on this site has more, with its sources.

Pick your state's rules page

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Cities can set their own heights. Here are two, each that city's own rule:

• Scottsdale, Arizona needs a building permit for new walls or fences taller than 3 feet, for adding height to an existing wall or repairing a damaged one, and for dry stack stone or interlocking block walls over 30 inches. Height is measured from inside the enclosure, from natural grade. A wall 3 feet or less still gets a courtesy site plan review for zoning and easements, and a new wall or footing on a shared property line needs the neighbor's written authorization.^53-54
• Gardena, California needs no building permit for fences up to 6 feet high under the residential code it adopted in March 2026.⁵⁵ Its block wall handout adds that a block wall over 6 feet, or one that retains soil on either side where, in the handout's words, the surcharge is greater than 12 inches, has to be designed by a licensed building professional with structural calculations.⁵⁶

Several codes treat repairs differently from new work: Oregon's needs no permit for masonry repair, Pennsylvania's leaves repairs to homes to local ordinances, and Wisconsin's doesn't cover repairs, as the table says. Whether a rebuild counts as a repair is a question for your building department. Los Angeles, for example, needs a building permit to rebuild an earthquake-damaged masonry chimney, and won't let one be rebuilt in masonry unless it's completely removed, redesigned and built to current code from structural plans and calculations by a licensed engineer or architect.⁵⁷ Ask before the chimney comes down.

For the parts of a chimney and the signs it needs work, see chimney and fireplace repair.

The footing, before concrete. Under Oregon's residential code, for one, work under a permit has to stay accessible and exposed until it's approved. The foundation inspection comes after trenches are dug, forms set and any required reinforcing steel is in place and supported, before concrete is placed. A frame and masonry inspection follows once the masonry and framing are in, and reinforced masonry walls in the state's higher seismic design categories are inspected with their reinforcing steel in place, before grout goes in.³⁹

A block wall, step by step. Gardena's handout spells out what its inspectors check on a block wall: at the foundation inspection, that the footing matches the plan, the excavation is level, square and clean, the rebar is placed and lapped 40 times the bar's diameter, and all steel is 3 inches from any soil; then a grouting inspection at mid-height and another at the final grouting of the upper half; then a final inspection once the wall is complete and cleaned.⁵⁶ Scottsdale's typical wall inspections are the footing, masonry grout, masonry bond beam and a final.⁵⁴

Frost depth. In cold places, codes protect foundations from frost. Connecticut's residential code sets a frost line depth of 42 inches and has foundations and other permanent supports of buildings and structures protected from frost, for instance by going below that line or by sitting on solid rock, and footings may not bear on frozen soil unless it's permanently frozen.¹ Rhode Island's sets 40 inches.⁴² Oklahoma's rules leave it to each jurisdiction to fill in the minimum footing depth below finished grade.³⁷ Your building department knows the depth where you are.

Fireplaces. Some states add their own fireplace rules. Washington's code, for example, has a masonry fireplace fitted with a metal damper at least 8 inches above the top of the opening, worked from the room, an outside combustion air duct of at least 6 square inches with its own damper, and, on a site-built fireplace, tight-fitting glass or metal doors, a flue draft fan or another approved way to minimize back-drafting.⁴⁹

Blaine, Minnesota's building department gives these cold weather steps for masonry, which apply when the air has fallen or is expected to fall below 40°F while the work is being protected:⁵⁸

• Use no sand or water with ice in it, and don't lay masonry on frozen units.
• Below 32°F, heat the mortar and keep it between 40°F and 120°F, and heat masonry units that are below 20°F.
• Protect the new work: coverings from 32°F to 40°F, insulated blankets below that, windbreaks from 20°F to 25°F when the wind is over 15 mph, and below 20°F a fully enclosed, heated work area, for 24 to 48 hours depending on the cold.
• Mortar must never freeze, and antifreeze admixtures aren't allowed.

This is a published national range from cost guides. It isn't a quote.

There's no range here for stone walls, steps, posts or a chimney rebuild. Have your job priced as it'll be built, footing, height and permit included.

• Whether the job needs a permit where you live, who pulls it, and who books the inspections.
• How tall the wall or fence will be, measured the way your building department measures it, and whether zoning limits its height or where it sits.
• How deep the footing goes, whether it reaches below the frost line, and what it sits on.
• Where the reinforcing steel goes and when the wall is grouted, if it's block.
• For a wall on or near the property line, whether your neighbor needs to sign off, and whether a survey is worth having first.
• For a chimney, whether it's a repair or a rebuild under your local rules, and whether it'll be rebuilt in masonry or with a factory-built chimney.
• In cold weather, how the materials and the new work will be kept from freezing.

Before you hire, how to check a masonry contractor has what to look up. If you'd like to hear from masonry contractors near you, you can send a request through the request form.