Masonry Contractor in Bermuda Dunes, CA - Repairs That Blend In

The Riverside County Building and Safety Department issues building permits in Bermuda Dunes, because it's an unincorporated community with no city building office of its own. Its permits cover building, enlarging, altering, repairing or demolishing a structure. If your job needs one, I'll tell you at the estimate, and we work it out with the county and pull it ourselves.

A block wall over 4 feet tall needs a permit under the county's ordinance text, which exempts fences up to 7 feet but not block walls over 4 feet. The same text exempts retaining walls up to 4 feet, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, unless the wall carries extra weight such as a slope or a driveway, or holds back water or other liquids. The building department keeps the list that's in force now, so I check your wall with them and tell you at the estimate.

A contractor needs a license from the California Contractors State License Board when the job needs a building permit, uses any other workers, or totals $1,000 or more in labor and materials. Breaking a bigger job into pieces under $1,000 to get around that isn't allowed. In Bermuda Dunes, contractors also file a Business Stormwater Registration with Riverside County, since the county doesn't run a business license program. We're licensed and insured, and I'm glad to answer any question about it when I come out.

Build it on a footing sized for the wall, with steel bar running up through the block and grout filling the cells around it, because the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults both cross Riverside County. The county expects a good share of its buildings to be affected by earthquakes, so a wall here shouldn't be stacked block alone. That steel and grout is hidden once the wall is up, and it's where I'd rather your money go than into a fancier cap.

You, or a contractor acting for you, get the permits the work should have had from the county, and the work has to meet the codes and county rules in effect when the plans go in, not the ones from when it was built. That can mean opening up or changing part of a wall or slab to bring it up to those rules. If you've found unpermitted work on a house you own or are buying, I'm glad to look at it and tell you what I'd expect.

The cost comes down mostly to how long and tall the wall is or how big the paved area is, how much footing or base it needs, and how easily we can get block and pavers into your yard. Matching old brick or block, adding a cap or a stucco finish, tearing out an old wall first and any county permit all add to it, while a plain wall on open ground with good access keeps it lower. I'll give you a figure for your own job once I've seen it.