Brick
Veneer course, new construction
A full elevation of brick veneer carried around a new build. Coursing stays level across the whole face, which is the part you only notice when it is wrong.
Pittsburgh and the North Hills
Brick, block, stone and chimney work that holds through a western PA winter
M. Zokaites Masonry is a small crew out of the North Hills. Mike Zokaites started as a bricklayer and still works on the jobs, which is why the person who prices your chimney is usually the person who answers the phone.
The archive
Work we can point at
Chimneys, foundations, block and stone across Allegheny County. Scroll sideways through it the way you would walk a finished elevation.
Chimney
Chimney, rebuilt above the roofline
Everything above the roofline taken down and rebuilt. Crown, cap and flashing go back as one system, because water that gets past any of the three ends up in the same place.
Foundation
Underpinning, load carried
Jack posts holding the structure while the footings are opened and rebuilt underneath. Nothing about this stage photographs well, and it is the stage the whole repair rests on.
Block
Block, room addition
Reinforced CMU going up on an addition. Block is unglamorous and it is most of what holds western Pennsylvania houses together below grade.
Stone
Stone veneer, full elevation
Scaffold up, stone going on across the whole front. Veneer work is slow because every stone is chosen against the ones already set, not pulled off the pallet in order.
Stone
Garage gable, finished
The same job at the garage end. This is what the veneer looks like once the scaffold comes down and the joints have been struck and cleaned.
Detail
Rebar set, mortar fresh
Reinforcement going into the bed while the mortar is still green. Steel and drainage are the two things that decide whether masonry lasts thirty years or three.
What the crew does
Four kinds of masonry, and the winter work
Most of what we are called for is one of these four. Every one of them starts the same way, with Mike on site looking at the actual joint rather than pricing it off a photograph.
01
Chimney Services
Repair, rebuilding, annual inspections and flue liners. Most chimneys we are called to have taken water through failed mortar for years before anyone noticed the crown had gone.
Chimney repair, rebuilding and liners02
Foundation Repair
Underpinning, block work, parging and the drainage that keeps the repair standing. The crack pattern tells us most of what we need before anything comes out of the ground.
Foundation repair and underpinning03
Retaining Walls
Reinforced concrete block systems including Versa-Lok, and natural or manufactured stone laid dry stacked or mortared. The half of a wall nobody sees is the half that decides whether it holds.
Block and stone retaining walls
04
Pointing and Restoration
Brick pointing, tuck pointing and lintel repair, with colour and joint profile matched to what is already there. On an older house a patch that does not match is worse than the crack it replaced.
Pointing, lintels and restorationWhen the mortar stops
Commercial snow removal
Masonry slows down when the ground freezes, so the same crew clears commercial properties through the winter. A site walk before the first storm sets the access priorities and the clearing sequence, so nobody is working out the order of a lot at four in the morning.
This is commercial only. We do not plow residential driveways, and we would rather say so here than take the call and disappoint you in January.
What people actually said
Two jobs, in their own words
A chimney that collapsed
“Zikaites crew did great work on my chimney which collapsed. Mike Z. kept in contact with me with the progress during the process. Well done guys.”
A chimney re-point
“They actually answered when calling for a quote for re-pointing our chimney, which wasn’t the case for others in the area. Mike came over to do a quote shortly thereafter and it was reasonably priced for the amount of work to be done.”
Across 33 reviews on Google, M. Zokaites Masonry holds 5.0out of 5. That is the whole of the rating claim on this site, and it is Google’s number rather than ours.
5.0on GoogleBefore you call
The questions we get on the phone
Estimates are free and done on site, usually within about two weeks. If your question is not here, Mike would rather you rang and asked.
- Fully licensed and insured, PA contractor licence PA121063
- Colour and brick matching on repairs to older structures
- Residential and commercial, new construction and restoration
- Mon to Fri, 9am to 5pm
Estimates are free and done on site, usually within about two weeks of your call. Mike looks at the work himself rather than pricing it off a photo, because on masonry the difference between a repoint and a rebuild is something you have to get up close to.
Both, and the call is made after we look at it. Plenty of chimneys only need the crown repaired and the joints tuckpointed. Others have taken enough water through failed mortar that everything above the roofline has to come down and go back up. We tell you which one you have.
Clay tile, metal and stainless, and cast in place. Which one suits your chimney depends on the appliance venting into it and the condition of the existing flue.
Once a year. An inspection covers the crown, cap, flashing, the masonry and mortar joints, the flue liner, the damper and the firebox, so problems get found while they are still small enough to repoint.
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. Colour and brick matching on repairs to older structures is one of the things we are asked for most, because a patch that does not match is worse than the crack it replaced.
No. Snow removal here is commercial only, for commercial properties in and around Pittsburgh. We do not plow driveways.
Yes. Fully licensed and insured, PA contractor licence PA121063.
Yes. Office buildings, retail and industrial work alongside residential, both new construction and restoration.
22towns across Pittsburgh and the North Hills, from Sewickley to Valencia.
See the full list
See the full list
Pittsburgh and the North Hills
Send us a photograph, then let Mike come and look at it properly
A picture tells us whether it is worth a visit. It does not tell us whether you need a repoint or a rebuild, and pretending otherwise is how people end up paying twice. Estimates are free, on site, and usually inside a fortnight.
Serving Pittsburgh, Allison Park, Bellevue, Coraopolis, Crafton, Economy, Fox Chapel, Franklin Park and the rest of the North Hills. Reviews quoted on this page were left on Google by 5 of 33 customers.