What masonry work costs in Murfreesboro and Rutherford County
Masonry cost in this county has always been a phone-quote mystery: every site says “it depends” and asks for your number. Here is the table we quote from. The invoice matches it, and when a job will land outside a range, you hear that before a trowel comes off the truck.
The price table
| Job | Typical price | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Tuckpointing / repointing | $8 to $15 per sq ft | Wall height, joint depth, mortar match; two-story adds staging |
| Historic lime-mortar repointing | $15 to $25 per sq ft | Hand raking, custom-batched lime mortar, sample panels |
| Small brick repair (steps, loose brick) | $400 to $900 | Access, brick match, footing condition |
| Steel lintel replacement | $500 to $1,200 per opening | Span width, courses above, brick salvageability |
| Chimney crown and cap | $400 to $900 | Crown size, cap material, roof pitch |
| Chimney stack repointing | $600 to $1,500 | Height above roofline, staging, mortar exposure |
| Chimney rebuild above roofline | $2,000 to $4,000 | Stack height, brick reuse, liner condition |
| Brick mailbox, rebuild to spec | $1,100 to $1,800 | Brick match, footing reuse, HOA design details |
| Brick mailbox, new custom | $1,800 to $3,000 | Stone caps, address blocks, twin units |
| Retaining wall | $30 to $60 per sq ft of face | Block vs stone, drainage detail, engineering over 4 ft |
| Entry columns (pair, with caps) | $2,400 to $4,000 | Height, stone facing, lighting or gate hardware |
| Stone veneer install | $18 to $35 per sq ft | Natural vs manufactured, wall prep, corners and returns |
| Outdoor fireplace | $8,000 to $15,000 | Height, facing stone, real firebox vs insert wrap |
| Mobilization outside Rutherford County | $75 to $150 | Stated on the quote; Woodbury and Nolensville days are batched |
Ranges reflect our 2026 job pricing for Rutherford County. For outside context, HomeGuide puts national repointing at $3 to $25 per square foot depending on access and mortar, and Thumbtack reports a national chimney-repair median around $850. Our numbers sit inside both bands.
How a quote turns into an invoice
- You describe the wall. A call or the form with what you are seeing: washed-out joints, a crack, a leaning stack, a flattened mailbox. Texted photos tighten the number fast.
- We quote from this table. Standard repairs get a flat number inside the published range. Unusual work gets an honest hours-and-materials estimate with the range stated.
- Mortar and brick get matched first. Test batches tinted against a cleaned joint, brick pulled from salvage or close-production runs, and a sample held against your wall before the full job. On pre-war brick we batch lime mortar; hard modern mix on soft brick destroys it.
- The work, cleanly. Joints ground to proper depth, courses relaid plumb, drainage detail behind every wall we build, and the site left broom-clean.
- Invoice matches the quote. The only way a number moves is something we flagged in writing before starting, like hidden lintel damage behind a veneer crack.
What actually drives masonry cost here
Three local factors set most of the variance. First, wall age: 1990s production veneer repoints fast because the joints fail uniformly, while pre-war structural brick in Eagleville or on the Woodbury square takes hand raking and custom lime mortar, which is why it carries its own line in the table. Second, water: Middle Tennessee freeze-thaw is what turns a $600 crown repair into a $3,000 chimney rebuild, so timing matters more than negotiating. Third, access: two-story gables and steep roofs add staging time that single-story ranches never see.
On permits and licensing: Tennessee requires a contractor license for projects at $25,000 and over, per the TN Board for Licensing Contractors, which means nearly all residential masonry repair sits under the threshold. Retaining walls over four feet should be engineered regardless of any threshold; that is physics, not paperwork. For cost sanity-checking we also point customers at HomeGuide’s repointing cost data and Thumbtack’s chimney repair figures. Compare us to the national numbers; that is what they are for.
Get your number
Call (615) 558-8640 with what the wall is doing, or use the quote form. Repair specifics live on the brick repair page; mailbox pricing detail is on the mailbox page.
Cost questions, answered straight
How much does tuckpointing cost in Murfreesboro?
Tuckpointing in the Murfreesboro area runs $8 to $15 per square foot of wall face for standard work, and $15 to $25 for historic lime-mortar restoration. A typical single-wall repoint on a 1990s veneer home lands between $700 and $2,500. National guides from HomeGuide and Angi show similar per-square-foot bands, and our published table is what we actually invoice from.
What does brick repair cost for common problems?
Small repairs like loose bricks on steps or a spalled patch start around $400. A rusted lintel with stair-step cracking above it runs $500 to $1,200 per opening. Chimney work starts around $400 for a crown and cap and reaches $2,000 to $4,000 for a rebuild above the roofline. Every line is in the table on this page.
Why does nobody else publish masonry prices?
Habit, and the fear that a printed number invites comparison. It does, and we welcome it: repair work in this county is predictable enough to price honestly in ranges, and the quote states anything that would push a job outside its range before we start. If a bidder will not name a range for standard work, ask why.
Murfreesboro Masonry Co. publishes this table for the whole service area, from La Vergne and Smyrna down to Woodbury. Start at the homepage for everything the crews do.