Expert Masonry Contractor in Ames - Stone Work Built for Story County Winters

Ames sits on glacially deposited soils with a high clay content - the kind that holds water and expands when wet, then shrinks and cracks when dry. That movement is relentless and happens beneath every yard, driveway, and foundation in Story County. For homeowners, it shows up as cracked concrete flatwork, shifting retaining walls, and basement walls that develop new hairline cracks each spring. A masonry contractor working in Ames needs to account for this soil behavior in every base preparation and drainage decision, not just focus on the surface repair.

The city's housing stock adds another layer of context. Older homes near the Iowa State campus - in the Near Northside and College Creek areas - were built primarily between the 1920s and 1960s, meaning they are old enough to have original mortar and masonry features that have never been professionally serviced. On the other end of the spectrum, newer subdivisions on Ames's south and west sides - Stone Brooke, Somerset, and surrounding areas - are now 20 to 30 years old. Those homes are hitting the age where concrete driveways and walkways need their first major attention, and where any drainage design flaws in the original construction start showing consequences. Managing both eras of housing in the same city requires a contractor who knows what each one actually needs.

Ames is a mid-size city of about 66,000 people in Story County, roughly 30 miles north of Des Moines on I-35. Iowa State University - with approximately 27,000 students and thousands more faculty and staff - is the dominant economic and social force in the city, and it shapes the housing stock in ways that matter to anyone doing home maintenance work here. The neighborhoods closest to campus skew toward older, denser housing, while the south and west sides of the city have seen significant residential development since the 1990s. As a homeowner in Ames, you are in a smaller group relative to the city's overall population, and the property you own tends to fall into one of two very different eras.

The Near Northside and College Creek neighborhoods contain homes built primarily between the 1920s and 1960s - wood-frame construction with occasional brick exteriors, block basements, and stone steps or landscape features that are now decades past their last professional masonry attention. On the south side, areas like Stone Brooke and Somerset were built out primarily in the 1990s and 2000s, and those homes are now hitting the 20-30 year mark where concrete driveways, walkways, and flatwork need their first serious repair. The USDA also runs significant research facilities in Ames, contributing to a stable, long-term homeowning population that treats maintenance as an investment. Homeowners considering masonry work in neighboring Boone or Marshalltown to the east will find that we serve those communities as well.