Top-Rated Masonry Contractor in Pullman WA - Ready for Palouse Winters

Pullman sits at about 2,500 feet elevation in the Palouse hills - one of the higher elevations for an eastern Washington city - and that altitude means winters are consistently colder and snowier than most of the region. The city averages 40 to 50 inches of snowfall per year, and that snow sits on chimneys, exposed brickwork, and concrete surfaces for weeks before melting. When snowmelt soaks into any open mortar joint or concrete crack and then refreezes overnight, it expands the gap a little more. This cycle repeats dozens of times over a Pullman winter, and by the time a homeowner notices visible damage, the underlying deterioration is usually several seasons old.

The Palouse terrain adds a second layer of complexity. Pullman is built across ridges and valleys, and many residential lots are sloped enough that drainage and grading affect masonry performance over time. Water from snowmelt does not always go where it should - it collects against foundations, undermines retaining wall footings, and saturates soil that then shifts as it dries in summer. Older homes near the WSU campus were often built with minimal foundation depth by today's standards, and those properties are most at risk from cumulative freeze-thaw stress. The City of Pullman Building Division handles residential permit applications for structural masonry work.

Pullman is a city of about 34,000 people in Whitman County, tucked into the Palouse hills right on the Idaho border. Washington State University sits at the heart of the city, enrolling around 20,000 students and shaping the character of every neighborhood within walking distance of campus. Homes near the university tend to be older - many built in the 1920s through 1960s - and a large share have been converted to rentals over the decades. The south and west sides of Pullman, by contrast, have seen residential growth since the 1980s and contain the city's most consistent stock of owner-occupied single-family homes. Pullman sits in the heart of the Palouse, a region known across the Pacific Northwest for its dramatic rolling wheat fields.

The terrain in Pullman is unusually varied for a city its size - streets and lots follow the contours of the Palouse ridges and valleys, which means properties on different sides of the city face very different drainage, grading, and foundation conditions. Cougar football games at Martin Stadium draw tens of thousands of fans each fall and are the biggest recurring event in the city calendar. We serve homeowners throughout Pullman and in the nearby communities of Moscow, ID and Spokane.