Chelsea Building

Parapet, brick, concrete and sealant repairs on the Chelsea Building, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Fix the top of the wall first. A failed parapet lets water into everything below it.

Client:

Design Professional

General Contractor

The Chelsea Building at 525 Valor Way SW is a historic building in downtown Cedar Rapids. By the time we got there, the top of the wall was in rough shape: the parapet coping had failed, mortar joints had opened up, and plants were growing out of the masonry.

A plant in a mortar joint means the joint has opened far enough to hold soil and water. A parapet takes weather on both faces and across the top, so it's usually the first part of a masonry wall to fail, and once it does, water runs down into everything below it.

We repaired the parapet, replaced deteriorated brick, made concrete repairs and stucco repairs, and replaced the failed sealants to close the building back up. Fixing the top of the wall first is what protects the rest of it.

This is the kind of work we do on commercial and residential buildings in Cedar Rapids: parapet repair, brick replacement, concrete repair and sealant replacement.