Brick and Stone Mailbox Repair
Brick and stone mailbox repair is priced in writing from your photos, with a $149 minimum visit and labor at $85 an hour after the first hour. Small repairs, such as a few loose bricks, a cracked cap joint or a new insert door, usually fit inside one visit. A column that has been knocked over is a rebuild and gets its own quote.
Starting at $149What Is Included
- Loose or shifted bricks and stones reset in fresh mortar
- Cracked and missing mortar joints cleaned out and refilled
- Caps reset and the top joint sealed so water stays out of the column
- Rusted metal inserts and doors replaced with a matching size
- House number plaques and numbers replaced or added
- Before and after photos in your job report
What Is Not
- A perfect color match on old mortar. New mortar starts lighter and weathers in.
- New brick or stone mailboxes along a state highway, where the Oklahoma Department of Transportation does not allow rigid supports
- Wiring for a lit mailbox. That is electrical work, and we will refer you to a licensed electrician.
- Footing or foundation work under a column that has sunk or tipped. That points to the ground, not the brick.
Pricing
Brick Mailbox Repair Prices
| Job | Price |
|---|---|
| Hourly labor, for anything outside a flat rate | $85/hr |
| Minimum visit, covers the first hour | $149 |
Standard conditions. Materials extra unless noted. Your final price is confirmed in writing before any work starts.
Materials are billed at cost plus 20%, or you can supply them. See the full handyman price list.
Where brick mailboxes fail
A brick or stone mailbox is a small masonry column, and it has the same weak points as a chimney: the top and the joints.
The cap is first. When the joint under the cap opens up, rain runs down inside the column. In winter that water freezes, pushes the bricks apart, and the cracks you see on the face are the result. Resealing a cap early is the cheapest repair on this page.
Mortar joints are next. Mortar is meant to be softer than the brick, so it wears first. Joints that have washed back, or that crumble when you scrape them, can be cleaned out and refilled before the bricks start to move.
The insert is last. The metal box inside the opening rusts at the floor and the hinge, and the door stops closing. Carriers will keep delivering to a box with a bad door for a while, but wet mail is the usual sign that it is time.
What a repair looks like
We take out what is loose and nothing more. Bricks that still ring solid stay where they are. Loose ones come out, the old mortar is knocked off, and they go back in a full bed of fresh mortar. Open joints are raked back to sound material and refilled, then tooled to match the joints around them.
If the insert is being replaced, the new one is set so the door sits at the height the Postal Service publishes for curbside boxes: 41 to 45 inches from the road surface to the bottom of the box or the point of mail entry. An older column that has settled can end up outside that range, and we will tell you if yours has.
Be honest about rigid mailboxes
A brick column does not move when a car hits it. The Postal Service’s mailbox guidance says the best supports are stable but bend or fall away if a car hits them, and it advises against unyielding supports. Along state highways, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s brochure Is my mailbox legal? lists stone and brick structures among the supports that are not permitted.
Plenty of neighborhoods are built with brick mailboxes anyway, and some homeowner associations require them. So here is how we handle it. We repair existing brick and stone mailboxes on neighborhood streets. We will not build a new one on a state highway. And before any rebuild, we give you the price of a post-mount box next to it, so you can choose with both numbers in hand. If your association has rules about mailbox style, check them before you decide.
The process
How A Brick Mailbox Repair Job Goes
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Photos of every side
Text photos of all four sides, the cap and the inside of the insert. Cracks on the back matter as much as the ones facing the street.
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Repair or rebuild, in writing
We tell you which one it is and price it before booking. If a rebuild costs more than a post-mount box, we say so and price both.
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Mortar work
Loose units come out, old mortar is cleaned off, and they go back in fresh mortar. Joints are tooled to match the rest of the column.
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Cure and photos
Fresh mortar needs time before anyone leans on it. We tell you how long to leave it alone and send the finished photos.
Questions
Brick Mailbox Repair Questions
How much does brick mailbox repair cost in the OKC metro?
It depends on how much brick has moved. A handful of loose bricks or a cap that needs resealing usually fits the $149 minimum visit plus a small amount of mortar. A column with cracks running through several courses takes longer, at $85 an hour. A full rebuild is quoted on its own.
Can you replace just the metal mailbox inside the brick?
Often, yes. The insert is a standard metal box mortared into the opening. If we can measure the opening and find an insert that fits, the old one comes out and the new one is set and sealed. Send a photo of the inside and the width, height and depth of the opening.
Will the new mortar match the old?
Not on day one. Fresh mortar is lighter and cleaner than mortar that has sat in the weather, and it darkens over the following months. We match the joint width and the tooling so the repair reads as part of the column. On a prominent face we can talk about tinted mortar before we start.
A car knocked my brick mailbox down. Can it be rebuilt?
It can, and it is a bigger job than a repair, because the footing has to be checked and the column laid up again from the ground. Before you pay for that, ask us to price a post-mount box as well. The Postal Service advises supports that give way when struck, and a post is far cheaper to replace next time.
Where we work
Brick Mailbox Repair Across The West Metro
No trip fee in Yukon, Piedmont, Mustang, Bethany or northwest Oklahoma City. Edmond, Deer Creek and the rest of Oklahoma City add a $25 trip fee.
Related services
Often Booked Together
Mailbox Installation
Post mailboxes replaced and set to USPS height, brick and stone mailboxes repaired, and cluster boxes installed for HOAs.
Starting at $249Mailbox Post Replacement
A rotted, leaning or hit mailbox post pulled out and replaced, set in concrete at the right height.
Starting at $249Exterior Repairs
Soft deck boards, loose siding and rotted soffit or fascia cut out and replaced, so small outside problems stay small.
Starting at $149
Call the Bauss.
Need Brick Mailbox Repair?
We text you a firm quote within 4 hours during business hours. Faster still: text photos of the job.