Mortar matching comes with the repair
The crew that lifts a chimney or porch column also matches the mortar on brick laid in the 1930s or 1950s.
Foundation and Leaning Chimney Repair in Brookhaven, GA
Brick chimneys tip off Brookhaven's pre-war houses and crawl space piers give out under its mid-century floors, and Anglin's fixes both, even when water from a regraded infill lot next door is part of the trouble.
Nearly a century of housing
Foundation repair for Brookhaven's pre-war brick, 1950s crawl spaces and leaning chimneys
Anglin's handles foundation repair in Brookhaven for houses whose ages span nearly a century. About one in five homes here predates 1970, from Historic Brookhaven's Depression-era brick to mid-century houses. Those older houses are where chimneys lean and crawl space piers sink, and our crews fix the structure and the brick together.
A free estimate on your house begins with a call to 770-422-2924, and the person who comes out is family or a crew leader who builds these repairs. Most jobs are done in one day.
Between the bedrooms
A rolling floor in a 1950s Brookhaven ranch
You noticed it in the hallway first. The floor dips between the bedrooms, enough that the door to one of them has quit latching without a lift on the knob. It gets worse in spring, when the ground stays wet longer.
Under a house like yours there is a crawl space with brick piers holding up the joists. Those piers have been standing on damp ground since the Eisenhower years, and the ones down the middle carry the most weight with the least air moving around them. A floor like that can be brought back up once you know what is holding it.
Bricklayers before pier crews
What old Brookhaven houses get from a bricklaying family
Anglin's began as a bricklaying business in 1930, and four generations later the family still runs it out of Marietta.
Two piers, not five
Masons know how old brickwork ties together, so a chimney others bid at four or five piers often comes back with two and a lateral push.
Old cracks sorted from moving ones
A pre-war house has cracks that stopped long ago, and we say which ones need work.
Pier depth never changes the price
Firm bearing under filled ground can sit deeper than expected, and unlimited pier depth costs nothing extra.
Fill, creek slopes and damp piers
What moves Brookhaven foundations: fill, slopes and crawl spaces
USDA soil samples across Brookhaven show Cecil, Appling and Pacolet soils mixed with "Urban land," ground that has been graded, cut, filled or paved. The subsoil around Historic Brookhaven runs about half clay, yet rates low for shrink-swell, so settling here traces back to fill, slope and water.
Worn-out brick crawl space piers
Many 1930s to 1950s houses rest on brick crawl space piers that decades of damp ground wear down. We replace failing piers with steel supports during crawl space repair and bring the floor up from below.
Hillside basements above the creeks
Through the creek-cut middle of the city, Pacolet soils sit on 10 to 25% slopes above Nancy Creek and the North Fork of Peachtree Creek.
- Basements there often sit high in front and low in back, with the uphill wall carrying the soil load.
- A settling corner on that ground gets steel push piers driven to load-bearing strata, however far down that is.
When the lot next door gets regraded
When an infill lot gets regraded for a new house, water that used to cross it can find a path toward the older house next door.
What owners describe
- "Crawl space that has sagging floors and needs some new support beams added"
- "Columns are now separating from the framing"
- "Uneven flooring throughout the house"
Our foundation repair page covers each step of a pier install.
Solid brick on one footing
Why Brookhaven's old brick chimneys lean
A 1930s to 1950s masonry chimney is solid brick with clay flue liners and a real firebox. All that weight rests on one footing at the outside wall, so the chimney is often where ground movement shows first. When water softens the soil under that footing, the chimney tips away from the house from top to bottom. Callers describe a "leaning brick chimney that is pulling away from home."
Why piers alone won't straighten it
Steel piers under the footing stop the settling, but they won't pull a chimney back against the house by themselves.
- We lift at the footing while lateral push poles anchored out in the yard ease the chimney back in.
- Brick anchors take over for the snapped wall ties and keep the chimney tight to the house.
Keeping the original brick
Some contractors bid a teardown to the roofline and a rebuild, which leaves new brick sitting on top of 80-year-old brick. Straightening keeps the original chimney, and our masons match and age the mortar in the joints the move loosened.
Read how our leaning chimney repair process works, from the footing to the mortar.
More ways we can help
Brookhaven porch columns, brick steps and old walls
Pre-war and mid-century houses here tend to need these repairs alongside the foundation and chimney.
Porch column repair
Brick columns on older front porches that drop at one end get stabilized with piers before the beam above sags further.
Sinking steps and stoops
Brick front steps sinking away from a 1950s ranch are lifted and stabilized with push piers.
Retaining wall repair
Walls holding back the Pacolet slopes above Nancy Creek get piers or tieback anchors once they start to lean.
Brick wall repair
Old brick pulling off a wall gets pinned back rather than replaced, since matching brick this old is close to impossible.
Platted 1910, incorporated 2012
Historic Brookhaven, Lynwood Park and the infill between
Brookhaven became a city in 2012, but many of its neighborhoods are 60 to 100 years older than that. The 1950s alone left more houses standing here than the 1960s did.
Where the oldest brick sits
Historic Brookhaven was platted in 1910, and most of its houses were built from the Depression through the early 1940s. The district joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, covering about 300 acres and 202 contributing buildings, with part of it crossing into Fulton County.
- Lynwood Park: north of Windsor Parkway, dating to the early 1930s as the first predominantly Black subdivision in DeKalb County.
- Ashford Park, Drew Valley and Brookhaven Fields: older houses mixed with new infill.
Around Murphey Candler and Silver Lake
An established neighborhood surrounds county-owned Murphey Candler Lake in north Brookhaven, and privately owned Silver Lake also sits inside the city.
- USDA samples near Murphey Candler show eroded Madison sandy clay loam, ground that has already lost much of its topsoil.
- Lower yards near Nancy Creek and the North Fork of Peachtree Creek stay wet long after a storm passes.
Creek levels and district history
- NOAA gauge, North Fork Peachtree Creek at Buford Highway: current creek levels and flood stage.
- Historic Brookhaven Neighborhood Association history: how the 1910 plat grew into the district.
Two piers and push poles
What straightening a pre-war brick chimney usually involves
On a solid masonry chimney like the ones on the city's older houses, the job starts with digging at the footing along the outside wall. Often two steel piers carry the load while push poles bring the chimney back, and loosened joints get repointed with matched mortar the same day.
Customer Reviews
The work matters.
So does your word.
Hear from homeowners about the repair, the crew, and the finished work.
★★★★★
“The job was done quickly and the work was high quality. We were happy that they fixed the chimney as well as they did. We no longer have to worry about it falling, and it looks better than it ever has.”
Daniel T.
Chimney repaired
Caps, creek lots and sagging floors
Chimney, crawl space and creek-lot questions in Brookhaven
Honest answers before you make a decision.
Still have QuestionsBefore the lean gets worse
Put a straight chimney back on your Brookhaven house
A leaning chimney rarely stops on its own, and a floor that keeps settling can need more support later. The office picks up at 770-422-2924 from 8 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Saturday, and a live answering service takes messages after hours.
Book a free chimney estimate