Onondaga County
Masonry Contractors in Cicero: The Build Decade Decides
Cicero is the one town in this metro where the advice you find online was written for roughly the right house, which is worth knowing before you pay for anything. Its median build year is 1980, the newest in the county and the same as the national figure, and yet 26.6 percent of the town still predates 1960.
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Why the decade is the first question in Cicero
Onondaga County's housing is about sixteen years older at the median than the country's, 1964 against 1980, with nearly double the national pre-1940 share, which is why general advice written for a median 1980 house is systematically wrong here in the one direction that matters. Cicero is the exception. Its 13,584 units have a median build year of 1980, the newest in the county and the same figure as the national median, so this is the one town in the metro where the first thing a homeowner reads online was written for roughly the right vintage of wall. It cuts both ways though. Some 26.6 percent of Cicero still predates 1960 while only 6.9 percent predates 1940, so the older part of this town is mid-century rather than Victorian and 19.7 percent of it falls in the 1940 to 1959 steel lintel window. Two populations, and the build decade decides which inspection is worth paying for: a 1950s house wants the tops of its openings read, and a 1990s house wants the flashing and the drainage checked. On the newer stock the code point worth knowing is that flashing over a lintel is not a contractor being generous, it is required at that location, along with window and door openings, chimney to wall intersections and the ends of masonry sills. So the question for any opening repair is what goes over the new steel and where the water leaves. The Town of Cicero runs its own code enforcement program and writes its own repair exemption, so whether repointing needs a permit is answered at the town office rather than by a neighbor in the next village.
Do you know when the house was built?
Send the address and the decade if you have it. In Cicero that single number changes what gets looked at first.
Jobs we cover on Cicero's older and newer halves
Repointing and Mortar Joint Repair
Find out whether crumbling or missing mortar needs the joints raked out and refilled, and which mortar type belongs on the brick you actually have.
Repointing in Cicero →Chimney Repair and Rebuilding
Work out whether a chimney needs its crown and top courses rebuilt, a rebuild from the roofline, or work at the footing, and what the state code requires either way.
Chimney Repair in Cicero →Lintel Repair and Opening Repairs
Tell a rusting steel lintel apart from settlement, so the crack above your window, door or garage opening gets the trade it actually needs.
Lintel Repair in Cicero →Brick and Stone Replacement
Understand why brick faces are flaking or popping off, which units have to be cut out and replaced, and what has to change so the new ones do not go the same way.
Brick Replacement in Cicero →Retaining Walls, Steps and Foundation Masonry
Establish whether a leaning retaining wall, crumbling brick steps or a failing block or stone foundation wall needs rebuilding, and what has to change underneath so it stays put.
Retaining Walls and Steps in Cicero →Median 1980 in a county that averages 1964
The Town of Clay has 26,282 housing units, the largest count of any town in Onondaga County, with a median year of construction of 1978. Only 3.2 percent were built in 1939 or earlier and only 16.0 percent in 1959 or earlier, the lowest figures in the county. The Radisson census place inside Clay has a median of 1990 and a pre-1940 share of 4.2 percent. The Town of Cicero has 13,584 units, a median of 1980, a pre-1940 share of 6.9 percent and a pre-1960 share of 26.6 percent.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B25034 Year Structure Built and table B25035 Median Year Structure Built, accessed 2026-09-10
Onondaga County as a whole has 212,002 housing units with a median year of construction of 1964. Of those, 22.6 percent were built in 1939 or earlier, 44.6 percent in 1959 or earlier and 69.9 percent before 1980. The comparable national figures are a median of 1980, with 11.7 percent built in 1939 or earlier, 25.6 percent in 1959 or earlier and 49.7 percent before 1980.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B25034 Year Structure Built and table B25035 Median Year Structure Built, accessed 2026-09-10
Section R703.8.5 of the Residential Code of New York State requires that flashing be located beneath the first course of masonry above finished ground level above the foundation wall or slab, and at other points of support including structural floors, shelf angles and lintels, where masonry veneers are designed in accordance with Section R703.8. Section R703.4 additionally requires approved corrosion-resistant flashing, applied shingle fashion to prevent water entering the wall cavity or reaching the structural framing, at exterior window and door openings, at the intersection of chimneys or other masonry construction with frame or stucco walls, under and at the ends of masonry, wood or metal copings and sills, at wall and roof intersections and at built-in gutters.
Source: 2020 Residential Code of New York State, Section R703, Exterior Covering, via UpCodes, accessed 2026-09-10
Get your Cicero wall matched to its era
Cracked joints, a stained window head, a chimney losing brick: describe it with an address and there is no obligation.