Masonry in Lancy: walls, slabs, openings and repairs

Are you looking for a mason in Lancy to open a wall, pour a slab, build a low wall or repair damaged concrete? Masonry in Lancy involves very different buildings: the apartment blocks of Grand-Lancy and Petit-Lancy, villas surrounded by gardens, and properties near parks. Describing your project online lets you pass your request to craftspeople and firms in the region, who will contact you to prepare a free, no-obligation quote.

The most common masonry jobs in Lancy

The trade covers walls, openings in load-bearing and non-load-bearing walls, foundations, slabs, low walls, small extensions, and concrete and stone repairs. In Lancy, these jobs vary according to the type of home.

In an apartment in a building in Grand-Lancy or Petit-Lancy, the most frequent request is opening a wall to connect the kitchen to the living room, or widening a passage. Depending on whether the partition is load-bearing or not, the job is completely different: a light partition can be demolished without calculations, whereas a load-bearing wall requires a civil engineer, temporary support and a supporting beam.

In a villa, you are more likely to see garden and retaining walls, slabs for a patio or a shelter, thresholds, outdoor steps, foundation repairs after a crack, and small extensions: an adjoining room, a conservatory on a slab, a garage being enlarged.

On the common parts of a co-ownership, the work is mostly concrete repair: chipped balconies, a cracked cellar slab, a crumbling garage or courtyard wall, outdoor steps to be redone.

What Lancy changes for a masonry job

Lancy is part of a very urban canton. The built environment is dense in places and opened up by parks in others, and this alternation shapes the work.

• Apartment blocks and access. In a neighbourhood of apartment blocks, work takes place next to neighbours, with shared stairwells, sometimes narrow lifts and working hours to respect. Removing rubble or carrying up bags of mortar is a matter of organisation to settle at the quote stage: protection of circulation areas, skips, parking for a lorry.
• Villas and gardens. Plots with a garden make it easier to bring in a machine or a skip, but a low wall or a slab must take account of trees, roots and rainwater drainage.
• Geneva climate. Winters are mild on the plain and summers are hot in town. For concrete and mortar, this means taking care over curing in hot weather, to avoid drying too quickly and cracking, rather than worrying about lasting frost. Ask the firm how it handles very hot days.
• Stone and heritage. The old towns and protected neighbourhoods of the canton are subject to specific rules. If your building is in a protected area, even a simple facade or wall repair may require a particular procedure. Check this with the commune or the relevant cantonal department before any outdoor work.
• Mobility. Lancy-Pont-Rouge station, on the Léman Express, makes the area very well served. For a job, the main practical consequence is that in a dense area, access and parking for company vehicles need to be planned in advance.

Building permit and property manager’s consent in Lancy

In Geneva, building permits are issued by the canton, through the Office des autorisations de construire. Depending on the scale of the work, a permit may be required: this is often the case for an extension, a change to the structure or work on the facade. For a low wall or a slab, the answer depends on the size and location. The commune or the relevant cantonal department is the point of contact to consult before signing a quote.

If you want to open a load-bearing wall, remember three steps, in this order:

1. a civil engineer studies the structure and calculates the transfer of loads;
2. the permit question is settled with the competent authority;
3. only then can the masonry firm plan the job.

A reputable mason will not offer to cut through a load-bearing wall without this calculation.

The canton has many rental buildings run by property managers (régies), and Lancy is no exception. If you are a tenant, anything affecting the walls or the structure requires the landlord’s written consent: ask for it in advance, with a simple description of the project. In co-ownership, a change to the common parts, such as the facade, a slab or a load-bearing wall, is a matter for the co-owners’ meeting.

If your project also includes energy work, for example insulation fitted during a wall renovation, note that the canton has an energy law (LEn), applied by the cantonal energy office (OCEN), on which the Programme Bâtiments subsidies in Geneva depend. The conditions change: find out before ordering, not afterwards.

Preparing your masonry quote request in Lancy

The more precise your description, the more comparable the quotes will be. Note down:

• the type of home: apartment in a building, villa, common part, and the floor;
• the nature of the work: opening a wall, creating a slab, building a low wall, repairing concrete;
• whether the wall is load-bearing or not, if you know, or whether a plan of the building exists;
• photos of the area concerned, with an object to give the scale;
• access constraints: floor, lift, courtyard, garden, room for a skip;
• the legal situation: tenant, owner, co-owner, and the status of the property manager’s or co-ownership’s consent.

A good masonry quote details the scope, the materials, the demolition and removal of rubble, the protection of neighbouring surfaces, the finishes (plaster, repainting, floors) and what remains at your expense. Check whether the engineer’s involvement and the permit procedures are included, because quotes that look similar may in fact cover very different scopes.

The cost depends mainly on the nature of the wall (load-bearing or not), the difficulty of access, the volume of rubble, the props needed, the materials and the extent of the finishes. For this reason, no reliable figure can be given without a visit: only a quote based on your actual situation is binding. Ask for several quotes and compare them item by item.

When your project is ready, you can request a quote by describing your work: the request is passed to craftspeople and firms in the region, who will contact you.

Useful pages for your project in Lancy

• The trade page: masonry
• The commune page: work in Lancy
• The cantonal context: canton of Geneva
• In the same commune: thermal insulation in Lancy, plumber in Lancy, roofing in Lancy