James Allen Masonry, LLC

Late in September, Mr. Allen came to my house to evaluate the problem with my fireplace. He told me he would get back to me with a proposal and did so, He came back to my house on Oct. 7 to go over the proposal. He told me that he had to order the panels and that it would take about two months for the company to deliver the materials and that he need the full amount ($510.00) up front, because the supplier needed to be paid before the materials could be sent. When I told him that I never paid in full before work was done, having been burned in the past, he agreed to accept partial payment ($400). I found Mr. Allen to be flexible and courteous--I offer this example to demonstrate that he is willing to work with a customer on the subject of payment. He let me know that when the panels came in, he could do the work in a few hours. He was true to his word.

The work was completed on 11/10. I called several times before this date to see what progress had been made in getting the panels. Mr. Allen always returned my calls, although it took several days before I heard from him when I had called. Since I had paid him $400.00 for the materials, I was a little anxious when I didn't hear back from him on the same day that I called, but in the end he proved to be entirely trustworthy, if a little slow to respond to phone calls. I don't hold him responsible in any way for the slowness of his supplier. When he showed up on Nov. 11, around 9 am, he got right to work. By 11 am he was finished. He was careful not to track soot over the floor (the man even removed his shoes at the door--I was impressed!).  He cleaned up the hearth and threw the damaged panels into my trash can for me. I would hire him again and recommend his work strongly.

We're very happy with the end result.  James did a great job.  When we called James about the leftover white residue from the brick work, he returned as promised and cleaned it.  The only major issue was that James would schedule a time with us on both days of work and then arrive 2- 2.5 hours later.

•  Call made to Allen Masonry
•  Voice mail received, message left, call returned within several hours
• Date set for onsite visit made with James Allen, owner of Allen Masonry.
•  Inspection of work site made on designated date. Ideas respectfully shared. Project proposals promised.
• Concise, well defined, easy to read and understand proposals received in a timely manner via email.
• Proposals discussed in detail over the telephone and during onsite visit.  All questions answered in a respectful manner.  All ideas considered and discussed.
• Work and price agreed upon.  Date to start work defined.
• Work started on promised date.  Allen Masonry onsite each and every work day as promised. 
•  Telephone communication as project proceeded was excellent-all calls returned promptly.
•  Clean-up of sight upon completion of project was promised and was done in an extraordinary manner.

 

James Allen said he would come out on a Thursday at 6pm. He never arrived so I called him. He explained that he thought our appt was for Friday. We rescheduled and he came to my house on Saturday. He looked over the project area and said he would email me an estimate. I never heard from him again.  I called after a week and he apologized.  He said he's very busy and he'd provide an estimate by the next day. It's now 2 weeks later and I never heard from him again. This was very unprofessional and now I will look for a new company.

A large tree fell on my house while I was out of town crushing my chimney and then subsequently the chimney pieces placing large holes in my roof.  I had a "friend of a friend" who was a contractor who came and rebuilt my chimney and flue. My home is old and built in 1926, so some of the mortar of the brick porch had begun to erode away. The first contractor also repaired this for  me as well.  The work that was done was horrific. The patching to the mortar on the porch was so terrible it could be seen  from down the street. The color didn't match, it was sloppy. I wish there was a place to upload the before and after pictures. A neighbor of mine recommend James Allen and said he was an excellent mason and has an extensive amount of work in our historic neighborhood Riverside/Avondale in Jacksonville Florida.Which is known for it's southern charm and variety of historic housing styles from bungalows, to dutch colonial revival, to arts & crafts style homes. James promptly arrived and was also shocked at the amount of poor work that had been done and attempted to be passed onto me as appropriate. James worked long hours to complete the job, and if he was ever going to be late or had some other emergency he needed to take care of he always called to let me know. I would say that James went above and beyond in the work he does. He isn't just a professional, but  someone who truly loves the work the does, and gains satisfaction from seeing the completion a job well done. James did a most of the job while I was at work, and I know working outside in this brutal Florida summer heat can be unbearable. I think I had about 5 neighbors call to tell me that they couldn't believe how hard "That Mason Guy" was working, and that he just didn't ever seem to take a break. After the work was done, James had reconstructed the top of my chimney into an arch shape that matches the gables on my 1926 Dutch Colonial Revival home. He also spent days grinding out the bad mortar repair job, and replacing it with a custom color mortar to match the 80+ year old existing mortar. Not only is my chimney beautiful and I get complements on it all the time, but the work on the porch is seamless. It is practically indistinguishable to tell the old from the new, and he was able to replace a few bricks that were too damaged with some of the same historic bricks he happened to have a stash of.  James Allen definitely went above and beyond what was needed and expected, but this is a part of who he is, a hard worker, and a someone who takes great pride in the craftsmanship of masonry. I had some leveling work done to my back yard, and some of my brick pavers were damaged, James came by to take a look and give me an estimate in case the yard people didn't show up to repair it (which was looking pretty likely).  James came by and gave me an estimate, and I told him I will keep him posted, well the yard people came and repaired it and did a decent job. I referred this information to James, and he just stopped by one day on his way home from work just to make sure it was done right. Since James Allen had reconstructed the top of my chimney and repaired my porch, and after my neighbors saw the work he had done, He has worked on 4 other chimney's on my street alone! Jobs from reconstruction, to removing old brick that was placed over a beautiful original coquina chimney. James' work is true craftsmanship. A great asset to our community, and leads his life professional and personal with much integrity.

There seems nowadays to be very few professionals that you can count on to do quality work and deliver what they say they are going to do in a timely fashion.  I am glad to state that Mr. Allen was a professional from the beginning to the end of the recent project at our home.   He appeared when he promised and worked long hours.  Mr. Allen did not leave our project until it was completed.  We have lived in our house for over 30 years and over those years we have had our share of contractors performing work on our house.  I have to put Mr. Allen in the top 5% category of quality of work performed.  I plan to hire him to do additional work in the not so distant future.  If you hire him. you will not be disappointed.  This man takes pride in his work.

Good as old? You cannot tell that we had the wall replaced - it blends perfectly with the original brick work. While he was there, we also contracted with James to do a brick cove cover on our fireplace chimney - it looks amazing and he restored some of the damaged brick/mortar around the top of the chimney