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.