EDWARD CROSS & SON INC

I'm writing this to encourage Lori (the primary mason/contact at Edward Cross & Son) to improve her communication to (potential) customers.  Her work came highly recommended from neighbors and from our roofer, Kelsey Roofing.  Unfortunately, as others have noted on Angie's List, it was nearly impossible to make contact.  The only number listed here led to a "voice mail box full" message.  After my roofer called me to ask what was holding up the job, I told him about the several failed attempts over a number of days, and about the full mailbox.   He was able to talk to Lori, and I ended up with an estimate in my mailbox. However, I was unable to call and ask questions about the estimate because again the only number on my estimate was the one with a full mailbox.  
Finally, after my roofer gave me Lori's cell phone, I was able to speak with her.  And here's the thing:  she's extremely nice, knowledgeable and her price was fair.  But by then I had obtained 4 other estimates and chosen another company for the work.
I would very much have liked to see my business stay local to Oak Park, but i was unable to do so because of the phone issues. 
Again, I'm not able to judge her work, in fact, from what I can tell, it is to be highly recommended.  I can only speak to my experience of trying to start the job with her, and that was a challenge to say the least.  I'm not one to write negative reviews, but in light of the fact that I did speak with her and did find her to be professional, I thought it would be worth it to try to warn others about the difficulty of reaching her.
Lori:  I really am sincere in writing this so that you may see you are losing business for reasons that are very easy to fix.  Please update your phone information on Angie's List (and on your estimates) to include your cell phone, if that is the best way to reach you! 

All in all it went well. She was a bit late for the first visit, but explained the circumstances. She seemed to know her stuff and explained what the problem was and what needed to be done. It was a professional courtesy to let the insulation company get first dibs on the job required. Once they passed, she handled the job herself quite well. Her charges were more than reasonable .
We will be asking her to come back in the Spring for some caulking work on our garage.

I have used them in the past and they did a great job but getting them to return a call is virtually impossible. The last time I needed tuckpointing I stayed with it. This time, I left several messages and never received a call back so I gave up. It's really too bad because I'd go out of my way to support a woman-run company but I need a call back!

All work was very professionally done. Site was cleaned up. All in all, a fine job.

Crosss and Son rebuild deteriorated brick chimney (using concrete block), installed new chimney cap, flashed at roof and cleaned chimney and boiler flue below. Workmanship was excellent, and contractor cleaned up site afterward. I would definitely use this contractor again in future.

The chimney looks nice. I got cedar blocks instead of brick. Turned out to be a little cheaper and functions fine.

Lori was called by our roofer, Paul Kelsey, when he found the problems with our existing chimney after he removed our old roof (which we knew was a possibility). Lori and her workers were able to come immediately and do the repairs in just two days. The only negative was that we were not told to block our fireplace, and a bunch of soot got on our floor in front of the fireplace. Lori did apologize for this, and it was just a minor cleanup.

Edward Cross and Son did a very good and thorough job on both chimneys. They were very professional, did the job in less than a week and had a very reasonable price. We recommend them.

VERY FRIENDLY. GREAT TO WORK WITH. COMPLETELY SATISFIED WITH THE WORK THEY DID. FINAL PRICE WAS HIGHER THAN ORIGINAL ESTIMATE BECAUSE THE FOUNDATION NEEDED MORE WORK THAN THEY EXPECTED. PERHAPS A MORE THOROUGH INSPECTION OF FOUNDATION WOULD HAVE HELPED THEM PRODUCE A MORE ACCURATE QUOTE.