The Rock Pirate

When the rock walls behind our stand-alone fireplace began to collapse, we were not sure where to turn. From my first phone conversation with Ricki the Rock Pirate, I believed we were in good hands. During his visit to inspect the site and give us an estimate, he explained why the walls were failing (the original homeowner skipped a key step during installation) and gave us a thorough overview of how he would complete the project in two days. Ricki kept his promise, tearing out the old walls on day one and constructing the new ones on day two. We were absolutely thrilled with the results. We would recommend Ricki to anyone who needs masonry work done.

My cinder block retaining wall is about 5' hi by about 10' wide, before it makes a turn. This wall had a drain through it that didn't extend out far enough from the wall - therefore water dripped down the wall below the drain and eventually ate away at the blocks. In addition, there were cracks in the wall near and around the corner where the wall was beginning to separate.

I received a quick call back after I left a message for the Rock Pirate. Ricki came over within a few days to look at the job, and then emailed his estimate with a clear and detailed description of the work. He proposed to build a new wall in front of the existing wall, extend the drain, and fill the void between the walls with gravel. Details included: dig a new footer, prep with rebar, hand pour. tear into the old wall so we can lay into it. lay the block. fill the cells with concrete that have the J-bar and extend drain pipes Then cap off with brickand quot; He was able to schedule my job sooner than he first expected. He came when he promised, did the work quickly, adding several touches (stucco over the new wall, etc.). He was friendly, professional, and a pleasure to work with.

We had seen Ricki's work before, which is why we asked him to do the job. It's a creative approach to what might otherwise look like a standard masonry job. He does lots of ornamental stone work in interiors and exterior facades of homes for a local builder. He obviously approaches rock work as an art form and the results are unique and gorgeous. We are planning on asking him to do more work on our property.

Ricki and his assistant did a lot of work in our front yard. The work was done last fall and all has held up very well. For the walls, he pieced together the stones both vertically and horizontally. His wall looks great compared to the plain retaining wall we had done by another contractor in another area. The large blocks form a zig-zag walk down the sloping front yard.

He laid the cement in the winter time, and obviously the morter froze. Now it is all falling apart, which it started doing within 2 years. We have had other masons out, and they all agreed that the job should have held up for at least 15 years. I have talked to him, and he said he would charge me a significant amount to do the repairs. The other issue I have is that he used very thin flagstone for the walk. Because the morter is uneven, the flagstone cracks when you step on them. The other masons have confirmed that he should have been using a 2-3 inch thick stone, and he only used a 1/2- 3/4 inch stone. The other masons also told me that he should have told us that he cannot work in the winter time and we should have been warned of that, which we never were. We never requested that the work specifically be done in the winter, it is just what he did. I feel that because the problems are his error, that I should not have to pay him to repair damage. We actually DID pay him more 2 years ago to correct some damage that was very severe because we were worried about being sued if someone fell.