Jose Ledesma Stonemason

Could not have been happier

Our house is 12 years old and over the years has been "settling" in different areas. Our brick porch has three column arches and the mortar on the center column started to settle, leaving some big gaps between the bricks. I found Jose on Angie's List and called him immediately, based on the other good reviews he had. Jose was prompt, professional and cost effective. He advised on what was happening with the column and how to repair it for long term. I also showed him some other brick/stone work I need to have done and will not hesitate to hire him when the time is right to complete all of the work our house needs.

Contacted Jose by phone and within a few days he came to the house to go over the project. He provided a quote at that meeting. We interviewed one other contractor, also highly recommended on Angie's List, and chose Jose because his price was more within our budget. The other contractor suggested a more comprehensive excavation of the walkway, which was significantly more expensive. He scheduled the work 3 weeks out. The work actually started a week early and was completed in 4 days. We added an additional project to the contract after we got started. Jose was very accommodating and agreed to the additional work. He adjusted the contract price accordingly. Overall we were very pleased with the process and the completed work. Jose was a real pleasure to work with.

jose was punctual with the initial vist and providing a quote. he performed work in the timeline he had promised and cleaned up the site after work was complete. Jose was polite, respectful, honest. i am having jose return to perform additional work and highly recommend him.

Initial inquiry: I contacted 3 masons found on Angie's List. The three were all well rated and Jose's were particularly excellent. He was the first to respond and did so within a few hours of my sending the inquiries. We set a time for him to come by and give a quote. Quote: He came by the next day and provided a quote. I felt comfortable with him immediately and felt confidence in what he was proposing and in the calibre of his work. Without hesitation, my husband and I agreed that we didn't need another quote. His quote was exceptionally reasonable and he said he could do it the next week. We hired him immediately. Before leaving, he powerwashed the steps in order to clear some mossy areas in advance of the actual work. The powerwashing was at no addtional charge and he did not ask for a deposit either. Day of work: He arrived right on time, had all materials needed for the job (not the case with some other contractors I've worked with) and got immediately to work. After a while, I went out to check on progress. He'd drilled out morter between 95% of steps (a much higher percentage than initially anticipated.) He said that the steps were in poor condition and he didn't want to do it piecemeal, but wanted to do a thorough job. No, the quoted price did not change! I believe this is the mark of a true craftsman. He wanted to see this done right, regardless. The job took much longer than I'd anticipated and he worked non-stop for 6 hours! The finished product is amazing. He truly IS an artisan of the level that is rare today. It's clear that he takes pride in the quality of his work. We're SO SO glad that Jose did the work for us. I recommend him without hesitation. On a personal note: Jose is a professional artisan who is also highly personable and easy to work with. Both my husband and I found him to be very honest, hard-working and a pleasant person!

Work performed as expected. No issues.

Working with Jose was probably the best contractor experience I have had to date. He responded promptly, and came to my house the next day. He gave me an estimate that was more than fair, and stuck to it. He and Manuel began and finished the job on schedule, never leaving a mess. Jose replaced the ugly tile with Pennsylvania stone, cutting and placing each piece with an eye for color and pattern. He is an artist, as others have mentioned. He patched the brick veneer, replacing bricks as necessary, matching new mortar and brick seamlessly to the old, leaving no evidence that a repair was ever necessary. He replaced/fixed the interior brick wall with absolutely no damage to the custom cabinet, again matching old with new. Manuel, his assistant, is obviously skilled, and just as easy to work with. My patio looks far better than I had imagined, as does my exterior and interior brick. Jose is confident and patient, with a ready smile. He clearly takes pride in his work, and goes the extra step to insure customer satisfaction. Knowing that I had an appraisal inspection the next day, he came back on his lunch break to make sure everything was just right. I intend to hire him for additional projects, and have no hesitation in giving him my full endorsement.

I contacted Jose because he was recommended by a previous Angie's List contributor. The statement was made in that person's entry that Jose is an artist. Jose responded to my phone call and made a vist to my home the next day. He gave an estimate for the work and a date and time to begin the job. On the agreed date and time, he and his helper came and completed the work. Because of the visibility of the repairs that needed to be done, I was concerned that the repairs might not look right with the original brick and mortar. On completion, I was pleasantly surprised to see what a good job he did. He really is an artist. His work is neat and clean and beautifully done. The repairs fit in perfectly with the original brick work on my home. I will certainly call on Jose again if I have a need for a brick mason.

Jose quickly responded to my request for an estimate and set up an appointment for later that week for a meeting. He answered all of my questions on the scope of the work and described exactly what he would do. As the job was not very complicated, he provided me with an estimate at the end of our meeting. Once we decided to hire Jose, he scheduled the work to begin within one week. He arrived on-time and started working right away. The work was completed within the time he indicated and at the price quoted beforehand. He even repaired some additional cracked mortar that we hadn't noticed earlier. Jose was courteous and professional throughout, and we would definitely recommend him.

Jose (Owner) and his employee do very good, thorough and high quality work. They were hardworking, professional and highly skilled craftsmen. I would recommend Jose for all masonry work.

Jose had previously pointed out to me some other needed touch up where the mortar had cracked or loosened or was missing when he came to give the quote- I did not realize that he planned to take care of all that in addition to the necessary work. I was very much pleased with his work and the level of detail he gave to my little tiny job. The front porch looks new!

Started on time, excellent communication between owner and designer, very willing to discuss design concerns and explain options and limits of different choices, pleasant demeanor on the job, good management of his help, tools and materials, finished on time and left the site as clean as he had found it. From the designer point of view Mr. Ledesma is a consummate craftsman with an artist's eye who will work hard to create your vision while coming up with pleasing aesthetic solutions to the inevitable challenges that come up when translating a rendered design to the actual landscape site. This is the rare individual who loves and understands hardscapes and it really shows on the finished project. He does not compromise on quality. He is talented at estimating materials, his bids are very competitive and I have never heard complaints about coming up short on materials on a job. After the job is complete, owners keep coming up with more projects, they don't want to let him go, he builds that kind of trust and confidence with the people he works with. You would be lucky to have him commit to your project, as a home owner or a designer.

I found him on Angie’s List. I spent about $5,500 on the job. He is an artist. He did a very careful job. He ran into an interesting challenge and troubleshot around it. It worked out beautifully. He took great care. It was a very tough job. There was concrete stuck to the back and he troubleshot that. He worked really well. He also works with marble and granite, but I have not used him for that. I have had several contractors do work for me since I bought my house in 1990. He has done the best work I have ever had done. He is incredibly reasonable in pricing. I had received several quotes and his was the lowest by far. I will use him again in the future.

Response to initial phone call was in the same day. Estimate very fair and complete. Work begun when stated and completed in the time specified. Care in removing the stone was very, very good. Problem-solved a tricky issue of concrete being stuck to slate and removal risked harming the stone, suggested two options with clear outline of strengths and weaknesses of each. Created new base, replaced slate with great care, grouted and washed to make look brand new. This is a very old house with walkway and patio from original construction. Work required care, craftsmanship and finesse. Jose embodied all of these qualities, for a price that was remarkably reasonable. We have been at this same home for 25 years and have used many, many trades. Jose was a modest, careful craftsman that matches the best we have ever worked with.

His work looked nice. He did some great work.

I would have liked to have seen Jose's work, because he has such high marks on Angie's List. But alas...

Jose provide me a estimate and after comparing around we found his price and his reputation from here to be a no-brainer. Jose and team began work on our patio and firepit and his work is detailed and beautiful. Not only is a he a nice honest guy, he does beautiful work. We stayed in pretty constant communication and he was excellent with returning calls and messages. In fact some of our neighboors were so impressed, he picked up some more work in our development. Jose has a waitlist and now I can see why. Well worth the wait! I highly recommend Jose and would proudly work with him again!

Jose was punctual and did a beautiful job.? I will definitely contact him if I need any further masonry work done.

Jose returned my call promptly and came out and gave me an estimate the same day. He told me when he would be out to start work, called the day before to confirm and finished the job on time. He was able to save and reuse most of the old brick and took extra time to match the mortar color. His price was reasonable, his workmanship high quality and his demeanor totally professional. I would not hesitate to hire Jose again.

I spent about $1500 for the job. He had a lower price. He didn’t try to up sell me with a bunch of stuff I didn’t need.

Jose responded promptly to my initial phone call and came out that evening to give me an estimate. He described the work needed very well, and as he was demolishing the old steps (which had cracked and pulled away), he did a great job of telling us why the steps had cracked like that and how he would rebuild it differently. He was very professional and very detail-oriented, and did a very clean job. He even went to three different places to try to find the right shade of new brick to match with the existing brick we had! Overall, very impressed and would definitely use him again.

It was as perfect as you could ever imagine. He arrived on time, did what was asked, and cleaned up after he was finished. He was a very nice person and someone I would gladly call in the future.

Jose was fast to come and give us the estimate, and also fast to do the job and did an excellent job. Very, very professional.

He was not able to start on the planned date, due to poor weather preventing the finishing of another job, but he let me know a week in advance, and from then was on schedule. The materials cost more than he had estimated, but he had no way to visualize the space underneath the old patio to know that the space to be filled was deeper than ground level, so I can't fault him for that. He would have finished the job at his originally estimated price, but in good conscience I paid for his additional expenses. I was pleased that he consulted with me at several points in the process to discuss options and their benefits and relative costs. His price was easily the lowest of those contractors I contacted. I highly recommend him and would use him again on any other masonry project.

Excellent. In his estimate, he took time to explain the work, different options we had asked for, and the cost for each. He was both more detailed in the explaination of his plan and more competitive than three other bids. We felt that he had planned and costed his estimate out, rather than just guestimated it as is sometimes the case. He was able to start about three weeks after we accepted his estimate. He was precise, took his time to get it all right, built to exacting specifications, used excellent materials, and is obviously a very talented mason. His work was excellent. He was professional, letting us know his schedule, came to work each day scheduled, cleaned up before he left each day, explained things when we asked, and did not intrude at all on our daily routines. Jose was also very personable, easy to talk with and took pride in his work. I would not hesitate to use Jose again or to recommend him highly to others. We couldn't be happier with the work he did for us.