L M Mason Contractors

As a mason, Larry himself is wonderful, and does quality work. he really knows his stuff.

However, if he is NOT personally doing it, the word nightmare should be used.

Larry had his crew work here, while he did other jobs. Luckily, a neighbor spotted that the crew was just using regular pine 2x4s for the porch, including where they just sat on cement, etc, and would be sitting in water every time it rained. I insisted they correct this, using at least pressure treated wood and putting something down where they sat. There were a lot of sloppy finishing details that are still causing me problems with where the water goes, etc, that I discover as time goes on. The new door unit was suppose to help with the temperature, but it is now colder than ever.

the back becomes a nightmare of never ending problems that come when you open up an old addition. However, their fixes have proven horrible. For example, they did not level out the floor when the 'fixed it' - putting a whole new flooring system in and having a 2-inch drop from one side of the room to the other - when I said I wanted it leveled out! they were supposed to pull it apart and fix that (and yes, I was specific about how they should sister the existing floor beams to do it, and I would pick up the extra wood cost). They did not, and went on to put in the electric heat mat. Apparently they had never done this, and did not read instructions. The heat mat should have covered most of the floor. They bunched it altogether so it does not, as they did not pay attention to the instructions that said how far apart the loops should be, when you go back and forth. I had bought self leveling cement to pour around it, to level out around the mat. I had done this when I put one into the adjoining room, and it worked well. They did not do that, they poured it over the mat, so the mat not only was not level with a surrounding surface, it was now even higher than the quarter inch of the mat itself.

So where they put the tiles, they are not level, and they are not the same height one to the other. The tiles themselves can be 1/4" higher than the next one, in 3 cases, it is even more. I have found out that they did NOT ever level out around the mat - they didn't even do it by using Mortar under the 18x18" porcelain tiles - they GLUED them on. I found, as a tile cracked, it was because there is empty air space under it, because there is no mortar! Complaining about all of this has gotten me nowhere, unless I could afford to take them to court, and I do believe him when he says his pockets can outlast anyone else's in court.

There is very little insulation in the walls - when I took off an outlet cover, I discovered that cold air was blowing out through the hole - you can feel cold air moving in this wall just by taking any of the outlet/light covers off! This was in a kitchen wall that now has cabinets in front of it - and they had run a 2nd line of studs to even out the very crooked wall, so there was plenty of room in there for insulation. But there are a lot of gaps, under the very thin insulation that is in there, and I can't figure out how to fix it except by going through the outside of the house. As I hadn't specified what level of insulation, they say that isn't their problem. Or is the finishing details such as insulation not cover every area or hole, again, I can't prove it unless I want to try to take the kitchen apart.

I have now spent about $3000 to fix electrical problems caused by his electrician - and they did not get a permit to do that, or amend the permit that was issued. There was a live wire just left live and sealed in a wall. Most of it did not meet code, and had to be redone. When I was having something else done, and had estimates, every single contractor choked, and refused, when they saw what had been done. either they fixed the problems, or they would not do anything. So - had to have that rerun, too, and I had to have a new line run from the pole to the house, as they put in a 200 box and the service coming in was far less - it was coming in on a cloth covered wire, it was so old. 2 Contractors yelled at me when they saw that attached to that new box.

There is more, little detail after little detail, but it would start to be a rant. These are the things that are causing me the most problems. I am glad I stopped them, and told them no more. Hiring other people to finish as resulted in acceptable to quality work, and spotted a lot more things that had to be fixed, after they had 'rebuilt/done" them. And the mess of nails, etc. in my yard? the concrete planter, etc. that was broken? A couple of things that seem to be missing?

Larry is great, and I recommend him as a mason, which is why I don't know how to score this.

I was very, very pleased with the quality of their work and their service and everything about them. Their quote was similar to other quotes and they were the only firm that was able to rebuild the chimney in the original Victorian style. I was absolutely satisfied with their work. They were very easy to work with. The owner of the firm is on each of the jobs and I like the quality of the craftsmanship.