Eddie's Masonry

We had Eddie replace/repair the parging around our foundation. They did a terrific job and will consider them for future work. Price was fair. Thanks Eddie!

overall..ok

Do NOT use this contractor for any masonry service. If you do, you may regret it as I do. I had given him a 50% deposit to purchase materials and to show good faith on my part. He claimed he needed to get his truck back on the road and pay insurance and asked for another $1000 to start. He asked for several more incremental payments until the balance due at the end was less than 10% of the cost of the job. He did drop off material shortly after and did begin work but as far as I could tell he wasn't actually starting work until the afternoon which in December leaves very little natural light left. He was usually gone by the time I got home from work. He borrowed lights, gloves and a hose since he had forgotten to bring them. He finished up on a Friday night at almost midnight. It was late and cold and I didn't get a good look at his work until the next day. I contacted hm the next week and told him there were a number of problems with the job. He promised to come back the last week of December to address the issues. He has repeatedly scheduled days to come back and has either not shown up or called with an excuse. I have not heard from him in a month. He does not returning my calls. I'm fed up with this and am considering legal action.

List of the problems with Eddie's work:
1) Most of the joints have gaps in the mortar.
2) The joints were not finished off as agreed to before work began.
3) The face of most of the brick is covered with mortar and needs to be cleaned up.
4) The joint spacing is inconsistent ranging from 3/8" to 3/4". It looks very sloppy.
5) The spacing around the electrical boxes had up to 1" of mortar slopped into the gaps. They look worse than the joints.
6) One two foot section of the wall bows away from the house by 2".
7) He used a flat piece of iron over the sliding glass door instead of angle iron and the weight of the brick caused this to bow down several inches to rest on the door frame. We even discussed this before and he did it wrong anyway.
8) The ledge under the kitchen window is unevenly spaced and varies in height 1/2" over the 2 1/2 feet.
9) One brick was not even attached (the mortar likely set prior to top brick being placed).

Overall the work was amatuerish. He asked me to bring mortar home as he had underestimated but did not compensate me for this. When he left the area was a mess.  Brick dust was everywhere on the back of the house and cigarette butts littered the yard. He has not taken responsibilty and address the problems.

I had a couple of estimatesf rom several sources and Eddie was on the lower end but I thought all were rather high for the small scope of work. Eddie seemed honest and assured me that he did amazing work and that I would be very satisfied. After negotiations with him he quoted me $2500 for the complete job. We agreed and he sent me an email as a contract. Anything that he handed to me was hand written.  I am fine with this as i'd rather have him working than in the office doing paperwork.  
  Eddie started with the retaining wall, which was originally constructed with decorative block. Eddie asked if he could use regular cinder blocks as the decorative ones were more expensive. I told him I wanted the decorative as it is seen on a regular basis. He requested to use some of the old blocks where is was below grade and I agreed. I was also having him pour a cement pad outside a back door.  He orginally staked it out differently than we discussed. It was corrected and it came out fine. WHen he was done there he was going to leave it to me to back fill the required dirt but did it with no problem when I asked him to. 
 Move on to the pillars... We agreed to have 22" block and the cultured stone added to that. Also since the lighting needed to be installed I purchased the needed conduit for the cement to be poured around.  Something happened during the pour and the conduit got filled with cement. He did redo it and I think it will be OK.  Eddie then decided to use 20" chimney block as he thought it would be sturdier. I was out of town when it went up and the block was thinner than we agreed.  Eddie also found out at this point that the cultured stone we agreed to is pretty expensive and he needed another $500.  I knew the price of this and was expecting this as his price was way too low for the job.  It was still a good deal with the extra $500 so I agreed.   The stone is the same that is on my house but was ot installed as nicely but still looks good.  Overall a decent job for a fair price.  I got exactly what I paid for. I would hire Eddie again for Block work or a patio but not the creative piece.

Eddie was punctual, worked right through the day and finished on time

Friendly, conscientious service as promised.  Highly recommended.