R & R Masonry Reber Restoration

unknown

Extremely satisfied with the work Tony and his crew did. I would hire him and his crew again. The main thing besides the quality of work was Tony "did what he said he'd do".  A man of his word, if he said he'd be here on a certain date, he was, if he said he'd call, he did, if he said he send me an email, he did.  That was extremely important to me since I'd contacted many others who did not call, or show up even.  They cleaned up nice after they were done. 

The scaffolding crew needed about 1.5 days to set it all up, which seemed very efficient. Our whole yard is a garden with no grass, and we lost some plants, but all in all the damage was minimal and could have been a lot worse. They made a real effort to be careful. The pointing crew hung a tarp outside the scaffolding of the side wall that needed serious restoration; this kept the huge amount of sand and dust generated by the grinding under pretty good control. The neighbor on that side was concerned about dust, and the crew went out of their way to respect that. They even washed off the dust from the side of her house and her plants on the dusty days. They color-matched the cement, even the speckles in it, then applies it to the voids between the bricks. Our bricks have a ceramic coating and are not porous, so they wiped the new mortar in with sponges, then sponged off the excess cement so the bricks were clean again. I think and house with porous bricks would need another approach, probably more expensive to apply the mortar only to the spaces between the bricks--so be aware of this if your house has porous bricks. It also seems that some contractors rely more on power washing alone than grinding out the old mortar to create space for the new. We spoke to about 8 contractors before deciding on R & R Masonry, and learned a lot. Our side yard is about 5-6 feet wide, and one neighbor would not allow ladders on his property, thus the scaffolding. But R & R and some other contractors use only scaffolding anyway. Duing the job, I asked Mr. Reber to expand the scope of our contract--like removing drain pipes so he could grind and point behind them, and do more work on walls around the doors so it would look nicer even if not necessary structurally. He gave a good price for the extra work. Be wary of removing drainpipes, as they may need to be replaced for proper re-installation. I had planned to replace them anyway, so no problem. I lined up a roofing contractor with a good reputation to do the new drainpipe installation. I also lined up another contractor I knew from before to install new fascia as the last step in our home improvement project. At first I thought the pointing contractor would do all this work, but learned they tend to specialize, and I would need 3 contractors. Mr Reber's crew was done in about 10 days, and they removed the scaffolding. He sai he would be willing to leave the scaffolding up for an extra week or so, so the fascia guy could use it. A generous offer, but our fascia guy preferred to use his ladders instead. The R & R crew did a good job of cleaning up after themselves and protecting the plants. Not perfect, but reasonable and we were happy. We only paid $6600 and you don't get zillions of hours of skilled labor for that. The put a lot of time in on the real work, and Mr. Reber was inspecting the site every day, and giving direction to his workers, very knowledgeable and on top of things, and easy to work with. His workers are organized into several specialized crews, and they do multiple jobs at the same time--very efficient, and obviously we benefited from that efficiency. I recommend this company, and thank them for a job well done.

unknown

AWESOME work!  We have two massive chimneys that were ready to collapse.  The house was built in 1897 and I don't think anything was done to those chimneys since!  Because it needs roof work as well, I first asked roofers to give me a price.  One was more than the cost of my car and others wouldn't touch them.  I thought we were going to have to eliminate them altogether which would compromise the ascetics of the house and render the fireplaces useless forever.  I called several masonry firms and again, one didn't want to touch them.  They are very tall and the slate roof is very steep; this couldn't have been an easy task.  Tony was the quickest to respond; he came out the same day that I called to take a look at them and had the estimate to me very quickly.  The amount he charged to restore them was much less than it would have cost me to have a roofer remove them!!  That was a no-brainer decision.  The work was completed in one week including assembling and disassembling scaffolding (technically two weeks, but the weather was uncooperative after the scaffold went up).  The guys worked very quickly!  Everyone was super nice, very polite, etc.  And, most importantly, the work is better than I could have hoped for!  The chimneys look brand new.

unknown

After getting competitive bids, I called R&R Masonry Restoration to award them the work. The owner, Mr. Rebar showed up the same day and said he would start the work in two days, which he did. His crew began by erecting scaffolding on the side of my house. The roof was protected with plywood and tarps. The chimney brick was removed down to the roof line and the damaged bricks below the roof line were cut out and replaced. Mr. Rebar selected new brick to closely match my existing brick in color and texture, and his crew tinted the mortar to match the existing mortar. After all the bricks were replaced, a new cement crown was installed on top of the bricks. The flashing was recaulked, and all debris were cleaned up and removed.
R&R also replaced my existing flue cap with a new stainless steel one, at no additional charge (even though this wasn't specified in the estimate). They also gave me a 10% senior discount and honored the Angie's List $100 coupon.

unknown

Got a few estimates from highly rated companies on Angies List and like R & R the best.  They were very prompt .. arriving at 7:00 even on weekend to do the 4 day job.    They had different crews for set up scaffolding, tear down and removal and the masons to build the chimneys again.   Didn't have any issues, even interacted with my young children who watched and spoke to them through an upstairs window while they worked.
Tony called and gave me a status at the end of each day and mentioned the next step.  Tony even follow up the day after they completed to see if everything was good from my point of view.
Tony coordinated contact with a Chimney sweep who would clean the chimney after the work was completed.
A side note, when we had some roof work being done months later, that contractor made a comment on how well the chimney work was done.   I never mentioned we had the chimney done, but a roofing contractor obviously sees a lot of chimneys and found it very favorable that he went out of his way to comment on R&Rs work.

Tony and his company rebuilt an entire section of collapsed brick veneer that had failed due to a deteriorated lintel/beam above the garage door. The damage affected over 2/3s of the front of the house. The massive amount of work and bitter cold (at that time of year) turned some contractors away. Others weren't even sure what to do. One contractor's estimate was almost twice as much as R&Rs and he wanted US to have the beam/welding work done. Tony and his crew set up scaffolding and a canopy and went to work in temperatures in the single digits. They had heaters to control the environment in the work area ensuring the mortar cured properly. They were knowledgeable. They were polite. They were done within a week. The work was flawless and you would never know anything was done.

The owner (Tony) kept saying for several weeks that he would see that the work would be done....right up to a week before closing when he stopped returning our calls. He really strung us along when he could have said TWO WEEKS BEFORE that he couldn't do it. What he did was really unprofessional.

unknown

My girlfriend Stacey's review: Tony is the BEST! I hired his company - R & R Masonry - to install a new chimney crown, replace defective lintels, and re-point damaged areas. Compared to the three other masons I contacted, he was by far the most responsive, always returning my calls and replying to my e-mails in a timely manner. His pricing was more than fair, and he even went above and beyond the scope of work for no additional cost. Throughout the job, he was on-site providing me with updates.
When the work appeared to be complete, he inspected everything and then called back a few of his guys to do some minor touch-ups right away. He certainly has a more critical eye than I do, and I consider myself a perfectionist! It was amazing how well he matched the replacement bricks. His crew and support staff were all nice and considerate, too. Apparently a couple of them have been working with Tony for decades. One of them said what a good guy he is, and I am in complete agreement. It was an absolute pleasure doing business with him, and I would recommend him and Reber Restoration to anyone who needs masonry work. In fact, I already recommended him to my mom and boyfriend!

The job was completed in reasonable time and they did a real good job and they cleaned up all the debris They came on time and were vey professional. I would recommend them

I sent this company an email with photos of the job looking for an estimate on a brick wall, chimney and other repairs.  I followed up with a phone call and got some sort of answering service and the person told me that Tony is usually pretty prompt in responding so he will let him know and I can expect to hear from him.  I haven't heard anything and even though it has only been a few days based on his rating with Angie's list I would have expected superior service and at least a prompt response. It leads me to believe that the ratings and reviews are less than accurate or else planted by the company.

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I got 4 bids R&R was the cheapest so I was hesitant to use them but with all the good reviews I decided to go for it. I was glad I did. Tony's communication was good throughout. His scaffold guys came out first. They set everything up very good crew. Every window had an awning above it that had to be removed and reinstalled. They were a problem to take down so Tony hired an awning company to do that. He paid for them without asking me for any more money. I wasn't too impressed with the awning company. Tony and his guys did a very good job. They always seemed to do a little extra to having the windows cleaned numerous times to making sure everything was clean and done right. All hard workers all very polite. Lintels look good mortar matches up well. I would certainly use them again and recommend them.

Work was done well.  Tony kept us informed of when they would be working and what they would be doing.  There was some additional cost because of some roof work they weren't expecting to have to do.  Tony let me know about this possibility beforehand so it was not a surprise.  This is a great company!

Quote was extremely high for the little bit of work I wanted done.

the job went great they were here on time they went right to work and at the end of the day they cleaned up my wife and I were very pleased with their professionlism

Based upon other reviews left on Angie's List, I contacted this contractor about a chimney problem that I currently have and to provide an estimate for a large pointing job for next year.  Tony contacted me within a day and he said he would contact me in a few days to determine a time to meet.  He never called and despite 5 messages, he will not return my call.  I cannot comment on the quality of his work, but I can on his professionalism.

I reached out to R&R early November to have my chimney repointed.  I spoke with someone named Tony and informed him that I was closing on my house on November 8th.  He told me that he would be able to visit the property on Nov 8th to inspect the chimney.  
November 8th came and went without any contact from R&R.  I followed up and left a message with his "answering service" several days later (November 14th) and was told there is nothing they can do.  Apparently they only have the ability to send a text message to Tony (that's what I was told).
Bottom line is I've been trying for almost a month to have someone inspect my chimney.  IF YOU WANT THE JOB DONE, I WOULD RECOMMEND YOU GO ELSEWHERE.  Very unfortunate that this is my first time Angie's List experience...hopefully I'll have better luck with another provider.
***DUE TO THE CIRCUMSTANCE, THIS REVIEW DO DOES NOT INCLUDE PRICING OR QUALITY OF WORK***

I had such a great experience with Tony and his crew that I would absolutely hire them again for any future projects. The monsterous scaffolding was set up in 1 day. The bricks were taken down in one day, the wall repaired in one day, and everything put back together in one day. They arrived at 7:00 AM every morning and Tony was around supervising. They saved every single brick so it all matched at the end and we didnt have to buy new bricks. Even my very handy fiance was impressed by the work and work ethic.

Tony is responsive and professional, and the guys he sent to do the work were very good, cleaned up quickly, and were courteous.

I was very disappointed.  This provider had a great rating and several excellent reports, but didn't return my call.  I called and waited about a week and called again.  I was assured someone would call me back, but I'm still waiting for about a month now.  I do live in the servicing area so not sure why I didn't receive a call back.