Edward Griffin Masonry & Remediation LLC

Wonderful. Last year we had Edward Griffin Masonry, LLC complete a colossal overhaul of our home’s exterior. We live in a twin in Ardmore, and the home’s stucco had been significantly compromised. It was determined by multiple stucco remediation inspectors that we needed to have the entire stucco exterior replaced. After conducting extensive research online, reviewing news articles, interviewing professionals in the building and legal professions, and getting quotes from four of the most respected stucco remediation firms in the Philadelphia metro area, we decided to hire Ed Griffin. We had Ed remove the stucco and replace it with Certainteed vinyl siding. In addition to the stucco, much of the wood sheathing needed replacement, along with doors, windows and surrounding woodwork. He improved the look of our masonry porch columns, exterior wall, and rear foundation; and he hung new gutters and downspouts, removed light fixtures and added new ones. We also hired a third-party oversight professional to ensure the job was done correctly. Ed’s crew was professional, well-organized, hard-working, and highly-skilled. They secured the work area at the end of every day so our home was well-protected from the elements. Griffin Masonry and Ed himself were a pleasure to work with. Ed’s highly-competent and well-respected, gave great advice, is a good listener, and ably responded to our preferences and custom requests. We highly recommend Griffin Masonry for any stucco remediation project.

Did not hire.

We contacted Edward Griffin.  He sent someone else, Charlie Miller of Miller Masonry, who did a good job.  He also replaced the chimney cap.

Ed's team arrived on the scheduled start date and delivered exactly what was promised. Ed and his employees were professional and arrived early every morning and worked a full day. Ed personally installed the windows and oversaw the entire project.
I would highly recommend!!

We highly recommend Edward Griffin Masonry ("Griffin").  Griffin did a mjor siding/moisture remediation project for us, involving removal of all ol the stucco (most of the house), repair of  water damage, removal and flashing of all windows, installation of kick-out flashing, wrapping the house with Weather Smart and Hydrogap Drainable Housewrap and installation of HardiePlank lap siding and all new gutters, with leaf guards. Griffin's estimate was both the lowest and most complete of the four bids we obtained.  They more than lived up to the agreement by performing additional work that appeared necessary, without any increase in cost.  Edward was a real pleasure to deal with.  He came when promised and competently scheduled his crews and subcontractors so that the time  to to complete the project was minimized.  Edward is a perfectionist and has imbued this in his crews and insists on it from his subs.  We give Edward Griffin Masonry an A+.

This was a fairly complex remediation project on our 12 year old house, primarily due to hail storm damage on the roof and to repair significant water damage behind our stucco.  We took the opportunity to enhance the look of our house as we repaired the roof and stucco problems.  The project was loud, messy, and had duration of several weeks.
There were two major contractors involved in this project:  Ed Griffin Masonry and Ferris Home Improvement.  Due to the nature of the repairs, the two contractors needed to coordinate their efforts.  There was a significant difference in the responsiveness and professionalism of the two different contractors.  
  * The staff at Ferris was extremely flexible, responsive, and well organized.  Despite some drama and glitches with the project, Ferris went the extra mile to ensure the customer was happy.  Ferris got the required permit without involving the homeowner.  A special shout out to Spencer, Mike, and Pedro for their patience, flexibility, and all their extra efforts!
* The experience working with Ed Griffin Masonry was frustrating and unpredictable.  Quite often, it was necessary to contact Ed several times before there was any response.  When there was a response or a visit to the house, it was often at unexpected times or with little or no notice.  It was very difficult to plan my schedule under these circumstances.  In addition, the required permits were not obtained by the contractor, as required in Concord Township.  This resulted in some unnecessary confusion and drama when the Township Inspector came for a visit and saw two major projects underway, but only one permit.
To be fair to Ed Griffin Masonry, we recognize that stucco remediation work is much more specialized and less predictable.  It was much harder to find a qualified contractor to do this type of work than it was to find a qualified roofer, which may be why the responsiveness was lousy.  There are too many unfortunate homeowners who need stucco remediation services and not enough providers!  Ed Griffin Masonry, which includes three teams of people who specialize in different aspects of the work are literally led by a band of very experienced brothers/brothers-in-law.  Once the three teams got started, it was a flurry of activity, which included many different aspects of construction.  It was nice to have one contractor take care of the full stucco/mold/drywall/window remediation, without having to get additional contractors involved.  The team appeared to be very experienced in all aspects of the work.
In summary, we feel the work performed by both contractors was very good and we are happy with the overall result of the project.  However, it was a more time consuming, messy, and stressful process than we ever imagined.   Very happy it is over!

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We did not opt to have the work done at this time, but we would choose Edward, most definitely!

Nobody wants to be in a position of needing to do stucco remediation but Ed makes the process as easy as it can be. He and his crews are very hard workers and I was amazed at how much work they accomplished each day.  They actually finished my job a week  ahead of the estimate even though we added to the scope of work during the process.  The crews are very detail-oriented and they take pride in their work. When they came into the house to remove and re-install windows they took care to minimize the disruption and the mess and always cleaned up after themselves. 

Ed is also very good as a sounding board when you have to choose siding colors, stone, options.  He has done enough houses to know what works, and for someone like me who has a hard time visualizing the finished product it was reassuring to run my ideas by him to prevent me from making an expensive mistake.

Other reviews I've read have commented  on Ed being hard to get in touch with.  Ed's operation is not as big as some other's and he keeps it that way by choice to maintain quality.  When you're trying to get an estimate from him you have to be a little patient but once you are a client you have his full attention.

Make sure that you carefully read the proposals from all of the contractors that you're considering because the base prices are not uniform.   I found that Ed provided the best combination of quality and cost.

Good work , very professional . Mailed them a deposit check in September, didn't hear from them until April. My job was small though.

It could have not gone better; my wife and I couldn't have been more pleased! All workmen were courteous, professional and accomodating. All work was conducted on schedule and in the agreed upon time. Edward was totally involved in all facets of the work.  The work itself was done properly and professionally.   I would highly recommend this contractor and will, should the need ever arise again, use him.  As a testament to that point, I subsequently had him do similar work on my son's house.

Mr. Griffin is a lovely man who does not subcontract his work. Consequently, he is difficult to reach. Although he had a great deal of building expertise, the fact he was so overwhelmed with work and had trouble maintaining communication led me to conclude the job required a bigger company. He was friendly when we spoke and he was on site. His estimate was competitive with other contractors.

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Great, he was on time and high quality, looks great and have had no problems with it. He was able to match the texture even though the old stucco texture product that is on the rest of the house is no longer made.

Ed and his crew did an excellent job.  Ed was on-site throughout the project, and brought to my attention anything that came up in the course of removing the existing stucco.  His explanations are thorough, but in laymans' terms the homeowner will understand, and he's an excellent problem solver.  He encourages the homeowner to take pictures throughout the process, so that you can show inspectors what's underneath the stucco when it comes time to sell your home.  He does not cut corners, nor does he inflate prices for materials.  (For instance, when we found that some plywood sheathing under the old stucco had rotted & needed to be replaced, he charged us what he paid for the playwood at Lowe's.  Several of the bids we got elsewhere priced plywood, if needed, as high as $75/sheet!)  Ed also goes out of his way to minimize headaches for the homeowner, for instance, carefully removing several boards on our deck so that the original boards could be reinstalled after the stucco at ground level was replaced. Not only did that save us the cost of replacement lumber, but the deck looked good afterwards, instead of having odd-colored new boards.
Our only complaint was that the interior caulking around the windows was a bit rough, since it was done by a guy who normally does exteriors.  (His interior finish guy had recently left & he hadn't yet hired a replacement.)  I was able to do the touch-ups myself, so it was only a minor problem.  
Other than that, Ed & his crew are punctual, efficient, & easy to work with.  Ed knows what he's doing, & the end result looked great.  We've had no problems with the stucco since.

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If you are reading this you are not a happy camper. Like myself, you found out your home was built at a time where codes and construction were lacking. As a result, there has been some water intrusion and some guy with a water meter and a report just told you your home is a problem. This was my story. House was being sold and suddenly there is a real problem.

I had 8 contractors provide me with statement of work to remediate and the bids and work were all over the board. Thankfully, father in law is a mechanical engineer so I had some backing in the technical evaluation. Ed's bid and statement of work were on the mark and I downsized the potential to 2 bidders. Went with Ed because I got a good feeling when we walked the house and I felt comfortable with him. Earlier I had gotten a referral from a friend that used him prior.

Work started May 2nd. Teardown took 2 days and from that the intrusion problems were known. Ed was pretty close in his ascertation of what he expected. With stucco, you never really know till the walls come down. From that point, it was an army or workers pretty much every day. Each phase of the job was worked hard and done. Even with the weather delays, the job kept moving. Honestly, it was amazing to watch as it all came together. This was a big job, easily 4500 square feet of wall, 2 chimneys, carpentry, step and walkway masonry. Job was complete 6/4. Window washers are here now as part of the clean up which was great. Ed takes great pride in his work, he has a family support network as his brothers and family members are all carpenters and stone guys, and his work crew is terrific.

Bottom line, if the "stucco problem" bites you, you need someone to work with who has been around the block. This guy is good, very professional, and very solid in his work. Even more important, guy is extremely honest and cares about his work. I cant say enough good things.

Edwdard is a true professional.  The team did a fantastic job and we are extremely happy with the quality of the work.

I too can reinforce what other reviewers have said about this contractors terrible follow-up.  Despite the warning signs, given how many other favorable reviews they had I tried to reach out for an estimate.  I called their contact number on October 3rd.  A fairly rude gentleman told me he was busy on a job and couldn't talk with me.  He asked me to send him a text message to his cellphone (same as the main contact number), which I did moments after I hung up with him.  I never heard back from him and tried to text him again on October 9th.  Received a response text 2 days later on October 11th saying "will try to get to you next week" - that was the last I ever heard from them, have received no other follow-up as of October 28th.  This is the first time I've ever had a bad experience with any contractor pulled from Angie's List, and the first review I've ever written that was less than stellar.  Don't waste your time with this contractor. 

The stone front exterior of the house was damaged during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.  I called Edward Griffin Masonry and spoke with Frank ONeill.  He came to the property and gave me a reasonable estimate on stuccoing the entire front exterior of the house.  What was so difficult about this job was that it was in the middle of winter.  Normally this type of repair is done during warmer weather.  Frank explained the possiblilty of what could happen to the stucco if it became too cold for it to dry properly and certain measures he could use to assure the job would be done correctly and professionally.  Luckily the weather held up well during the course of the repair.  The weather had reached over 40 degrees on a couple of the days which helped with the stucco drying nicely and true to the color that I had picked.  I must say Frank had the job done in a weeks time and it turned out great.  I am planning on calling Frank to come and stucco the back exterior wall for a renovation project upcoming in the Spring of 2014.

I called on June 5 2013 and emailed a picture of the house. Said he would get back to me. Did not (it is July 15th). I would like to suggest to contractors that if they are not interested and/or are overbooked and/or the job is too far away that they just say so instead of leaving a black hole of no response, especially when a response was promised.

After reading the reviews, I was very interested in speaking with this company. Unfortunately, I was never able to speak with a representative. Both of my calls went directly to voice mail and neither call was returned

Edward was a very honest knowledgable man who met me at my home to discuss my renovation.  He initially offered some ways to minimize costs and I appreciated that.  He did follow up with a formal estimate.  Just from meeting him I have no doubt he does quality work.

Honest information provided, very helpful.