McFall Masonry & Construction
About us
McFall Masonry & Construction has been in business since 1980. Dan McFall has been hands on in all the sales & construction portion of the projects since the beginning. We are a masonry & concrete home improvement company, although we have completed smaller commercial projects such as fast food restaurants. It is rare that we use sub-contractors due to the fact that we are skilled professionals in all categories that we advertise. Typically, a project will require 4 men on a job, but it may be as few as 2 or as many as 6 or more, depending on the size of project. We always have an english speaking skilled crew chief on the project at all times, along with the tradesman on the crew. The state of Texas does not have a licensing entity in it's government, so no license is required for the masonry & concrete trades. No charge for estimates. It is very difficult for smaller home improvements projects to be priced at square footage type pricing, each job is unique & priced accordingly. When cleaning up a project at a residence that may require cleaners, we use green, chemical free cleaners to protect children, animals, plants. McFall Masonry instructs all its employees to be courteous, clean, wear shirts, & will not ask to use your restroom. Visit our website at www.mcfallmasonry.com. Remember, experience matters!
Business highlights
Services we offer
Installation of all types of concrete, borders. Drainage, brick fences. We repair everything that has to do with any type of masonry & concrete. Fabricated stone. All veneers, driveways & extensions, flagstone/brick patios. All types of brickwork, foundations. Removal of old concrete & install new. We install stamped concrete & stamped overlays on existing concrete. Install retaining walls, including fireplaces, outdoor kitchens, patios & extensions, pits, planters, porches, rockwork, walkways
Amenities
Emergency Services
Yes
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
---|---|---|
36% | ||
0% | ||
9% | ||
9% | ||
45% |
We brought McFall Masonry in to bid the rip out and replacement of our front sidewalk with a mini pebble aggregate slab (approx. 25’ x 4’). The price came in around the middle of the pack on the bids we received, and since the neighborhood had used them for years for annual brick wall maintenance, we felt we’d be in good hands. The bid was left with us on 5/17/16, we initiated it 5/25/16, and work didn’t start until 6/21/16. Although I understood weather played a role, I felt the delay and lack of communication was excessive and unprofessional. On 6/7/2016, I had the owner, Dan McFall, come out with his lead project manager to look at a few bathrooms we wanted remodeled. While we were waiting an extra 20 mins. for his PM to arrive, I took Dan next door to show him our neighbor’s sidewalk that had been done in hand seeded, mini-pebble aggregate, in order to make sure he understood what our finished product needed to look like.
Once work began, the guys who were onsite were excessively loud, cussed, smoked, flung concrete on to the house, and even classed up the joint and went shirtless. Once cut out, the old slab was put on the street in front of our house, rebar hanging out and all, with no signage or warning cones for safety, and left for several days before being picked up, only after I pushed for it. The crew let me know that while they were cutting the concrete, they cut my hose. No big deal, since they said they’d replace it. They ended up bringing a ‘no kink’ equivalent, stating it was the replacement, only to take it back upon job completion. They ended up leaving a 50’, $9.99 special, to replace a 75’, $50 ‘never kink’ hose. When I brought that to their attention, they said the guys didn’t cut mine (Pics available – obvious cut), but rather, the hose exploded. After a back and forth, they ended up pulling the $9.99 special in favor of a slightly better, but still cheap, 50’ hose.
Prior to the slab being poured, I spoke with the project manager and the lead guy on the crew to reinforce the finished product we desired. Like I did with the owner Dan, I showed them our neighbor’s mini-pebble slab. They both told me that if the concrete they ordered didn’t meet that expectation, they wouldn’t pour. Later that day, I came home to find they had poured, and the final product ended up being a very inconsistent pour. Some areas had a lot of rock, some very little, and some, none! An acid wash didn’t help matters. The crew said they were going to seal the slab, something we had not discussed, but something I felt they wanted to do to try and improve what already looked like a sloppy job. When the seal was finally put on, you could see that sand was mixed in to provide a grit, only, the sand wasn’t evenly dispersed and sealed, the sand was thrown down in globs and sealed over (Pics available). This made the slab look exponentially worse. I immediately sent pics and contacted Dan, who said he had seen it, and thought it looked good. He agreed to come out and look at it with me, and upon coming out, both denied seeing my neighbor’s pad, and admitted his guys did an ‘average’ job. When you’re spending thousands, and the slab is smack dab right in front of your house, an average job isn’t ideal. We agreed Dan would return the next day and work on fixing it. He later texted me and told me he wanted to wait a week to let it cure. About a week later, with no response to any of my messages requesting his onsite day to return, I told him that we needed to either fix it, refund me, or do nothing and I’d fix it myself and pursue reimbursement through the BBB. The business has not responded.
Come to find out reading BBB reviews and others on various sites, this is common practice. Average work that if not received well, is left in place, with no resolution. In fact, the McFall website goes out of its way to combat the internet and negative (honest) reviews, claiming that it’s unfair that people can put anything they want online. Well, if it wasn’t for that right, the McFall business wouldn’t have the chance to put up on its website, the smoke and mirrors I’ve read. Since this, I’ve been in contact with our HOA on this contractor and was told there was negative feedback from many in the neighborhood on the work of this contractor. The HOA has told me that It doesn’t look like McFall will be welcomed back into our neighborhood. What was an easy resolution has now turned into two unhappy clients and a good amount of lost business via new projects and referrals.
Oh god! Worst company ever! They did not match the colors of the brick at all! It old them while they were out there that it was not the right color and they just said it will dry and if its still not right we can bleach it. And that just wasn't right at all.
He screwed up the whole house and I had to have it redone again. And 3 months after he finished, all the mortar he put in crumbled and fell out.
They were not responsive and just not professional. I asked them to come inside to look at some bricks and they just tracked mud all in the house.
They were just really rude about everything, too.
and detail work could have been better. There are slight rolls and some popouts in the finish, and the control joints are not straight.
(rebar was set at 18" center and tied to existing structure, expansion joints were installed, but not a lot of cush sand was used)
The sidewalk pour happened on Tuesday, Aug. 13. Overall, this pour went well, and the appearance of the sidewalk is good. (rebar was set at 18" center and tied to existing structure at both ends, expansion joints were installed, but cush sand was only used for about 8 feet at one end)
After the sidewalk pour, the concrete truck repositioned itself for the the new walkway pour for the stampted concrete. The color for the concrete was to be mixed in the truck. The first bag of color was dumped in the truck hopper, but the second bag of color tore open and spilled all over the street. Normally, this would be no big deal, right? Sweep up the mess, put it into the hopper and go on. The McFall employee on the top of the hopper grabbed the water hose, and before anyone, me, could stop him he started spraying the broken bag of color with the hose creating the biggest, nastiest, mess that took the rest of the day to clean up, as best as these guys could do, I suppose. The street had to be completely blocked off to prevent any cars rolling through from ruining their car paint. The street and curb is still stained with red color all the way to the storm drain. (Sept. 2), not to mention a few stain marks on my new driveway, and planter box. Also, the concrete truck was not as white as it used to be either. (The driver was not a happy camper.)
The front sidewalk pour proceeded, (at the same time as the circus above). The concrete was poured, stamped, powdered, and left to dry. On Wednesday, Aug. 14, the crew arrived and proceeded to clean off the new stamped walkway. The day before, it was impossible to see what this new centerpiece to the entrance to our house would look like, and it would still be hours before we could look at the work closely, because they sealed the concrete. Less than 24 hours after the pour, they sealed the new concete. How is concrete supposed to cure properly if the moisture in the concrete cannot evaporate? I'm sorry, I digress.
Allow to me to review this piece of artwork, step by step.
1) The color is wrong. 40 lbs. of the mix went down the drain and not in my sidewalk.
2) Improper forms were used. (they used steel landscape edgeing, leaving an unfinished look)
3) Dirty stamps were used in the process, leaving dirt and wood chips from my yard embedded in the pattern.
4) Footprints were left in the pattern where craftsmen stepped off the stamps.
5) Pattern lines are not complete anywhere on the walkway.
6) Pattern lines overlap each other.
7) Due to the early sealing of the pour, the moisture trying to escape the concrete is trapped under the seal, leaving gray pockets of color here and there.
8) We had requested a border be formed during the stamping. (They forgot)
9) There are unfinished edges and chips of concrete broken around the edge.
10) There is not any expansion joints where the pour connects to the house and there is not a control joint in the pour. (It will crack)
Overall, this part of the job ruined the whole job. It is a total piece of crap.
The planter box looks nice and I have no serious complaints about it, except it lacks an artist eye for the flagstone layout. It is fully functional and should stand up fine.
In conclusion, I would not use this contractor again. It took a crew of 7 to 8 guys, 8 working days to complete this job. The crew has no regard for the homeowners property, leaving tools and wheelborrows in the front yard overnight. I understand, concrete work is messy, but my yard looked like crap in areas where work was not going on. Numerous sprinkler heads and piping were damaged even after they were marked by orange flags noting ther location. My fiber optic cable was severed, after it was removed from the ground and visible to the work crew. The lack of professionalism extended to the crew leader having his truck washed in front of the house.
Regarding the stamped concrete, I contacted the owner, Dan McFall, to come out and take a look at his crews work, in which he did. To his credit, he offered to fix the front walkway, but his solutions were not acceptable, as the only proper solution would be to jackhammer everything out and start over. I told him at this time, I have seen his work and did not want him to do anything else but take it out. I requested he jackhammer the walkway out, and asked when his crew could be back out to do that. He stated, at that time, it would be the following week before they could come out. I have received no further calls from Dan McFall, nor has he returned mine. I did place a stop payment on the last check.
Final word. Find a professional to do stamped concrete. I have already contracted another company, and Mr. McFalls work has been removed, by the other company, poured, colored, and stamped. The walkway has been surface cleaned, but will not be completed and sealed until 21 days after the pour.
UPDATE: This is an amendment to a previous review I wrote about McFall Masonry. I will not address his response comments, but there is another part of his job that is starting to fall apart and I will address that. In my previous review I did compliment Mr. McFall on his retaining wall, but I have to amend that at this time. I attempted to contact Mr. McFall about issues I am having with the retaining wall he built. He did not respond. The topcap on the retaining wall is cracking around the mortar joints between the flagstone and the mortar the topcap is set in. In essence, within 6 weeks of his job every piece of stone on top of the wall is loose. Without effort I can remove about 8 pieces completely. The entire topcap stone on the wall will have to be removed, cleaned and reset. Facts are facts.
"This all sour grapes. The customer stood outside the entire project & told my crew what to do. At one point, early on in the project, when one of my men was building the retaining wall, the customer was telling him how to build it, my man tried to explain that he had 20 years experience and that he knew what he was doing, the customer told him he would pay for that statement, obviously he meant what he said, Very little color fell, an honest mishap, which was 100% cleaned up. The customer would not allow my crew to dress up the stamped concrete, which we could have done & it would have looked very nice, but he refused"
"I've contracted with this customer before & they have been quite please. I used gray mortar, good rich mortar will be a darker gray, but will lighten through time. The home has weathered mortar on it which at one time was gray, but was fairly dirty. A powerwash to the home would lightwn up the mortar back to its gray color."
"We did a good job with this sidewalk. I did go and follow up to see the crack. Hairline cracks can happen in concrete, the cracks that were in the old sidewalk were numerous and opened up. I installed rebar to help strengthen the concrete & hold any cracks together that may appear, keeping them a hairline crack. As I told the customer, concrete can crack, it's unfortunate, but it does happen, probably more often than not."
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