Custom Masonry Specialists LLC

All work completed to satisfaction

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Jim came and gave me a direct quote on Wednesday 03/05 and was there on Friday 03/07 to start work.  He told me he would be done in 4 days and he was and the cost was the exact quote.  His attention to detail is incomparable to previous contractors I have hired.  Jim had a carpenter come to put in the new bookshelves, but when I returned home to view the finished shelving I was appalled at the different lengths of trim and lack of quality in the work.  I told Jim about my issues and he took the time to replace the trim himself because he agreed with me.  He didn't like the bookshelf work either!!!  He helped me with bringing in a fireplace repair company to service my dated gas insert and talked to the service guy as I didn't know anything about my insert.  He found a new sash and painted it to my specs.  Jim went above and beyond in terms of service and quality.  I will be hiring him again to replace my fence when I have saved the funds.

One wall would be dug up and waterproofed with a membrane from the outside.  Once the digging began, the estimate doubled because they feared the wall was going to collapse.  The wall was removed after jacks were installed in the basement to support the weight of the house.  Because the jacks were not placed with plates in proper positions, one floor joist cracked and two holes were punched in the basement floor.  The contractor did not feel any need to repair these issues.  The basement wall was gone for well over a week with no way to secure my home against intrusion from pests or outsiders.  James shrugged when I complained.  Eventually, the wall was rebuilt, the membrane placed and backfill completed.  The remainder of the exterior was to have planes installed instead of parging the surface.  The area behind the house where the exterior stairs were removed was not covered with panels.  The corners were left with exposed pink insulation showing instead of being finished.  Contractor said he'd be back with soil to topfill against house to bring grade up where it belonged.  He then disappeared.  Multiple emails and phone calls with threats of legal action were required to get him to promise to be done by Dec 1.  Since, he initially began work in August, I was not happy with his time frame.  In the meantime, a leak developed in the newly built wall.  At some point, he finally removed part of his equipment from the yard.  The leak didn't get repaired until after all of my threats brought him out to finish the grading work.  He ground out the bad grout from the inside and replaced it with waterset cement.  Repaired the initial problem with the barrier he had placed.  Increased the barrier around the corner of the house where a sinkhole had developed while waiting for him to complete work and finally finished installing panels on the rest of the house foundation.  He coated the corners where the insulation was visible with cement.  I don't know if the weather actually allowed the cement to set at the below freezing temperatures the day he was working or not. We'll find out in the spring I guess. I am unhappy with everything the company did and how they did it.

Installed Mendota Basic gas insert fireplace:  Install went OK except I preferred to use my electrician and there was a mix up between contractors about how to install the wiring so it had to be done over.  Jim tested the fireplace several times.  He gave good instructions to a carpenter about building a box to support the insert. 
Stone tile around the insert:  Jim did a beautiful job, and he arranged the tiles just the way I wanted them.  He worked with my carpenters to design the framing to accommodate the design for wood trim and mantle that I wanted. 
Rebuilt the chimney from the roof up:  The masonry itself is professional.   This took a long time to complete due to the long winter and to various excuses (e,g, deaths, illnesses, other jobs started after ours).   The scaffolding was left up longer than promised and that annoyed the neighbor who could not use his driveway.  Communication on this issue was difficult for all of us.
Concrete cap on chimney:  This looks great.  Jim forgot to do a little piece of cap on the side, but he came back and did it later, no questions asked. 
Tuck pointing: Grinding went well.  Missed a few "bee holes" the first time round.  Jim came back later and filled those in.  
Waterproofing:  this went well.
Block cutting and installing a larger glass block window: Glass block looks great, and matches the other glass block windows in the basement. 
Window well:  Jim used landscape blocks that matched the style and color of a window well around another basement window.  The blocks are level and fit exactly.  They look great. 
Fireplace doors:  Jim picked doors of a style I wanted.  Installation was professional.  I was disappointed that the doors don't seal airtight as I had understood when we initially discussed the job.  I felt this should have been discussed more before the doors were installed.
Epoxy floor:This didn't go so well.  The grinder left many semi-circular and circular gouges in the floor which could not be ground out.  So the floor is very uneven.  Perhaps this was due to the quality of the existing concrete, but I don't really know.  Then the epoxy paint he used didn't cover the floor.  Jim did this over at his expense.  
Communication:  Early on, Jim kept me well-informed about when he would come and arrived as planned.  However, there were times when calls and emails went unanswered for days.   Scaffolding that blocked the neighbor's driveway was not removed when promised.   During the second contract, the number of unanswered calls increased.  Several times Jim promised to come and did not show up or explain why, which delayed all the other work that had to wait until after the floor was redone.  It also meant I was having to arrange for my daughter to be elsewhere on days even when he didn't show up and put off other contractors.  This happened at least half a dozen times.    
Timeliness: There were several delays on the first job, attributed to weather but not entirely due to that, so the job took longer than we expected.  Therefore,  in the second contract we specified a start date (April 26, 2013) and an end date (May 10, 2013) and a penalty for missing the date.  The job was not complete until the end of August, when he came to install the fireplace doors, to complete the tuck-pointing and waterproofing and to redo the floor.  
 

A year has gone by and the window well has now shifted about 6-8" off it's setting.  I'm getting water leaking around the cover because the well underneath the cover is not sitting square.  I sent a text message at the beginning of June and the guy told me he would submit a claim and get back to me.  I haven't heard anything back from him.  I have followed up a few times since then.  The contract showed a 5 year guarantee on his work.  If he stands behind his guarantee and fixes the problem, I would use him again.

He knew what he was doing and now we don't have down draft.

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Everything went fine.