We recently hired All-Brick Tuckpointing to tuck-point our home and to tear down and rebuild our chimney that was leaning. We got their name from someone whose name we got from someone else who had done work for us and whom we trusted. Unfortunately, I'm not able to say it was a great experience. First, I'll talk about the tuck-pointing. The tuck-pointing looks good, and the color of the mortar matches nicely with the mortar that was already there, BUT they left a hole in our back wall at the bottom near the back door. I'm not sure what happened to the brick that was there, but they didn't fill it or fix it, they just left it like that. (see pictures A & B)
Next, there was the chimney repair. We wanted our chimney straightened. It was leaning quite a bit, and we were worried about it. Initially, when Mike came out to assess the job, we did talk about where we thought the lean started, based on looking at it from the ground, but I also thought I made it clear that we wanted the chimney straightened. The contract we signed was to "tear down the chimney to remove the lean and re-lay," which is what we were asking for, so I thought we were all set. (See picture C) We were out of town when the tear-down and chimney rebuild took place. When we came home, they had already "finished." (See pictures D, E, & F)
Needless to say, we were not happy with the way it looked. Instead of removing the lean, as indicated in the contract, they only fixed the chimney from where we initially discussed we thought the lean started. We were then told that if we wanted the lean to be completely removed and rebuilt, we would have to pay $6,000 more. I pointed out that the contract stated that they would 'tear down the chimney to REMOVE the lean and re-lay,' and that had been what we wanted, expected, and agreed to. That was met with all kinds of excuses, from 'I already gave you a good deal' to 'I would do the same to my house' to 'I'll give you a lifetime guarantee that it's solid,' all to get us to accept it as is. We were so frustrated by that point that, after thinking about it, we decided to accept it as is, just to be done with them. Once we recovered financially from this fiasco, we would pay someone else to fix it. I told Mike that we wanted to get it inspected, and if it passed inspection, we would accept it as is, provided we also got the guarantee in writing. A few hours later, he came back and said he would redo the chimney for no extra charge. Since we really didn't want to have to pay another company to come in and redo their mistake, we accepted the offer. In the end, the chimney was rebuilt straight (pictures G & H), but not without Mike reminding me every chance he got about how he was losing money to do it, which I did not appreciate. It was not our fault they did not do the work we agreed upon the first time. It was also very unprofessional. I will say, with the exception of a few cigarette butts left behind, they did clean up after themselves relatively well. In the end, the outcome was what we wanted; however, it was quite an ordeal to get there. Based on that, I would not hire them again, and I can't really in good conscience recommend them. read more
