Bricklands performed multiple projects for me over the course of five months in 2020, and all the work came out great! Since they did so much work for me, I'm going to post a thorough review here along with pictures:
First and most importantly if you own a historic brick house built anytime before WW1, you need to hire a firm that understands how to tuckpoint them. Bricklands is one of only a handful of masons in Washington DC that does. They mix their own mortar, to the correct hardness and to your color specification. Quiz your mason on this before you contract them. In particular, ask them what hardness grade of mortar they want to use on your bricks. If they know how to work with old bricks, they will immediately be able to answer that question. Bricklands knows.
In addition to tuckpointing about half of my historic house, they also bricked a brand new garage that I just finished building. This bricking job used modern techniques but achieved a historic look, and the work was excellent. Just look at the picture.
I found Bricklands to be flexible and easy to work with. I see some of the other recent reviewers commenting on timeliness, missed appointments, etc. Admittedly, Bricklands has a weak back office, so if you want that level of attentiveness, look elsewhere for now. The important thing for me was quality of work, detail orientation, and flexibility. They have all that just fine. These guys will not change order you to death. They are flexible in doing some extra things that may have not been in the original contract, and will even redo work if it's not up to your standards. In this respect, I found them very easy to work with.
Finally, they are very price competitive. In the Capitol Hill neighborhood there is one larger, better known firm that most referrals will point you to. They are about 1/3 more expensive than Bricklands, and near as I can tell, the quality of the tuckpointing work is the exact same. So, ask yourself if you want to pay for the "champagne and caviar" treatment, or prefer to save some money and work with a straightforward, honest (perhaps slower, slightly less organized) firm. If the latter, go with Bricklands.
I'm sharing pictures of all the work Bricklands did for me this year:
-Foundation tuckpointing (no stripping or repainting)
-Wall repointing (no stripping or repainting)
-Newly bricked garage
-Ironwork - historic gate, railings, steps
-Repaving rear patio area (using historic bricks, not pavers)
All in all, I am a very satisfied customer! read more