Called, said to text my address and said would stop by later in the day, NEVER did and NEVER called

I interviewed a few masonry companies for repairing spalling brick in my basement. Some wanted to parge the walls, which was not what I wanted. Some quoted me fairly high prices for the repair, but Martin Forde offered me the best, and most reasonable cost for the job. During our interview Martin struck me as a competent, and fair mason and he is responsive by email, which are valuable traits in a contractor. We scheduled the job, and he and his team showed up right on time. The first thing I learned is that Forde masonry may not have a full time staff. Martin definitely came out to my job periodically to deliver materials, but the masons who did the work were actually two latinos who seemed to be day laborers. They were competent, and very polite as I asked questions in my broken Spanish, but that makes accountability a little more difficult. That became a problem when I was in the basement with another contractor, and I saw one of the mason repairing a hole that was two withes thick. He was just repairing the outward face that I could see, but leaving a whole in the second layer. I asked him about it, so he dropped some mortar into the hole, a few bricks, and kept on with his repair. Yes, it visually looks fine and I would not have noticed if I were not watching as the hole was getting closed up, but that is not what I expect when I hire a professional mason to repair my walls. My job is done though, and I hopefully will not need masonry help for a while. Most of the issues I had are easily fixed with a little more attention to detail, and oversight, so I would encourage others to give Martin a chance if you need masonry help. read more

Martin and his team are incredible. They are polite, punctual, neat and hard working folks who provide wonderful work and a thoughtful approach. I highly recommend them to anyone with a masonry project. (Also, great prices- on top of all of it.) Great company, great to work with! read more

If I could've given 0 stars, I would've. I was trying 2 get estimates from 5 different masonry people 4 a big job. 1). It took Forde Co OVER A WEEK just 2 answer an email. 2). Martin made an appt 4 a Fri afternoon & I was making a decision that wk, so I cancelled a different contractor (electrician), in order 2 move things along. 3). Fri came & went with NO CALL/TEXT/EMAIL WHATSOEVER. Maybe they're gd masonry workers, but their customer services suck bitime. DON'T BOTHER booking an appt w them. Keep looking until u find someone who appreciates that your time is as valuable as theirs. Part 2 - update Now I feel terrible about what I wrote. Life happens & I obviously slipped thru the cracks when your assistant tried 2 reach customers. It's not your fault cuz stuff like that is bound 2 happen. It ended up being me. Guess I was tired of interviewing potential masonry people. Your company had 5 stars & my hopes were up. Wishing your family only the best. read more

An old chimney collapsed into a side yard from a three story building in Boston (thankfully no one was injured). Martin and his crew were able to quickly work on the job to remove the debris, set up scaffolding, rebuild the chimney, and remove a second weakened chimney. The appointments and quotations were all done in a professional and timely manner. The work was done with minimal impact to tenants and pedestrians, despite the property being located on a city street with limited parking. They pushed through the work despite hot summer days (some days were over 100F with high humidity). Afterwards, the site was cleaned up nicely. The price was competitive. Now Martin is my to-go person for future mason jobs. Also Martin is a very pleasant person to work with. read more

Martin is not only professional, responsive, and priced fairly, but he is also a really good guy. I own a rental in Medford, but I live in Denver which sometimes makes communication difficult with contractors. I didn't have to worry about that with Martin. A quick video chat with him made me 100% comfortable. I have since been by there and his quality of work is top notch. I would recommend Martin and Forde Masonry to anyone. read more

Forde Masonry, vouching for them with both hands and a foot. I have had extensive work on my brick house last year: steps, walls, repointing everywhere, replacing broken bricks, replacing rusted windows lintels, sealing, rebuild my chimney...had perhaps ten quotes, and can vouch for Martin Forde. Found exact match for the old bricks and cement, super neat, fast, once his crew starts, excellent price, attention to detail, no gouging on the little extras I requested during the job, very competent. Just amazing experience. Perfect scores on Yelp for a reason. Just recommended them on a local list group, realized that I have not left a review here. read more

Martin is the owner of this company. He is very responsive, reasonable and easy to deal with. He provided a quote to us very quickly for a chimney brick repair. The amount of bricks were repaired more than he anticipated, but he and his team were very diligent to complete the work precisely and timely. We will use his company again for other masonry work in the future. read more

After having a portion of my condo building repointed last summer, there still continued to be water seeping into the walls that I was alerted by the fire alarm system tripping ground fault. I called Martin to see if it had anything to do with the repointing job as the fire alarm company suggested that might be the reason. Martin came out the very next day to help out. The issue seemed to actually be the roof, but he went up on the roof, assessed, took pictures and contacted colleagues in the roofing business. This was above and beyond for him to do, even after a year and a half from the work being done. He is a genuine contractor. Highly recommend. read more

Martin and his crew recently finished repointing the fieldstone foundation of our house and did an absolutely excellent job. The work is high quality and thorough - no cutting corners here. Martin, the owner, is very clearly an expert and these guys were willing to put in many hours to make sure everything looked right and was done properly, which was a huge relief. I highly recommend Forde Masonry Company's services and intend to use them in the future for other masonry work. read more

Martin removed existing brick stairs for me and replaced them with a new set of steps using stone and bricks. He carefully matched up the new bricks so that they would blend well with my brick house. We are very pleased with his work and and the overall result! He is very straightforward and I believe to be very honest. He worked on the stairs almost every day with periods of heavy rain sometimes preventing work but he even constructed a tent over the job so he could continue working until the job was done. I interacted with Martin almost every day that he was working here and would give him my feedback or concerns. He listens and tries to accommodate, also giving his own professional opinion and advice. I liked Martin very much and will use him for any further work we may have. read more

I reached out to Martin @Forde masonry because the building in the south end that I manage (and live in) had some issues after a recent inspection. I can't say enough about the work Martin and his team did at our building. The work they did was truly amazing and exceeded our expectations. The communication was transparent and timely. The prices were excellent as well. It was an absolute pleasure working with Martin and his team. Total Pro's. I highly recommend Forde Masonry and encourage anyone looking for quality masonry work, great people, and reasonable prices to get in touch with them. Forde Masonry Rules! read more

I had a need for garage repair on some cracks and oil spill and Martin did a thorough job of cleaning it and repairing any damage so it won't become worse. Martin also helped me with fixing my home's front step crack and replacing its rear panel. He's done a great job and I'm satisfied with his work. Martin is also professional and I can tell he loves his job. In the future, if I have any need for any masonry restoration work, he's the one I'm going to. Thanks Martin! read more

I cannot recommend Martin and his team enough. They just completed a job at my parent's house and my parents can't stop raving about how polite and professional they were. Martin responded to my request for a quote very quickly and the quote was more than fair for the job they did. The masonry work they did makes the house look new again. They even hauled away the old stucco that was removed before they got to the site because my parents couldn't move it. If you're on the fence about hiring Martin, just do it. You'll be a happy customer like we are. read more

I needed a small repair on a side walkway in Cambridge and had trouble finding a mason who would even return a call. Fortunately Martin from Forde Masonry was one of the few who responded. They were great! Martin gave me a quote based on a picture and was able to get someone from his team out to our location in just a few days. The work was completed exactly as expected and the gentleman who did the work was friendly and courteous. Unfortunately, they did originally remove the wrong section but ultimately repaired that section and the originally requested section. Martin immediately realized it was an error on their part and did not increase the cost at all. Martin was terrific to work with. I highly recommend Forde Masonry Company. read more

Martin and his team are skilled, professional, personable, and dedicated to getting a job done right. We hired them to repoint our foundation and chimney as well as pour concrete and grade a very narrow side yard where drainage and weeds had been a problem. They handled the challenges of our site capably and efficiently. We're glad we hired the Forde Masonry Company and would definitely do so again. read more

I engaged Martin to fix the foundation of 100+ year old house. This included waterproofing the perimeter, brick repointing, removing old wooden posts and installing new stainless steel beams and posts. Martin conducted this work with utmost professionalism, sent me pictures and updates regularly, and conducted excellent work. He did all this work in the midst of pandemic but did not let the pandemic affect the quality of his work. He even persevered to close the permit in time. Additionally, Martin offered quarterly check of his work and fixed any observations. I was quite pleased with Martin's work and professionalism. Highly recommend him for masonry work. read more

They redid the front walk and stairs to our house. We're really pleased with the outcome. Martin was reliable, hardworking, and responsive. He even came back and touched something up that we realized we had missed. A pleasure to work with. read more

I am thrilled Martin fixed my retaining wall , patio and repointed my front steps! It was atrocious and now ,not only is it beautiful, it drains away from my house and my house, somehow, no longer creaks . I've given reviews a bit too early in the past so I waited until after a heavy rain . Still good! Other trades people commented on the fact that it was being done properly. He does excellent work quickly and efficiently. I did have to point out a couple detail issues but he fixed them. I would definitely call Forde again! read more

I had Forde Masonry Co. repoint my front stairs and fix some cracks in my retaining walls. Their craftsmanship and hard work was remarkable. The results was Perfection!! They even cleaned up so nicely. I will be using them on other projects down the line and highly recommend them. Kathleen Morris read more

We had Martin fix our front steps a couple years back and he did a wonderful job. They have now weathered a few Boston winters and held up beautifully. He was easy to work with, very honest, and did a great job. I would definitely work with him again. Exactly the sort of team you want working on your house. read more

Martin was amazing and great to work with, excellent communication, kept us updated on timeframe and job status. We have brick stairs with beautiful stones which my grandfather installed more then 50 years ago. They had begun to crumble in many spots, Martin repaired them and made them looks exactly as it had when they were originally installed. Price was very fair, I plan on having him do more work for me in the future. read more

I've worked with Martin on a project (he was doing the patio, I was working on the deck), and was very impressed by his professionalism. I almost never write reviews for other workers. It is hard to find competent workers theses days. But Martin knows what he's doing, he is nice to work with, very respectful with the client, doing a beautiful job, don't hesitate to come back and do some adjustment to make client happy. I strongly recommend his services. read more

Martin and his team were great. They were thorough with their work and able to efficiently and effectively rebuild a chimney, install a French drain and help repair the foundation. Would highly recommend read more

Martin and the team worked diligently and communicated with us throughout every step of the project. We have a Brownstone townhouse that needed re-pointing on the top exterior, and him and his team showed up on time every morning for 6 days straight and got the job done in an exceptional matter. They are true professionals across the board and we are very pleased with the results. Highly recommend! read more