I hired Mike to fix a curved bump in the top of my cider block wall because we needed to install a wrought iron fence on top. The main problem was that only a portion of the wall needed to be removed & rebuilt & today's cinder blocks don't match my wall's cinder block that has aged for 50 years. This is where my rating of Mike & his crew becomes difficult to put an overall star rating. So, I am going to break down my rating by situations that I encountered during this process.
(*****) 5 star = Dismantling of wall & preserving the cinder blocks to be reused. This takes patience & skill not to break blocks during the dismantling process - only 5 broken out of 60.
(*) 1 star = The crew never organized the cinder blocks into 2 separate piles of darker colored blocks (to be used in a pattern) from the lighter colored blocks. This mistake caused all sorts of problems in the rebuilding of the wall...as described later. There were only 5 dark blocks. Mike told me he told the guys to separate out the dark "pattern" blocks from the light ones. See note below
--- There was a 2 fold problem with the cinder blocks that none of us expected:
1. The color of the blocks on my neighbors side of the wall were much darker than my side of the wall because the his side was shaded by trees over the years and my side of the wall always got direct sunlight.
2. When examining the cinder blocks in the direct sun, they appeared to be lighter than in the shaded afternoon sun.
--- Therefore, it was nearly impossible to tell in the direct sunlight which of the cinder blocks were considered the dark ones to be used again for redoing the darker pattern in the wall. Thus, by not separating out the blocks into 2 piles from the beginning caused a big problem. We had to make an educated guess as to which blocks belonged in the dark pattern.
(*) 1 star = Rebuilding of the wall (1st time). The guys did not pay attention to the discoloration of my neighbors side of blocks verses my side of the block. So, when they were done, I had a patchwork of light and dark blocks randomly scattered throughout the rebuilt wall. Now, the rebuilt side of my wall looked nothing like majority of the wall. (See photo of wall being rebuilt... and mismatching coloration of blocks)
(***) 3 star = The reaction I got from Mike when I told him that now the wall looked worse than before they started was met with frustration in his voice. It was a little hard to tell if that frustration was aimed at me or his crew, or both.
(***) 3 star = Mike's willingness to tear down the newly build wall and redo was the correct course of action. I did have to pay more for the rebuilding the wall a second time at a discounted rate. (You can judge that anyway you want to... I am not going to comment on that matter.) When it came time to rebuild the wall, Mike told me to supervise the placement of each block so his crew would not be responsible for any misplacement of discolored blocks again. He also told me that he wouldn't rebuild the entire wall again if there were any mistakes in my choices of placement... haunting words...
*** Note: in the second build, we still had no confirmed idea of which were the original 5 darker blocks to be used for the pattern because his guys never separated out these blocks when dismantling the wall the first time.
(****+) 4+ star = The quality of work for rebuilt wall mostly met my expectations. However, they used a regular cinder block for an end cap.
(*) 1star = The aftermath... Photos with blue tape
After the 2nd rebuild of the wall, the afternoon shaded light revealed the truth of the situation. Since I had to monitor & approve the placement of each block, I was able to fix the patchwork problem that had occurred the first time. However, now in the 2nd build, we still had one pesky problem of never knowing which were the original darker blocks to be used for the pattern (caused by his crew not separating out these blocks during the original dismantling). Therefore, despite my best efforts, I mixed up one the darker cinder block with a lighter one. I texted Mike photos of this mix up. I told him I'd pay to correct this problem since I did approve of the placement of these blocks. However, his response was "I am extremely busy at this time...Don't think I want to do any work on the back wall. We grouted the block and added rebar. Would be hard to save the blocks." I texted him back, but he NEVER responded back to me. Mike left me hanging with a mismatched block problem, an incorrect end cap, & an angry fence guy who was delayed with installing the fence & collecting his final pay. Oh, I finally did find another mason who fixed Mike's unfinished work on my wall.
--- Conclusion - Mike & his crew seems to do great work if the job is simple and straight forward. If there is a twist of the unexpected, then the trust for Mike to finish the job with integrity breaks down, even when the problem started on their end. read more