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

I interviewed a few masonry companies for repairing spalling brick in my basement. Some wanted to…read moreparge 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.

i had a great experience with Citywide. Great work, guys were polite and considerate. Final…read moreproduct was better than we imagined.

Excellent work! They were easy to talk to and made sure to write down the details in a quote so…read morethat we wouldn't have any surprises on the job.

I appreciated the response and service provided by Luke and his team. There were 3 jobs - replace…read morethe cap on a fire pit, apply polymeric sand on the patio pavers, and replace several leds embedded on edge of the patio. I will definitely request their services in the future.

They did small patio for me, and I'm very happy with the results. Sean we generally very responsive…read moreover text and the work was done quickly and well.

Omar and his guys do amazing work! I have used them for different projects over the years! They…read morerecently helped one of my clients with Landscaping and it came out beautiful! His guys always show up on time, work very diligently, and do a wonderful job!

Omar has been excellent, he took time put his busy schedule to come by property to provide me an…read moreestimate. He was professional, courteous and friendly. I recommend this company for anyone seeking work done on thier property or business.

We searched a long time for the right contractor for our front railings. Jeff and Riccardo were…read morefantastic. They provided detailed estimates and were able to answer all our questions. They also adjusted on the fly and we able to make a custom solution for us with beautiful wood railings with aluminum balusters. We've gotten multiple compliments from friends how sharp it looks. We have two small kids and were very concerned to be going into winter without railings (we are 33 steps from the street). Jeff was able to squeeze us in before the end of season. Riccardo and his team were out in the freezing temps finishing the railings. Everything came out great; communications were smooth throughout; and cleanup was perfect. I'd highly recommend this company - we plan to use them for home improvement projects in the future.

Working with Masonworks has been a roller coaster. They are very, very good at the masonry aspect,…read morebut we had a negative experience with everything outside of the excellent stone walls and patio they built for us. They have built beautiful flat stone walls for us in our front and back yards. We were very impressed with them after the first job they did for us in our front yard a few years ago, so we did not even look at other companies when we wanted to spruce up our backyard this year. The garden walls they built in the backyard were once again beautiful. However, as a gardener, I was disappointed and frustrated by the following things: - Our contract included 50/50 loam compost for the new garden beds. During the job, we caught them filling the beds with the grass they had pulled up from our old lawn and asked them to stop doing that. - When I went to start planting, I found that the garden beds had only a layer of new soil but that my shovel quickly hit a lot of big rocks and uncovered old soil, debris, and trash. - They completely trampled and destroyed my established perennial garden, which was located in a garden bed above where the new beds were built. They also broke several pavers in a little garden path I had and removed them without replacing them. - They recommended microclover for my lawn and seeded it for us as part of the contract, but it grew in quite spotty despite us maintaining it properly with daily waterings. I contacted them about the first issue and their initial response was to tell me that the stones I was finding were part of the wall construction - this was not the case. They had someone come out to take a look and concluded that the soil did need to be replaced, which they finally did. It is much better now, though I still have found some large stones in it. However, in the process of solving that issue, they caused the second one - many of the perennials that my mother and I had worked to plant over the past four years were totally destroyed. They offered me a credit to compensate for the loss, or the option to have them reinstall new flowers, but by that point I just didn't want them near my garden anymore so accepted the credit. I didn't bother contacting them about the spotty lawn - I threw down some grass seeds yesterday to try and fill in the gaps. While I appreciated that they did eventually take steps to resolve the issues, I found it quite frustrating to have to keep reaching out just to get them to do what they really should have done in the first place. They never did a final walkthrough as I've seen other contractors do. No apology for destroying my garden. They have a Benjamin Franklin quote, "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten" - I definitely felt some of that bitterness throughout this process. My conclusion is that they are really excellent masons but do not understand or respect gardens. If you hire them, be prepared to have to deal with that.

The Lawnmark Plus truck broke our storm drain cover and its pavement when their inexperienced…read moredriver backed into a part of our driveway which was clearly too small for their heavily loaded, huge truck. You can see the photos online under Google Reviews. After 2 months of waiting for them to repair this, like they had mentioned and finally getting an answer that they won't do anything after we had to call them repeatedly & they would not talk to us directly, we wanted to find someone who could repair the damage before winter. Firstly, it is very hard to find anyone to quote the job. One vendor, with the most reviews on Google took 3 weeks and still finally quoted a crazy amount. I could probably build a new driveway 3 times over at that cost. Next guy, came quickly and quoted half of that crazy amount - which still made no sense. Finally, I came to Yelp at the end of the line, and asked for quotes, not expecting much. Of all the vendors who replied, Ben was the only one who was prompt, very responsive, and came quickly to do the quote. Then, we agreed to repair just what was needed and replace the cover with a metal one. The install date came quickly, and he went over & above to try and get the work done as estimated - including finding a metal cover, because in a few days time, they were sold out everywhere. We could not afford to pay more for the metal cover he did find, but he was gracious enough to cover the remaining amount himself. Pretty unheard of compared to the lawn company who had 0 customer commitment, responsibility or ethics. I wish we could have covered the total cost of the cover he did find, but not at this time. We just could not afford it. The work was done well. It is a solid, cast iron storm drain cover that should last a very long time. It is heartening to see young people do work in these areas where it is very hard to find anyone in the new generation doing these jobs. Hopefully, in the coming year, our situation will improve and when we do our driveway, I look forward to hiring Ben to redo it, as it is getting old. Other vendors should see and learn from his work ethic. This is how you get customers and customer loyalty. He is like the only other vendor I have found in the Greater Boston Area who put customer satisfaction above everything else. That is what we need in these times, where many of us are going through hard times, and we need more kindness and understanding around us. Well, Christmas is not that far off!

My review of Statewide Masonry &Construction and the waterproofing job I hired them to do work…read morestarting 10/10/2023. The owner Ben Cawley came out looked the Job over. I showed Ben the places where water comes starting at chimney base on west side of house around to the front side to the garage. Ben did go up on the roof to check the Chimney and mentioned that would need work. I took him down to the basement so I could show him exactly where the water comes in as the last heavy rain storm made a mess. There is a room underneath the garage I showed the places where water would enter. Back outside he told me what he was going to do and how, I am retired and have worked construction so I am familiar with what had to be done. Dig around foundation, dig out the two attached to house planters, front porch landing, cut the concrete and asphalt in front of garage Told me he would give me three estimates, Chimney side and front. The whole house foundation and the chimney work. I received emailed invoice with the three proposals. I went with front wall and right side only and chimney repair. Date was set for 10/3/2023. I was contacted by Ben later to change to 10/10/2023. I told him then to take the chimney out of the picture he was fine with that. This information is important as it will show in the next part. 10/10/23 Ben arrives with his crew they start working I sign the contract all seemed fine. When they got to the planters ran into problem. At one time the house had a walkway around the front and the planters were built on top so they would have to chip through the concrete to access the foundation. Good move canceling the chimney work, four grand to cost. They needed a hose for the concrete saw I let them use one. At another time I check and the side concrete landing was cut but not chipped. I asked Ben when he was going to get to the garage. He said the garage was not included, told we talked and I told him not to get the garage, I told him there was no way I would not include the garage, he was mistaken, He insists I told him to stop there. I told him again he was mistaken. The concrete is cut, side is dug, planters dug to concrete to be chipped I tried hard not to lose it. Told me on the contract he brought that day had "area discussed" those two words were not in the email with the proposals. See Pics. I told him again there is no way no how I would not include the garage. I am feeling like I am in a bad contractor joke. That is five grand added to the cost. I did the grin and bear it the best I could. Creditability has now entered the picture. That is, it for that part. The job is moving along and the last day got here, I hear them arrive. After a bit I go out to look, you will see the picture with a blue tarp. I started a landscaping project before this water situation. And I dug and screened the dirt I am putting new lawn is this part of the yard. Well, they wanted to fill the planters and without asking, and not knowing what it was for, they used it to fill the planters, Ben thought nothing of it apologized. Now the aesthetics for the house the concrete squares you see laying on the ground didn't get placed back and would have gotten tossed with the rubble If I had not gone out and had them saved. Now for the slate walkway to front porch, some pieces had to be moved to dig pulled them out no one took a picture. They did sort of get them in place just not very well, see pictures. I had three blue tarps I did not notice missing till the next day. I had to rake a lot of debris off the lawn, empty the planters as that is not how I fill them. That is why the concrete squares were in place there. 8 wheelbarrow loads from one planter with a lot of debris in it and on the other that had dirt from under tarp I shoveled to the ground that I cleared to seed. I posted a review similar to this one. Ben contacted me on how to make it right It. I told him to come clean the concrete spay stains from the concrete saw off the house. I went out there today10/25/2023 with a bucket of soapy water scrub brush and hose. Scrubbed the siding and the concrete not working to good, hole behind downspout not filled with concrete and now I have standing water where the concrete was cut and filled but not leveled and the expansion joints on the concrete landing need to be sealed see pics. The slate walkway is in disarray where the slate was removed and put back is sunken and not stable. Three pictures are of the room below the garage where we used drylock paint trying to stop some of the leaks. no way would I not have included this. Work was very unprofessional. A lot of damage. 10/26/2023 out to Lowes to get backing foam and Self Leveling Sealant for the expansion joints. J.P.L Again look at the pictures. Judge for yourself

SF Construction and Masonry (Jerry) - aka SF Built Construction - was to repair concrete steps…read more The job went very wrong. Frankenstein job - horrible swirls/clumping. Nothing like pictures of "their other jobs". Zero cleanup. Concrete all over railings and yard. Knew temps would be 20 degrees said it would be fine. But ask any professional. Two months on cracking and hollow sounding, no adhere. Stairs are wavy and uneven from 6 to 8 inches. Puddling of water. Written SOW said there would be metal mesh and a rubberized layer. Neither happened. They wrote a 30 year warranty which I now know is silly for a concrete patch job - disingenuous. They insisted on payment that night - I now know why - and it became difficult/impossible to reach Jerry. After skipping a planned meeting, Jerry has gone totally quiet. No replies to calls or texts. See the work for yourself - 124 Cedar St Somerville MA Save yourself some heartache - do not use this company!!!!! pics https://bit.ly/3AzcwOU

Total losers and crooks. Absolutely destroyed my chimney and sweet talked a check from my wife…read more When I got home these bandits left such a mess of the chimney and ruined my new siding. Sent me obscene text when I demanded they come back to figure this mess out. Absolute criminals

Nery is very responsive and does quality work. I would like to work with him again in the future…read more Many thanks for your help, Nery!

Nery (EDDIE) is a very nice guy and also his crew. They did a great job on our chimney in a great…read moretime and manor. He responded quickly to my request and was on time for everything. I would highly recommened him and use him agian.