Saw the ad in the Wellington Advertiser and had Cleon Martin come to give a quote. We then arranged for him to do the brick repointing two Saturdays ago. He stated he is experiened in restoring old houses. This Victorian house is approx 170 years old. Well, it was FREEZING weather, below zero at night, and I questioned whether it was wise to do the work in that cold. After some hesitation he agreed that no it probably wasn't a good idea. Suspicious, I started researching what was involved. I discovered these old bricks require an old style lime mortar or they will be damaged and cracked if you use new style cement mortar. We heard from him again last night, Friday late. I had already asked him if he would be using lime in the mixture, and he had said yes. So, again I asked which mortar he planned to use and should I wet the walls down as it was recommended? He was using an out of the bag mortar (modern type) and said no, wetting the bricks was not necessary. I explained in detail why we needed to have the old style mortar. 9 pts Sand, 2.5 pts lime and only 1 pt portland cement. He then said that he had already taken on another job for today and perhaps next Saturday. He called this evening and was EXTREMELY rude and belligerent stating that he wasn't going to fool around with that "crap" and since I knew more about it than he did, I could do it myself. Rude, nasty and unprofessional and this man does not know what he's doing! First he wanted to work in freezing overnight conditions, then he doesn't know about the mortar, or keeping the bricks wet, he does not even know what is meant by tuck pointing. Use this business at your great risk!! read more
