Straight Up Masonry

I was impressed with this company’s honesty and work. This is my first renovation and we need to remove our chimney to give us some extra space in our second floor bathroom. My wife and I meet Tony and I told him that we want to remove our chimney starting from the basement to the roof. He explained the work that is required to complete the job, and he told us that we don’t need to remove the whole chimney and they can just remove from the second floor and to roof. (which save us money; reinstalling drywall and painting our main floor dinning room).

The few days before the job was scheduled, Tony visited my house and discovered that he could not properly remove the chimney, because there were pines going in to the chimney (we don’t know what is it for). He told me that they can remove the chimney, but they don’t know if the pipe is for venting or some kind of exhaust and how is this going to affect my attic.(My bathroom reno was not schedule for another week. SoI have my contractor fix the problem). I like his honest, I think any other contractor will just remove my chimney without checking any possibility of problem with the structure or damages that can happened.

Tony also coordinate they roofer to fix the roof after they remove the chimney. The whole removal was fast and painless.

Tony and his colleague from Straight Up Masonry replaced the firebox in our chimney which was clearly in need of repair. I receive their quote which was well below others we had received. They completed the work within days and for a very messy job, they were careful and professional. The job took more than 8 hours and they worked all the way through. This is a professional organization, with follow up to ensure that everything was working. I would not hesitate recommending this company. They were stars!

I would like to recommend Anthony Devlin Masonry. Anthony was very helpful when it came to working on our chimney. Infact since do not use it, we had Anthony take it down. the work was done quickly, efficiently and there was absolutely NO mess. Anthony was also very helpful and quick to respond to any calls or e-mails i had sent him prior to the work. I would highly recommend his services.

Tony came to give me the quote within three days of my call. He was able to answer my questions politely and willingly, and was helpful in making suggestions about what would work best. I was given the quote in August, but Tony was booked up until mid November.I am very pleased that I took my chances with the weather and waited. Tony and Dominic were on time, did the job efficiently and left the area neat and tidy. As happens so often with renovations, there were things about the original plan that had to be rethought. The problems were explained clearly, resolved quickly and efficiently and the price was extremely fair. I would not hesitate to call on Tony again, and I would definitely recommend his company to others. I also had three quotes originally, but as with the other reviewer,the thing that swayed me in favour of Stright Up Masonry was the fact that the owner did the work. Thank you Tony and Dominic for an excellent job.

I contracted Tony Devlin of Straight Up Masonry to replace a deteriorating brick chimney awkwardly situated on a steep pitch roof near the front of my 3 storey house. Compounding the problem was the hydro mast situated directly under the chimney at the side of the house. Despite the obvious challenge, I had every confidence in his ability to complete the job to my satisfaction.

While explaining how he was going to do the job, Tony informed me that in order to erect the 4 storeys of scaffold required to reach the chimney, I would have to have my power line and my neighbours insulated due to safety code regulations pertaining to the proximity of the scaffold to the hydro lines. He provided me with the name of a company and within a week, the lines were sleeved and work could commence.

Tony and Dom returned on the arranged date and proceeded to construct the scaffold and began removing the old brick chimney. They took steps to protect my property and keep anyone passing by safe from falling brick. It was obviously a difficult and dangerous task but they managed to have it down safely by afternoon. Tony closely inspected the condition of the brick below the roofline and noted that the brick was degraded so he removed some additional courses so that the new chimney would rest on a good solid foundation. He pointed out some of my neighbours new chimneys that looked okay from the roofline upwards but were clearly built on courses of spalled and deteriorated brick. Obviously a shortcut that some other masonry contractors take and a good thing to watch out for to make sure that you're getting a proper rebuild. The additional brick work was not included in the original terms of the contract but he did not charge me extra, so it turned out to be value added to the job and much appreciated.

They protected the area at the end of the day in the event of inclement weather, returned promptly the next morning and continued rebuilding the chimney which was proceeding as smoothly as can be expected for such a difficult job but, alas, another situation reared its ugly head. Tony was running out of brick and for good reason; my original chimney was not built to code and was too short for the current roofline clearance requirement and also due to all of the additional bricks that were removed to obtain a solid foundation. Tony presented me with a couple of options. 1) to buy more bricks and build it to meet the current code or 2) to leave it at the height of the old chimney and exchange the one foot clay flue liner for a two foot. The easiest solution would be to extend the clay flue liner and be finished the same day. However, aesthetically, we agreed that the best option was to build the chimney up with additional bricks but would extend the job by another day. We agreed on a new price and he went off and purchased more bricks. Keep in mind that Tony could not have seen that the original chimney was not constructed to code due to the sightlines to the chimney and therefore was not included in the original contract estimate. I was not available to meet with him on the day he was on-site to estimate so he wasn't able to see the chimney from the third floor deck. When I mentioned to Tony that the other estimates I had were cheaper than his to start with, combined with the cost of the additional labour and materials, he generously offered to reduce our previously agreed on price increase and offered to split the difference; I would cover the material cost and he would cover the labour. We shook hands on it and ended the job on a high note. Again, just another example of Tony sacrificing his business' bottom line to please a client. He did not rush the job, as a result, but paid the same care and attention to detail to maintain his high standard of quality workmanship. He even integrated brick ties into the construction which adds structural integrity, something I had not seen before. The finished product is simply outstanding. It blends right in with the colour and character of the house. Combine that with their thorough site cleaning and you'd never know that Straight Up Masonry had undertaken such a comprehensive project. I look forward to dealing with Tony next season on another project.

Anthony and his worker were very professional, explained about the work in advance and made sure to show me the work after they have finished.
They did the work quickly, while keeping a professional manner.

I am very impressed with Tony's attention to detail and the fabulous work he does. He has proven himself to be very reliable. Not only does he do a great job, he often finishes ahead of schedule. I would definitely recommend Straight up Masonry.

Tony Devlin came to replace the pathway around the house after we had had waterproofing work done.

He arrived when he said he would, did an excellent job, cleaned up any debris afterwards and was pleasant to work with.

This is the fourth time Tony has done work at our house and I cannot recommend him highly enough

Working with Tony and his team was seamless from start to finish. Tony was responsive and provided us with his honest and professional option about the areas of our brick home that we thought needed attention. In Many cases Tony reassured us that a fix wasn't necessary. Tony even went beyond our expectations by cocking areas around windows where he saw issues and provided us with photos of the completed job (as our chimney is high up it wasn't accessible for us to see). We highly recommend Tony and Straight Up Masonry.

Straight Up bricked over a basement window and a messy hole in the foundation left by previous owners. The job was quick, clean and looks amazing. I will definitely call them again for future masonry work.