Straight Up Masonry

Tony Devlin came by to give me an estimate on the brick work for my 100-year-old house. I had six companies come to give quotes - he was the only person who came who was actually a mason (and would be doing the work himself).

He arrived - on time - and proceeded to explain, in detail, what needed to be done. He pointed out the same problem areas as the other companies, but offered up a number of different solutions as to how they could be handled (including the price and reasons why some solutions would make more sense than others). Even before he gave me his estimate, I had decided to go with Tony.

I booked an appointment with him and noticed, a few weeks later while tearing down drywall, a crack in the basement foundation wall. I emailed him pictures and once again, he offered solutions on how to fix it. I asked if he could repair it the day he was schedule to do the external brick work and he agreed.

The day of my appointment, I pulled a last-minute change and asked him to brick in a ground-floor window instead of replacing the sill (as I had originally requested). He was extremely accommodating and left to get the extra material that was needed. He and his assistant worked all morning on the exterior of the house. When he was done, he asked me to take a look at his work to make sure I was happy.

The work was fabulous. The replacement brick and mortar was such a great match, it took me a while to find the areas he'd replaced. The new sill on the 2nd floor looked amazing - I was tempted to replace all the sills on the house (even though they don't need replacing...yet). Tony bricked in the (last-minute switch) ground-floor window, then parged over it to match the rest of the existing wall. Once again, if I had not known how it looked before, I'd have never guessed he'd done work on it. He even went to the front of the house and did some tuckpointing on areas we hadn't discussed - at no extra charge.

Tony then came into the house to fix the crack in the basement. Even though the distance from the door to the basement is 15 feet, he took off his boots, then put them back on after descending the basement stairs. While he was doing work down there, he noticed a leaking problem in another portion of the basement. He called me down so I could see the problem, explained what was wrong, and then proceeded to tell me how I could fix it.

When Tony was done his work, he gave me the bill and explained, because I was using one less sill, he was going to charge me less (even though I was the one who asked for the last-minute change and he had to run around to get new material). So, the actual billed price came in at less than the estimate.

I checked out the work areas after he'd left and everything was as clean - or cleaner - than when he'd arrived.

I am extremely impressed with Tony and his work. I would 100% recommend him to anyone who needs masonry work done. He is punctual, polite, honest, respectful and does extraordinary work. I know I will be calling Tony in the future.