Northsouth Masonry & Tuckpointing Inc

Dan and his team did a great job. We called the week before (Wed), Dan came out to give us an estimate the next day and his crew completed the job in a day less than a week later (Tues). They were punctual, polite, clean and did a wonderful job. We will definitely call Dan again.

I was very pleased with the work performed by North South. The house looks great and they did a quality job. They were professional, reliable and did exactly what they promised. I would hire them again without hesitation.

Our building is a one-hundred-year-old three-flat and needed touch-up tuckpointing; that much we knew. Some tuckpointing had been done when we bought our building twenty years ago, but it was obvious that things needed to be checked and repaired. We also had some serious moisture in the front part of our basement but didn't know why; that had to be addressed. Based on Northsouth's excellent reviews on Angie's List and on a recommendation from a neighbor, I called Dan and asked him to come over, take a look at our "issues", and give us an estimate. Dan came within a day or two, and spent over an hour looking everything over. His eagle eye saw all sorts of things we hadn't noticed, especially up at the chimney. And - uh-oh - the moisture in the basement was due to shoddy work done on the outside of our building at the time it was built, and then much later when we bought it, when a relative trying to cut corners and expenses had the balcony floors covered with roofing material. Bad move! Dan figured this out immediately, explaining that not only was the roofing-material-floor not pitched at all, it was deteriorating and allowing water to seep into the basement brick walls. And the floors should have been concrete, at least 4" thick. A lot of brick inside and out would have to be removed and replaced, with new mortar. On the outside of the building, which has an unusual, impossible-to-match brick, the brick could be cleaned and reused, and then relaid with mortar matching the other untouched sections of the building. We were grateful for Dan's straight-forward explanation of our biggest problem, the moisture in the basement, its cause, and how he'd go about resolving it. Dan got an estimate to us within a week and we sent him a deposit, asking him to put us on his schedule as soon as weather permitted. It was October and we thought we'd have to wait until spring, but we lucked out and ended up having a good two-three weeks of above-50 degree weather in November. Dan sent Cheki and his crew out and they started work. They did just about everything, including rebuilding the whole front of the brickwork on the building, from below the frostline up to and including the two window balconies, the interior basement work, the window lintels, the new limestone, the chimney work, and all the touch-up/spot tuckpointing on the rest of the building. I was very impressed; it was quite a bit of work. The crew showed up everyday around 7:00, and worked to at least 3:30-4:00. They even did some work on a few Saturdays. One or two days they couldn't work because of rain; Dan always called or emailed me beforehand so I'd know what was going on. Just about all that remained was the new concrete floors for the window balconies, but the weather got too cold. Cheki and the crew covered and secured those areas with layers of heavy-duty plastic, which protected it and everything underneath during the winter. We had some warm weather in late March, so they came back to pour the concrete floors then. They also touched up a few spots of new mortar that we weren't satisfied with. The last item, a vent opening outside on the wall near our furnace, proved more difficult. The old one was hopelessly rusted; it was probably original and thus one hundred years old. Dan promised he'd find a replacement, and though it took a few more months, he did, and Cheki installed it. So the job is complete, and everything is tight and dry. Our building is old and will need periodic checks and work. We'll only call Dan, no one else; he's on our permanent roster!

They were the first to return a quote (promptly). Another company returned a slightly lesser quote, but it was like pulling teeth to get them to come out and do the estimate. This concerned me, so I opted to go with NorthSouth. They came on time and the job was excellent.

Dan and his crew was great. I initially booked the work in the late summer 2010, and we had problems finding days that were dry and warm enough to do the work, but Dan squeezed us in towards the end of the fall. With the disclaimer that I am extremely picky when it comes to my house and am known to make people re-do work multiple times, I was unsatisfied with the color mortar that they used -- it was a bit more red than the existing mortar. Dan was extremely gracious about it (even though ultimately he probably lost money on the job). They initially bleached the mortar to see if it would fix the issue, but it didn't -- and in the spring of 2011, when the weather warmed up, they redid all of the tuckpointing to fix the color. It was a great gesture on Dan's part, and my husband and I really appreciated that he did this without making a fuss. I've certainly worked with a number of companies that do not guarantee the quality of their work, or do so only after a fight, and this was a nice change from that pattern. The waterproofing made a pretty big difference in the block's resistance to water -- it largely stays dry when it rains, whereas our neighbor's houses absorb. Given that my goal is to make my house like Fort Knox when it comes to water penetration, I'm happy with the results. Also, days after they finished the waterproofing, our house was graffitied. Ah, the joys of living in the City of Chicago.... The City powerwashed, which did not remove the paint. I contacted Dan and inquired about powerwashing, and his crew stopped by and fixed it (for the most part) without charge. It was another really gracious gesture that will put this company on the top of my list when my home needs future masonry work.

Very pleasant experience. The owner is extremely responsive and knowledgeable. The work crew was diligent, hardworking, trustworthy and professional. Pricing was competitive with other quotes and the warranty was better than most. I would certainly use them again.

These guys were great, very professional and responsive over email. We have a carefully-tended garden which they were careful not to damage. We would certainly use them again.

I received a estimate last year for this job and the owner follow up via email to see if we wanted the work preformed this year. They kept the previous year's estimate and when the work was completed they came in right on target. They workers did a great job and were pretty clean, they could have done a little better job cleaning off excess mortar on my storm door. I also have a mailbox that is in the side of my house so a lot of excess dust and water leaked into my mailbox, so I would remind them to cover it up. Overall I think they did a great job and the work was worth the money spent. Best way to communicate with this company I found is via email, but that is fine by me..

Started and finished on time and did more than I requested. You can't beat their service!

It was excellent. They did good work.

They did an excellent job of rebuilding the chimney and matching the new brick. I had also asked them to tuckpoint 2 cracks on the side of the house. In doing the tuckpointing that I had asked for, they found several additional spots that also needed to be tuckpointed. They did these additional spots without asking me or charging me extra. They regarded it as just part of the job and they did what needed to be done. They also put up a new a TV antenna for me after they rebuilt the chimney. (Although this was mentioned in the original estimate, I don't think it impacted the price.) They were not too careful when stepping the garden along the side of the house, but I realize that they could not have worked on the brick without stepping in the garden. Since it was already October, no permanent harm was done .

Job started about 2 weeks early. lasted about 5 days as planned

Dan was quick to respond to my inquiry about providing an estimate for masonry work on our house. Because of their busy schedule, it took longer than expected to start the work. But, it was worth the wait. My husband and I felt like Northsouth Tuckpointing provided quality and honest work at a reasonable price. We recommend them!

My brick home needed some tuckpointing and repairs to the chimney and a short brick wall around a stairway to the basement. Dan came out and gave a free estimate and explained what needed to be done. Northsouth Masonry was considerably cheaper than two other proposals. Dan explained that the job would take a day to do and they could be out in about a week. A few days later he called and said they would be out to do the work. The three workmen were professional and they did a great job. I would not hesitate to hire Northsouth again, as they are a great company and everything went as Dan said it would, at a great price.

Called him earlier this summer and he came over the same day to give me an estimate. Had a few quotes and decided to go with Dan as he was prompt about coming out for an estimate and price was reasonable compared to the others I had called. I finally called him just recently to have him come out to do the work and it was done within a week's time.

I thought that they were very professional and easy to work with. They were easy to interact with as well. I thought that their quote was reasonable. They were in a timely fashion.

They were pretty prompt, they came out and gave me an estimate. We wondered if they could get the job done before it got cold and they could. They did a pretty good job, the only part I didn't care for is an area by the chimney where they replaced bricks they left a little sand and mortar mix on the grass. They didn't clean it up perfectly, other than that I think they did really good work.

We have used Northsouth before, and were very happy with the results. Dan Obrien is prompt in reutrning calls and came to our property more than once to given an accurate estimate for this current project. We are a condo assoc so the estimate needed to be approved by the association. This, of course, is not a quick process, but Dan was patient with waiting for our response and then subsequently scheduling the work. The exterior work was completed in about 2 days. One of the owners had some minor issues with some of the work..Dan responded within a couple of hours, and his crew attended to the issues when they came back to do the interior of the basement. We are very satisfied with the work. The work crew was very polite and did a great job cleaning up after the job. We would use Northsouth again.

We would highly recommend NorthSouth to others. Their crew, run by Ezekial, did a very thorough, precise, and clean job. They were courteous throughout. They included us in choosing the mortar. They cleaned up after themselves every day. They kept us informed of the schedule and progress. Additionally Dan O'Brien was easy to get ahold of and very thorough in outlining the job for the crew. Everything about this experience was positive. I would work with them again.

All the work was done exactly as requested and turned out great! The workers are careful and do excellent work. Cleanup was also very complete. Small communications problems with his workers but usually a minimal problem.

Dan O'Brien responded to my initial call quickly. He inspected the site and got me a quote within a couple of days. The time frame was short since the work had to be completed prior to a house closing. He had a team on site on a Saturday and they completed the work in a single day. They were on-time, thorough, efficient and left to site clean. I was very pleased with their work.

We priced this job several times and NorthSouth's was the lowest. It took a while to get started, but we were not in a hurry. The back stoop took a while to destroy, but Dan's team rebuilt it and filled in open brick spots for our porch and we love it to this day. The front was more problematic. The stoop ended up sinking in the dirt and falling away from the house. We called Dan to fix it. He did, but with different colored concrete than the original. When I called him on this he yelled that due to insurance costs and delays that he hadn't made any money on the job and that I was being demanding. It has been one year and the concrete is still a different color. The stoop itself - except for this repair spot - looks great, but Dan's temper and behavior with me was ultimately unprofessional. We are going to have to employ another mason to fix the pathway (which has the 12" X 24" different concrete block). My husband doesn't like the pathway they built but I take some responsibility.

They did an amazing job. They didn't just brick up the holes, they did it the right way and weaved the new bricks in with the old to make it stronger. They also put concrete block behind the face brick so there was no compromise structurally. The tuckpointing was done so expertly that you can barely tell the new from the old. I highly recommend Dan and his crew.

Dan O'Brien came out to give us an estimate and was very helpful in making suggestions of what we could do and how. His estimate arrived two days later, and we agreed to start work about a week after that. Dan and his crew worked four full days and did excellent work. Though the work is very messy, the space was cleaned up each night. We could not be happier with the results.

Dan showed up on time, though I forgot about our appointment. He did not get upset and showed up again promptly at our next appt. He gave me a pretty competitive quote and required no down payment for the job. His men showed up on time completed the work and cleaned up well. They did a nice job all around. He was not pushy about the money even after our first check got lost in the mail.