RENNER STONEWORKS

We had this quoted by several different masonry contractors. In the end, Mr. Renner's quote was significantly less expensive than all of the others (30-60% cheaper than the others we quoted) and provided references and even told us of other work he had done near our home (he did the stockwork at Thoroughbred park in Lexington in front of the Herald-Leader building). We assumed the high cost was because of the remoteness of the location. Mr. Renner was very responsive, completed all of the work very quickly and professionally, and did not require any payment up front even for materials. He waited until all of the work was done before requesting any payment. When he was finished, he cleaned up the work area. We were very impressed with his work and after dealing with several other contractors on different projects that were very disappointing, it was very refreshing and encouraging to have such quality work performed on the cabin. The chimney looks great now, and is one of the things that people always compliment us on.

We had had problems since purchasing the house with rain coming into the house via the chimney. Initially, we had had a repairman replace the flashing, but he had warned us that the repair might not work, and it did not--after the chimney kept leaking, he checked it again and said that the bricks were so old that they were absorbing the rain and allowing it to run into the house. We thus needed the chimney rebuilt from the roof up. We were referred to Renner from a commercial brick provider in the Yellow Pages. Mr. Renner was very polite and offered to provide a free estimate for the repair. We scheduled a day for him to come, but he had to cancel due to an emergency, and we rescheduled, and he was prompt in arriving for that appointment. He climbed up on the roof and carefully checked the chimney, and he even went into the attic to make sure repairs didn't extend that far. When finished, he said he would send a proposal. Probably a couple of weeks later, his secretary called and asked if she could fax or e-mail the proposal. She e-mailed it, and we then got a couple more estimates. Renner's estimate was substantially higher than the others (possibly because Renner Stoneworks is more for commercial purposes, from what I understand, than for residential), so we ended up going with someone else. However, Mr. Renner was very courteous and helpful, and I was impressed.