Renaissance Masonry

3 men, 3 days of solid work, no fooling around or leaving the job. These guys care about their work! The result is a major improvement. It was also a difficult site, a small garden managed by a fussy gardener and little damage done! I'd like to continue working with them, but 3 workers/day makes for a hefty cost. Yet I feel their price represents value, so don't hesitate. This is as good as it gets.

John and his crew re-pointed the basement walls of our +100 year old rubble foundation. The mortar had dried out and was crumbling everywhere. John and the crew moved all of our stuff away from the walls, scrapped out the old mortar, applied new mortar and concrete where needed. When things dried out a bit they moved all of our stuff back against the walls. They did the inside and the outside of the foundation. I would hire John and his crew again in heart beat!

It was a hassle while work was going on, but we have other bathrooms in house; and they only did showers one at a time. Work area completely sealed off, no dust; cleanup was thorough. The job needed doing, and was long overdue. John is the best, having taken over from a former proprietor under a different business name. Excellent work, craftsmanship, has a full crew: electrician, plumber, relationship with painters; cannot recommend highly enough!

Kevin at Renaissance Masonry was a true professional. I would definitely hire Renaissance again. They were responsive, timely and a pleasure to work with. My 4 unit condo association was gut renovated in 2009; our house in Cambridge is a traditional multi-family with a foundation that dates back to the early 1900s. A large brick wall in the basement was spalling and needed to be fixed. From the first estimate, Kevin was a great communicator - telling us exactly what to expect and projected time the job would take. The basements for the 4 units all have separate access and owners, so we needed to coordinate quite a bit with schedules and days of work. Kevin was very accommodating - ensuring all work could be performed when the relevant owners could provide access and also giving us an update every morning and evening at the start/ end of each day (the job took 5 days in total). Kevin and his crew were clearly hard workers - they finished the job in the time projected and even stayed late a few afternoons to accommodate our different scheduling needs (mentioned above). We are extremely satisfied with the work!

I'm not a mason, but my wall looks good and from what I can see, the chimney on my 3 story house looks good. In the spring, I plan to hire him to fix a chimney on another house.

John and his crew were great - fair estimate, showed up on time, extremely professional and did great work. Went above and beyond and fixed a few things that we're not included in original estimate. Would highly recommend.

They gave us a reasonable estimate, showed up when they said they would and completed the job in two days. We are pleased with the quality of their work.

1. Align and temporarily support the existing porch roof. 2. Remove the existing porch deck, including the foundation piers and concrete stairs. 3. Remove the soil for a width of 4' and a depth of 10' in way of the collapsed foundation, and remove the old field stone foundation in way of the collapse. 4. Install a reinforced concrete footing for the new wall. 5. Construct a new 12" concrete block wall with wire and rebar and filled cores for a distance of 12', to repair the collapse. 6. Construct forms and cast a 4' wide by 6' high section of reinforced concrete to reinforce the field stone wall adjacent to th new wall and to provide a structural transition between the old and new walls. 7. Remove and replace a 4' section of rotten sill under the existing house structure. (new work) 8. Install a new concrete floor in way of the new wall. (new work, old floor was dirt) 9. Jack the new sill in the work area and transfer the weight of the house to the new foundation. 10. Install a waterproof coating on the exterior of the new foundation. 11. Backfill and compact the soil in the porch area. 12. Install two new sonotube foundation piers for the new porch. 13. Remove the existing gutter, facia and soffit boards and the rotten framing ends from the old porch. 14. Install new facia and soffit boards and new pressure treated framing ends on the porch overhead. 15. Install new aluminum gutters on the porch. 16. Install a new pressure treated supporting column to the outside corner of the porch and remove the temporary supports. 17. Fabricate and install a new pressure treated deck and two new stair sets. The contractor provided a portable toilet for his men and arrived on time for work each day. Due to the "open and inspect" nature of this job, I was available each day to respond to new discoveries and adjust the plan of action as we went. The quality of work was excellent. The responsiveness of this contractor to the changing nature of ths job as discoveries were made was an important part of the success of the project. We got four bids for the work and Renaissance was right in the middle and they made good their bid for the original portion of the work. Their bid matched our insurance company's estimate. For the extra work, we agreed on a man/day rate and paid them by the day. To save money, I agreed to do the painting and lawn reseeding. We are completely satisfied with Renaissance's performance and would not hesitate to use them again.

The mortar in our 90+ year old fieldstone foundation was crumbling in lots of places. Renaissance did a great job fixing it all up and making sure we were happy with the work. What more can I say - they are great!

John was very friendly and professional in all of our interactions. He was easy to get in touch with and kept us up to date on the progress of the job. We got a quote from another contractor that was exactly the same, so we're pretty sure the price was fair. The job was not urgent, so were fine with waiting a month or so for John to start, but once he started the job it was finished within the quoted time frame. We will definitely use John again for all of our masonry needs (not sure how many of those we'll have, but still...) and would recommend him without hesitation to anyone needing masonry work in the area.

They were pleasant to work with. They showed up on time.

Renaissance Masonry just started working today. They are a small company and it was kind of an emergency situation that made me contact them and they came out the same day with regards to my inquiry to them. They were very nice, they gave me a fair price, it is frames so unfortunately I had to wait for them to fit me in to do the work, but he stayed in contact with me, he didn't drop me and I had to wait 3-4 weeks before they showed up today to do the work but so far so good.

Outdoor work in the Spring is hard to schedule if you've got an emergency, like I did. My stair was literally falling down and coming apart - salt and water damage. Renaissance came out the same day I called, gave me an estimate, the same day and put me on the schedule 2 - 3 weeks out. The work hasn't been done yet, but I appreciated the responsiveness and the honesty about the job, and considering its a fairly small job, I appreciated them taking the work!

Returned call same day. Visited the house on the weekend, provided quote later in the day and completed the work during the next week. Very well done, clean and professional.

Like someone else commented, they never returned my call for an estimate.

It was a good experience. He did quality work.

Service was excellent from start to finish.

Our 1890s house has a field stone foundation that appeared to be in fairly good condition. It wasn't until we starting trying to chase down cold air drafts making their way to our kitchen, that we noticed that the masonry in our bulkhead needed some repair. This inspired us to inspect the condition of foundation all around our house, including a portion of our house under our porch that is not easily accessible. This stretch of the foundation was in shocking condition and had probably not been touched in 100 years. Almost all of the masonry between the stones had crumbled away, and there was a section of the beam not supported by any stones at all. We contacted Renaissance Masonry and they were able to check out the foundation the next day! They were very knowledgeable and I had the sense that they cared about craftsmanship and making sure that the job was done right. They spent an entire week on the project, and I couldn't have been happier with the results. I will definitely call them again if we need masonry restoration - but judging from their work, it probably won't be for another 100 years.

Renaissance Masonry were excellent. I called them because they were recommended on Angie's List and because they were local. Mark came out very quickly and gave me an estimate. He was able to fit me in this fall which was concidering the clock was ticking on the good weather. He came out, did a good job, cleaned up, and did it for the quoted price. He was prompt, thorough, and professional.

One of the brick foundation walls that support a small tower addition to my 1888 house had needed re-pointing or repair for some time. This summer the gas company laid a new gas line into my basement, and when they drilled through that wall, it became clear that it most likely needed replacement, not repair. I chose Renaissance Masonry based on Angie's List reviews because they were familiar with old houses. When they came to view the job and give an estimate, they were undaunted by replacing a wall that required access via a crawl space and that might have serious foundation issues only visible after excavation. Before the work could begin, it was necessary to dig out and remove a sizable portion of the dirt floor of the crawl space. This would provide a flatter, more suitable level to accommodate the temporary support system of beams to insure that the corner of the house was supported for the time it took to remove the entire front wall and rebuild it with two courses of brick. A crew of three men accomplished all the work in five days. In addition to the prep work and the masonry involved in replacing the wall, they checked the stability of the two side walls of the crawl space and made sure the new brick work fit well with the existing older walls. The crew was knowledgeable, industrious, and pleasant to deal with. Their clean up each day was thorough, and the end result is a beautiful new brick wall that blends in well with the rest of the foundation.

They came, went to work, and left each day for 3 days. Job accomplished quickly and successfully.

I called Renaissance Masonry and Kevin returned my call the following day. We set up an appointment and he came right on time. The price was reasonable (I had had 2 other estimates), the wait time do-able and the job was superbly done. We would hire him again in a heart beat!

No work was performed. But even if they are busy a call back is essential and good business manners.

Despite the job being fairly small, John was willing to take it on and did a great job with the repairs.

I found Renaissance on Angie's list. My criteria were a relatively clean record, and as local as possible; "relatively" because there are always unhappy customers no matter what, and if the vast majority were happy, the contractor was doing things right. "Local" was important because I might want to look at his prior work before deciding. John responded by phone the next day after I called and he came to look at the problem. He made some suggestions that I thought were very sound and I agreed with them. He called back the following day with his estimate which was fair and we agreed on a start date in about two weeks. A lot of rain fell, and the date slipped a bit but he kept me informed.The work proceeded to completion without any interruptions. John and his crew are craftsmen who take great care in doing the job correctly and with an eye towards also making it look the best. As the son of a builder I am famililar with well-done masonry and cement work. I have already recommended him to others.