New Age Masonry and Waterproofing

They got fired, we paid $7000, they delivered $4000 at work, they threaten us if we don't wanna give them more money.

Overview: This was by far the worst experience that we have ever gone through with a contractor. In the end we had to call the police and had to let James Elliot go, $7,000 into the project, due to him acting on his threat of dumping debris that he had taken away 3 days earlier, (in the middle of the public sidewalk) in front of our house. This was because a $1,000 payment was not received within less than 24hrs after he claimed that he had finished the additional work on the wall corner. When we inspected that work at the end of that day, we outlined via email our concerns about the work performed and that it was not complete according to the contract. What we found was a big gap at the top of the wall, the cement was not poured all the way to the top (it is hollow) and the rebar that he said he installed was still laying there on the ground. What was most alarming was that the stucco after just a few hrs was already showing sagging and cracking. They (James & Olivia) were quick to send the invoice the same day and expected to be paid immediately, and pressured us to inspect the work right away, which we couldn?t do because we were working. This made them very hostile and threaten not to continue with the rest of the wall project. Details: First thing next morning after their claims of the wall corner being completed, we outlined all the issues and concerns that we found with the project (see ?Issues Summary?) and mentioned that we couldn?t pay for a job not completed, especially because his contract states that final payment constitutes waiver of all claims by Owner, of which we had plenty. We asked in the same email what the plan was to address all the issues. But it was too late?in one more of his hostile outbursts, James had already dumped all the debris back in front of our property, leaving us without any other option but to terminate his contract due to his unprofessional behavior and not doing the work stipulated in the contract. Flashback, we decided to go with this company because of the details in the contract about the type of work that would be performed and the 5 year warranties. Unfortunately, we discovered as the project went on that they didn?t abide by their contract, and James got very defensive and combative when questioned about why things are not performed as originally stated. His girlfriend and ?project manager? Olivia gave us the run-around to justify the work that he was performing, by saying that James is an expert and ?he does things for a reason?, but we never got a satisfactory answer or resolution to any of our concerns, just more excuses. Based on this, we waited for more of the job to be completed to see if things would improve, but instead they got worse. We started to experience more hostile behavior as time went by and no work was getting done. We experienced the first defensive outburst when we questioned James about the small size of the pipe used for the weep holes. We were told these holes would work, and that he would drill additional holes, but it never got done. The second outburst we experienced on Sunday 8/4 when we saw him storming out of the neighbor?s driveway in his truck, and we received a strange email immediately afterward, asking ?who moved my s**t??. We had no idea what he was referring to; we thought he got mad because we covered his tools with a tarp at night so they didn?t get wet. We called Olivia to understand what was going on. She confirmed that James was mad at us because he thought we took his sign down because he hadn?t shown up for quite a few days. We explained that we picked up the sign from the street and put it aside because it kept falling into the traffic and could have been run over. Later, we got an email letting us know that the communication with the expletive was not intended for us (even though James was here and took his sign with him, confirming the original story). He explained via email (to our dismay) that that communication had been intended for another client that he wanted to ?kill?, because that client was only paying him in $100 installments. At that point, it got plain scary and we proceeded to keep the communication to the minimum and straight to the point. Now here we are Friday Aug 9 having to call the police after his last tantrum, since this time he affected city property. We continue receiving unsavory emails from both James and Olivia, explaining that from their perspective they believe we were out to get them since day one and were planning not to pay all along, but after $7,000 that we have paid them, this contradicts their claims. We were very patient and gave them many chances to address our concerns during the project, including when he said he was sick. As of Aug 10th the last threat on their part is that they will be putting a lien on our property if we don?t pay him the $1,000, which now sounds more like extortion, since the work was not completed and what was done was not done properly. In Summary, here is the list of issues: *Corner Repair: Big gap between the cap corner and the wall; premature sagging and cracking of stucco; missing drainage on right corner; the pillar cap now has a lot of saw marks on it; the railing is lower than before and sticks out further than before; the corner repair was supposed to make the wall straight, but since it was not replaced, it is not straight; only the lose cement chunks were removed, not the entire corner, and no block-filled solid was used. Overall the work was not done as promised or fully completed. *Wall repair and resurface: The surface is very uneven. There is even a leaf sticking out of the stucco surface. The color is uneven and splotchy. James mentioned it would even itself out after 5 days. However, no change occurred and it is still just as splotchy as when it was put on. It looks even worse after it was touched up. We chose the color Tweed Brown for the stucco. However, without our knowledge they bought and used a color called Hacienda. We expressed concerns that it looked pink instead of brown, prior to us discovering that they used the wrong color. We were told that it will become more brown (it didn?t). *Drainage: The contract stated that existing holes would be drilled larger and filled with 1.5? PVC pipe with gravel and filter fabric behind the wall, none of this was done. Instead, James inserted ¾? pipe into the existing holes, making the existing drain holes smaller, which will make the drainage worse. Only one new drain hole was added, and they actually covered up some of the existing drain holes (!) with stucco. When it rains, water seeps out near the drain holes, which will probably make the stucco peel off. There is already white color (?Efflorescence?) showing up in these places. At this point we are looking for reimbursement for work that was not completed but paid for, including phase I & II contract items: 3,4 &6 for the stairs which were not done, item 5 was also not done, item 7 (limestone) we were led to believe that they bought them at the beginning of the project and payment of phase II would cover that cost. The sidewalk has many pink stucco stains and needs to be cleaned. The debris needs to be removed again. The corner repair most certainly will have to be redone, but we will know better after we get other quotes to inspect and properly finish that part. If that is the case, we will also will be looking for reimbursement on that work.

We had James Elliot (Owner) of New Age Masonry and Waterproofing Inc visit our condo building in the South End of Boston and give our association an estimate for masonry work to repair the front stairs (stoop) and remove/rebuild a small cement garden wall (10? tall). Mr. Elliot seemed relatively knowledgeable about materials and overall masonry. We requested a detailed quote of the work to be conducted so there would be no misunderstandings and he provided that along with a 10% discount (his quote was reasonable and he seemed eager to do the work) so we hired him. The entire project was $4,680 (includes 10% discount) so we gave him ½ the money down to start the job ($2,340.) The work involved (wording from our contract): Garden Wall 1)Remove concrete wall around entire front yard while saving the original railings 2)Form entire area around front yard to pour new concrete boarder to match existing size and depth leaving mounting holes for railings 3)Paint concrete boarder to match staircase 4)Clean entire jobsite of all construction debris Total cost of this phase is $2965.00 Stair work 1)Remove all lose brownstone from left and right side of staircase and powerwash 2)Patch all damaged areas using brownstone Mimic with built in bonding agent and paint and repair railings 3)All patchwork to match existing finish and design of original areas 4)Caulk left and right side of stairs where stairs meet sidewalls 5)Re-paint entire staircase matching existing color 6)Remove all lose material on underside of staircase and patch using Palitop p-98 waterproofing concrete coating and paint to match Total cost for this phase is $2236.00 When the work began, we expected a crew to arrive in order to complete the work in a timely fashion (10 days was quoted), but we found that James Elliot was the sole worker. He showed up on the job for 2 hours every third day (it rained a few days, but even on the good days he didn?t show), and by the end of the 10th day, he had removed only the 10? tall wall. When we questioned him on trying to speed up the process by coming more often and staying longer, he said that he would be done with the entire project in a few days. Later that day, he phoned us and stated that he had nearly completed the stair work, had already applied his first coat of Mimic and was now 70% complete with the entire job. This immediately set off alarms in our heads as the stair work, per our agreed upon signed contract involved extensive prep work (Line 1 above) before patching (Line 2 above) and there was also significant work involving refinishing handrails, caulking walkway, refinishing underside of stairs, painting new cement work and removal of all debris that had still yet to be completed and he had not even begun to build the garden wall yet. Our contract was explicit as to how the work was to be performed. Specifically for the stairs, the first line of the contract stated that he would: 1) ?Remove all loose brownstone from left and right side of staircase and powerwash? (powerwashing removes dirt, mold, chipping paint, so the Mimic product will adhere). Pictures and video of the stair work he completed showed that he didn?t remove the loose ?old? concrete and he didn?t powerwash before beginning the restoration. Note: Seasoned masons have seen his partially completed work and stated that the applied cement would not adhere to the loose concrete, dirt, mold and painted surfaces. All loose materials must be removed and the surface thoroughly cleaned. When asked specifically why he didn?t powerwash before adding the new Mimic, James Elliot stated that the powerwashing would happen at a later time (which didn?t make any sense to us and certainly not what we agreed to). The next line of the contract stated (see above): 2) ?Patch all damaged areas using brownstone Mimic with built in bonding agent and paint and repair railings?. Mr. Elliot stated that Mimic was the only product that should be used to repair Brownstone. We quickly found out from the seasoned masons that the material that Mr. Elliot used for the restoration of the stairs was not Mimic at all, but rather, Conpro Set cement, which is used for concrete repairs (there were empty bags of this under the stairs). The difference in price between these two is substantial with Mimic being approximately ten times the cost of the Conpro Set and the color of mimic is easily identifiable. We specifically chose James Elliot as a contractor due to the detailed repair work he was to conduct and his use of the superior Mimic product he stated that he would use. He, however, did not abide to the signed contract and we felt that if any changes were to be made to the work plan, they should have been immediately communicated before commencing the work. When we questioned him on this in person, James became entirely livid, physically aggressive and stating that we had no right to inspect his work. He stated that we had a contract and we should trust his judgment. Needless to say, we terminated his efforts and asked that he return the appropriate portion of the deposit money (seeing as he had only taken down the garden wall, which was estimated at approx 20% of the entire project), but he refused and stated that he had completed 70% of the entire job and that we owed him additional money. He also accused us of confiscating his tools, which have been sitting under the front stairs where he put them (unlocked) and for him to take, but he has not come, not responded and kept our money. Here is an excerpt from an email he wrote: ?Ill advise you of one thing I will be there with a police escort to retrieve my tools and as far as the stairs being used or even touched was a violation on both parts according to my insurance company no one is permitted in work zones meaning no one should have been on those stairs or used the yard until the project was complete and the contract is not divided into two prices its a lump sum price with the wall using the most time labor and material,as far as changes in the contract it states that contractor can make changes to better the job without approval from anyone as long as its in the best interest of the project so please don't shot off what my contract says to me I wrote it but I will be there either tomorrow or the following day with two patrolman I'm just waiting for two officers to be free to retrieve my property so when the area station notify's me I will be there with them. Any other questions can be forwarded to my attorney from here on in I will give you his business card when I retrieve my property? Above, James references his contract stating that he was allowed to make changes to ?better the job without approval from anyone as long as it?s in the best interest of the project?. In actuality the contract we signed stated the contractor can make: ?minor changes in the work which are in the interest of the owner, do not materially alter the quality or performance of the work? Contractor will inform the owner of each minor change in the work.? Using inferior materials and not adequately preparing the work surface prior to applying the concrete is hardly in the best interest of the project and we were never informed of either change. We should also note that the front stairs are the only access into and out of the building, and he agreed to do only one side at a time so we could actually leave to go to work, etc, so the fact that he states we shouldn?t have been using the stairs during the project is basically untenable and not something we could have agreed to. It?s also worthy to note that he mentioned in an irate fashion that he gave us a 5 year warranty on the work so that should be enough not to question his work, but seeing as he took our money and disappeared, this warranty was as worthless as the paper it was written on. Per the other negative ratings listed on this site and from the aggressive nature of his emails, we are writing this lengthy review so that people will learn from other people?s mistakes. I would definitely NOT recommend even approaching this company for any kind of work. I would recommend being very wary of doing any business with Mr. Elliott and New Age Masonry due to his failure to adhere to his contract and his unpredictable behavior. We have written to the Better Business Bureau (where there is also a negative case listed against New Age Masonry and their rating is being reviewed) and may choose legal action and/or a complaint to the Attorney General?s office.

Stay away from this company