Jim Sullivan Masonry

I asked if the $149 special that Jim was running would cover the job, as it sounded like it would from the ad that he was running. Below is his response. You be the judge. "where ,are the bricks,,? how long to travel there ? do you have the ladder ? do you have the cement? do you have the rope? do you have the pails? do you have shovel? do you have the wheelbarrow? do you have the hose? do you want to help for free? a 40 foot ladder will not get me to the top of a triple decker? You're funny if you think that 3 feet of chimney can be built and the job cleaned up ,in a 2hour time period,,, are you a comedian for a living? as i mentioned yesterday its all day with 2 men, $800,,, buy the Angie's list deal and add $500,,,cash when i arrive

Had chimney removed from roof, thru attic, second floor, first floor and down to basement. Only took a couple of days. All debris taken away and areas cleaned up. Would definitely recommend!

Finished on-time and on-budget. We are pleased with the masonry work performed by Jim.

I've had Jim do a couple jobs for me. He is very responsive and kept me informed on the status of the job (daily progress reports). He did a good job prepping the job site to minimize and dirt and dust in the house. He finish the job on time and the quality of the work is good.

Fast. One day after my call the work was completed.

It went really well! They were great on time, it was done within 30 days. They originally said they only do those jobs on the weekends, but they made some exceptions for us. Professional, prompt and clean. It looks great!

I liked working with Jim he treated me good. He was on time. If I had questions he explained what he was doing. being a single person I am glad I hired Jim & crew. I will definitely have him back for more cement projects.

Punctual, returns calls or email in timely manner

excellent work. They were very efficent very professioal personalble, And responsive. HIGHLY AND STRONGLY recommend their serivces.

Jim and his crew were excellent! He did a beautiful job restoring our front stairs. Jim takes a lot of pride in his work. The weather during the restoration was terrible. It rained almost every day. Jim never complained and worked during windows that weren't raining. They always clean the area before they left for the day. They worked hard and finished the job right! The best part (other than having beautifully restored stairs) is that Jim stayed in constant contact - when he would arrive (and he was always on time) and what he did after he left and. I would not hesitate to use Jim again!

There was a very quick turnaround on this service. Contact was made on Friday, 4/29, provider came out Sunday morning, 5/1, to spec out job. Was told that it would be a special order and that I would receive a quote on Monday. Quote came in on Monday, 5/2, and was extremely reasonable. Commitment made to provider by end of day Monday and order was placed. Provider stated would be able to install on Saturday but, even with all of the rain this week, was able to get it done a day early! Would definitely recommend!!

It went well, he showed up as stated he would. He will be back to finish on Wednesday. It came out nice.

Jim returned my call right away, and scheduled the work at the first mutually convenient time. He stayed in communication with me by email/text/phone, as needed. He has just finished -- everything looks excellent. I won't know if my leak has been fixed until we have another very hard downpour. However, Jim clearly does professional work and he gives a three year guarantee, so I'm confident that the problem has been (or will be) addressed.

Mr. Sullivan replied promptly, e-mailed regularly.

Came for inspection and cleaning. Did not need cleaning so reduced install price. Very thorough. Job was more intensive thank first estimated as some bricks cracked. Job was delayed several days due to rain.

Quick response, priced well. But the roof area was slightly damaged. He did not vent the hot water tank properly and I had to pay a plumber to connect it.

Timing wise, job proceed pretty much according to Jim's plan. No problems or issues. Brick veneer looks like new. Nice and clean and sealed. Stone stoop had been coming apart. Jim repaired. It also looks great. They were a bit sloppy, but no big deal.

Jim has issues with temperament. He comes on very strong from the outset, as if his goal is to intimidate the home owner. His estimate of $2900 to repair our foundation, replace pavers on our patio with red brick to match those already installed and to lay tile around our fireplace was considerably lower than the estimates of several other masons. We accepted Jim's estimate and contract to proceed. He told us it would take three days to finish the job. Jim had two demands--and here we do not mean requests since he really doesn't request anything--access to power and access to water. Both were provided. On the first day, Jim arrived early, set up and started grinding the motar on our foundation. After about two hours on the job, he left claiming he had to go another job site. On the second day, Jim arrived early again, looked at the patio and informed us he now recommended removing all the existing brick on the patio. The extra charge would be $1400. We declined, telling him we only wanted to match the existing pattern. He told us this would be difficult because the existing pattern curved on one side. We pointed out the curve was there when he gave the estimate. Jim does not take disagreement well. He then made disparaging remarks about our property, saying things like "Anyone with this much clutter isn't going to care about his patio" and other remarks meant to intimidate us into accepting his now higher estimate. We refused. He then said he could match the existing bricks but "no one would use those for a patio." We told him to pick a higher quality brick and he agreed. Then they went to work on the patio. After about three hours, they left and Jim called us to say he needed to buy more bricks as he had underestimated the number needed by over a third! This was of course surprising given we thought he was experienced enough to know how many bricks were needed. This was going to cost us an additional $400 for 50 more bricks. The patio was left dug out where the old pavers were, obviously waiting to see if we agreed to the purchase of more bricks. On the third day, they showed up early and replaced the patio brick. This is where things went wrong. Jim decided not to match the set in pattern of the bricks we did not want replaced. Instead, he placed the new bricks at a 90 degree angle to bricks already installed. When we discovered the bricks were installed this way, we insisted this was not what we had requested. Then Jim became very belligerent. He claimed we told him it was "just a rental property" and he was then to "use his own judgment." It is true we said it was a rental property and it is partially true we told him to deal with the curve in the bricks as best he could--all in response to his demands we replace the existing brick for additional cost. We did not in any way imply we did not care about the quality of his work or the look of the finished patio. We never agreed he should, nor did Jim tell us, place the new bricks at a 90 angle to the older bricks. When we insisted the way he had positioned the new bricks did not match the pattern, he claimed he had no choice because the bricks were to go up against a straight driveway and the curve of one side of the existing brick meant he could not lay them in the same pattern. Whether this was the case or not, the existing pattern was in the middle of two areas, one bordering the driveway and one bordering another side of the property. Why he had to use the same pattern in both areas was never explained. He only said he did so to match everything he was doing. The problem was the older bricks in place are in the middle of the two areas. Again, they left after a few hours work. We called and left several messages for Jim and sent an email. He did try to reach us but when our daughter answered the phone, he did not leave a message to call him back. We had thought he had damaged our driveway but this turned out not to be the case. He sent us a long, rambling email about how he had to come to our house from Methuen every day and it was an hour and a half drive through heavy traffic. He said he had to leave to dump the refuse from the job in Dracut and so that was another hour drive, which is why he was only working on our job for a few hours every day. He said he had to drive an hour to get the bricks. He complained we did not give him a "bathroom key" and so he was "forced" to urinate outside on our property. He claimed no one was around. And he claimed he needed to buy 50 more bricks, which would have meant his original estimate was off by 50%! He also claimed the job was really heavy work, the motar in our foundations was "very hard." he could not use the substraight below the pavers he removed and all of this was apparently our fault. We were not aware our foundation motar was harder than other people's. Of the three days he was on the job, we were unavailable on site only one day--and were available on the day he set the bricks. On the fourth day we met him at the house. From the start, Jim was clearly angry and in our opinion, impossible to talk reasonably to. His approach was very confrontational. He insisted we told him "he was the pro, use your own judgment." He then told us he warned us we should have replaced the existing brick. We told him we decided not to do that and if he needed more money to do the job right that should have been in the original estimate. He then started to holler and say things like "Get out of my face," similar to how a high school boy might act. He yelled about how "he knew people like you" and how he had tried to call us "4-5 times" but we were not available. We showed him our phone which records incoming phone numbers and pointed out we scrolled back three days and there were no calls from him. He then insisted, "This is not a courtroom!" We said we were merely pointing out he had not called. We gave him two numbers to call and on neither one was there any evidence of his attempts to reach us, other than the one time we spoke about him needing to buy more brick. Jim then refused to finish the job. He said, "You have your patio" and "this is not fun, we're leaving." We did not realize he was there for fun. Our opinion is he acted as if he had hired us, not the other way around. We are not happy with the patio as it clearly now shows two different patterns in a relatively small area. He left the motar drilled out around the area of the foundation he started but did not finish. This exposes our home to mice and other vermin. He made the decision to walk off the job with the patio not to our expectations. We had paid him half of his original estimate. In our opinion, Jim's approach is to come on strong to attempt to gain control over the homeowner. He tries to intimidate his customers so they will not question his work. Any questions about how the job is performed or any concerns over whether it is what the homeowner actually wants are met with anger and a confrontational attitude, again meant only to scare off the homeowner. We feel strongly this is unprofessional, immature and a very poor approach to business. If he needed more money to do the job right, he should have included that in his original estimate. His estimate was in fact $1500 below the other estimates we received. Adding in the extra brick he claimed he needed to do the job he contracted for, bricks not on the original estimate, would have cost us an additional $800. To replace the existing brick he insisted he needed to replace after he took the job would have cost us an additional $1400?assuming he did not again underestimate the number of bricks needed. So the original estimate of $2900 would have ballooned to $5100! He came in low then tried to increase the job after we agreed on the contract. Not a new trick by any means but disappointing as a more accurate estimate could have then been compared to other contractors. We would not recommend Jim.

Jim did good work at a good price. I had to point out a couple areas that needed some additional work which he promptly completed. The job was delayed a number of days because his laborer quit and the replacement laborers weren't reliable. Not Jim's fault but I had scaffolding in my yard longer than I would have liked. The cleanliness of his job site leaves a little to be desired, but truthfully I am very particular. Its a messy job afterall. Overall I am satisfied with Jim's work.

I had been giving thought to redoing the walk, as the cement pavers were well past their useful lifespan (48 years!) and the walk was wavy and overgrown. My original idea was to level and replace it in three sections, starting with the 130 square foot section leading up to my porch door. There was an 11 inch drop there and I was thinking about putting in a half-moon granite step. Jim contacted me out of the blue (he had redone my chimney two years ago via an Angie's List Big Deal). We got to talking and we began the project. Of course, once I saw how nice the new pavers looked (I decided to do red with a gray border), I went ahead and did the rest of the walk. Jim has some rough edges, but he is a professional. He was punctual, communicative, he did quality work, and he did a good job cleaning up when it was all said and done. Very pleased with the outcome and would recommend.

It turned out pretty good. He was here back and forth a few times. It took him longer than eight hours. He had two other guys with him. It was a bigger job. So, we had to pay extra. He wanted to do more. He wanted to do a $3,000 job. But, we just wanted this thing fixed. We couldn't get in touch with him for a while. He didn't respond. We couldn't even leave him messages because his mailbox was full. I guess, the price was reasonable. I got a couple of estimates. We had other estimates of $1300 and $1500.

We had brick front steps with a bluestone landing and stairs. They were stained and looked pretty bad. We were planning to replace them but Jim recommended repairing them as it would be more cost effective. They took up some of the stairs that were loose, replaced a bunch of bad and stained bricks, reapplied grout as needed, powerwashed and sealed the bluestone. After they were done, the steps looked like new. They also put in a 1 1/2 inch bluestone walkway going to our front steps. It was a pretty large walkway and it came out nice. Lastly, they put in a brick walkway in the back of the house. It is a long walkway that had some corners to consider as it needed to go around the house as well as stay clear of our deck. We came up with a good design and they made some cuts that really make the walkway look nice.

I had purchased 8 hours for $399 dollars and he couldn't come up with anything that would fit in that. He just wanted me to get something within a $3,000 to $4,000 estimate yet I wasn't planning to do a major purchase so nothing there.

We hired Jim Sullivan Masonry in September of 2014 to rebuild our front steps. His first attempt to do so was a disaster- sloppy bricklaying, uneven steps -the town of Brookline building inspector did not and could not sign off on Jim's poor quality work. Since the steps were unusable and not up to code, the steps now needed to be removed. Mr Sullivan attempted to remove the steps, bur was unable to do so and walked away from the job. He left us without an entrance to our front door! We had to hire an excavating company to properly remove the existing steps We had to hire an outside contractor to build temporary wooden steps so that we could enter our house. We contacted mr Sullivan to help us out with these issues and he did not offer to help! Then it was November and too cold to work. Mr Sullivan left some of his equipment on our front yard, covered by a tarp.....so with our temporary wooden steps and his tarp, our yard was an unbelievable eyesore! We contacted Mr. Sullivan again in May to return to finish the job correctly.. He came one weekend, took down the temporary wooden steps, then realized that he didn't have the right bricks and left us for yet one more week without a front entrance! When he did come back to finish, the bricklaying was sloppy and uneven. The steps failed to pass inspection with the Brookline town inspector yet again. Now it is July, nearly 10 months after we started this project with Mr Sullivan. He has not responded to any of our emails or certified letters- asking him for a refund. We have no confidence in his ability to complete the job correctly. We now need to spend yet more money and time to hire another mason to get the job done to meet code. Do not hire Jim Sullivan masonry!

Jim began work as soon as weather permitted. Worked diligently until done, including weekends.