Grove Brothers Masonry

Spoke with Kevin several times by email and phone. We made several appointments for him to come out but he never showed up. I feel he was overwhelmed with responses to his offer and not willing to admit this. Requested that my money be returned he informed me that I would have to contact Angie's List in order to get my refund.

Below is the text of the email I sent to the owner this morning - says it all. Hello Kevin, Harry and Lanny did an excellent job on the brickwork below my front door threshold. Harry is a bricklayer's bricklayer; his work was absolutely superb, and Lanny was an attentive, respectful helper. Once the old bricks were removed Harry said there should have been flashing behind the brickwork to eliminate any moisture getting to the bandboard from the threshold above. As I had flashing available Harry allowed me time to do it. Harry even suggested that one mortar joint would be too large and he would like to take up the row of bricks below those needing replacement (I had a fixed price so it wasn't on my nickel!). He apparently wanted the work to meet his old-school standards. Harry didn't take shortcuts and I could tell he did the job just like he would do it if it were his own home. It seemed like he took his time but the work was completed suprisingly quickly as there was no wasted motion - he knew his trade. And Lanny fastidiously cleaned up after the work was completed. Having bought, remodeled and sold 12 homes over a 4-year period in the mid-2000s I know good workmanship and good owner management when I see it. This was it. // Bob

There were a few issues with the start date, but once we got that nailed down, the guys went to work. It did end up taking a little longer than expected, but that was due to rain. When they were able to work again, the project was completed quickly and very well. They did a fantastic job cleaning up the site also, which was MOST appreciated. Grove were fast, professional and the price was good. They did a really stellar job. People on the street have stopped me while I was on my front walk and asked me who did it. I am very happy with the work they did and I would recommend the company.

The owner called me back promptly. We discussed the design of the addition to the patio and they came and started/completed work within the time frame agreed upon.

Couldn't get a response from contractor.

We had a stone patio put in that blended perfectly with our existing landscape and our deck.The owner was very easy to work and had many suggestions after he listened to our ideas. We made a few changes as we went along; he was very flexible. Most importantly, the owner came by personally a few times to inspect the work, and he personally oversaw some finishing work that really enhanced the overall "feel" and appearance of it. I would highly recommend Grove Brothers to anyone wishing to have a top quality stone patio

Never got a response from the company.

We were very happy with our experience with Grove Brothers to correct some water drainage issues in the back of our condo building. Kevin, the owner, dealt with us directly and was very prompt to every appointment. We had gotten other bids, but Kevin had the most creative and thoughtful approach to some of the unique challenges of the project. We ended up hiring Grove Brothers to re-point an outdoor brick retaining wall leading to our basement and to redo a cement platform and walkway to help water flow away from our building. His crew performed the work as scheduled. They were polite, hard-working, and neat. Kevin inspected the work afterward to make sure that every detail was to our satisfaction. I would certainly recommend Grove Brothers and hire them for future projects.

Unfortunately this business did not provide any of the services I needed. I sent him an email through this website on Friday 9/2, since there was a 5% off coupon being offered. He called me back on 9/6 (after the holiay weekend) and indicated that they do not do stucco work, and that the minimum cost of a repointing job was $1500. In other words, they are not interested in minor repairs or small jobs. I guess their work must be good, since they are so busy that they can't take small jobs. But it is too bad for someone like me, who needed a small job done now but may have kept them in mind for larger jobs down the road, or could have referred them to a neighbor, if they did a good job.

The weather delayed the work for a couple of weeks which is understandable. However, once they could scheduled the work it went reasonably well. I did have an issue with the forming of the side steps. The crew who laid out the forms was not capable Kevin recognized the issues and immediately assigned his lead mason to fix them. While he did a excellent job, with what he had, I am able to see the compromises we made to complete the project. I don't think anyone else would observe these issues and perhaps over time I will cease to notice them as well. Unfortunately this rework extended the project and we lost the use of the primary front door for a longer time than expected.

Our contact was mainly with Kevin Pavuk and his job foreman. Kevin and his team did everything they said they would do and then some. They were conscious of our timeline and actually finished the project a day ahead of schedule. I found Grove Brothers Masonry group through Angie's List and decided to contact them after reading the glowing reviews and excellent grades. Kevin and his team were punctual, thoughtful, courteous and extremely professional. Most importantly they did exactly what we agreed to do for the price we agreed upon. Because I found them through Angie's List I thought that it was only fitting that I posted my experience after the project was complete, so here I am. What a wonderful experience the whole process and end product has been. I would thoroughly recommend this vendor to anyone doing a project of this scale. Side Note: Upon writing this post I noticed that a strange thing happened with Grove Brother's Masonry Angie's List Rating. I noticed some D's and F's and read some negative reviews (all from individuals with very low dollar amount projects). Perplexed I asked Kevin (as we became friendly throughout the project) what happened and he said that he ironically ran an Angie's list promotion that has been challenging to accommodate as some of the purchasers wanted projects that were 5x the value of their coupons and were frustrated by the assumed "up-charge". I felt a little sorry for Grove Brothers, as masonry work is usually not the lowest cost landscaping option and their reputation has taken a hit (at least on Angie's List). If you are in need of a great masonry group that will be fair, efficient and honest, please look no further. We are thrilled.

As you can see from many other reviews, they are not very responsive, which is rude, annoying, and unprofessional. We purchased Angie's List's Big Deal for $99.00, and were initially impressed when we received an e-mail from Mr. Pavuk asking that we try to schedule something right away. We responded immediately, and had not heard back from him for a while. When he finally got in touch, he said his e-mail had not been working, which was fine. I asked how the Big Deal worked, specifically inquiring about what happens if the job goes over the 1-man-at-4-hours/2-men-at-2-hours limit. He said they would complete the job that was discussed, and bill us for the remaining hours at their regular rate. He also stated that in general, they come out, and if the job is small enough, they'll do it right then, but if it's bigger than expected, and he mentioned that this had already happened a lot for several Big Deal customers, they would come back another day (these 2 points are important for the rest of the story). We made an appointment, and Mr. Pavuk was very professional and appreciative over the phone for the opportunity to perform the work. I had a change in schedule, and attempted to call back to reschedule my appointment which wasn't for 3 weeks at that point. I called and left a message, and did not receive a response. I called the next day and left another message, and still did not receive a response. I called a week later, and the answering machine had a different message on it, explaining that Mr. Pavuk would be unavailable by phone during the week of July 4th. This to me implied that my first 2 messages were received, so I left a disgruntled message stating that I called twice before to reschedule, and that I wanted to know if his e-mail was back up and running so that I could send photos of the job beforehand. I asked that he reach me via phone. What I got was a rude e-mail stating that my voicemail was in fact received, but Mr. Pavuk left for vacation shortly after. I don't know why he couldn't just call me the way I asked him to since he received my voicemail prior to leaving town, or why someone else at the company couldn't manage the schedule while he was away. At that time, I sent him the photos of the jobs which needed to be done. Unfortunately, Mr. Pavuk was unable to change the appointment, which was at 7:30 a.m. The day of the appointment, he arrived at 8:20 a.m., and only came out to assess the job. He never mentioned that he would come out the day before to assess the job after we sent him our photos, and my husband and I were under the impression that the job would be completed that day. One of the reasons I e-mailed the photos of the work which needed to be done was so that they would know ahead of time what they were getting into, and could come ready to work. However, I completely understand the company's desire to see the job in person prior to handling it. Conversely, Mr. Pavuk did not mention this until the day of our appointment, to which he arrived 50 minutes late, making both my husband and me late for work as we only have 1 car in our household. As far as I was concerned, this was already strike three (1. Not returning my phone call, 2. Arriving late, 3. Not alerting us that the work would not be completed that day) meaning that if the Big Deal had not already been paid for, I would have never hired this company. He assured my husband that our 3 areas would definitely be covered in the time frame of the Big Deal, and that someone would arrive the next morning at 8 a.m. Two men arrived at 8:12 a.m. the next day (a Thursday). Apparently, this company simply does not have any respect for others' time. One of the reasons I do not like when a company sends out one person to assess a job and another person/other people to complete the job is the risk of not having things conveyed properly to those who will actually complete the job, and this happened to be the case here. Neither my husband nor I were home while the job was being completed by two men who did not accompany Mr. Pavuk the day before. One of the 3 areas we pointed out to Mr. Pavuk, both via the photos sent via e-mail and in person when he came to assess the job was not touched at all. My husband called Mr. Pavuk on Friday to let him know that one of the areas had not been touched. He did not return our phone call that day. I e-mailed him on Saturday and attached the photo of the area that still needed to be patched. We received a reply, via e-mail, on Sunday, stating that Mr. Pavuk was out of town in Pennsylvania for 2 days, and that the men who worked on our house ran out of time (which would have been 2 hours for 2 men). He said he'd send someone over (he did not specify a timeframe) to complete the last bit of the job, free of charge, and asked that we fill out an Angie's List report. I guess he was completely oblivious as to how poor his service actually was. As previously stated, Mr. Pavuk assured me before I even scheduled the job that any portion of the job which exceeded the time limit would be completed at regular cost. This was not the case, even though he assured my husband that our job would be completed within the time frame of the Big Deal. Two days after Mr. Pavuk stated that he?d have someone come by to complete the job free of charge, we hadn?t heard from him, nor had the job been completed. I sent a quick e-mail simply asking if he knew when this might be completed?this was on the 17th. He did not respond via e-mail. Eventually, I called his cell phone early in the morning, at which time he picked up and assured me that he actually planned on having someone come out to do the job the very next day (a Friday). When we arrived home that Friday, the job had not been completed. My husband called and left a message. Mr. Pavuk responded to me, via e-mail, not to my husband via phone as requested, on Saturday, the 30th stating that his man ended up not having enough time to come to our house, and that he was unaware until he spoke with the guy, and that the job would be completed on Monday. He then passively-aggressively stated, ?Again, although the four hours from the coupon is used, there will be no charge for this extra.? (copied and pasted directly from the e-mail) as if he was doing us a favor. The real ?favor? would have been to follow through with what he initially stated, which was making sure the jobs would be completed all at once, and any additional time would be billed at their normal rate. This would have benefited him in the long-run, too because he wouldn?t have had to have someone come back out ?free of charge? even though he assured my husband that the job would be covered in the Big Deal, and he wouldn?t have gotten nearly such a poor review from us. Of course, the job was not completed on Monday as Mr. Pavuk stated in his e-mail, because this company and Mr. Pavuk clearly have no respect for their customers and/or he is out of touch with the men he sends out to do the jobs that he assesses. The job was completed that Tuesday, but Mr. Pavuk did not call us and let us know that once again, whomever was supposed to do the job was unable to make it on Monday, and would have to come on Tuesday. A job that should have taken two men two hours to complete ended up taking 3 men 2 weeks and 6 days to complete. I would not recommend Grove Brothers Masonry, regardless of any attractive coupons or Angie?s List Big Deals. Don?t let his nice responses to older reports on Angie?s List fool you; save yourself the huge headache and stress. It?s a new day, apparently.

My initial contact with Grove Brothers Masonry and Mr. Pavuk was when he came to my home in late May, 2011 as a result of an Angie's List special promotion for Grove Brothers Masonry. He assessed my project and advised me that my existing chimney would have to be replaced. After discussing the particulars of the project and the estimated cost with Mr. Pavuk for about 3/4 of an hour, I was impressed with his masonry knowledge and verbally agreed that I was interested in having Grove Brothers Masonry do the work. Over two weeks later on June 12, 2011, I received a written e-mail estimate and an invoice for the initial 1/3 payment. After reviewing the written proposal and, being a complete novice concerning the replacement of a chimney, I had several questions that needed clarification before I committed financially to the proposal. After receiving a satisfactory response from Mr. Pavuk via e-mail to my inquiry, I forwarded my initial 1/3 payment check on June 20, 2011. The work was tentively discussed to begin on approximately July 5th, which came and went, and I had not had any communication with Mr. Pavuk despite several unsuccessful telephone attempts on June 27th and July 5th. I later found out that Mr. Pavuk was on vacation in Maine. After trading several e-mails with Mr. Pavuk, my chimney replacement project was next scheduled to begin on Tuesday, July 18th. Once the workers from Grove Brothers Masonry arrived at my home on Tuesday, July 18th, I was very impressed with their professionalism and work ethic. During several of the hottest days that the Baltimore area has ever experienced in it's history (over 100 degrees F), Martin, the lead bricklayer, and his co-worker, D'Angelo, rebuilt my 6' by 3' chimney; doing an outstanding job in the process. Their teamwork in working together was uncanny; while Martin was busy laying the bricks with all that entailed, "D" was busy on the ground mixing mortar, keeping the work area reasonably clean and in good order and taking the mixed mortar up to Martin when required. An all-around amazing crew! It took approximately two months to do the project from the date of the initial consultation to the completion of the acid mortar wash. Once the actual work of tearing down the old chimney was started and the construction of the new chimney was completed, I was very impressed and satisfied with Grove Brothers Masonry.

Grove brothers preformed the above work and even mounded concrete on top of the wall to "cap" it and give it a better look.

He was very straightforward, professional and knew exactly what he was going to do. He gave me a rough estimate for the project and told me that if I decided to go forward he would be able to get me more information. The price was a little too high so I decided to not do the work. I would definitely call them again for an estimate on similar projects.

I had a collapsed wooden retaining wall along my driveway and the asphalt was beginning to crack as the wall gave way. My wife and I had decided to do a knee wall there anyway in lieu of simply replacing the retaining wall. Kevin came out and met with me several times and the plan evolved as he and I swapped ideas. When he started work, he suggested lowering the wall by one coarse of block because due to the slope (grade) the wall was going to be 10" higher on one end, and that would block the sight lines I wanted to keep. Even though that reduced his profits, he was the person that suggested it.. He also went out of his way, at one point driving 90 miles (round trip) to a different supplier to locate a type of brick that would match the bricks on the house; I didn't ask him to do that. We ended up having custom bricks made, and since the company was running a special order for us, we ordered enough for one more 50 ft retaining wall two driveway piers and a mailbox. We also ordered caps for the planned wall and piers at the same time. Kevin took all that extra material and is storing it in his warehouse until we are ready to do those projects next year - AT NO CHARGE!. Kevin is patient, timely, conscientious and drops by the site at least once per day when his crew was here. Great communications - emails and calls returned within a day. Overall, a great guy and great company to work with; you won't be disappointed. Also , do not be concerned about the Ds and Fs Grove Brothers has received. Kevin took a well-deserved camping vacation and had no cell phone or email for a week or so. If you look at his scores, you'll note that those grades were all in a very tightly spaced timeframe. Those are an abberation, and not his norm. I'm using him for a large (six figure) project over the next two years, and I would not consider using him if I had any doubt in his ability to do excellent work at a competitive price.

Took over a month after billing my credit card for Keven to contact me, took another month to schedule the work. Told me they'd be there first thing, I left him a phone message at 10:30 saying I was leaving, no one had shown up. They came while I was gone, did the small repair, and that was it. Certainly far less than 4 hours worth and there were other repairs I would have them do if I had been there. They never followed up to see if I was satisfied. I could not recommend them, very poor value for money.

After estimating the job as I presented it, Kevin presented me with alternative wall options. The option of a block wall turned out to be the one I suggested. For my job, it turned out to be both more attractive and cheaper than the poured concrete wall that I originally wanted. The first day the demo and excavation took place. A sewer clean out was found to be in place under the existing patio. This was recapped to enable it to be encased in the new patio. The framing and lower courses of the walls were put into place the second day and the slab poured and finished off. After curing over the weekend, the walls were finished, retaining wall drainage was installed, and excavation was backfilled. On the last day, areas around the patio were seeded. Extra dirt from the excavation had been used to level low spots on the front and rear lawns. These areas were seeded as well. The project included running a drainage pipe under the patio to transfer the gutter down tube water away from the house, I found the work to be carried out with a high level of professionalism. I felt Kevin listened to what I was looking for and improved upon my concept of how it should be constructed. And the alternative he suggested was cheaper and offered an improved appearance. The attention to detail was on display in dealing with the reinforcing for the spa, dealing with the sewer clean out, and placing the wall drain and the gutter drain. Kevin did not insist on upping the price for every little thing we encountered. In fact the only price increase occurred when we had both missed the fact that the estimate was for a wall in one place shorter than it needed to be. The price adjustment was very fair for the change in the scope of the work. During the pour, 7 or 8 people were working on the job, although it was usually 2 or 3 most days. Everyone I encountered was friendly and hardworking. I would not hesitate to use Grove Brothers again or recommend them to friends or neighbors.

I never heard back from him. He said he was overwhelmed, but did not follow up with me.

I called on the day we rec'd the deal of the day-the guy told me to send them an email because they were overwhelmed with phone calls. I then email them no response. Emailed and called several times nothing back. If they are too busy to return phone calls or emails maybe too busy to do a good. Just want my $ money back.

I called the first time to request an estimate and we had cell phone reception difficulties, he did have my number and did not return my call within a few days. I called again, this time leaving a message and my number, still no response and that has been over a week ago.This was particularly disappointing because of the high ratings others have given, though I do see one other person who did not receive a return call as well.

I bought the Bid Deal for $99. I send pictures of the side my house foundation and top of the basement stairwell that needed to be repaired- Kevin said it could be done in the allotted 2 hours (2 men) and added only $25 for materials. They came as scheduled, did a great job, and Kevin gave me an estimate for a front porch extension that I am highly considering having him do in the near future. Thank you very much!

Rain slowed things down but Kevin kept in touch and he gave me his cell phone number. Most of the job went well and because the previous contractor had done a poor job, Kevin had to go out of his way to do some extra things to make the job right. He did them without complaint or revision of the contract and was honest with me about the likelihood that some of the repairs wouldnt be satisfactory long term. I appreciated that. As the job neared completion there were some problems that I saw with the work that needed attention. After he came out to meet with me and to go over the details of the punch list, he and I agreed on what needed to be done. He came back out and went about satisfying the issues I had raised. I was happy with 95% of the job but there was still a problem that he tried to correct, which I was unhappy with. It wasn't going to solve the problem. He came out once again after several phone conversations. He never complained or objected to my point of view. He listened and we agreed on what would be the best solution. He then came out once again and did the job right , completing the project. I have worked with many contractors who talk about customer satisfaction, but I have yet to meet anyone who cares more about leaving the customer satisfied with the job , then Kevin Pauvik. He is a gentleman and really cares about his company"s reputation. I was unhappy that the problems weren't solved up front, but I was very pleased at Kevin's attitude at working with me to get the job done right. That is a high distinction in the world of contractors. I will keep his number in my contact list for future jobs.

Called to learn more about Formstone removal. Very informative about the process and not just trying to lose a sale. After talking with him, we chose not to remove the Formstone.

Other than rain delays, the project went incredibly well. The crew is professional and upbeat. Everybody works as a team and the entire crew was very respectful of the property as a whole. The owner, Kevin Pavuk, dropped by 2 or 3 times a day to ensure all was going well and there was always a certified foreman on site to ensure the work was being perfromed to code. Absolutely positive experience and I would recommend Grove Brothers for any hard scape or fencing job. In addition to the experience, Grove Brothers was reasonably priced (four bids in total) and they offer a 10 year warranty on all labor.