Leland's Masonry

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This was one of those "good from disaster" stories. Our primary heat is wood. Our chimney was taken down at the roof line by about a ton and a half of snow and ice in mid-January. We had four other chimney folks out to look at this before the fourth declined the job but gave us Jay's name. We called and I believe he was out the next day for an estimate. He was the only contractor to 1) measure the structure to determine proper chimney height, 2) advise that the remaining chimney was not to code as the masonry was not solid 3) explore the base of the chimney to determine if it was built to code- it was not, and 4) give us a full written estimate for all the work that needed to be performed. He came in well above all the others, but when we compared the estimates, his included all the work while others left out the pieces that were very important and we would have been charged for. They had availability and Jay stayed in regular communication about schedules as we hammered out the kinks with the insurance company and code officer. They were prompt to start work. As I said, it was the deepest, darkest heart of winter. They busted snow and ice to prepare the site for staging the first day. The next day when they came in to build it was twenty below zero. Farenheit. They worked in that cold all week and heated their makeshift tent around the clock. They were responsive to our fussing about the exhaust from the heater, as well as problem solving the cable line that got cut on day 1. These guys were super tight, timely, and tidy. They did some inside work as well to finish it up and that was very well done. All in all, they were done in under a week and we were back on wood heat. Our new chimney is to code. We had no idea how unsafe we were before. The stove burned better than ever and our perennial spring time carbon monoxide problems were no longer an issue. Did I mention they kept it all real clean? We had a bit of clean up this spring, but there was 4' of snow on the ground when they were working. I've recommended Jay Leland to friends and anyone who will listen. We were so incredibly lucky in persisting through multiple estimates till we landed here. While he was here working, my partner realized that she used to work with Jay's mother years ago, and then she remembered the photos of his stonework his mom used to bring to work to show off what her boy was up to. She was impressed back then. I think we were incredibly lucky the stars lined up right that we got these guys on our job.