Darling Masonry

This guy is a sweet talking, con artist. He was contracted to replace one of my chimneys & while the job was completed, it wasn't done well. He & the other guy working with him (Jason) were contracted through JR Stiffler & constantly complained about getting paid by them & tried to get me to pay them directly. After that job, Jeff talked me into doing some minor repairs on my other chimney & after giving him $300 to buy supplies, he disappeared & has been unreachable since. Hopefully fate will catch up with this bad guy.

Do not use this contractor. Hired to point and paint foundation in July and paid him half. He showed up intermittently for a few hours at a time. Did most of the stationary work and never finished pointing or painting. I have to finish the job myself. I finished painting to make it look uniformed and will finish touch up pointing spots in Spring. Additionally and unfortunately, it was discovered by my roofers that my chimney needed immediate repair. Having a mason on hand, I, of course, asked Jeff, the mason, for a second estimate. He took advantage of the situation and asked for the second and final payment($900) of the first job - promising to finish the to work on the first job when came to repair my chimney. He also asked half payment ($800) for the chimney repair. He returned to the job once and dropped off a ladder and wheel barrow, which are still here. He never finished the first job and never started the second. His phone number is no longer in service and my registered letter was returned as undeliverable. I never saw or heard from him again. I'm left struggling to get this repair completed before the snow. The first two pictures show how left the foundation and how I finished it. - the third is the untouched chimney.

Jeff was careful to protect the newish EPDM (rubber mat) roof from damage. He was pleasant to deal with, when I could catch him. He tore down the existing 52 year old chimney and rebuilt it with the same stones. He initially finished this job on June 2, 2009. The cap he provided was not one stone but 2, which barely overlapped the flues. When there was still leakage from rainstorms, he returned to calk between the 2 cap pieces, something that should have been done from the start. After that, when I was still getting water inside on the fireplace chimney he did return another time and took off the cap. He applied cement all around the flues and said he sealed all around. He promised to bring back another cap which would cover the flues better. Each time I needed him to come back, I had to call several times--he would promise to come that day, or that Friday and not show up. In a couple of weeks I would call him again and he would promise again. The last time he came was the last week in August, so it took 2 months from the time of his first "finish". I finally had to pay someone else to put on a proper cap and build up the risers to the distance required by code, which Jeff had not met. So the price, while cheap, was one of those "You get what you pay for" deals. I gave hime every chance to make good on this. Jeff is a pleasant person and he did a fine job as far as rebuilding the stones into a chimney. It looks terrific, but if it is not water tight, it doesn't work. He makes promises he doesn't keep.