Stonesmith

We recently had some work done by Matt Smith and his crew. We would be happy to recommend him for any stonework you could want. Mat’s crew of five or six men are a wonder. They are hard-working, obviously very strong, and take great pride in the quality of their work. They will take time to answer any questions you might have, and they are thoughtful, polite, neat and tidy, and know their jobs. The stone patio they made for us is beyond anything we could have hoped for. At the end of the job they did a thorough cleanup and left our place neat and tidy. I might mention that Matt studied with Tomas Lipps, the founder and editor of Stonemasonry Magazine and one of America’s finest stone masons. It’s no wonder that Matt is in demand. My final bit of praise is in regard to the cost: it was quite reasonable— I’m happy to say. I wish we had another job for Stonesmith to take on.

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First class workmanship. Matt does the work and he is an artist at working with stone. He is extremely responsive and will help guide the design by providing options that work with the land. We highly recommend his work and work ethic.

The job went fantastically. Matthew stuck to his original estimate, and offered shortcuts to lower the overall cost as adjustments were made during the job's progess. Matthew is a class act, and operates with zen-like craftsmanship, a friend's consideration and frankness, and a professional's workmanship. The process and final product could not have been better.

He prepositioned some of the materials for the job nad started work with his helper on time. When they were working no time was wasted and I was advised of the progress as the project progressed. The work was completed a day earlier than the estiimated time frame and everything was done very professionally including daily clean up. I was also impressed with the quality of the materials he used, the barrier fabric was the same heavy duty material that I purchased to prevent soil erosion in my pasture and had to obtain through the local farm bureau. The final product was much nicer than I expected because I had asked for a wall that was strong but not beautiful since it cannot be seen. I was hoping to be able to post a picture of the work but I am having trouble doing that in this format. I have sent the pictures to Matthew so I hope he will post one of them.

Matthew first came out to give advice and an estimate. Since we were thrilled with his other jobs we knew he was the man for the job. Approximately one week later he began work and transformed our front garden into a wonderful sitting area. He is a very professional, talented, well trained worker who loves his job and shows great pride in his work. The entire project went smoothly and it was a pleasure to watch as he worked wonders. Matthew is a joy to work with and his good energy is felt and appreciated. We look forward to having more stone work done for easier yard maintenance.

The tasks took Matthew about two weeks. He works very hard and he does exceedingly good work. He showed up between 10 and 11 every morning and often stayed past 6 in the evening. He really loves stone, and it shows. We have gotten lots of compliments on his walk. Indeed, it is very impressive. Matthew is also a very nice guy and fun to talk to. He is not cheap. His workmanship and the material he used are all top quality. It's difficult to know if his price was out of line since we did not get any other estimates. The cliche "you get what you pay for" is generally true, and is probably true in this case. Nonetheless, the price does give one pause.

Matt was recommended to us by our landscaper E.V. (of Mantis Landscaping, whom we highly recommend). He took down the original walls and rebuilt them from the ground up, using the proper backfill and stone alignment technique. I expect this wall to last 20-30 years, if not longer. He was on the job every morning bright and early. He would look at each stone and make sure that the ultimate effect was both functional and beautiful. We've already had many compliments on the work he did. He's not cheap - as I said, the two walls ultimately cost about $7000, but when you consider the cost of materials and his time, it was good value. When you're looking at long-term value in a house, it's expensive to cut corners. I expect this wall to be a wonderful "curb appeal" feature when we sell the house in 10-15 years.