SHURWAY RESIDENTIAL REPAIRS

There were lots of delays before he showed up. He had another man install the I-beams, under his direction, though he wasn't there most of the time. So far so good, though I have doubts now about the quality of the work based on the other and quot;repairsand quot; he made here. We had a chimney sweep and mason finally come in and get the fireplace in working order, after waiting a couple of months for a special damper that turned out not to be needed as it wouldn't have solved the problem. The repairs to the porch and foundation turned out to be patches that have already failed. Never did check the roof for the spots that needed attention.

The response to my request through Angie's List was really quick - within a day. A guy came out to give me a quote and knew all about mortar. He didn't take a look at my entire house, just the two areas I knew about. I had the feeling he'd be doing the work, but he did subcontract it out. I asked how late in the year you can do tuck pointing and he said that as long as it's above freezing for several hours of the day that you could do it since the mortar provides its own heat as it cures. It was good that I happened to be home the day the subcontract company showed up because there was some loss of information between the time I talked with the first guy and what he wrote down for them to do. The team was really eager to help and walked around the house and found a lot of places that needed a little work and said they'd go ahead and take care of it all for the originally quoted price. They needed access to water and electricity, which was no problem. The crew left to get some dye to better match the patina on my mortar, which was a yellowish color on the outside, and then came back to do a test spot. That spot turned out to be too bright, so they came back after the weekend and did a little bit more and then finished the next day. The crew did a great job of finding a lot of places and of matching the mortar, I was really happy about that. The mortar did end up leaving hazy smudges on the bricks where they patched - I wonder if they could have done a better job cleaning that up or avoiding it int he first place. I haven't tried to just scrub it with some vinegar, but that might help.

I was pleased with the level of service. He was quick to tell me about all additional issues that he uncovered in great detail, and he was willing to work with me as we arranged to fix them. The owner performed all of the services, and he is very knowledgeable and good; he works hard and knows what he is doing.

Wayne is a handyman. I have depended on him through the years. I have him almost live here because he does a lot of the repair work around the house. He is very good in repairing things and he is a very honest and a very trustworthy person. For specialties like electrical and plumbing work, he finds people to do it for me, but for any other repairs, he does it by hiring people or by himself. He does tiles and interior and exterior painting as well. He even rebuilt the flagstone walkway and the pillars around the pool and repaired and painted the iron fence for me. I had him rebuild one of the two lampposts by the driveway because it was being hit by the lawn mower and he decided to rebuild the other one as well for free because he said they needed to be matched. That just shows how nice he is. He even painted my metal mailbox for free. He is a really nice guy and he is very honest. He has never tried to give me an extremely large quote and he always gets things done. Last year I had Wayne come over more often because I had a lot of little things that needed to be done to get the house ready if I wanted to sell it or move somewhere else. He is a one-man operation most of the time, but he hires people to do different jobs. He brings different kinds of people for different jobs, but I can depend on him. He is as reliable as anyone can be. I recommended him to other people and everybody just loved him.

I contacted Shurway to put up some support beams, do some tuck pointing on the bricks outside my house and in the concrete blocks in my unfinished basement. I also asked them to put a layer of mortar over the bricks on my basement walls to make them look better. (I'm getting ready to sell the house and an unfinished basement in an old house can be unattractive.) The owner, Wayne, came over to my house, was very polite, friendly and professional, gave me an estimate and I hired him to do the job. Within a few days, his subcontract came out to put in the beams and start on the tuck pointing. He did a wonderful job on putting in the beams, but he barely touched the walls but he thought his job was done. He came back a second time to do the tuck pointing on the outside of the house and did some work on the basement walls. Again, he left as he thought the job was done. Additionally, in several spots he used silicone caulk to fill cracks. And by experience, I know you can't paint over silicone caulk! I almost cried when I saw that the mortar he used on the outside of my house didn't get tinted to the color that's in the existing mortar. It stood out like a sore thumb. And the work that he did in the basement walls was amateurish at best. It wasn't smooth, it didn't look good and it wasn't complete. At my request, he came out a third time with the owner who showed him what to do. He finished by putting tinted mortar over the stuff he'd already put on the outside and did a little more work on the basement walls. I wrote a letter to the owner and sent it along with the amount due in full. I was immediately contacted by Wayne who apologized for the work his sub had done. Wayne offered to put two coats of paint on the walls in the basement to make the work look a little better. Wayne did a great job. Although I noted I wouldn't use this company again, I would if I knew Wayne himself was going to do the work OR they were only going to be doing beams for me. Wayne did what he could to make the deal right and I appreciate that. In the end, I had issues with their sub more than anything else.