Michael's Brick Pointing

My neighbor's husband and I considered doing this job ourselves over a long weekend, but my neighbor wanted it done by an insured contractor and who can blame her. The angles to be installed had to hold up the entire party wall over the shared breezeway between our 3-story row homes. I knew a contractor I trusted but they were down at the shore. Altogether I had four contractors come out to look at the job, and I provided a scope of work containing the structural engineers specifications to all of them. Between vacations and "busy season" only Michael's gave me a quote for the scope of work provided. I figured this to be a 2-3 day job and that $1,000 a day would be plenty to budget, so about $3,000. At the site Michael said $4,5000 or $1,500 per day. When I asked for a quote in writing it became $5,500. It was high but I didn't want to wait on the job. Michael said it he was allowing for three days. I said he should be able to get the 5 angles in in one day and close up the breezeway ceiling on the second day. I asked if he's going to charge that much could throw in cementing the narrow strip of path on the breezeway floor, and he said he would do if if there was time on the third day. Since we didn't put anything in writing about that extra work I took it was an empty promise, but figured you never know because there are some people out there who actually will try to give you a good value for your money. Not having any alternative and wanting to get the job done soon, I agreed to the price quoted. Michael said he could only work on my job during rain days, and, wanting to be flexible, I agreed to that too. I know a lot of contractors don't want to be bothered with a residential job for someone they're not likely to do a lot of business with in the future, so I try to make it as hassle-free as possible for them. I stayed home from work for the first two days to keep an eye on progress. There was a lot of looking busy the first day, 4-5 guys running around trying to suss out the project, which was fairly straightforward since the interior was gutted and the whole work area was visible. I respected their process, but it seemed to take a while to figure out how to knock holes in the breezeway ceiling even though it was the easiest and fastest part of the job. I was asked if I could provide a demolition bar. I said I didn't have one, and they used a piece of structural steel I had lying around instead. Good thing I watched the first day because they cut the angles a few inches too short so the angles didn't extend over the stud wall as required by the scope. The idea was for the stud wall and brick wall to share the load, and I pulled out the drawing I'd shown Michael when he first visited the site and taped it to the wall for the crew. They had to start over with the angles and by the end of the day had two angles in place. This was slow progress but I figured they lost time with the do-over. That night before going to bed I noticed the angles looked thin. I measured the thickness of the angles installed and they were indeed much thinner than the 3/8" material spec'd by the structural engineer. I checked Michael's proposal to confirm that it contained the correct specs, and it did. I sent an email to Michael requesting that the correct material be installed and another email providing a hot link to Fazzio's, which sells 3/8" angle iron. During the discussion that ensued the following morning, I found the reaction consistent with someone getting caught doing something wrong (very wrong in my view, even dangerous) and hoping to talk his way out of it. Michael said he thought we were on the same page when he asked if it would be ok to use 3x4 angles instead of 4x4 angles, and that he couldn't find a place to buy the 3/8" angle iron. I said no, you didn't mention anything about the thickness of the steel, and you can buy the right stuff at Fazzio's. He said that's a long drive and asked if it would be alright to leave the thinner material already installed in place. I reminded Michael that his proposal contained the spec and offered to pick the material up while his guys un-installed the thinner angles. I also communicated with my structural engineer (whose time is costly) and he said any contractor should be able to find 3/8" angle iron without difficulty. We all kept it civil, and Michael's subsequently purchased the correct material and had they guys replace the wrong stuff with it. So more time wasted waiting for the material and doing stuff over. Fewer guys were on the site the second day but one of them seemed to know better what he was doing and after this 3rd go round I was satisfied with how the angles looked. The work went slowly; as each new angle was installed no one was patching up any of the holes where angles had already put in. A couple of guys came back on another rainy day to patch the breezeway and, needless to say, didn't touch the walkway. They stopped by once more for 2-3 hours to put a final coat on the breezeway ceiling. The finish looks clean, I'm satisfied with it. I figured there were maybe 80 hours in this job, including principal time and legit as well as do-over hours. Not sure what the angle cost but I wouldn't thing the materials altogether cost more than a couple hundred dollars. Guys who patched did a good job cleaning up. Guys who dropped cement inside the house did a crap job cleaning up. Most contractors leave a mess so I didn't have very high expectations there. All four contractors that had visited the site for quotes noticed a good quality framing hammer had been dropped in the space to be worked on. Michael's promised to recover it for me during the project. Also promised to maintain the tarp I put in place on the second floor to keep that floor from getting dusted as the breezeway ceiling was torn up. They never gave me my hammer (and it's no longer in that space) and they removed the tarp at demo time so now I'm vacuuming up 100 year old brick dust in a much larger area than planned. Minor disappointments in the grand scheme of things. Bottom line: - Get quotes from other contractors if you possibly can, some are much more reasonably priced. - Even if you're ok with Michael's price, only hire these guys if you are willing and able to watch them like a hawk to ensure they will meet all the specifications and ready to stand your ground over any discrepancies that arise. This is something a GC is a lot better at than the average homeowner. It might all turn out ok at the end of the day but consider what you'll have to go through to get there.

They forgot to do a couple minor things, but they did a good job. They were very efficient, and I am pleased with the job they did.

Fantastic job by Mike's guys. There was more water damage than expected, and his guys had to rip out some large sections and even do a little structural work before putting stucco back up. They then painted and sealed things and it looks fantastic (and hopefully won't require any more work for a Long time! At one point, one of his guys took me aside to show me all the extra work they'd done, and said it was likely going to cost more than the initial estimate. I sort of expected this because there were a few surprises under the stucco, but was of course disappointed to hear it. HOWEVER, shortly after that the foreman came up to me and apologized profusely -- he said the other worker had no right to say that and should never have come to me about it. Sure enough, when the final bill came up, it was the price that Mike and I had initially agreed upon. So, great work with no hidden costs. Would recommend!

I emailed the provider with a description of the work and photos and never received a response. This is precisely the reason I joined Angie's List; I want access to reliable, responsive, quality contractors but I guess the vetting process does not filter out all the contractor that do not meet that description.

Contractor was recommended by WE CARE FREE because of water issues regarding the outside stucco work. Michael assessed the work to be done and presented an estimate. We scheduled a day for work to begin, he never showed or called. I contacted him again and he apologized and we set up another time. Once again he was a no call, no show. That was it. I surmised the amount of work I needed done was not worth his time.

It looked much better at the time. About a year has passed, and some of the work has dissolved from normal rain. I'm not sure if I'm to expect stucco to erode so quickly or not. They also caulked in a new cover to my dryer vent, making it difficult to remove for routine cleaning. However, they were extremely punctual and relatively professional.

Offered good suggestions, including not recommending what we thought we would need - we did not need the whole house repointed, and they were upfront and honest about it. Really nice guys -cleaned up afterwards. We plan to use them again. address used is fake - prefer not to put up my home address to public

The crew came early and got to work nonstop 730am to they were done 1230pm.

The crew did a good job, and cleaned up well. They were well supervised. Michael also gave me his opinion on my garage roof. I would use these guys again.

Superb on every level and reasonable.

Called for estimate. Took two weeks to respond leaving a voice message asking for address. I left information at his email address, that was two weeks ago and have not heard from him yet.

Brick wall of the house had been leaking and after trying various things from a roofing perspective, realized that there were too many holes in the old mortar. Got a quote on the same day Mike came to look. He gave me a few options on what could be done to fix the problem. Very knowledgeable and helpful. Very straightforward and a pleasure to work with. Had to work with the weather as far as when he could do the job, but as soon as he was able, he called to say when he would be there. Prompt. Great crew! Polite and hard working. I especially liked that I only had to tell Mike once about things and he made sure they were taken care of. For example, when he came out to give the quote I had a few random missing stones and bricks from other walls. I didn't have to mention them again, they were all taken care of. He brought me outside periodically to see what they were doing to make sure I was happy with the work. Really great experience considering I had been dreading getting the work done, thinking it would be a huge ordeal. They finished in 2 days, cleaned everything up beautifully. Work is superb. Would definitely use him again!

Michael and his crew did a fabulous job, they were thorough, clean and very communicative in explaining the option and how the process will go. He was on time and took his time when he got there, even though his truck was blocking my one lane street. There was a small snag on the last day but Michael was on the phone with me immediately to take care of it.

Mikes guys showed up on time and described the work that was going to be done. A previous contractor had used some caulk like material to point the chimney and it was peeling away from mortar. After removing the caulk they started to point the bricks without removing any of the old mortar. I called Mike to ask why and he told me they only need an eight of an inch of space to apply new mortar. Any pointing job I'd ever seen or heard of required up to a inch of the old mortar removed before apply the new. Mike said he would call his guys and have them grind out the old material. They ground a small section and continued pointing. I called Mike a second time to see why they had not removed any other material. He continued to tell me that an eight of a inch was enough space work with and that they do it all the time. Only after i said that I would not be satisfied unless they did the job correctly did he have his men continue to grind out the old mortar. I have spoken with several contractors since then and they agree, taking out a half to an inch of old mortar is the only way to do the job correctly, and is also why most contractors want nothing to do with this kind of work or take short cuts like point directly over the old mortar. They were not happy with having to the job over but continued on and cleaned up. The chimney looks good and I hope the job holds up.

Very professionally and with aot of effort.

I had brick pointing repaired. Michael came to the house inspected the areas that needed work and gave an estimate and explained how the work would be done. His crew arrived on time, was professional,and completed the job in a timely manner. When finished they cleaned up the work area. They had me inspect the work after completion to ensure I was satisfied. A couple of days later, I noticed some additional areas that needed work; that were not in the main work area. So I called Michael, he returned my call promptly and had a worker out the next day to do the work. I would highly recommend Michael?s Brick Pointing and will use him again if the need arises.

They arrived on time were very courteous and professional. Answered all my questions, did an excellent job and cleaned the work area after completion. I would definitely recommend Mike and Company 5*****.

Their quote was exceptionally reasonable compared to other estimates. The workmanship is first class and the work debris was cleaned away completely. Michael Popielarski (the owner) and his crew were a nice group of guys.

I had 3 contractors come to the house for estimates. As soon as I met Michael, I knew that I wanted him to do the repair. He pointed out many things that needed repair and was extremely thorough in discussing what needed to be done. The house had water damage that led to a termite infestation, so we wanted to make sure that the house was well taken care of. I was working on a tight time frame for this house that we had just purchased. Michael's wonderful crew came the next day...a Saturday and even worked on Sunday! My husband and I were there both days doing other work. The crew was great. They had scaffolding up and even looked at our chimney. I highly recommend Michael's.

The experience was good. Michael gave us a quote the day he came to the house. They were very prompt. On the property for two days. The employees were pleasant & respectful, polite. They did a VERY nice job with the retaining wall and they seemed to be happy with the result of their work as well. The area was completely cleaned up afterward. We were happy with the whole experience and are planning to have the group create a second dry stack wall for garden space. Michael recommended someone to replace the chimney liner, and we were happy with the man he referred, so that was a plus as well.

Fabulous experience! Mike explained all options to me and discussed what were priorities given my budget and the stucco damage. Chimney was huge job that included removal of decades-old antenna and repairs of flashing. The crew were amazing - professional, considerate and very thorough. They completed some of the work on a Sunday due to the weather. Sometimes, contractors treat a woman like we don't have a clue - not so Mike and his crew. These guys were polite and friendly and very respectful.

Arrival time was prompt. Mike's workers showed me what they were going to repair before they started. They also showed me afterwards when they were finished what things they did. They were very polite and nice. I appreciated how neat they were and didn't leave a mess behind. I was very happy with their work and will be calling them again for more work that needs to be done on front of house.

Was getting some water from my third floor deck, into my second floor bedroom. These guys came in, pinpointed the issue, explained what was wrong, and what needed to be done to address the problem. They were very professional with their work, as well as exceptional customer service. The workers showed up on time, did the job, and clean up very nice. Would definitely recommend to anyone!

Mike and his team came to give me an estimate for brick pointing and rehab of the bottom front of my row home including the steps. House had some cracks that were unsightly and degrading the structure. While he was looking at my house, my neighbor across the street got him to estimate putting stars in her brick front and pointing (which was done the next week to her great satisfaction). I made an appt for 4 weeks later; Mike had his team at my house on time as agreed. The work was done with great care and with frequent consultations with me to discuss options and to check my satisfaction. They pointed the brick, caulked around windows and door, buttoned it up tight, made everything look fabulous and cleaned up every speck of debris. Mike even delivered a can of touch-up paint to match the new color of my sealed exterior areas (since I made some major goofs painting the black stair rails)!!! I could not say there is anything they could have done better because they really go above and beyond to ensure the customer's satisfaction. I have to add that this was not the first brick company I talked to, but he was the only one who said what he would do and then did it. Punctual, reliable, excellent knowledge, great crew. This work is expensive; make sure you get it done right.

Whoever rated this business low due to non-responsiveness must have been dealing with a different guy. Michael was AWESOME! He had me text over quick pics for a rough estimate on the spot. Then later in the evening he was going to give a more careful look after I sent the pictures to his email. I forgot to do that, but the next day Michael drove to the property we had talked about and called me from the site to give a detailed estimate. -I was blown away by that kind of service and professionalism. Was way beyond anything I could have reasonably expected I will be using Michael's brick pointing in the future, and again, I'm just super impressed. The estimate was reasonable and he gave a detailed breakdown of all the factors involved. Really personable guy.