Best Way Masonry

**UPDATED***
Best Way Masonry completed a job for my wife and I in March 2014. They tuck pointed an exterior chimney and removed an interior chimney from my home. Cliff came out initially and bid on the job, which was quite a bit less than competitors so we accepted and had them start the work. They jumped right on the job and had it done within a week.
The exterior work was done professionally and quickly, and we are generally happy with the workmanship.
However…
We had some issues with Best Way upon completion of the contract regarding the workmanship and cleanup of the job site. Our home’s interior was not properly masked and that led to a significant cleanup job on our part to remove the masonry dust. There was some sloppy work done on the exterior, leading to a broken flagstone in my patio as well.
While it did take us several weeks to work out an agreement with the owner, Mark Stanley, we were able to come to an amicable agreement regarding the cost of the job and for the damge they caused. In the end, Mark, and Best Way Masonry, did very good work on our house, and I was happy with the quality of the work they did.
Mark was able to bid nearly ½ the cost of the price of his nearest competetor, and for that I was greatful given the cost of masonry work. It is because of his price point that I would consider him again for future work.

When I needed to have two chimneys at my house repaired I called several companies for quotes. Best Way Masonry sent out some hipster with an iPhone and no knowledge of masonry to take pictures, reassuring me that his appraiser could work off the photos. The other two companies that came out gave me a lot more confidence but price enticed me to go with Best Way — it was a simple job and anyone should be able to handle it. When the crew got into the work, they found that the job as a bit bigger than expected (and quoted). Oh no, I thought. But Best Way took responsibility for the error and finished the bigger job at the agreed to price. I would rather that they bid the job correctly but at this point I was happy.
A few days after they finished the work, I went up to see how it looked after curing. I found large cracks in the freshly poured crowns, so I emailed them to see what needed to be done and when they might come fix it. At first the boss was out of town so they took a long time to get back to me. Then they couldn’t get to it because a crew got sick and they were running behind. Then it had to be dry weather (even though they said dry weather wasn’t necessary originally). Then they stopped responding to emails. Looks like I’m going to have to hire someone else to come fix their poor workmanship. I’ll send Best Way the bill and report back on if they pay it or not!
UPDATE: They finally sent the crew back out. They repaired the cracks and told my that they are normal. Not sure if that is true, the worker seemed a little annoyed to be there. Since they did this, I am upgrading from one to three stars. On another note, since the repair, I have found that my flue of one fireplace was clogged with debris and couldn’t be opened and another fireplace had debris in it that had to be cleaned out. My driveway still shows signs from where mortar spillage occurred.
All in all they did the job okay and it has held up to the weather without leaking. Customer service and clean up could have been better.

Responsive initially but if issues come up after the fact good luck getting a call back. John 4425 né 32^nd pl 503.281.2213

I had a difficult flashing problem. My hundred year old house has two river rock chimneys which are actually brick with rock facades. Normally when they build this kind of chimney they bring the brick high enough above the roof so regular step flashing can be installed between the brick and the stone. Unfortunately they did not do this when they built my house. The brick is actually below the roof line in some places so the roof/​chimney seam has been filled with tar and various goops which have eventually failed. Installing flashing higher up would mean cutting a kerf into the stone which was a bit scary for this DIYer.
Best Way came out and agreed that was the only solution. They used a wet saw and cut a careful kerf into the stone in both chimneys. The flashing was installed flawlessly and they even painted it to match the other flashing on my roof. The cost was less than half of what I was expecting to pay. For the first time in the twenty years I’ve owned the house there has been no leakage at all. If I had known it would be this easy (and not so expensive) I would have done it years earlier.
The only things they left behind was a new garden hose (thanks!) and a pair of protective glasses which had fallen down one of the chimneys (I found them when I cleaned it a few months later).

When we bought our 1940’s house it needed some attention. It looked like bricks were about to start falling out of the chimney. I went on their good CCB status (and bid) alone and was really happy with the job they did. They tuckpointed one of our two chimneys and poured new caps and installed screens on both of them. They showed up on time, didn’t make a huge mess, and even helped me carry some giant (HEAVY) rolls of carpet that we had just removed from the house. Nice guys.

I recently had Best Way Masonry come take a look at our chimney on our 1929 Tudor Cottage — a very tall, double flue chimney that divides in to two columns at the very top and has an ornamental pattern of contrasting bricks. I could see daylight through the bricks at the very top where the mortar had disintegrated, so I knew some amount of repair was in order. Mark gave me a very detailed proposal; rather than merely tuck-​pointing the base of the chimney and repairing the top section, he recommended taking the chimney down to the roofline, cleaning the bricks, and rebuilding around an internal course of concrete block and rebar, and adding a 3-​point support bar system anchored into the roof rafters. His crew was meticulous, organized, and conscientious. The work they did is beautiful, and I imagine our chimney will long outlast us!