Straight Up Masonry

I contracted Tony Devlin of Straight Up Masonry to replace a deteriorating brick chimney awkwardly situated on a steep pitch roof near the front of my 3 storey house. Compounding the problem was the hydro mast situated directly under the chimney at the side of the house. Despite the obvious challenge, I had every confidence in his ability to complete the job to my satisfaction.

While explaining how he was going to do the job, Tony informed me that in order to erect the 4 storeys of scaffold required to reach the chimney, I would have to have my power line and my neighbours insulated due to safety code regulations pertaining to the proximity of the scaffold to the hydro lines. He provided me with the name of a company and within a week, the lines were sleeved and work could commence.

Tony and Dom returned on the arranged date and proceeded to construct the scaffold and began removing the old brick chimney. They took steps to protect my property and keep anyone passing by safe from falling brick. It was obviously a difficult and dangerous task but they managed to have it down safely by afternoon. Tony closely inspected the condition of the brick below the roofline and noted that the brick was degraded so he removed some additional courses so that the new chimney would rest on a good solid foundation. He pointed out some of my neighbours new chimneys that looked okay from the roofline upwards but were clearly built on courses of spalled and deteriorated brick. Obviously a shortcut that some other masonry contractors take and a good thing to watch out for to make sure that you're getting a proper rebuild. The additional brick work was not included in the original terms of the contract but he did not charge me extra, so it turned out to be value added to the job and much appreciated.

They protected the area at the end of the day in the event of inclement weather, returned promptly the next morning and continued rebuilding the chimney which was proceeding as smoothly as can be expected for such a difficult job but, alas, another situation reared its ugly head. Tony was running out of brick and for good reason; my original chimney was not built to code and was too short for the current roofline clearance requirement and also due to all of the additional bricks that were removed to obtain a solid foundation. Tony presented me with a couple of options. 1) to buy more bricks and build it to meet the current code or 2) to leave it at the height of the old chimney and exchange the one foot clay flue liner for a two foot. The easiest solution would be to extend the clay flue liner and be finished the same day. However, aesthetically, we agreed that the best option was to build the chimney up with additional bricks but would extend the job by another day. We agreed on a new price and he went off and purchased more bricks. Keep in mind that Tony could not have seen that the original chimney was not constructed to code due to the sightlines to the chimney and therefore was not included in the original contract estimate. I was not available to meet with him on the day he was on-site to estimate so he wasn't able to see the chimney from the third floor deck. When I mentioned to Tony that the other estimates I had were cheaper than his to start with, combined with the cost of the additional labour and materials, he generously offered to reduce our previously agreed on price increase and offered to split the difference; I would cover the material cost and he would cover the labour. We shook hands on it and ended the job on a high note. Again, just another example of Tony sacrificing his business' bottom line to please a client. He did not rush the job, as a result, but paid the same care and attention to detail to maintain his high standard of quality workmanship. He even integrated brick ties into the construction which adds structural integrity, something I had not seen before. The finished product is simply outstanding. It blends right in with the colour and character of the house. Combine that with their thorough site cleaning and you'd never know that Straight Up Masonry had undertaken such a comprehensive project. I look forward to dealing with Tony next season on another project.