Last year, I had Daniel of the Stone Porch re-build a degrading, listing chimney located at the rear of my house. (See my earlier review)
I was so impressed with him, his crew and the work that they did that I thought of no-one else for a second, larger, job that I wanted to do this year.
I had an exterior, ground to roof height chimney, with decaying brick and missing mortar sat atop an unsightly, water damaged concrete base. The literal "cherry on top" was a previously poorly re-built chimney in a kind of yellow brick that looked very out of place in my red brick neighbourhood.
Daniel came out, first thing in the spring, to discuss the project. He had terrific ideas and promised me that he could turn the Achilles heel of my home into what would be its' best feature. I completely trusted him and quite agreed with what he proposed. Daniel was sensitive to the age and architecture of my home and I agreed with his very good and helpful ideas. He backed up those ideas by sourcing his well-chosen materials.
Daniel suggested a natural stone base for the chimney and, to make it more of a focal point, thought of widening the base. He would then clad the rest of the chimney and replace this yellow brick chimney in the same Victorian style red brick that he had used on the chimney that he re-built last year.
The prep work was considerable and time consuming as the bricks had been painted many times over and some of these original bricks needed replacing in order to form a suitable base for the brick cladding.
Daniel found a beautiful, natural, stone for the base and he and his team cut it on site and laid it out carefully in a random, very pleasing pattern before installing it on the chimney base. A natural stone ledge was installed to divide the stone from the brick façade and higher up, to divert moisture away. At the last stage, the brick cladding was carefully laid and some waterproofing installed at the roofline.
Result? Daniel was absolutely right. The Stone Porch has turned something rather decrepit and unsightly into something that is beautiful, natural, and looks like it has always been there. And finally, they did a super clean-up and left the place neater and cleaner than when they arrived.
I cannot recommend more highly, Daniel and his crew at The Stone Porch.