He walked away before the staircase work was done, kept the money we had given him to buy other materials without buying them, and refused to even comment on his sudden refusal to do the work to which he committed. He left a big mess on our driveway, we always had great trouble contacting him, and we never knew when he or his assistant would be on site. He hires labourers who have no stone masonry training to do most of the actual work. As far as we can tell, he has no insurance or liability protection of any kind. The work on the stairs was reviewed by another local mason and deemed poor quality work worthy of immediate replacement - as an engineer, I agreed. It was by far the worst contracting experience we've ever had. Perhaps we should be thankful that he didn't do similar "work" on the retaining wall and patio. What else can I say? It was the height of covid, and we were anxious to get some work done.