Dunbar Masonry & Construction

I had a leaky chimney that needed to be torn down as well as a hole cut out for the plumbers to change the vent on my hot water tank so that this could be done. After doing a lot of research and looking at reviews I chose Dunbar Masonry for 3 reasons:
1. They had great Unilocal and Homestars reviews.
2. They were very prompt with getting back at me with a quote.
3. They were able to arrange with a roofing company to have my roof patched up on the same day they took down the chimney which saves me from having to co-​ordinate between 3 companies (masons, roofers and plumbers).
I needed the masons to come in, take down the chimney and the roofers to patch up the roof so it doesn’t rain on me and the plumbers to come in the very next day to install the b-​vent so that the fumes from my hot water tank didn’t poison us. In the middle of winter every day without the hot water tank is brutal.
Job contracted to do:
— Take down the chimney below the roofline.
— Patch the hole in the roof left by the chimney.
— Cut out a hole in the furnace room so that the plumbers can install the b-​vent.
— Come back and patch up the hole in the furnace room.
Day 1
They came on time on the arranged date which is fantastic and proceeded to work quickly. However they forgot to cut out the hole in the furnace room and without that hole the plumbers that I had arranged to come in the next day could not install the b-​vent.
Needless to say I was in a bit of a panic as I called them up but they assured me that they could come the next morning to cut out the hole before the plumbers came. Okay, great!
Day 2
So they came and cut out the hole and left again. When I went downstairs to checkout the furnace room it was a dirty disaster with brick dust and debris all over my furnace and on the condensation pump beside it. I was pretty shocked because most contracting companies I’ve worked with clean up after themselves, like really clean up. They sweep the floors, wipe things down, etc.
The plumbers came and installed the b-​vent and left. That night I come home and my furnace won’t turn on. Now I’m not in the an expert with furnaces but I had a strong feeling that debris falling into a condensation pump’s motor is not a good thing. As it was 11pm when I got home I had to wait until the following morning to call the furnace company to come have a look. Yup, no heat in the middle of winter all night and until mid-​afternoon the next day.
Day 3
Dunbar Masonry came in the morning to fill in the hole and I told the guys that my furnace died the previous night and I think it was the debris from their work that caused it to over heat and shut down. They were like nahhhhhh that wouldn’t do it… They proceeded fill in the hole that they had left before and as I’m watching them I note that they didn’t cover up the condensation pump. Seriously? I just told you I think you broke my pump, you’re going to smear in wet concrete (or what looks like it to me) over the pump that you might have just broken?
So I waited till they left and went to check the pump. Yup, there’s something that looks like wet concrete on top of it (but not on the motor vent part). It was on the top right hand corner and it felt like went concrete. It was dark grey and kind of wet.
After Dunbar leaves I call the furnace guys and they come over to have a look and sure enough, they confirmed it was the debris from the chimney that clogged up the pump’s motor but they were able to take it apart and clean it out. The invoice I got from the furnace guys clearly state that was the cause of the motor malfunctioning.
I took this invoice to Dunbar Masonry and they agreed to pay for the furnace service but weren’t willing to do anything else for me. It didn’t matter that I had to spend the night in a freezing house and that I had to take a day off work to deal with the furnace, I basically got, «These things happen.» They didn’t even apologize! Not once! And when I told them that I had to take the day off work I got, «Well no one pays me to fix my house.» Ummmm yeah, but you’re the ones who broke my «house». The least you could do was give me a small discount or heck, sound like you were sorry about the ordeal. I probably would have been happy with just some sort of apology.
Pros:
— The guys who did the work were pros, very nice job.
— The guys were SUPER nice and polite.
— They were on time which is always very much appreciated.
Cons:
— Their carelessness with my furnace room took out my furnace for a day.
— They didn’t seem to care too much that I was put in a pretty bad situation for a day and half with NO HEAT in the middle of winter.
— They were still sloppy and careless in my furnace room after I’d pointed out that they got dust and debris in my condensation pump.
— They never even apologized for their mistake.
— They left the furnace room a disaster the first day and the second was still dirty but at least they made some attempt to clean up.

Although Dunbar M+C couldn’t help me with my specific kind of repair, they forwarded me to one of their contractors, who took the time to give me a fantastic referral. Much appreciated– great customer service.

When it comes to contractors I use my frown and moustache as part of my negotiating. It doesn’t work though but after the barbeque was built it was all smiles. This wasn’t a small job that involved a 60 year old bbq taken apart while reclaiming a lot of the brick then move it closer to the patio. My patio area I ended up replacing the ratty old wood with travertine stone tiles.
The fellas were friendly and the job was done past any expectations.

Got them to fix the foundation cracks and replace some window sill bricks along with removing an ancient air conditioner that stuck out through the brick to the exterior.
Also had some tuck pointing repairs on several rough patches. They made sure that the grout used matched the existing. The work was done on schedule, cleaned up after.

Got my chimney rebuilt. New brick (looks great), tuckpointing, parging. My place looks better than I had imagined with the new chimney. The guys took care to not damage my plants and did a spotless cleanup. I don’t know why the original owner used pink mortar it looked terrible.