Red Robin Masonry

I recently contact red robin and was put in contact with John. He was surprisingly punctual and provided me with a competitive quote before the other two companies I contacted even got back to me. I choose to go with Red Robin based on their reviews(on homestars) and johns attention to detail as outlined in his quote. I am very happy with all the services provided, especially my colour match which the other companies said would be difficult. All in all I highly recommend this company based on the work they did at my home, especially their willingness to do extra small repairs which normally would cost and arm and a leg.

Please think carefully before hiring Red Robin. I am absolutely furious with their work and lack of attention to detail. I am posting here because the reviews on this site were part of what made me choose them.

In short, I had scheduled my chimney to be rebuilt last year but due to weather delays, we rescheduled to March 2013.

The entire project has been a nightmare. Dave and his partner have hired crummy masons (and crummy is a compliment). There is a complete LACK OF SUPERVISION from management and poor quality of work from the tradesmen.

In short, the workers we careless and threw the bricks from my chimney on to mine and my neighbours eaves causing them to need to be repaired. (In fairness, they did come to fix this after the fact - and after telling me what a terrific job they did!).

Secondly, my red brick house now has a red and black brick chimney. While I can appreciate the house was older, they could have omitted the black bricks from the chimney.

Thirdly, the offered to tuckpoint my house at no cost due to the errors on the job. This resulted in more crummy work and only one wall of the house being done.

After all the issues I have had, the management could not even be bothered to check-up on their team.

Here is a snippet from an email from the owner, "As for the mortar on the window sill, that is unacceptable and I’m really disappointed in the guys. I’ll be addressing it right away. It was done very poorly and should’ve been put in better. I can tell they rushed it to get to another job, but that is no excuse. My business partner will be coming with the guys to make sure it’s taken care of properly."

Please see the pictures.

I can not recommend this company. Choose at your own peril.

David was great. On time, on budget and great work. No hassles and easy to get in touch with. Highly recommend David and his team, I would use them again. Thanks!

We had a leak in the basement and determined that the source was a decaying brick basement window sill. John came out to assess the situation in short order and offered a competitive quote. Dave organized a crew to come by shortly after and they did an excellent job with the window sill as well as a porch pillar that needed some attention. We were very impressed by the great service provided by Red Robin and would not hesitate to use them again or recommend to others. Thanks guys!

I contacted these folks via Home Stars last week. 2 days later I had a quote. 3 days later the work was complete.

Jay did an amazing job, matching mortar colour, pointing and finishing beautifully, taking pictures and coming down off the roof to explain things. He worked non-stop for 7 hours, was tidy, courteous, friendly and wonderful with curious kids and dog.

He was so impressive that many of our neighbours contacted Red Robin to do work while he was still here.

These folks are amazing!

They did a great job repairing and installing stone on the side of my house. It looked great and I was really happy with their professionalism and attention to detail.

Dave and his team did a great job on the parge. Unfortunately the first coat did not satisfy, but they came back 2 more times until the job was done properly.

Dave and his team run their business like I would run a business. Check that...WAY better than I could run a business. Dave and his crew are everything that you would want in a contractor, nothing less. Prompt, courteous, communcative, easy to deal with, great work, friendly efficient crew, and reasonable cost. In fact I didn't even meet Dave. Given a busy work schedule, I was never around, but that didn't keep Dave from staying in touch. And getting the chimney repair done without any fuss. Highly recommend to everyone.

Hired Red Robin to do spot pointing on my house. Quick response to my enquiry, and what I felt was a good session when Dave came over to give me an estimate. He pointed out that because of the ad hoc repairs over the years (our house is pretty old) and the various mortar colors already on the house, that we could do the whole thing so it would look nice (for $$$) or we could do just a functional job, where they would grind out the joints and spot repair as needed for much less ($). We went for $.

Alas, the guys who showed up to do the job showed up an hour late, told me they weren't sure what they were supposed to do, disappeared for an hour after they arrived, didn't grind out any joints (as far as I could tell), colored the mortar a fairly bright peach color, which didn't really match any of the existing mortar and stuck out like a sore thumb (i.e. made it look worse than it did before), slopped mortar all over the place, trowled mortar an inch over the edge of many bricks, half filled joints, ignored spots I pointed out to them, left a haze all over the bricks, etc. In other words, they did such an amateurish job I believe I could have done much better myself. When they were finished, they disappeared quietly before I had a chance to look at their final work. Suffice it to say that I was not pleased. The best thing I could say was that their work looked more-or-less functional (except where they have missed courses I pointed out to them where the mortar had severly deteriorated), although who can say if the mortar would have lasted....?

Now the good news. I sent a check thinking I'd never hear from RR again and that I'd just fix up things as best as I could. But I also complained about the work. RR sent a guy around to see what the other fellows had done and told me that he agreed their work was unacceptable. Then, over the next few weeks they sent guys to redo all the work and they did a great job, grinding out the joints, using a colour that was much better suited to the house, etc. These guys clearly took pride in their work. Mark (one of the partners) apologized in person for the original work. And all this even though they already had their money. So I'm sure they didn't make much, if anything, on the job given that they had to redo the whole thing....but I was pleased to see that they were as good as their word, and that they did a great job the second time around. In fact, they did such a good job I'm considering hiring them to redo the whole front and back of the house in the spring, and have already had Mark out for an estimate.

So, yes, I'd hire them again, because I like a company that stands behind its work. So they get a 9 out of 10 for that - and it would have been a 10/10 had the first crew done as a good job the first time around.

Mike, Dave and their crew were great. I was on vacation when they did their work and they kept me up to date with emails and when they ran into some trouble with my foundation, they had were upfront about their concerns and gave me their best advice on steps to address the issue. I really appreciate their straight-forward approach and trustworthiness. When I returned from vacation my house was spotless outside and my neighbours said that they were always courteous. I would definitely use them again.