Federal Concrete And Masonry

[INTRO]
I will remain factual in this review, and lead any subjectivity with "in my opinion" as I want the review to be useful to others. I consider myself good at putting myself in others' shoes, so I will do my best to be unbiased, though as a dissatisfied customer you will be the judge of that based on my facts.

I found August's (it's not August "Mason") ad on craigslist; it appears to be consistently at the top there when searching for concrete. The last title was "MASONRY AND CONCRETE: EXPERT REPAIRS/REBUILDS OR CONSTRUCT NEW". The location being around Evans Ave and at the current time, the phone number can be cross referenced with this business profile in Homestars.

August was very polite, and well organized (contractually). He showed up to give a quote, and was very responsive to email. This is the quote of work agreed to verbatim with spelling mistakes:

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Rear Verandah Repair
-spot fill significantly deteriorated surface areas
-re-cast broken/braking face areas & coat whole linear face anew
-replace spalled blocks anew
price: $300.00

Rear Verandah Guards & Stair Rail
-remove existing & dispose
-remove trellis if requested (no extra money)
-construct cedar anew to common references
price: $1050.00

Rear Stair Construction Cedar
-demolish & dispose existing
-construct open stair with stringers & treads
price: $475.00
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[On my Grape Vines]
On day one, August's team completely lopped off all minor stalks from my 50yr old grape vine without permission. This was done at the time they were cutting down the metal trellis. I was at home and they should have consulted with me before doing something this drastic and inappropriate. The way it was chopped, I cannot see it growing back... and if it somehow does, it will take another 10 years to reproduce what was cut away. They are not pruned; the major branches are severed.

[On Concrete Work]
I have no issues with the concrete work he had performed. It appears functional, and to spec.

[On Cedar Railing Woodwork]
In my opinion, this work is amateur and unacceptable.

They are extremely wobbly and secured via tapcon screws into the top face of the veranda (not lag bolted to the face of the structure - which there is ample room for). They were so wobbly they were required to be secured to the house (typically not code, but required in this case).

There is a long span of 8 ft from post-to-post (should be half this) for one railing. August supported this with a block under the middle of the bottom ledge despite my request to follow code and insert another post.

[On the Original Cedar Stairs]
His initial set of stairs were built with a short run resulting in each tread to be lower by 1 5/8" at the front than the back. Four wooden steps each at 8 inches tall, the top step up to concrete veranda at 9 inches tall. Constructed with a completely unsafe slope (see comparison pic).

August deconstructed the stringers at my request. We agreed to an additional $300 to redo them with a proper slope and safe steps. He wrote a new project change notice (amendment to concrete) though he vehemently refused to record the fact of each tread having a 1 5/8" front to back height difference.

In my opinion, he completely screwed up the first set of stringers and made me pay for his second try. Despite this, I obliged this request since I understood the materials were costly and there was a slim margin of profit for this work. Literally trying to be nice and move things along so the project would not get stuck and more complicated.

[On the Second Try of Cedar Stairs]
Amateur and wobbly.

- The ledger is secured to the veranda by three tapcon screws only.
- The stringer at the top is split/broken.
- The lower posts are not secured to the ground and are floating above the ground and only attached to the stringer
- The stringer was shimmed with a triangular piece of wood screwed into the side of the stringer.
- Stair guards do not include railings (i.e. only flat 2x4 running up the side of the stairs so they are difficult to grab and are also rough lumber)

I will have to redo or secure this work myself. I wish it were possible to attach video to show how wobbly this structure is.

[Some things August told me]
In my opinion these are things as I remember them that stuck with me:
- When voicing my displeasure for the dangerous original stringers, August told me he was the designer, and he decided what I got. He deemed them fit. Later on in the conversation he also referred to the term "you get what you pay for".
- When telling him that his posts were not meeting code, he went into debate with why my suggestion (code) was inferior to his workaround of blocking underneath.
- When I said "I feel like I am being asked to pay for something that was your mistake", he shot down my openness with "Well I feel like it's sunny outside, I feel this.. and I feel that" and called my statement meaningless.

[My suggestions are]
- call him for concrete which is his specialty
- do not contract him do woodwork
- contractually obligate him to meet code
- do not expect to argue the quality of his work. If one plans to argue against code and against unsafe structures it's not a meaningful debate.

All in all, it felt like a shady experience. Please see my other reviews. I am a reasonable person that is quick to give credit where it is due.

[EDIT 20150612]
1. Removed HTML tags for <P> and <BR> that didn't format this review to make it easier to read.
2. Pasting the official response from this business in my own review in case it is deleted by them. It reads "FEDERAL CONCRETE AND MASONRY has never -ever- contracted with anyone to do the work described above. This tale is a malicious publication. We deem this a trespass with intent to damage private property."
3. My followup comments to the business' response: I was contacted by Homestars and provided full contractual proof of the work done by this company which includes August's name and full business information and signatures. Homestars unfroze the review and it is back up. You can be the judge. Fully denying involvement of such poor work is an expected response from a business.