<p>I contacted Grove Brothers Masonry through the email link on Angie's List on Nov 8 and received a reply from Kevin, the owner, the next day. Scheduled an appointment for Friday morning, Nov 11 to review and discuss options. Kevin was at my house at the appointed time, reviewed all of the above needs with me, and gave me several options (along with his recommendation as to which was the best approach) as to fixing the porch. He gave me an estimate on the spot and I asked him to go ahead and get me a contract and let me know when he could do the work, as I wanted to get it done before the weather got too cold, wet and/or snowy to do the repairs.<br /> <br /> </p> I received the written contract via email on Nov 16, along with Kevin's request to begin the work on either Nov 17 or 18, depending on weather, as the weather was too wet for another patio job he had scheduled and he could fit my smaller job into the opening (there was a LOT of rain that week). It also rained on Nov 17, but the crew (Harry and Travis) arrived about 8:30 on Friday, Nov 18. That day they removed all the paver bricks from the front porch and removed the crumbling concrete pad below. They originally planned to be back on Monday, Nov 21 to lay the new concrete pad, but Harry told me Kevin had asked if he was able to work on Saturday (the next day), so they would be back then. Kevin was also at the job site mid-morning to check on progress, and he called later to let me know that the crew would be back on Saturday, and on Saturday Nov 19 they mixed and poured the concrete for the new porch. <br /> <br /> The crew was back on Monday, Nov 21 to lay the new brick on the new concrete pad - they were able to re-use some of my brick but not all, but the contract included any additional brick needed. Porch looked fantastic. Due to continued rain, they were not able to come back as scheduled on Wednesday Nov 23 to do the acid wash to clean the brick and finish the repointing in the other areas. However, they were back on Monday, Nov 28 after Thanksgiving. At that time Travis did the acid wash on the porch, finished remortaring the loose bricks on the steps, repointed the bricks on either side of the garage, and repointed and added a waterproofing to the exterior side of the garage to solve the water problem. <br /> <br /> In terms of the crew, Harry, who Kevin said had been with Grove Brothers for 40 years, is clearly a MASTER mason. When assessing the porch before tearing it out and laying new concrete and brick, he gave his opinion on how to lay some of the front brick for a better appearance - and it was right on. Travis, working under Harry's direction, also knew his trade and obviously was experienced enough to run "solo" for the finishing work. During the work, the work areas were left clear and as clean as feasible; the work area was totally cleaned when Travis finished the work. During the job, Kevin also stopped by each day the crew was there and was in regular communication with me via email. <br /> <br /> I have been totally pleased with this company's responsiveness as well as the quality of their work, and have told Kevin I will be calling him in the spring for some additional work that was not time-sensitive nor as required for safety concerns as the crumbling front porch. <br /> <br /> I was initially concerned because of some of the reviews regarding responsiveness (or lack thereof) - and I asked Kevin about that. Obviously the reviews from people who actually USED his services were much more positive, and I found his explanation that he was overwhelmed with the response to the Angie's List deal he offered plausible - they are a small company, and apparently received almost as many calls in response to the deal as they do jobs in the course of a year. I am not excusing his lack of response, but clearly my experience was very different. <br /> <br /> Also - even though Kevin does have a coupon with a percent off on new jobs posted on Angie's List, I chose not to use it. I value quality tradesmen (and they are getting harder to find), and while cost is certainly a factor in my choice of any service vendor, the quality and dependability of the vendor are more important to me. You get what you pay for - the cost I was quoted for the work was fair, and the end result met and exceeded my expectations. I would definitely recommend Grove Brothers to anyone in need of master masonry work.