Stonecraft Masonry, Inc
Serving Lebec, CA and surrounding areas
In business since 2000
Free estimates
Warranties offered
"In retrospect, I shouldn’t have paid him before the job was done. The job was to remove the sod and level the yard, then cover three areas of it with sandstone set in concrete pads. (Later, I would put ground cover/gravel between the stones.) Darren had originally quoted me what sounded like a surprisingly reasonable price for labor (and only labor - I was to buy the stones myself). I hired him and work began. The job seemed to be going well, so I paid him the final check early. Once I handed him the final check (again, a clear mistake on my part to do before the job was finished) and left to go to a doctor’s appointment, he bounced. When I came back to find he was gone and his assistant was cleaning up, I asked where he’d gone. His assistant, Eddie, informed me that I would be putting the stones in myself now, and that he’d help me. I called Darren about this sudden change in plans and he told me that this work was really beneath him so I should be the one to do it. He said he’d taken a job working on my neighbor’s yard for a few days so he’d be close by if anything was needed. Despite my misgivings, I agreed to do the labor **I had already paid him to do.** So Eddie and I did the work of lifting/moving/placing heavy flagstones for the next day and a half. Once the check cleared, Darren came back, looked at the stones, pretended to be surprised at how many there were, and claimed that the job would take a lot more money because he had misunderstood what needed to be done and it would be more work than he’d thought - pouring more concrete, specifically. He claimed that he assumed there were only going to be a few stones in each area, not covering each area. Even though I and his assistant had done a good portion of the work he had been hired to do, his quote to finish the job was an additional 71% of the total I’d already paid him. I had obviously fallen for one of the oldest scams in the book. FTR, at our initial consultation, I had shown him files and sketches of what I wanted done: three areas of my yard covered with sandstone with ground cover/gravel between. Though he later claimed he had no memory of having seen the sketches and files of examples of what I wanted done, he had clearly understood what the job was at the time he took it. His instructions to take his measurements to the building supply company so they could sell me the number of pallets I needed to cover the areas were clearly understood by both myself and the company to mean that the square footage would be for coverage. While I enjoy hard work, I had paid *him* to do the labor. I am certain, however, that he had me and his assistant do the labor of lifting and placing each stone in order that he could pretend to be surprised when he came back the next day to find more stones than he supposedly thought were supposed to go in. It’s my firm belief that everything - the lowball quote, the missing a day of work, making me do his labor for him, etc - was a setup. It wouldn’t be the first time this has happened to a customer, but it’s definitely the last time I’ll ever hire this guy and I highly recommend anyone looking to have stone work done on their property avoid hiring Stonecraft Masonry for anything."
Recommended by93%of homeowners
