Some young guys don't factor in an overhead and so they offer a low price.   But they won't be around in the long term.   Will they cut corners in doing the job?   Do they really care if it lasts?

John is a guy who cares. There's no sales team looking to upsell you.

This is what goes into showing up at your door:

1.  Experience. Knowing what we're looking at, having seen a wide range of exceptions, knowing what will be needed, and having the skills to get it done.

2.  Muscle Memory. Masonry is indeed part science, and some would say part art, but it takes muscle memory to do many masonry jobs well. I've seen plenty of guys who can't parge, who can't handle cement around bricks. Thousands of hours of practice give you muscle memory.

3.  Training. Including the years of apprenticeship at the start, new courses every year, and the on-going learning about new materials. Click here for more.

4.  Licenses and Certifications: Periodic renewals.

5.  Our truck. The balance of the amortized purchase, yearly maintenance, heavy duty tires, and, a fund for a new truck.

6.  Gas. We average $6500 per year in gas.

7.  Insurance. Truck insurance. Health insurance.

8.  Marketing, including online with the web site. We've also done free projects for non-profits, like the fireplaces at Nakkertok Nordic.

9.  Providing estimates. These take time, and time is money.   We provide more than 200 estimates per year, usually with a masonry assessment and some good, unbiased, advice. Along with travel to and from an estimate, each can take an hour. Some have follow-up work involved, in developing bids, finding prices and materials, looking for unusual bricks or stones, etc..

10.  Tools. Replacing ones that wear out, and buying new ones. We spend a few thousand dollars every year on tools.

11.  Rental costs. We don't own every piece of equipment we use, for example, 60 foot articulated booms, vibrating plate compactors, etc.. Not every job needs one.

12.  Additional Suppliers. The materials involved in your job - from cement to stone to metal, is there a concrete mixer truck involved?

13.  Work clothes. Easily damaged by the caustic cement we work with.

14.  Office expenses, including stationary, our business cards, receipts, forms, etc..

15.  Book-keeping, from recording all of our expenses to filing statements, taxes, etc..

16.  Storage. For our many tools, from ladders to chisels, from bags of cement and sand, to debris before we have enough to justify a trip to the dump.

All of these investments in our on-going business separate us from the low-ball operator who isn't thinking about tomorrow, who may not care about quality, and who won't be here tomorrow. We take care to do the job well.

We've been in business on our own since 1999.

Please also consider that we can't do outdoor masonry year-round.   We are limited by weather being too hot or cold, and by rain - even the threat of rain can hold off work. Parging cement, according to the instructions on the bag, shouldn't be applied when the temperature is above 25 or below 5.   This spreads our overhead across a limited season.