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I'm the Queen of the Click..Brooklynite taking over the world from her computer. MCSE, Martha Stewart Wanna Be.























July 18, 2015

Stones R Us Review – Brooklyn Cement Work – Our Experience

cement work bay ridge brooklyn
 

We needed to get our sidewalk replaced because it has taken a beating from the last two winters. We patched it ourselves last year, but it didn’t look good and it was time to get it done. I researched online through Brownstoner to see who was a recommended licensed contractor for sidewalks. A few recommendations from there showed that a good number of people liked a company called Stones Are Us . People wrote that the company was licensed, did a good job and their price was reasonable. I called Stones R Us and I spoke with Carlos. Carlos took my information and said he would come out the next day and give us a quote. 

The Stones R Us father and son team stopped by to look at our sidewalk. We had four large sidewalk squares that needed replacing – two were 4 inches deep because they were standard sidewalk,  two squares were 6 inches deep because our driveway is in the front of our house AND 4 half squares of cement from the center to the curb section.  In addition, we needed the driveway slope and to pay for the permit to replace a sidewalk.

They asked us if the city gave us a summons – Nope – no summons. We just wanted to fix it up so we had a good sidewalk without cracks.   The two spoke together and then they quoted us $4200.

$4200! 

We were prepared to pay for the job to be done correctly, but the priced seemed high. I had a price in my head which I thought it would be around and this was quite different. After Carlos left, we reasoned that we don’t know what people charge for this type of work so maybe it was a fair price. Stones R Us said they could get the permits and do the sidewalk later that week.

I had to find someone who would share with me the cost of similar work.  I went online and wrote a few e-mails and then I realized I have a super neighbor who has lived in Bay Ridge all her life and she recommended Regal Construction.  I called him, he came to meet me that day and began work 3 days later. (See their work here)

Someone said  Qualita Home Improvement was good. We left a message on the machine for Qualita, but did not hear back from them. We called during regular business house and spoke to the owner’s wife. She told us they would call us later on, but we didn’t receive a call back. I guess the summer is a busy time for home repair.

We called our neighbor’s recommendation and we were quoted less than 1/2 the price that Stones R Us quoted us.  When we asked that licensed contractor to see his previous work, he went into his phone and told us addresses of places he had done in the past. We drove to the different locations and his work consistently looked good so we went with him. Their work was fantastic and beyond my expections. I will post pics of it soon. 

Maybe the price Stones R Us gave us is a fair price for a landmark brownstone home in Park Slope (landmark homes have landmark paperwork that has to be filed), but this is just a regular house in Bay Ridge.  We got our sidewalk done and it came out beautifully (go see).

 

 

 

Hugs,
marlene

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