Looking for great fireplace mason in Southern Maine (Raymond, Naples: 2013, house) - (ME) - City-Data Forum

Moxie · 08-16-2007, 05:33 PM

Does anyone have a fireplace mason to recommend in Southern Maine? Sebago Lake area. This is to tear down and replace a fireplace on the interior of a turn of the century camp.
thanks

Moxie · 07-06-2008, 08:37 AM

Hey,
We are still looking for someone who can be the final authority on what to do with our falling down fireplace and chimney.
Thanks!

Maineah · 07-07-2008, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moxie

Does anyone have a fireplace mason to recommend in Southern Maine? Sebago Lake area. This is to tear down and replace a fireplace on the interior of a turn of the century camp.
thanks

Me too! If you find one let me know. I have been looking for three years by the way!

spaige · 08-02-2008, 03:22 PM

I work with a woman whose husband is a mason and works with bricks. We are in the Naples, Me. area.I just called her and yes he can help. I have the phone number if you need it still. He will do a fee quote.
sue

Maineah · 08-02-2008, 04:35 PM

I never did find a mason. I had a contractor friend of mine do some repointing and flashing work. He fixed the lead which was the big problem. Now I have to have him come back to fix the damaged sheetrtock wall I lost from the leak! It's always something!

spaige · 08-03-2008, 10:20 AM

Maineah, We have lead inside the stone work of our huge fireplace on Sebago Lake and I would wonder how we would find someone who would be able to do any salvage work on it, if ever needed. I will have to cross my fingers that we won't need that type of work.
sue

Moxie · 07-30-2009, 06:48 AM

We still have a dangerous fireplace. Any new folks out there have someone who does tricky work? We've had estimates from $200 to stick a pipe up it to many thousands of dollars to rebuild the whole thing and remove the kitchen in the process. Hard to know who to trust since we get DRAMATICALLY different answers. We've had 4 or 5 look at it and no one agrees!
I was hoping to be a year round resident by now to have more time to deal with it. The economy has put a kibosh on our plans. Hopefully things will turn around soon.
Obviously our preference for repair is cheap and safe!

Maineah · 07-30-2009, 10:11 AM

We have had nothing but terrible luck with masons around here. I really wish I could tell you differently but we sit here with a crumbling ,leaky chimney which continues to let rain into our attic and as you know all it's done this year is rain!
Over two years ago now we decided that our chimney should be rebuilt as it had a bit of a leak and all of the bricks had become spongelike allowing rain to actually enter the brick themselves. We got an estimate, and the contract was signed in fall 2006. In the spring of 2007 I called the mason who never answered me, I wrote to him, called his cousin who worked for my inlaws, no answer. I was told he was backed up and would be getting to me when he could by the cousin. We waited until spring of 2008 and I called another mason. He came right over and gave me a much higher estimate than the first guy but I said please just do it so I can repair my upstairs sheetrock. Then we had a real wet spring and I lost more sheetrock, got a mold problem, had to remove most of the hallway and bathroom trim, and lost some carpet on the second floor. I finally went up on the roof and covered the chimney with a layer of epoxy and caulked up all around the flashing. This slowed the leak but did not stop it. By fall of 2008 the second mason had not shown up and I was getting worried again. He assured me he was coming and if not before winter then definitely first thing in the spring of 2009. In April of 2009 I drove to his house and asked him what his intentions were. He showed me his work list and sure enough we were at the top of the list. He said he was sure we would be taken care of by mid May or the first of June at the latest. Granted the weather has been bad but there have been some dry weeks....I know because I managed to get my barn cupola scraped, primed and painted by myself since May. In early July I finally lost patience with mason #2 and called another mason recommended to me by a contractor friend. He showed up ,gave me an estimate which was much better than mason #2 and said I'll be here in a week. That was three weeks ago now and I'm getting ready to start hounding him. We're getting a bit desperate now as we have lost some of the ceiling in the upstairs bathroom now and we also need to change out our whole oil boiler before winter and the chimney MUST be done before we can do that! Getting this chimney repaired has been the most difficult problem I have ever encountered since moving to this house some 22 years ago. In that time we have remodeled the kitchen, replaced all of the windows, paved the driveway, built a 32x48 barn,replaced the septic systen, replaced the water lines and well pump, built a patio, a deck and the list just goes on. Of all those projects this chimney has been by far the worst one to get any help with. I could have become a mason apprentice for two years, rented staging, and done the whole thing myself in the time we have waited for THREE masons to show up and rebuild just five feet of chimney top!

Moxie · 07-30-2009, 10:35 AM

Is it just that no one is a mason anymore? Is it Maine? Is there a fireplace mason union?
Ok, I have an idea. How about we offer a free Maine vacation to an out of state mason!
Maybe someone in Iowa would be interested!
I thought it was just us that was having such trouble. I am sorry you are going through this too. Part of it is that we can't use it, part that it may fall on us, and of course we have towels all around it because of all the lovely rain we are having. My bed is right next to it upstairs and I keep thinking of the obituary after I am crushed to death. "Raymond mom of 4 dies waiting for fireplace mason!"

Maineah · 07-30-2009, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moxie

Is it just that no one is a mason anymore? Is it Maine? Is there a fireplace mason union?
Ok, I have an idea. How about we offer a free Maine vacation to an out of state mason!
Maybe someone in Iowa would be interested!
I thought it was just us that was having such trouble. I am sorry you are going through this too. Part of it is that we can't use it, part that it may fall on us, and of course we have towels all around it because of all the lovely rain we are having. My bed is right next to it upstairs and I keep thinking of the obituary after I am crushed to death. "Raymond mom of 4 dies waiting for fireplace mason!"

I'd laugh but it really is a serious thing. We too have been waiting for the CRASH when half the top part of the chimney rotates away from the rest of it and comes through our bedroom ceiling into our room. Masons seem to take the highest paying jobs and cleanest work first. If they can build a retaining wall, new patio, or any type of low,straight going, easy high paying work they will back burner you forever. The job we have has been estimated for three different prices. $1800.00, $2200.00, and $3600.00. Believe it or not the lowest estimate was the last one. We were more than willing to pay the $3600.00 but they never showed up. The thing that really made me mad about the second mason($3600.00) was when I called him to cancel the contract he told me he was planning to be here with a crew on the following Monday...I just said you've had more than enough time and quite frankly I did not believe him anymore.