Experts in Masonry Repairs | Sandstone Masonry and Construction Complete Fraud
On 10-6-2023 I was working from home when 2 younger men knocked on my door (John and one of his employees), they worked for a Sandstone Masonry and Construction, and they offered to give me a quote on my chimney (which needed some repair). So, they climbed on the roof to look, and they gave me an estimate of $2,000 to rebuild from the roofline up, and repoint below the roofline, acid wash and waterproof the entire chimney, which I agreed, signed, and gave them a $1,000 deposit.
When they came to do the service, they kept me posted on what they were doing, until I came around the corner and my entire chimney had been demolished to the ground. After confronting John, he was getting angry and kept pointing at the proposal (which does not state anything about demoing the entire chimney, he was gradually raising his voice and getting nervous as I explained that I did not agree to this, and I want to talk to the owner. He proposed that he could rebuild the chimney for $60,000, then $40,000, or give me my deposit back. I again asked for the owner’s number, but he refused to give it to me. He was getting so upset I asked if he could go to his truck because at this point, I was getting very upset myself. John was video recording me, threatening to post me on social media and acting like a child. John and his workers packed up and left, leaving my boiler inoperable which heats and provides hot water to my house.
I called the Johnston Police hoping to file a report, I explained what had happened and that they left piles of bricks in my yard, demolished my chimney, and left me with no heat and hot water. Unfortunately, I was told there is not much they can do as I did hire them, it was a small claims issue, and I would have to bring them to court. But they had offered to call them for me. About 30 minutes after calling the police John called me back and offered to rebuild my chimney for $17,000 or give me my $1,000 deposit back, I again asked for the owner’s number which he finally provided and told him I would need to speak with him before I decided. It turns out that the owner of the company (Malcom) is John ’s father.
After speaking to the owner for a bit, I calmed down and he offered to replace my chimney for $10,000 (plus my $1,000 deposit), assuring it would be a perfect, beautiful chimney. Not having really any other option because I had no chimney and that sounded reasonable, I agreed, verbally. I have not been given any other form of documentation or receipt for the $10,000.
I spent the next two hours digging out the exhaust to my boiler so I could have heat and hot water. Meanwhile I care for my retired, senior mother, I cannot really be without heat and hot water.
The following Monday another group of contractors came to start working on my chimney, and sporadically came and went throughout the next 2 weeks until it was finally completed Saturday October 22nd. At that time, I was left several days without being able to run my boiler. Once the chimney was finally completed, I went to fire the boiler and the exhaust was blowing directly into the basement. I had called the owner of the company and explained, and he said, “it was fine” and I can run my boiler. I had to take the exhaust off my boiler and noticed that a flue tile was blocking 2/3 of the 6-inch opening and cement debris was blocking the 1/3, completely blocking the exhaust for my boiler. I spent the next few hours cleaning the pipes of the boiler, chiseled out the cement debris and installed an expander from the boiler to the wall opening to the flue.
Still concerned for my safety, I called the fire department, I explained the situation and they came to check my house for CO and advised I should not operate my boiler, thankfully my house was free from CO, I installed 2 more CO detectors and reached out to my furnace technician which explained that although the flue was not installed properly, as long as there is vacuum and no exhaust is going into my basement I should be “ok” but this issue would have to be fixed.
I am a technical and handy person, did not know much about masonry and chimneys, have done a lot of research and learned quite a bit. For starters the company should have a permit to do this kind of work, a thimble should have been installed at the base of the flue, any brick below ground level should have been replaced, the fireplace should have been replaced along with the chimney and $11,000 for a chimney including the fireplace was above the median for chimney replacement. So, me thinking the owner was doing me a favor was not.
My boiler is working, the chimney is not safe as I was previously told by the fire department, I have filed a complaint with the Attorney generals of RI and MA (as the company is out of MA, I am waiting to hear back from the town of Johnston as they were also going to reach out to the owner to see if he can get them to do anything, but because there were no permits pulled there is not much they can do and the owner of the company will no longer respond to my messages once I told him that the chimney was not properly installed, last I was told by him was “It was a pleasure doing business with you, have a nice day”. I am not blocked
As of 11/2, I was instructed by the Mechanical Inspector on how to properly open the flue tile and the boiler is exhausting properly. I have also included pictures from the home inspection from 5-3-2023 that shows that the house did not need a chimney, just the top rebuild which is what the initial service was for and agreed to. The mess from the construction remains in my front yard.
11/12/2023, I went on my roof to clean my gutters to realize that the top of the chimney was not complete. So need to get back in touch with the inspectors and find someone to fix my chimney.
Lesson learned to not to accept offers from Solicitors and Lawyer approved post as long as its truthful.
