A&A Masonry

First of all, Ill say that the quality of the Stucco work, our house was fully stucco'd, is excellent. We never had a problem with that.

But we were disappointed with almost every other aspect of working with A + A. The project took more than 2 months to complete and cost (including extras) around twice what we had been first quoted.

The fundamental problem is that the Stucco work is completely subcontracted. Stucco does not appear to be part of A+As core business. This leads to a disorganized and frustrating experience from the point of view of the customer.

We were given a quote by an A + A salesperson who was not accompanied by the Stucco company. This was not a brief visit: he stayed and chatted and drank coffee and ate snacks for over 2 hours. We (me and my wife) believe we were misled about the work A +A would do, whereas they deny this (though did say at one point he had been dragged over the coals') In any case, what isn't disputed is that the quote included fire resistant material on one side of the house but the company came back just before the work was to begin and said that they could not honour the contract because the fire resistant material wasn't, in fact, necessary and too expensive. Even though we had had other cheaper quotes, with the changing Fall weather in mind accepted this change--a red flag we should have seen.

After asking the salesman about extra costs, he put in the quote one possible extra which was the 1500 cost of covering one neighbours electricity line. In actual fact, our project involved covering 2 lines (very visible), replacing rotten wood, removing old shingles, having roofing work undertaken, paying for two electricians, and a number of other extras to the stucco work. Most of these we dont dispute but none of these were explained to us as even possibilities at the time of the quote. I think in other words the scale of the project was hidden from us by the salesperson to get our signature and deposit.

During the work many times we were frustrated by what seemed at times to be the Stucco subcontracted company (with own logo on van etc,) acting almost as if they responsible to no one but themselves. It seemed that they held power over A + A, the two seem to have worked together for a long time, not the other way around.

Two incidents illustrate this. The stucco company sheared the outlet to our water heater. Actually it could have been a CO risk had we not heard the furnace constantly shut down and restart because stucco had also blocked it. A+As response (after talking to the stucco campy whose word they took) was that it was somehow the (20 yr old) pipes fault for not having enough play. I took care of its repair.

Then our electricity was disconnected for what we had been told would be a day or two. But it was almost a week. In part this was because, despite bing told that the Stucco company would come immediately and get the required section done, the stucco work was undertaken at the company's own pace . A + A said don't worry they will fast track their work using heat torches but the Stucco company laughed when I told them and said what torches . Then the stucco manager asked why I had even had the electricity disconnected, as in his view it wasn't necessary. Again, a complete lack of coordination. Things only sped up when we said that we would have to move into a hotel and charge A + A.

Again, I don't dispute the quality of the work, but I wish I had gone with a specialized stucco company that could coordinate the project from quote to delivery and give an honest assessment of its likely final cost. Subcontracting such a major project, even to a company that clearly cares about quality, just doesn't work for the customer.