AAA-1 Masonry & Tuckpointing

I have had a wonderful experience with Dan Kruk, a project manager at AAA. He has been a huge help in renovations on the brick work at my condo building. He is accessible, patient and good at explaining complicated construction topics. He stays in communication throughout a project and so far, we’re happy with the work. (I say so far because it was just done in December and I don’t want to jinx it!) I have had the distinct impression from Dan that if he can help me out in the midst of this stressful project, he absolutely will. His guys treated our home and us with great respect and were great to work with too. And the office staff is very helpful.

These guys have done extensive work on our house over the last 5 years. We have a circa 1880 brick home and quite a bit of our foundation was starting to show the effects of father time (and more critically weather!)
This type of work is significant — I am luck to have Rob and his team to help us through it!
They were honest in their initial assessment– which was critical to me. Next, they were very reasonable on cost, but most importantly — the quality of their work is EXCEPTIONAL.
After they completed their work, we got multiple unsolicited compliments on the quality and craftsman ship of the work from other professionals working on our home (Gardener, Gutter Guys etc).
Lastly, the team was very professional, courteous during the work days
I wish every professional service team i work with was as much as a pleasure to work with as AAA1. At a minimum, give Rob a call. Get his point of view before you do anything!~

i am very disappointed the way Robert Reese follow up after estimate, every time i call Robert tell me i call you right back but never did at least i call 4 times. Consumer BE AWARE BEFORE DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY.

We have used AAA-​1 service our building since 2005 and we couldn’t be happier. His work and quality of work is excellent. Great workers and Bob is a man of his word. We strongly suggest using his service for any masonry work on your housing. I will say he is very busy so call early in the spring to get your work done.

Alex and his team did an amazing job. The work was beautifully and meticulously done and they matched the brick color very closely to the existing surrounding bricks. In addition, we were in a huge hurry and despite their 4 – 6 week backlog, they were able to fit us into the schedule right away with an opening that came up. This helped us tremendously as we are getting ready to put our home on the market. I would highly recommend AAA-​1.

AAA’s crew proved to be a great investment… again! They took the time to explain my masonry situation in detail, where the developers cut cut corners, and provided photos of the work in progress. It proved to be quite an education. Just as impressive as the quality of their work was the clean-​up and my neighbor was very pleased with the way you respected his property… Thank you!
David Saad, Lincoln Park, Chicago

I did have to wait to get a place on the schedule, but I am glad I was patient. Andy and his team did a fantastic job replacing nine lintels and rebuilding two front stoop walls at my house, in one day! Rob was an excellent source of information, always willing to answer questions, discuss options, etc.
The most painful part of the process for me were the many visits to my neighborhood permitting office to pull a simple repair permit for the job. You see, I thought I could save some money by pulling my own permit at one of the City’s neighborhood permitting offices, rather than having AAA-​1 pull the permit for me, but it took me multiple visits and an entire day of waiting on my third trip there just to get a simple $ 150 repair permit – be prepared for such a process if you choose to pull the permit yourself. I’ve learned my lesson and won’t be doing that again!
I am on the schedule for further repairs next year. Thanks, Rob, Andy and the talented masons at AAA-​1!

I received the following hand-​written letter in the mail from Rob today (just two days after our missed appointment):
«Mr. Frost — You will never get back the time I took from you, but at least it won’t be a total loss. Please forgive me. Rob Reese.»
Included with the letter was a personal check for $ 100 from Mr. Reese with the memo line, «For wasting your time.»
I sincerely appreciate the sentiment, and the money back for «wasting my time» shows his sincerity. (Even if it feels a little awkward — I don’t feel ok with taking money from someone that didn’t do any work, so I won’t be depositing this check.)
So I’m a bit conflicted. I changed my review from one star to three, because he seems genuine in his apology, and responded above and beyond what I’ve come to expect from a contractor. I’ve worked with many sub-​contractors in my time, and this is definitely a first for me.
However, he did miss two appointments; one of them blatantly. It makes it hard to build a trusting work relationship with someone when they can’t keep their word to show up on time. Because of this, I won’t be working with AAA-​1 on this project.
That being said, Rob seems like an honest and sincere guy, who cares about his work and his reputation. I would imagine that he is likely overly busy and could use some help with time management. If I ever need masonry work in the future I may consider giving him another shot at an estimate.

Rob came, inspected and chatted at length. I Never received an estimate. I called after all my estimates were in, and he had no recollection of my address. This, after AAA did the north side of my building some 10 years ago. He did not recall that either. Hmmmm… selective memory?

Well, so much for giving them the benefit of the doubt. Called to make an appointment for a quote and was turned away because my «project is too small». what, do I have to spend 30K to have people come do work for me? I was looking to get my front steps fixed up … but since they are too cool for school; they will not be coming to even check out the project. WOW, good luck with your back-​logged projects from last year. we are already in June of the next year …

This company and its owner, Rob Reese, are wonderful. We had to do major repairs on a Lincoln Park single family brick home built around 1860. The work was SO well done. Our home abuts our neighbors; there is no side access. To access the roof (from where much of the work was done,) they constructed an ingenious scaffolding with «elevator.» The crew was large, unfailingly courteous, and real craftsmen. The job lasted about 5 days; they came to set up at 7:00am, worked hard, and then cleaned up. Finding a masonry company is difficult… I cannot recommend AAA-​1 more strongly. And if you want to learn about masonry, just talk to Rob; he taught us a lot about our building and explained every step in the process. He even stayed late one day to help another craftsman doing some wrought iron work — just because he wanted to help. This company is first-​rate!

My husband and I hired AAA-​1 Masonry & Tuckpointing to restore our front brick parapet wall a few years back and were
very pleased with the quality of the work and the professionalism of the men. Our experience rebuilding the side parapet wall this year was equally as pleasant. Robert took the time to educate us about the correct way to rebuild our parapet wall, showed us photos of what he saw during his rooftop inspection, and provided options (and guidance) about how to do the job
correctly.
Apparently the original height of the parapet wall had been reduced years ago and never rebuilt back to its correct height.
We were working on a budget, so we told AAA-​1 Masonry not to rebuild the parapet wall to a slightly higher height, even though Robert counseled us to do so in order to allow the roofers to properly re-​flash the wall when the brickwork was completed. We had to make a choice, and I really wanted to spend the $ 1600 for this additional work on new capstones around my front entry
(work that Rob also did for us). I spend a lot of time on my porch and our capstones did not look good. Replacing them was important to me.
10 masons made fast (and beautiful) work of our parapet wall. Andy the foreman was a pleasure to deal with, too.
My east wall is sited pretty close to the property line, so the men built very narrow pipe scaffolding towers so as not to damage my neighbor’s property, and they wrapped their scaffolding in dust-​suppressing mesh which
everyone appreciated. All of the masonry debris went into a dumpster, and that dumpster was removed the day the job was completed. They even brought their own port-​a-​potty so as not to be an imposition.
Once the job was done, Robert revealed that he and the men had chipped in to rebuild the parapet wall to the proper height
(the height he had recommended from the start) for no charge! He said not rebuilding the parapet wall higher would have reduced the life expectancy of his work, and he never would have forgiven himself if he had let that happen. Who does work for free?!?
With all aspects of the job, we were very satisfied customers. Thank you, AAA-​1 Masonry, for your counsel, work
ethic, and generosity.
–Linda

AAA1 came to our house to do a estimate. They spent several hours at our house writing up the quote. I waited several months to received the quote. Rob than met with my husband to go over his quote. The quote needed a few final touches. We waited and waited… I called and called… Always an excuse why they didn’t have the final quote done. I started this process in April and by December still never received our final quote.
I missed a whole season of tuckpointing work to be done. This job was going to cost around $ 15,000 plus… they seemed to not want our business. But never told us that… Just strung us along.
We have had a lot of work done at our house in the past. I have never run into anyone that ran a business like this.
I would have to give it 0 stars. The owner dropped the ball on this one.
If the owner can’t give you a final quote… It is telling on how they may complete a job

These guys are the best in the business. I am the President of my condo association and went through an exhaustive search for a company to take care of the tuck pointing and split block sealing of my building. As soon as Dan from AAA-​1 came out he really put us at ease about what our building needed and how to protect our building from water issues we’d been experiencing. Most companies I spoke with offer a 5 year guarantee on the sealer they use for the split block. AAA-​1 uses a sealer that they guarantee for 20 years. AAA-​1 should be your first and last stop when it comes to protecting your brick and split block building.

Brent came out an did a great job on our split block. Fair pricing and great service. Responsive and helpful.

These guys are great… and honest! I’ve owned buildings in the city for years and never needed more than touch up tuckpointing but this time I had to rebuild a parapet wall and they came in and kicked _​_​_​. Everyone from Dan Kruk the estimator to the front desk folks and especially the masons were fantastic. I needed the work done on an emergency basis and they were working within 4 days. I called three other masonry companies to get competing bids… two never got back to me and the third one spent half an hour assessing the job but never bid it. I found AAA on this Unilocal site and angies list and they deserve the 5 stars… They also left the job site spotless.

I used AAA Masonry three years ago and was very pleased with their initial assessment, quote and work; they even returned to check on some items. I reviewed three companies and they were the most professional of the three. I continue to work with Brent Moore and trust his professional opinion and experience. They are Angies List approved and rated (even have a coupon in Angies List) and stood the test time. Not the cheapest, but you pay for what you get and you want the job done correct, not cheap.

Was recommended by my inspector. They charge $ 200 for a consultation. They don’t really spend much time actually looking at what’s wrong. I think they may be ok at doing very simple things, but if you have a problem, I’m not sure they will be able to help.

I’ve worked with AAA1 Masonry for several years now and can’t say enough good things about them. They are professional from start to finish. Brent Moore has an amazing ability to talk to any homeowner, board member or property manager as an educator, no matter their level of masonry expertise. He will tackle a job in its entirety or attempt to phase the process in order to address issues in a cost-​effective manner. I’ve also worked with owner Rob Reese who always goes above and beyond for customer service.

When it comes to something daunting and expensive like tuckpointing, it’s sometimes hard to know who to trust. You can look in the Yellow Pages and see who looks more reputable than others, but still, it’s hard to tell.
I contacted multiple businesses about getting a quote for tuckpointing on our new construction condo building. Rob Reese with AAA-​1 Masonry was the obvious choice. First off, there wasn’t endless phone tag. We set an appointment right away, and he showed up. I don’t know how many other companies I contacted that they just blew me off, or we completely unreliable.
Secondly, he looked at my building, and schooled me on all the things that were wrong. It’s scary how much garbage goes on with new construction buildings, and Rob explained everything in easy to understand terms. However, he was aware of our budget and recommended what were the necessary steps. He gave a thorough and very detailed quote… nothing’s left to question.
You get what you pay for, and with AAA-​1 you are paying for quality, honest work. Your home is the biggest investment you’ll make in your life, and why cut corners when you can have a competitive quote from the leader in the business. Otherwise, you’ll just end up spending more a year down the line when you call Rob to fix what the last person did to your building.
Get it done right the first time, call AAA-​1!