Stories From the Field

Post: AAA-1 Masonry & Tuckpointing is Your Restoration Company

Saturday May 9, 2015

This week a new client and I were reviewing the restoration work we had just completed on her house. The brick match was impressive, our mortar match was spot-on, and the homeowner was ecstatic and effusive with the compliments. (Even after 60 years in the business we never grow tired of hearing these.) This was a client who really had done her research prior to hiring us. And part of that research had included scouring every page of our company's website.

I asked her what she had thought of the website since its development and maintenance has been a real labor of love for me. I take every photo and write every bit of text on the site. I continue to spend several hours each week ensuring our website is easy to navigate, enjoyable to view and read and, hopefully, elevates the viewers' understanding of what quality masonry restoration work is all about.

Toward the end of the meeting, my new client hit me with a comment that really surprised me. She said that AAA-1 Masonry's website was visually impressive, easy to navigate and very educational, yes, but it gave her the impression that the company only worked on very large projects for very big money. That was a shock to hear since about half of our projects range in duration from 1 — 2 days. Last night I went to the company's website and reviewed the images and text on the home page, the blog, and everywhere else on the site. My client was right. In an effort to show off our talents and passion, I had focused almost exclusively on our higher-profile projects. It was an unintentional gaffe. So, to be clear, we're passionate about masonry restoration work regardless of the scale, location, or price. Going forward I will try to include a better balance between featuring the grand, multi-month projects and the smaller (but equally as important) residential projects we tackle.

So, if your residential chimney is beginning to lean, the parapet wall on your mother-in-law's two-flat is wavy or starting to crumble, or you have begun to notice water infiltration through your home's brick, concrete block, stone or terra cotta walls, then the seasoned craftsmen at this company know what to do. Why? Because masonry restoration work is all we've been doing for the last 60+ years — and this depth of experience applies to the senior management, the project managers, the foreman and the crews. (In fact, many of the foremen were once masons, tuckpointers and laborers at this very company decades ago.)

We grind deeper, fill a head joint more fully, prep our replacement steel more completely, and know more about the art of masonry restoration work than any other firm working in Chicago, the North Shore or the western suburbs. Period. We value quality over speed, and integrity over profit. And if you allow us, we will leave you with an enduring product that is sure to garner compliments for years to come (you can read some of them on our homepage and in the Testimonials section of the website).

Thank you for the opportunity to be of service!

—Rob

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