Terms of Service

1. What these terms cover

They apply to every estimate we issue and every job we carry out, for homeowners, landlords, managing agents and commercial owners. Accepting an estimate in writing, by email or by text, means accepting these terms alongside it. Where something in your signed estimate conflicts with something here, the estimate wins.

2. Estimates and how long they hold

Estimates are free and are given after a site visit. We do not price masonry over the phone, because the price depends on what the wall is actually doing.

An estimate holds for 30 days from its date. After that we may need to reprice, mostly because material costs and scaffold rates move. An estimate covers the elevations, items and square footages written on it. Anything outside that list has not been priced.

Any estimate for work in a City of St. Louis local historic district, or in a municipality with its own preservation review, is given subject to the approvals coming through. If a reviewing body requires a different mortar, profile or method from the one we specified, we will reprice that portion rather than absorb it.

3. Booking, access and site conditions

A booking is confirmed when you accept in writing and we confirm the dates. We give you an arrival window and we call if we are running behind.

You agree to give us reasonable access to the working areas, including yards, gangways, alleys and roofs, for the duration of the job. Where the work needs access over or through a neighboring property, a shared party wall or a shared chimney, you are responsible for obtaining the neighbor’s agreement. We will tell you at estimate stage when that is going to be necessary.

Please move vehicles, garden furniture, planters and anything fragile away from the working area before we arrive. We cover and protect what we reasonably can. Items left in a scaffold footprint are at your risk.

We take responsibility for pulling the permits the work requires. You are responsible for telling us anything you know about the building that affects the work, including previous repairs, known structural issues, and anything buried or hidden near the working area.

4. Scope, and what happens when the wall surprises us

Masonry is partly hidden until it is opened. We write scopes with unit prices so that the cost of likely discoveries is known in advance: additional brick replacement, crushed bearing under a lintel, voids behind the face, or joints that stay soft deeper than expected.

If we find something outside the scope, work on that item stops, we photograph it, and we tell you what it costs before anybody carries on. Nothing extra gets charged without your agreement. If you would rather leave a discovered item for another year, we will say so in writing and note it as excluded.

Where the right answer is outside masonry, for example a structural engineer’s report, a flue reline or interior drainage, we will tell you and price only our part.

5. Prices and payment

Prices are in US dollars and are as stated on your estimate. Applicable sales tax is shown separately where it applies.

Payment is normally staged. A deposit is taken to book materials and scaffold, a progress payment falls due at an agreed point on larger jobs, and the balance is due on completion after we have walked the finished work with you. Small jobs are usually invoiced in full on completion. The exact schedule sits on your estimate.

Invoices are due within 14 days unless your estimate says otherwise. Late accounts may carry interest at the maximum rate allowed by Missouri law. Title in any materials supplied stays with us until the invoice is paid in full.

6. Cancellation and rescheduling

You may cancel a booking in writing before work starts. If we have already ordered non-returnable materials, such as custom cut stone or a specific brick match, or paid a non-refundable scaffold charge, those costs are payable. Otherwise the deposit is returned.

Where a residential contract is signed at your home, you may have a three business day right to cancel under federal law, and we will provide that notice with the paperwork where it applies.

We may reschedule for weather. Mortar cannot be placed below roughly 40 degrees Fahrenheit without heating and protection, and high wind makes scaffold work unsafe. Weather delays are not a breach of these terms and we will give you the next available dates.

7. Workmanship warranty

Our labor carries a written workmanship warranty. The term is stated on your estimate and runs from the date the work is completed. If a joint, a repair or a rebuild we carried out fails within that term because of our workmanship, we come back and put it right at no charge.

The warranty covers what we did, in the areas we did it. It does not extend to:

areas we recommended and you declined, including any item listed as excluded on the estimate;

failures caused by movement, settlement, structural issues, foundation heave or an event such as a vehicle impact, storm, fire or flood;

work by another contractor before or after ours, including sealers, coatings or paint applied to masonry we pointed;

ordinary weathering, efflorescence and minor color variation between new and existing mortar, which are characteristics of masonry rather than defects;

water entering through a roof, gutter, window, flashing or drainage item outside our scope.

Manufactured products such as caps, copings, sealers and steel carry the manufacturer’s own warranty, which we pass on to you.

8. Limitation of liability

We carry out the work with reasonable skill and care. Our total liability arising from a job is limited to the amount you paid us for that job, except where the law does not permit that limit, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence and for fraud.

We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses such as lost rent, lost business or accommodation costs. Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under Missouri consumer protection law.

9. Photographs

We photograph buildings before, during and after work as part of our records, and those photographs form part of your job file. We will ask your permission before using an image of your property in marketing, and a refusal changes nothing about the job or the warranty.

10. Complaints

Call us first. Most problems on a masonry job are quicker to resolve on the wall than in writing. If a call does not settle it, put the complaint in writing with photographs and we will respond in writing with what we propose to do and by when.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Missouri, and the courts of Missouri have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.