Above All Masonry and Construction

Above All Masonry and Construction is a Dorchester masonry outfit — chimneys, foundations, retaining walls, patios and walkways, waterproofing — that its HomeAdvisor profile says has been at it 15 years, working Suffolk County behind a 10-year service guarantee. One thing outweighs everything else on this page. NBC Boston reported in December 2023 that Hughie O'Donoghue and Michael Nevin of Above All Masonry and Construction pleaded guilty in Concord District Court and were ordered to pay $105,000 in restitution for scamming a 74-year-old Maynard man. That is a court outcome the station reported as resolved, not an open allegation, and it is the single most decision-relevant thing known about the business. The online rating pulls hard the other way: 5.0 stars from 31 HomeAdvisor ratings, a clean 100% five-star sweep. That number needs reading with care. HomeAdvisor's own profile shows all 25 displayed reviews carrying the same January 2023 date, none below five stars, several written in oddly machine-like English ("Excellent help. Would suggest. Expert piece of handiwork"), and two near-identical. In those January 2023 reviews homeowners described a complex chimney reconstruction and capping, a same-day roof leak repair, and a new gutter system. So a homeowner is choosing between a 2023 guilty plea reported by NBC Boston on one side and one platform's uniformly perfect, uniformly dated review page on the other, with nothing independent in between. If they are still on your list, ask about the Concord District Court case directly, confirm which corporate entity and which people you would actually be contracting with, insist on a written scope and payments tied to completed work, and check the registration with the state before any deposit changes hands.