Avalon Masonry and Construction

Avalon Masonry and Construction, based in Somerville, is a masonry outfit built around brick and stone work — tuckpointing, foundation repairs, chimney rebuilds, and patio or walkway flatwork. James, whom reviewers name directly and repeatedly, appears to run the crew himself. Across 39 reviews on Angi and HomeAdvisor, the shop holds a 4.9★ average, and the specifics go beyond boilerplate praise. In a 2024 review, a customer described granite-and-cinderblock foundation repairs finished within days, with debris hauled away and extra unnoticed repairs worked in on the fly. Several 2025 reviews add a full chimney rebuild from the roof up with a new cap and repointing, a patio and walkway redone within a week of the estimate, and a foundation waterproofing and encapsulation job customers called well-run start to finish. The theme across these accounts is follow-through — crews showing up on the day promised and sticking to the quoted price. Two 2026 reviews complicate that picture: both describe a chimney that kept leaking after the work. One customer paid $2,200 and says the leak was still there nine months later, with the company refusing to honor its five-year leak warranty; another sent video of an active leak and says the company never followed up, then refused a refund — though Avalon responded publicly that it had installed new flashing and that the leak likely traces to the original chimney builder's work a year earlier. Its Better Business Bureau file shows a C grade with one complaint filed. Its Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration is active. The strongest praise here is for tuckpointing, foundation and chimney-rebuild work that came in on time and on budget — but given two live chimney-leak disputes, it's worth pinning down exactly what any leak warranty covers, and getting the chimney scope of work in writing, before signing on.