Fenway Masonry & Waterproofing, Chimney Repair, Basement Repair Boston

Fenway Masonry & Waterproofing works out of Boston, though the company says its roots are in Somerville, with a stated coverage area of Somerville, Boston, and West Roxbury, MA. It's family-run — the site describes it as 3rd-generation and family-owned — and the trade is masonry and waterproofing: basements, chimneys, foundations, patios, driveways, retaining walls, and walkways. The company's own account of how long it's been doing this is inconsistent: one page cites 'Year Established 2002,' another touts 'Over 30 Years of Experience,' and separate marketing pages claim 'more than two decades' to 'over 25 years' alongside talk of 'five generations of mastery' — numbers that don't line up with each other or with the 3rd-generation claim. What's consistent is what happens once they're hired. Fenway holds a 5.0-star average on Google from 63 ratings, with independent directories separately putting the count at 57 and 59 — and the last six months alone brought 29 reviews with not one negative among them. The pattern in those recent reviews is specific rather than generic: a deck-and-patio demo finished ahead of schedule and rebuilt in bluestone, a retaining wall install moved up to start within days of booking, cracked front and back stairs rebuilt with what one customer called 'little disruption' to daily life. Basement dampness comes up again and again, and one reviewer followed up more than a year after the work to report everything had 'held up perfectly.' The chimney side of the business gets called in often to fix someone else's mess — one recent customer hired Fenway to rebuild a chimney after 'another cowboy contractor' left it leaking and stopped answering calls, and another says Fenway quoted a chimney repair at half the price of competing bids while fixing a small basement leak at no extra charge. A recent front-step job had the crew checking in daily on progress, and a basement repaired for water penetration was finished start to finish in seven days. There's no negative review in the recent stretch, and the company's Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor registration checks out as active. What's worth asking about before booking is the company's own history — the founding-date and generational claims on its site don't agree with each other, so it's worth getting a straight answer rather than taking any one number at face value. For basement waterproofing, chimney rebuilds, or masonry-heavy exterior work — steps, walkways, patios, retaining walls — the volume and consistency of recent, specific praise make this a safe call; just pin down the history and get a firm written quote before signing.