JMS Masonry & Restoration

JMS Masonry & Restoration is a two-person South Boston shop that works both sides of the masonry trade: historic building restoration, repointing and brick repair on older commercial buildings, and chimneys, foundations and basement waterproofing on houses. The company says owner John Screen trained in masonry in London before moving to Boston, and that his brother Kevin runs site supervision and the office. How long it has been at it depends on which page you read. Its own site says it has been "Restoring the Boston Skyline Since 2011" and calls itself an established Boston masonry contractor of over a decade, while the About page claims 20+ years. The Better Business Bureau dates the business start to 5 May 2011 and opened its file in 2017 — which lines up with the 2011 version and suggests the longer number is John Screen's own time in the trade rather than the company's. The public history is thin. Its BBB page carries an A+ grade with no complaints and no customer reviews, and its Houzz listing is self-entered with zero reviews and no rating. The only outside voice is a July 2024 Reddit comment in r/SalemMA, where someone said "John of JMS Masonry is the best" and that the crew does quite a bit of work on the North Shore — a warm word from a neighbor, but one anonymous line, and now two years old. So there is very little from customers to weigh, which is why no rating is published here. Worth asking about directly: how a two-person company staffs a larger repointing or foundation job, and what the schedule looks like. If you need brick and mortar repair, chimney or historic restoration work around Boston — the company says it covers Cambridge, Brookline, Newton, Medford, Milton and a long list of surrounding towns — this is a plausible call. Get the scope and price in writing, and ask to see two or three recent jobs nearby you can look at yourself.