Lopez’s Masonry and Concrete

Lopez's Masonry and Concrete is a Waltham outfit built around one person: reviewers keep naming owner Carlos Lopez himself for picking up the phone, showing up the same day or the next morning to quote a job, and running the crew on site. People call them for the masonry that has to survive a New England winter — retaining walls, brick and concrete steps, walkways, and patios — with jobs turning up as far as Newton and Brookline. The written record runs from 2021 through mid-2026, 58 reviews deep and mostly five stars, with the same kinds of jobs turning up again and again: a collapsed retaining wall rebuilt in Newton, brick driveway columns repointed, a crumbling garage floor and its footings repaired, cobblestones laid to line a driveway. One 2024 customer described a fairly involved process before any work began — Carlos came out, discussed proposals and stone-color options for close to an hour, then sent a written quote and held to the five-day timeline he'd promised. A 2023 customer said the final bill matched that kind of estimate exactly, "no upcharges or hidden costs," and several others mention the crew cleaning the site at the end of each day. A 2025 review describes chimney work too — crumbling mortar repointed and a new cap installed. One recent review described a follow-up: cracks showed up in some previously repaired concrete steps, and Lopez came back and fixed them without a fight, leaving the customer happy with the result. The Better Business Bureau grades the company A+, and it holds a 4.9-star average on Google. Two older reviews, both from 2021, are worth reading before calling: one described the company pushing back a first appointment several times and being slow to respond, and a separate one-star review told future customers flatly to confirm insurance coverage rather than assume it. Neither complaint resurfaces in the years since. This reads like a company where the owner is genuinely hands-on — good news if you want the person quoting the job to also be the one running it. Confirm the insurance question directly, and the retaining-wall-and-steps work is the thing to hire them for.