North Star Masonry

North Star Masonry is a one-man-crew operation out of Lynn built entirely around Armando Lopez and the stonework, brick, and concrete jobs he and his small crew complete around the North Shore and Essex County. The reviews — 13 of them running from 2020 through 2025 — describe an unusually consistent pattern: steps and stairs rebuilt from brick, flagstone walkways replaced, patios expanded and re-graded to blend old stone with new, a chain-link fence swapped for a 3-foot stone wall. What keeps coming up isn't just the finished work but how the jobs run. Reviewers describe Armando showing up when he says he will, sticking to the quoted price even mid-project, and leaving the site clean each day — one 2022 customer specifically noted the crew kept a public sidewalk tidy despite heavy foot traffic. A 2025 review describes a two-week job covering front and side walkways, steps and a back patio, plus chimney repointing and a foundation leak fix, calling Armando 'responsive and easy to communicate with.' Another, from 2022, describes a chimney and garage apron repair where a separate paving company was impressed enough by the work to ask for North Star's contact information. One thing worth untangling: several directories — Porch, Angi, Thumbtack — repeat a self-reported '17 years in business,' but the BBB's registry-style record shows the corporation was actually started and incorporated in April 2019, putting its real age closer to seven years. That doesn't undercut the review history itself, which is genuinely deep for a business that size, but it's a claim worth asking about directly. The BBB itself hasn't rated the company — it says it doesn't have enough information to issue a grade, not that anything negative turned up. There's no licence number on file with any of the directories checked, self-reported or otherwise. For a homeowner considering a patio, retaining wall, or masonry repair on the North Shore, the written record here is about as consistent as they come — the main step before hiring is confirming insurance and licensing directly with Armando.