Winters and age have been hard on my foundation. I needed to repair cracks and parging sections that broke away. Shane worked on my next door neighbor’s house and she was very happy with his work. I know why.

He is very professional, honest, and does fantastic work. The job ended up being bigger than we expected and Shane was awesome, he came up with a reasonable solution that was not very expensive. He takes his work very seriously and it shows. Without a doubt, Shane’s my go to foundation guy from now on. Plus he’s a really nice guy!

I found Shane through a referral and I am so glad I did! He answered all my emails promptly. He was able to come on short notice and quickly finish the job. We thought we had to replace our entire sill but Shane was able to patch it up nicely.

He did an amazing job. My husband is really picky when it comes to contractors and he was really impressed with Shane’s work. I would highly recommend him to anyone!
Thanks again for the quick repair!

Shane was prompt in responding to me and investigating the work required. He offered me good advice such as recommending that I use vintage bricks to better match the existing bricks. Shane was great at communicating and told me when he would be providing me the estimate and starting the work.

Once he was into the job, he found he needed to replace more bricks and did so without additional cost to me. He was quick at completing the job and cleaned up after he was done. The results were wonderful and the bricks matched well.

My mother’s chimney (in Mississauga) was in desperate need of repair. Holes had developed and squirrels had moved in. I had used Shane twice before – I have already posted a review from the first job.

I knew Shane didn’t get out to Mississauga too much, so I started the quote process and sent a note to Shane as well, just in case. I already had a couple of quotes before I connected with Shane, but once he gave me his estimate and said he could do the job, it was a no-brainer. On top of that, he had a better – and ultimately cheaper – solution than what I’d received up to that point.

(Others just wanted to take the chimney down altogether and have me replace the hot water tank with a direct-vent). Living at least 40 minutes away, I could not afford any hassle, so when he said he could do the job, it was a huge relief and I immediately signed up. As with both times before, great job done right plus all the other good stuff – on time, courteous, clean.

He was a life-saver on this one and remains no.1 in my mason rolodex.

I contacted Shane Oake last year, after my neighbour pointed out a sizeable crack that was running down from the second story bedroom. I was told that I could patch up the work by going to Home Depot and purchasing a pre-mix however I didn’t want to take any chances and immediately went on-line looking for someone that was in trade of brick repairs/masonry. My first initial search brought me to Shane Oake, whom already had received great reviews from previous clients.

I called Shane whom already had received great reviews from previous clients. He was extremely professional and polite. As he was working near my home he was able to rapidly visit to complete a quick assessment. Shane came within the hour and did a thorough examination of my house from all four sides and provided me a rough estimate. He was very detailed in his assessment and went further to explain why the cracks occurred and the options presented to myself. He outlined that the cost would also include any further cracks that were not readily visible as well as any minor touch ups.

I was completely impressed with his professionalism as well as his honesty. I immediately booked him. He did such an amazing job, I was more than satisfied. It was a complete make over of the initial damaged to the restoration of both my brick and mortar that literally was unnoticeable. Shane took pictures and showed me the before and after results. What a great job! There were cracks that I could not see that Shane had identified as he was working that he fixed as well. I very highly recommend Shane Oake for all and any Masonry work that you require. You will not be disappointed.

When I first look for masonry work, I consulted the Homestars site and saw the perfect score for Shane Oake Brick Mason. Could it be real? I called, left a message and Shane Oake contacted me promptly. Shane’s free consultation was carried the next day.

Shane explained very well the brick work to be done on my front porch and also the ones that were unnecessary and even ill advised to do. Thank you Shane for your honesty and guidance; without you, I might have made a very costly and regrettable mistake. The price for the work was fair and surprisingly reasonable considering all the hard work to be done. I reserved his services for the beginning of August 2015.   What a blessing! It now my turn to HIGHLY and CONFIDENTLY recommend Shane Oake as a mason, without any reservations. I was so impressed with Shane’s work ethic, quality of work and thorough and courteous communication skills (in person, by phone or by email).

He was on time as planned and well equipped to do the job. He worked hard all day and cleaned up very well afterward. Now, my front porch looks great and the 47 or 48 new bricks blend amazingly well with the 56 years old original ones as they are practically unnoticeable to an untrained eye. Thanks to Shane’s meticulous care and truly professional skills, I had a wonderful experience and could cross out this job from my repair list.

Unfortunately, a friend of mine, who previously hired another contractor to do her brick work, was not as lucky as I was. You will however, never regret to have called Shane Oake to restore your masonry, guaranteed! He’s truly a real and honest pro that can be trusted.

Our brick chimney had deteriorated over the years and we did not think it was possible to ‘repair’ it as we thought we would have to rebuild the whole chimney. Shane came through with a reasonable quote, was very clear in his explanation as to what he could do for us, gave us an estimated time, and what a pleasant surprise when he came on the day he said he would come.

His integrity, quality of workmanship, punctuality, work ethic and professionalism is 100 percent and he deserves a ’10’ rating with our blessings. He cleaned up in the evening, again another pleasant surprise! Excellent Job Shane. We are very, very pleased. We highly recommend him highly.

I discovered an alarmingly large hole in the concrete blocks of my foundation; an invitation for further water damage and critters to take up residence in the walls of my home. Shane responded to my request for quotation promptly, and did the work the following day.

The quality of the work and the thoroughness of the clean up were both excellent! And what a treat to work with someone who has honesty, integrity, who arrives when he says he will, and who sticks to his original estimate — Shane is a rare find! I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him, and there is no question that I will be enlisting his help again in the future.

After having removed two through-the-wall air conditioners. I was left with two holes to fill before the new A/C units could go in. I had quite a bit of trouble finding reliable people who would come and quote or who even wanted a smaller job. Shane responded quickly and come over to view and quote on the job.

It needed doing ASAP and Shane managed to slide it in between bigger jobs. He was excellent, the work was terrific. And you would have difficulties seeing where the old bricks are and the new ones start. They blend perfectly. He was quick, reliable, humorous, and obviously loves what he does. It shows in the pride he takes in his workmanship. Great job all round. I recommend him without any reservations at all. Good work, well done.

We’ve had Shane out for a couple of jobs and have recommended him to many people. Our friends praised the quality of his workmanship almost as much as we did.

Wouldn’t trust anyone else to take care of our masonry dilemmas. Honesty, integrity and pride in his work. Punctual. Cleaned up every evening when work stopped.

Shane was excellent to work with. He came out and answered all of our questions thoroughly. He gave us an accurate quote that he stuck to.

We had cracking in the joints along a sill that runs the perimeter of the house. One piece of the sill was actually loose and falling out. We also needed some parging redone that was falling off around our porch.

He tried to explain to us why he thought each of our issues was happening. He let us know how long any fixes made should last. He matched the mortar beautifully, so you don’t even know the work was done in the first place. The parging work looks amazing. We were extremely impressed with his attention to detail. It was great to work with someone who cares about the work he performs. We would hire him again in an instant. 

Shane was fantastic. The finished work is superb. He did what he said he would , the estimate was right on, he came on time, cleaned up. Highly recommended & real professional that cares about his work.

I bought a home in Etobicoke a few months ago and the chimney bricks were breaking. My home inspector told me that this would have to be addressed, but I didn’t know what to expect. Two companies told me that I had to rebuild the whole chimney and that it would cost me thousands of dollars.

I called Shane, because a friend of mine had some work done on his porch and I had remembered that the loose and broken bricks on his steps just disappeared one day, like there was never a problem. Anyway, so I call Shane and he takes a look. The brick on the house is a weird “bark” brick or something and the other contractors said they couldn’t match it. Shane did pretty well with it.

The BIGGEST thing, though, is that he didn’t try to sell me on a rebuild. He told me that he could handle it by strategically replacing bricks. During the work, I was pretty scared, but he came through with flying colours. It looks GREAT and at a fraction of the cost of the other guys.

I highly recommend Oake Masonry (Shane Oake Brick Mason – Oake Masonry). I noticed my chimney was looking rough, so I searched and luckily I found Shane.

He came to consult me on my chimney. He explained what was occurring and what he would do for me. His consultation helped me understand what I was up against. He sent me a quote which was reasonable. The finished product is excellent.

I was quoted by others to replace the chimney and it turns out this wasn’t necessary. As I said, I highly recommend Shane – Oake Masonry.

Shane was fantastic. The finished work is superb. He did what he said he would, the estimate was right on, he came on time, cleaned up. Highly recommended him, he is a real professional that cares about his work.

Our brickwork was in a sad state when we purchased our home. The chimney needed to be re-built, and a large number of bricks needed replacing, many due to a detached eaves trough that had allowed water to flow down sections of the wall for some time. Additionally, a parapet running the length of the house had shifted, and a large amount of tuck pointing needed to be done.

Without going too much into dollar amounts, we received several quotes ranging in detail from inexpensive but vague ‘fix some bricks’ quotes to very detailed quotes over $10000.   Shane’s quote fell in the middle, and we felt most confident in his assessment.

Being new homeowners, cost was a factor, and Shane helped us identify the items that we needed to address vs. those that were cosmetic and could wait. Shane’s work was impeccable, and the end result looks great.  He obviously takes great pride in his trade and it shows.  Original bricks were reused where possible, and he took care to match brick colours and tinted new bricks to match the existing façade.  Issues that we had along the way were addressed quickly — After the work was complete there was a minor section we wanted replaced for cosmetic reasons, he was back the next day.

Throughout the job, Shane went above and beyond: – Without prompting, he took care of several items not included in the original quote – He found issues with our chimney flashing that a well-known roofing company had failed to spot, and referred us to an excellent roofer who addressed the remaining issues at minimal cost – He came back after the job was complete to give us a lesson in parging (work we wanted to do ourselves), and left us materials to finish the job – He even loaned us an extension ladder to take care of some eaves trough issues we couldn’t reach, saving us buying an extension ladder we would never use again, nor had any way to transport.

Shane is passionate about his work and operates with the highest integrity.  We recommend him without hesitation for jobs large or small.

Called up Shane and set up a time to meet for an estimate. He worked with another guy named Greg on this job since I had some concrete work to do in conjunction with the brick work.

Greg did the concrete work, and Shane did the brick and block work. Shane gave me a quote and stuck with it, he’s completely straightforward and honest — my kind of guy. He did his work very diligently and with pride. He finished on time and cleaned up after the job was done.

His work — in my eyes – was perfect.

I found Shane on line and he lived up to his reputation [online reviews]. After removing a sidelight and shifting a door over, I had a gap that I wanted filled with bricks matching the rest of the house.

I called Shane and he scheduled a site visit within days and showed up when he said he would. As it turns out, the brick dimensions I needed are no longer available (let alone colour). I eventually suggested to Shane that if possible, we could poach some bricks from the interior of the garage. He said it was definitely feasible and quickly drew up a quote.  Finding the quote to be reasonable, we scheduled the work and again, he showed up when promised.

As for the work itself, I can only say that Shane did an amazing job.  As others have pointed out, he is a real craftsman who takes pride in his work.  The end result speaks for itself and I couldn’t be happier.

Apart from the workmanship, Shane is also a pleasure to deal with: prompt, courteous, lots of communication, and he cleans up after himself.  I would recommend Shane to anyone without hesitation.

Shane did an excellent job in repairing my damaged brickwork. A consummate professional all the way. Explained exactly was he was going to do and followed through with precision.

He took extreme care to protect my shrubs and other plants. In fact, he left my place as neat as it was before he arrived. I would gladly recommend Shane for any masonry job.

I contacted Shane in 2008 about some tuck pointing work on my house. One company had quoted me more than $10K to repair the tuck pointing on the side of my house.

Shane took a careful look at the situation and advised that only a small number of areas (e.g. the window sills) needed any repair work. The work was done and the water leak problems were addressed.

He saved me a bundle of money because of his honesty. I think he is a very friendly, effective and honest contractor.

Shane was recommended by Joe Dunphy at Downtown roofing (another excellent company) when I contacted Joe about replacing some shingles and looking at our chimney, which I knew from our initial home inspection had some “loose bricks”.

I had previously received quotes for both jobs that seemed ridiculous from a large Toronto roofing company with a reputation for being expensive (and whom I later realized got terrible reviews on online).

Dealing with Shane was great. His quote was reasonable. He took down and ground out 6 courses of loose bricks from our chimney that had been very strangely and badly built at some point.  He rebuilt the courses and added a preformed concrete cap.  He sent me before and after pictures, and his work looks great.  I never actually met him in person since he did all of his work while I was at work.

He made arranging everything easy. What started out as a painful process of not getting companies to call back and getting an unreasonable quote from one, ended up well when I got in contact with Shane.  I highly recommend his company and will contact him if/when I need any masonry work done. John

Our chimney had shifted, cracked and separated in places a few years ago when we had some below ground waterproofing done on our home. The waterproofing company attempted to seal the problem areas on a couple of occasions but just made an absolute mess of our chimney.

Shane came out and gave us a couple of options 1. Complete rebuild 2. Remove the bricks in the areas that were problematic, grind out between the brick, realign and mortar. We had the repair work done and this was cost effective and worked well.

Shane was prompt with a quote, reasonable pricing. Arrived when he said he would, good advanced protection of the work areas, excellent work, final walk around to confirm all in order…if only all contractors were like him.

I hired Shane to do a bunch of masonry work at my 90 year old home. He rebuilt one window sill and installed a second one (replacing the existing wooden one). He also fixed various cracks and rebuilt the brick pillar which holds up the front porch.

He used reclaimed bricks and they matched perfectly. He kept me updated every step of the way, as I was out of town.

[Note from Shane: I had actually never met Mike. He read reviews about me and this got him to hire me. I met with his father for payment after the job was complete. I did a second job for Mike and finally met him. And actually, he moved to a house in the beaches and got me to do work on his new place.]

My chimney went from looking like it was falling apart to new again without having to be rebuilt, saving me money.

He ground out all the mortar (removed deterioration with power tools) [to a sufficient depth in the failed mortar] and then re-pointed (filled back in the mortar) in the chimney and he did a great job.

He was very clean and quick and a pleasure to do business with. I would recommend Shane to my friends as I know he will do good work for them as well. Thank you Shane!

I highly recommend Oake Masonry (Shane Oake) as he is reliable, his prices are fair for the excellent work he does.

He is efficient with his time and is overall a true craftsman when it comes to knowing his profession–masonry. Several neighbours have used him since and all agree!
[Added note from Shane: in fact, I worked for 13 people in her area that summer!]

Shane is very courteous, prompt, and thorough. He gave me a written estimate, took all the time I needed to talk about what I wanted and what options I had, was straight up with me about cost impacts of changes, started on time and finished on time, did an excellent job, and cleaned up the site when completed.

In the course of finding someone to do this job I met a number of contractors who I am sure are capable. However, unlike them, Shane is a decent, regular guy who clearly takes pride in his business.