Vinnie's Italian Ironwork
I had the best experience with these guys. I know there have been some not-so-good recommendations about them I called them on Saturday and got the old man. He said he wasn’t sure if he’d have anyone that day but he’d get back to me. He called me an hour later and sent over Jymy…
I had the best experience with these guys. I know there have been some not-so-good recommendations about them I called them on Saturday and got the old man. He said he wasn’t sure if he’d have anyone that day but he’d get back to me. He called me an hour later and sent over Jymy (sp?) who seems to be his foreman. I had a modern 6′ high iron fence wrapped around the original 3′ fence but the 3′ fence was missing a post and a curved section. Jimmy gave me an estimate (written) to take down a 6′ modern iron fence that went around the front of my brownstone (about 30′ worth of fence) and replace an original style 3′ post with an original old one and fabricate a curved 3-foot section. They called on Wednesday morning (today) and said they wanted to come over and install already. They came right over and were done in about an hour or so and it looks fantastic. It might have been a little pricey ($2800) but I couldn’t be more pleased with the quality or the service. They want cash payment of course!!!
thanks op, i feel *slightly* better. while our fence looks beatiful, there were a lot of things that went wrong on the job (plus it looked like crap before). we are waiting for a replacement piece to be made and vinnie told us that when he has that to install, he will fix all the other issues. i am sure that he will, but i would have preferred the mistakes not to have happened in the first place. (#1-properly cover a brownstone stoop if you are going to use an electric wire brush).
I had a 30′ fence that was 6′ high REMOVED and they replaced and antique post and a curved section of about 3′ both which were missing from the original fence. The 6’high fence was outside the original one, redundant, unsightly and not historic. The only thing they actually installed was the 3′ section and the antiqur post…for $2,800
Restoration work is often far more labor intensive than installing new ironwork, so that could explain the price difference.
Six years ago Vinnie installed hatch covers, window bars and an iron door (for our rear parlor door to the deck). They mismeasured on the window bars and had to adjust on the fly. The end product doesn’t fit correctly and looks bad. The paint job was also horrible and all are now rusting badly. I wouldn’t use him again.
I don’t want this to sound like “special pleading” but we are female partners and, time and again, tradesmen seem to think to think they can take advantage of us. My neighbors (two sisters) have the same complaints. It can be very difficult to get some of these guys to respect you when you can’t effectively bluster and threaten when things go wrong. It’s really too bad because we DON’T give these guys a hard time AND we pay promptly.
that’s why i’m asking! our fence is probably close to 30′ (2 banisters and the front gate fence), and like i said, it is really ornate, but i get the feeling that we were charged more based on where we live, not based on the difficulty of the job.
wait a second, the OP paid $2800 to replace a 30′ long, 6′ high fence and you paid $9k for a paint and repair job? Something doesn’t seem right here.
does he charge different prices depending on where you live? it cost us 9k to strip, fix and repaint an ornate original fence in front of our house in cobble hill. it looks beautiful, but from the prices that i’ve seen on this blog, i’m wondering if we were overcharged.
Here Here! He really saved me and the quality is always the best.
Vinnie’s a bit nuts but, if you can understand him, he knows what he is talking about professionally. Jimmy’s great and the work is good. No reason not to use him.
He is worth every penny. I am tired of trying to get deals, and end of getting crap! It is worth it to me, and the value of my house, to pay a bit more but get real craftsmanship.