On April 16th we signed a contract with Villa's Paving and Interlocking. John made several promises and solutions to us that really made us feel that he was the right person for the job. He promised us to dig out the downspouts that were originally run under the interlocking stone (causing it to lift) and rerun them under the stamped concrete with a weeping system to ensure that the water was draining away from our foundation. Small things like extending the driveway to the property line so we could remove the sprinkler system there, using colored concrete as opposed to color hardener on top of the concrete, 2 year warranty, removing and fixing our wrought iron gate to the back yard, fixing any damage to the sprinkler system if it happened, repairing the grass and installing a slight curb on either side of the driveway, as well as a second color border around the perimeter of our yard.
On April 28th as promised John’s “guys” were coming to remove all of the interlocking stone and start the job. I woke up in the morning to be introduced to a different company that would be the project manager of the job. Within a couple of days we were told that it would be an additional $100 for each downspout to be run however “don’t worry we’ll figure it out”. This was disheartening because we were told it would all have been included. The next day we came home to several sprinkler lines pointing in the air. I talked to the “project manager” and was told that they couldn’t do borders all the way around as the pathway wasn’t wide enough also that there wasn’t going to be any curbs as they weren’t told about this. I asked when John’s guys were coming in so we could talk to them and got a strange look and was told that this other company was doing the job. When I got home that night I saw John who assured me that he would be to our house on Monday and discuss some of the confusion that there was. Monday he didn’t show up… There were several days of good weather that no one showed up no one called or texted to tell us that no work was going to be done.
On the Saturday May 10th a 3rd company showed up to pour the concrete (job was supposed to have been finished in 2 weeks). Apparently John our contractor was supposed to have paid them to pour the concrete and the first company for the stone removal and their part of the job. That’s when we started finding out the truth. He hadn’t paid the contractors and several times when they were ready to come and do work called them and told them not to show up. He also told them that he hadn’t paid them because he was waiting for our check to clear and we paid him in cash. The contractors poured the back yard with regular concrete with color hardner not the colored concrete that we had been promised. Although the confusion we were really happy with the job and had now started speaking to the subcontractors directly and were really happy with their work.
Monday the 2 subcontracted companies showed up to pick up all their equipment and said they weren’t coming back until John paid them. My husband called up John and asked what was going on to which he told him to call the police and have them escorted off of our property. This was becoming a nightmare. Wednesday John called my husband and told him that he had fired the contractors and was finishing the job with another company. He was happy with the work they had done but wouldn’t be able to start finishing the job until the following week (week 4). We had asked to just finish the job with the original people as we were happy with their work and if he would just pay them so we could move on. We were told that we couldn’t do that. The following day the subcontractors called to say that John had told them that he was going to charge us another $6000 in order to rip out the work that they had already done and start over with the new company and he had no intention of paying them as he didn’t like the job that they did, as well as the fact that they had never worked with him before. At this point we decided enough was enough and called John who basically told us that the job they had done was a 3 out of 10 and it had to be ripped out and we would have to pay for it. We asked him to cancel the contract we would pay the contractors and we wanted our money back.
