Re: Poor customer service and loose ends
We hired Wade and his crew to replace our large residential concrete driveway, front walkway and in front of our house. This was not a small job! The crews worked efficiently, were professional and pleasant. We had to wait several weeks to have a spray coating and landscaping completed, which was in our contract. Wade asked to be paid after the concrete work was completed, assuring us the landscaping and coating would be done. A week or so, we noticed a couple of large cracks in the concrete running from the house to the property line. We texted him several times and received no reply. A couple of texts had to be sent to get landscaping down (new topsoil and seeding), and the coating done. The landscaping was done well with attention to detail. The guy doing the concreate coating was very apologetic that the job wasn't completed earlier and would inform Wade of our concerns about the cracks, which he looked at. After the coating was completed, and a couple of weeks later, the house siding was stained by the spray, which can't be cleaned. All the grass seedlings died due to spraying at the edge of the concrete, which we ended having to replace ourselves. With this amount spent on the project, we expected better customer service from this company and at least a courtesy call back from Wade, regarding the cracks in the concrete. I broke my own rule and paid before the work was fully completed. Buyer beware!
- Approximate cost of services:
- $44,000.00
- Company Response
Every once in awhile a review comes in that kinda makes me wonder what’s going thru the writers mind at the time.
With every single quote I do, I explain our process in great detail, going so far as to make little ink pen tick marks under every item of importance which is when I also explain way more verbally.
One of the items I discuss is the plain and simple fact that concrete can and will crack BUT we do everything possible to mitigate this fact as much as possible, and to expect it.
IE – Remove any inferior base material such as sand or black soil, typically getting down to clay. Then we re-build the base in layers of compacted road crush which the city uses and the highways department when new roads are built. 10 mm rebar on 12” centers not 16 or 24 that most builders and contractors use, we use little plastic chairs to suspend the rebar in the middle of the slab thickness, etc, etc.
No materials engineer in the land will guarantee that concrete won’t crack. Nor do I.So, after all this explaining there isn’t a lot to talk about when it does happen. Yet we do.
RE: SEAL COATING - The penetrative seal coating we offer as a bonus in some cases goes on towards the end of the 28 day curing process when most of the moisture has been released from the concrete. This is explained in writing in the quote and again when we pour the slab.
So complaining that it wasn’t done sooner is beyond my comprehension.
RE: LANDSCAPING - We don’t do landscaping. We backfill along the edge of the driveway where our forms went, typically about 4-6”, and mix in grass seed. That’s it. In this case the client reduced the size of the rear pad in an arc shape that was about 6-7 feet wide at the widest point. Again, we don’t do landscaping, we put down bagged topsoil and mix in some grass seed.
This client expressed that they had to re-do “The landscaping that we did” due to over spraying the sealer. This sealer is over $400. for a 5 gallon pail so we certainly don’t over spray 6-7 feet as that would require the worker to completely go out of his way to do so and a complete waste of product & money. Even if they did over spray the edges a little, the repair would be to mix in a little more grass seed into the fresh topsoil that we provided. An easy fix for the very capable client.
Nor would my guys spray up the wall to a height in excess of 24 inches where their siding starts. They spray with a wand pointing at the ground where the concrete is.
The typical reason why the baby grass dries out is home-owners don’t water it frequently enough. Baby grass, new grass seed typically requires 2 waterings a day, or 3 if it’s a very hot day. Miss a few waterings and the baby grass will die. So simply mix in a little more seed in the 4-6 inch gap.
Hardly a case of “Having to re-do the landscaping”. It’s a simple case of adding a little grass seed, a $10.00 fix, and most likely due to a lack of water.
So at the end of the day their biggest complaint is I didn’t return more calls about when the sealer goes on when it was explained in writing in the quote, and again at the time of pouring the concrete.And about $10.00 worth of grass seed, that probably died due to a lack of water.
Two items that hardly deserve a 2 out of a 10 star ranking or a buyer beware comment.
Theres simply no pleasing some people.