We share a large asphalt driveway with our neighbours who own a seven unit apartment. The driveway was in terrible shape. In August of 2014 we got quotes for excavation and application of new asphalt from four recommended companies. Although Northland Paving was by far the most expensive (almost twice what the other companies asked), we decided to go with them based on previous customers reviews. We agreed with our neighbour that we would split the cost equally, even though their portion of the driveway is larger. Giorgio sold us a contract for the 'Gold Package'. For a total of $28,656.40 they would - Remove all existing asphalt - Excavate all existing base and earth to a depth of 8" below the finished surface - Supply an 8" base of Crushed stone - and supply and spread Hot Mix Asphalt. The contract that we AND Giorgio signed was worded "Acceptance of this quotation constitutes a binding contract". Two weeks later the excavation team came. The lead worker started digging up the asphalt while the rest of the team filled the dump trucks. Well into the job we received a phone call from Giorgio (who was not on site) to say that the guy doing the digging (sorry, I don't know his name) had discovered some buried concrete under the asphalt. They hadn't been aware of this when they gave us the quote (obviously, neither were we) and 'it could cost up to another $8,000 to remove and dispose of the concrete!' So much for the 'binding contract'. Since the team was well into the excavation, we really felt we had no choice but to let them continue. They actually charged us another $6,215 - which we resentfully paid. Eventually driveway was paved and we are satisfied with the result. However, for the sake of good customer relations, Northland Paving should not have charged us more than we agreed in our contract. Who does business like that?
- Approximate cost of services:
- $34,871.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Company Response
We are happy that you are pleased with your new driveway. Sometimes there are unknown factors that present themselves in any construction project.
The contract we signed with you was actually $24,000 for the asphalt replacement on your contract and it did indeed specify that we would remove and dispose of existing asphalt and 8” of existing base (driveway base materials consist of crushed stone) and underlying earth. We contracted to supply and install 8” of crushed stone.
Unfortunately the previous paving contractor had chosen (for obvious economic reasons) to leave existing deteriorated concrete buried beneath your asphalt surface. It is very costly to remove as the effort is more time consuming to break up and dig out reinforced concrete as opposed to base materials, extra trucking is involved and the concrete must be separated from the rest of the materials for disposal, disposal fees also go up, the depth of the excavation went from 8” to 12” and therefore more materials also had to be trucked in. We also don’t like these surprises because we estimate approximately how long each project should take to complete and when this happens our schedule must change and the other projects we were scheduled for that day had to be cancelled.
We don’t like surprises any more than you do but without bore-hole testing being provided to us we have no way of knowing if concrete is buried (this is certainly not the norm). We estimated it could cost an extra $8,000.00 as we really didn’t know how much it involved until we were knee deep in the excavation. In fact the final tally was $5,500.00 for the extra time, trucking and materials the rest ($715.00) was HST.
We thought it best to complete the project properly and leave you with a well-built solid driveway rather than bury and have the driveway fail like the last contractor did.