Wally

iTrader: (1)

Here's my story with an outfit that call themselves's Custom Concrete and Breakout. The purpose of me telling this story is NOT so anyone here calls and bothers them.....no its to hopefully save at-least ONE person from having the headache I've had with these guys......and if that happens it will be worth me WASTING me time typing all this out....and there's allot of story to tell but this is the short version....so here goes:

The time line as to when i exactly contacted them in the beginning is a little fuzzy but from the start they seemed like cool guys. The one that deals with the phone calls is Tommy and his partner is Jeff. So back around September or so i call them up and they come out and look over the job that needs to be done. They will be replacing a set of entryway steps going into the house.....a 5x20 pad will be poured behind my garage and a new driveway that 13' wide by some 60' long or so will be poured. And the sidewalk and driveway apron will be replaced as well....All goes well with them ripping the old stuff out. (this work was being done in November at this point) anyway they end up pouring right few days after Thanksgiving. The day they are pouring its cold outside and asked them numerous times if its OK to be doing this in the weather. Jeff assured me it was OK......needless to say when the job was done the temps dropped too fast on them and i think the concrete froze on the surface. Well none saw any of this cause it stayed cold for a few weeks after and the concrete stayed frozen. In the meantime they finished pouring the sidewalk and apron and on Dec 19 2005 when they pulled off the warming blankets and plastic sheets it was all done.....now there were a few areas that didn't come out looking good....but nothing i couldn't live with for the most part. And the job was Paid in full at that point. Now here's were the fun begins.....3 days later on the 22nd i notice flaking on the driveway...i call Tommy and leave a voice mail cause no answer. He calls back the next morning at 6:30am! and tell me he will be out there on Tues (the 27th) to look at it. Now i wont go into details but 7 phone calls and 4 broken promises saying they would show up...they finally come to look at the concrete on FEB 1st!!! By this time i have also noticed some small stress cracking in the sidewalk in a few areas and the sidewalk had streaks of discoloration in it.......They admit there's a problem and they say that they wont be able to do anything till the first weekend of April....i ask for something in writing and Tommy gives me a response that he has nothing to write on/with and that his secretary/wife will send something out that week. Of course nothing ever did come.
So....another round of phone calls and they show up to make saw cuts in the concrete to help with the tear out on MAY 2nd!!! a month after they said they would do it....make a huge mess with all the concrete dust and wet splatter and get my neighbors pissed at me for getting their house dirty with the concrete cutting splatter that went all over the bricks on the side of their house. So another round of phone calls and they finally show up at the end of the month to rip the driveway out. Funny thing about them ripping it out....the day before they come out i get a hold of him on the phone and he tells me he's gonna have the entire "crew" out there and "get it done" The next morning its just him (Tommy) and ONE OTHER GUY!!! and all they have is a bobcat and a sledge hammer!!! If it wasn't for me having an air compressor and an air chisel....i can only imagine that they would still be there trying to get some of the concrete busted out....let alone all the damage they would have cause to my electric and gas lines that go out to my garage!!! Or the downspouts that go through the concrete into the ground.......Luckily i chiseled those free the day before they came out. And they don't rip out the sidewalk/apron saying that they will bust that out the day of the pour cause he doesn't want to pull a permit for that......
So June rolls in and they finally pour my driveway......now the night before the pour i call and ask about the wire mess that wasn't down on the ground yet....he says that they will be adding fiber mesh instead of the wire to speed things up and save time. Tells me it will be just as strong. So the morning of the pour when the first truck shows up i ask the driver if there's fiber in the mix....he says no....and i don't see anyone add anything to the truck when they begin to pour. So i call the concrete company and tell them to add it to the mix on the next trucks. Jeff also instructs the driver to be very careful going over the sidewalk/apron...which i find strange but that will be explained in a little bit.....So the 2nd truck shows up and Tommy asks me if i had them add Fiber to the mix? I say yes and he tells me that they have been adding it to the mix themselves and now there's double.....funny i didn't see anyone add anything to the truck and i've been outside the whole time....He mentions something like "don't think were cheating ya"...and i'm thinking "yeah right!" So as these guys are working on this pour they screw things up with two "hot-joints" or "cold-joints" depending on who you ask they are......its where the concrete from the previous truck is already setting and they try and mix and blend the fresh concrete from a new batch truck.....well you tend to get discoloration and they don't blend well to say the least. I have two of them on my driveway and it looks like a$$ And one of them NEXT TO THE HOUSE OF ALL PLACES has a low spot that collects water!!! I'm just dreading on whats gonna happen in the winter if it happens to rain and freeze right away!!
So as they are doing the driveway lucky for me the concrete truck is smashing the crap out of the apron/sidewalk! now there's no excuse not to redo it. So they finish with the driveway and call it a day saying they will be out in a week or so to do the sidewalk/apron. Well that doesn't happen and the phone calls start again......seems to be avoiding me at this point cause he doesn't return any of my messages to call me back. Wife is pissed! She decide to call him and he answers!!! I think its because he didn't recognize her number!! So she takes over hounding him and he is full of excuses.....no money.....permits...blah blah blah....Funny though when she mentions that we will go get the permits for him he suddenly became nervous about it....So about 2 weeks after getting the driveway done they finally come out to do the sidewalk. The night before my wife calls up Tommy and tells him to please bring out the concrete saw as she would like to have a gutter done as well in the street. He says the saw blade is broke......no problem she tells him.....my husband (me) has some blades in the garage from other project. Well i didn't but i did go out that night and bought just about every size blade they had out there for these machine to make sure i did have the right blade!!!! So they show up the next morning and Tommy is nowhere to be found...its just Jeff and his two mexican workers. I ask if he brought the saw. His reply was "No why?" aarrrgghhh Do the two of you (Tommy and Jeff) communicate?? I explained what we wanted and he said he could do it (the cutting) with the bobcat bucket......ok what choice do i have at this point??? Well....not to keep rambling on but all was poured....and the topping on the cake was when they were doing the finish work they pulled the forms out too late for the curb and couldn't get the holes filled from the stakes!!! So Jeff was gonna go over to the local Ace hardware and get a bag of cement and patch it up!!! Now at this point they are mostly packed up and ready to go! I wasn't gonna take any chances with them leaving the job like this so i gave them a bag of post cement i had from my fencing project that i was doing.....well as you will see below....it looks like a 5yr old patched it up.....i knew no matter what bag of cement they got it would never match either.....

So there you have it.....my story. Like i said....i don't want anyone calling them and *****ing or anything else....this is mainly so no one else will have to go through the BS i went through with these guys. And about the only positive thing i CAN say about this whole ordeal. Everyone i talk to about it says they are surprised that they even did re-do the job.....i guess there's a bright side to every story....

Pics below:

Wally

iTrader: (1)

some more pics

Wally

iTrader: (1)

more pics

Payton

Wally, that looks like a mess. I agree, it looks like it was from freezing. But, you could get the same look form a few years of parking a vehicle and having road salt drip on the the concrete. You may want to look into a sealer for the concrete. These guys have a bunch of differnt products.
vanbergcoatings.com

Wally

iTrader: (1)

Yea that was said as well.......but we didnt park on the driveway the ENTIRE time this was all going on just so there were no excuses to blame it on anything else but the work...I actually kept the drive blocked off the entire time to make sure no one would drive on it while we were at work too!!! and up untill about 2 weeks after the whole job was done the second time around we didnt park on it either just to be sure nothing would happen........

And yes Mark....i will be looking into some sort of sealer.....it has been mentioned to me by a concrete company i called that there are stains in the sealers that could blend or mask those Hot/Cold-joint...i can only hope so cause my wife HATES them and wants them redone! But it wont be by these guys thats for sure.

Wally

iTrader: (1)

Oh and granted the expansion joints are there to crack...i understand that....but its been about 2 months now and allready cracks!?!? the other driveway that HAD the wire mesh in it had one crack in the entire thing...and i beileve it was due to the house being warm and the drive being cold and the difference made it crack right around my chimney.......here are two pics of the current driveway and you can see its allready cracking on the joints.....and this is all the way across the drive and from the looks of it all the way through

Donzi38ZX

Wally I hear ya and I certainly see some things that you can legitimately complain about (patch work puddles etc.). Having said that our company owns a few ready mix companies and the saying is our guarantee is it will get hard, turn gray and it will crack. My driveway was done by a few old Italians who really took their time and it still has discolorations and cracks which first appeared after about 6 - 12 months. As said earlier there are products that can top concrete and give it a smooth color and any surface from brick to stone etc. if you want it more visually appealing, they may also be able to resolve the low spots at the same time. Oh and the cold thing, with the right additives and methods you can pour in almost any temperature and it will still cure fine. Your first pour obviously did not have what it needed, my guess is the finishers never told the ready mix company the job was flat work done in the cold and they didn't cover it properly. Also anyone who wants their concrete to ensure a consistent color it can be done but requires color to be added to the mix by the batch plant but it will add a fair amount of $$ to each yard of concrete.

Wally

iTrader: (1)

I agree with ya on that Steve....thats the only thing you can count on with concrete......but at the same time you expect a certain time frame out of it......less then two months before cracks appear??? the first go round lasted 5 months without one crack other then the one near my chimney.....i totaly believe it was due to the wire mesh keeping it all together....this fiber mesh business may work in small applications like sidewalks or such but i dont think its all that great for big driveway jobs......plus all the fibers you can see on the surface...and it seems to me like the driveway tends to be more dirty from the fibers keeping the dirt or maybe getting stained..?? i dont know...maybe its just my mind playing tricks on me but i swear its more dirty all the time now then the old concrete without the fibers.....

That coating you were talking about....is that the epoxy coating stuff?? i was looking into that but to be honest i cant justify spending more money on this project after shelling out close to 13k for this one!!!! Plus i cant convince the wife on it...she like the raw look of the concrete....to me i could go either way. This will now be winter #2 and probably summer #3 next year that i will be boatless due to spending money on the house If they had done the job right the first time i would have had my landscaping done in the spring and been saving for boat funds.....now its all been shifted around and land scapers are finishing today! but during that time my wife has been cooking up new and better ideas in the down time and its gone from a small patch job up front to get things back to normal to a full blown new brick paver walkway...retaining walls, new Patio in the back....and a pond in the corner of the yard That was actually my idea Damn housework...it never ends i tell ya!

Payton

Yep Wally, you're just getting started. Have a few of these. It'll make it all feel better.

Wally

iTrader: (1)

Well thankfully theres not much left to do on this house! I've done just about everything short of a full teardown at this point!!! Next may be a new kitchen...atleast cabinets and counter top...but the wife is plotting trynig to put an addition on the back of the house for a master bedroom/bathroom.....which i wouldnt mind.....but guys on the other hand are simple creatures....i can sleep in the basement for all i care as long as i'm comfortable and have toys to play with in the garage! i guess thats why she dont bother me with all the junk i the garage right now between the waverunner/my dads golf cart i'm fixing and boat parts all over the place As long as she has a spot to fit her jeep inside in the winter she leaves me alone.....summer time its off limits to all but me!
As for these Well Mark....neither one of us drink but i tell ya i coul dhave used something a few times in the past to help take some stress away....we found other means though