I purchased a fixer upper, meaning I've worked with a lot of contractors. I've had zero issues with any company prior to working with Joe. My husband and I have been appalled throughout the entire process with the rude, condescending, and unprofessional manner Joe has treated us in.
It's difficult for me to adequately put into words just how negative this experience was. First, we had nicely drawn in chalk the line of exactly where we wanted a Belgium block border. When I noticed that they had squared the corner when we had drawn a curve, I nicely went out to ask that it be fixed. Joe arrived as I was speaking to the workers, and began condescendingly telling me that he "hadn't known I'd be so METICULOUS" and giving me a very hard time about not having been on the worksite for the whole day (despite me having confirmed the day prior that the line drawn would be sufficient). I should note that it took less than 5 minutes for the worker to correct the curve. Afterwards, Joe claimed that he was just saying I "was meticulous, and that's not a bad thing" to try to cover the way he had spoken to me.
Next, upon hiring Joe I expressed that based on conversations with other contractors I wanted to allow the driveway be given time to settle and confirmed this was something that they did. He had said yes. After digging up my driveway, he told me they would be back the next day to finish it. I expressed my concern, as this was a question I'd previously asked him. He got very angry. I had my husband get involved because I didn't feel comfortable communicating with him. He then started to insist on partial upfront payment, despite our agreement (in writing) being that we wouldn't pay until after the job was completed. Threatened to call an attorney. We stood our ground as we didn't trust that he would come back remotely promptly if we'd already paid a big chunk. Even with us insisting on waiting to pay, it took Joe almost 6 weeks to return to finish my driveway. My neighbors got to look at a gravel driveway for almost 6 weeks.
On top of trash left all over my property, they left a bag of concrete that was split down the middle on my back patio. I requested it be removed as it was in the area where my toddler plays. Someone came to remove it, but spilled concrete dust all over the patio and on the gravel of the driveway. The concrete on the driveway hardened in the rain. My husband was told that they didn't want to come back an additional time and wanted to just deal with it when coming back to finish the job (weeks later). So I couldn't allow my toddler in the backyard as to not get covered in the concrete dust still spread all over my patio.
On the day the job was being completed, the building inspector for my town came by to say they were supposed to have gotten a permit. Joe got into an argument with him as well. My husband had to smooth things over, and thankfully he allowed the work to continue. The inspector told my husband he should withhold all payment until they got the permit, but we didn't feel comfortable doing that. My husband gave him 5/6 and told him that we'd give him the last 1/6 when he came with the permit on Monday. Joe told him, to his face, that he was a "huge pain in the ass."
The driveway itself mostly looks nice. There are 3 noticeable "holes" that were filled (apparently there was water pooling and my husband thinks this outcome may have been inevitable, we're not sure), but I was a bit disappointed to not have a completely smooth driveway when paying to have it ripped up and repaved (photo attached). Everything else looks nice, but after this experience we don't feel any trust in whether the workmanship will stand up over time. I hope it will, but Joe has been so awful to work with that we don't feel any trust in Accurate Paving.
Please beware of working with this company. I will say that Joe's father is much more reasonable to work with, but throughout the process Joe would be your main contact. 1 star feels generous with how we were treated and spoken to throughout this process. read more