We seal coat our asphalt driveway every three years, mainly because of the cracks around our huge Douglas Fir tree. With Fall just around the corner, we decided to get a few bids this year since the company we used the last two times seemed to almost double their prices last time.
I requested bids with three companies I found on Google. All Seal responded right away and came over for a bid within hours. One company took my information over the phone and said they would email me a quote, to which I never received. The third company never responded to my request.
We were happy with the professionalism, communication and response time with Bree at All Seal. Their bid seemed reasonable, and with it being so late in the seal coating season, we decided to give them a shot!
Bree coordinated a time with me for Friday at 8am. I was super happy to be their first appointment of the day so my entire day wasn't taken up waiting for a contractor.
Bree emailed me 10 minutes before 8am on Friday and said the schedule changed due to the addresses on that days route, and now I would be second of the day, around 10am. By 10:30, I emailed her to find out if her crew was on their way, to which I received no response. Finally at 11am the crew showed up. They were all about getting the job done, no greetings or introductions. I thought it was odd, but at that point I was just glad they finally showed up.
Bree said it would be a two hour job. They were gone by 12! They were done in half the estimated job time. Trying to stay on schedule?! From what I could see from my back patio and front driveway everything looked great. It wasn't until later that evening, after it was okay to walk on, that I noticed some sloppy areas. There was seal coat markings and blobs on the foundation in areas, areas where the new seal coat didn't cover the old seal coat to the edge, and not only were the cracks not completely filled, but the hot melt dripped down both sides of them. It looked super messy! The company we used twice before never left it like that.
I asked Bree about the seal coat on the foundation and she apologized and offered to send someone to clean it up. I was appreciative of her offer, but we had plans that afternoon, so we tried a razor blade on them and it removed the more noticeable areas. I also asked her about the drip marks along the cracks. She said there was nothing they could do about that until we got rid of the root problem. That response didn't sound reasonable to us. From our prospective, it looked like the hot melt filler wasn't blended or cleaned up around the cracks before the seal coat was applied. And it seemed they rushed through our job to stay on schedule, unfortunately for us.
Overall, we aren't completely satisfied with the work, but it will do until next time. We paid a little over $900, and the other company we used before charged $1200. I guess it all depends on your personal preference. We use the backyard for gatherings, so we like a cleaner look. We'll most likely pay the extra $300 for more meticulous work next time. read more