Buyer Beware
My experience with Austin Concrete Specialists has been poor enough to motivate me to write this review to warn others. We approached them about adding a concrete surface to support a hot tub. The sales consultation was easy and professional and the quote fell in the mid-range of what were expecting. Everything seemed fine until the day of the pour when they left us with a surface with an 8 - 12" step up from the ground (roughly 5" higher than we talked about) with an uneven surface and a severe grade that was on average 4 - 5%, twice what City of Austin allows. You couldn't set a tennis ball on it without it rolling off. Furthermore, they poured the concrete directly on our grass and leaf cover without preparing the ground and they didn't float the rebar that they used, just left it on the ground and poured over it. When we ultimately had the concrete removed, we could see the rebar hanging off the underside of the slab barely integrated with the concrete. There were also rough spots on the surface itself and the finishing they did on the sides began to crack and flake off in about a month. Nothing like we expected or hoped for, we were immediately disappointed and unhappy.
Granted, we were unprepared as consumers and didn't stop the work once the red flags started. I take the blame on that, but the real reason why this review exists is the way they handled us afterward. On multiple occasions throughout the process and directly after the pour they assured us on the reputation of their company and family members that they would fix things and make things right. They even called us with ideas on solutions, but as soon as they got partial payment they sent an email stating all previous conversations were "not a finalized agreement or an admission that anything was built incorrectly." They then insisted that there was nothing wrong with their work and we that a hot tub could go on an uneven 4 - 5% slope no problem until we provided documentation from the hot tub manufacturer stating otherwise, at which point they blamed us for not specifying that hot tubs needed to be on flatter surfaces. They also claimed that we asked for a "patio" which meant it was never designed to support a hot tub. The only thing they offered was to refer us to someone who could make a wooden or metal frame on top of the concrete to level the hot tub or take roughly one third of the removal cost in cash to agree they had done nothing wrong.
It's been a very unpleasant, unsatisfying experience throughout, not to mention a waste of time and money. We had to get the "patio" removed and replaced and our experience with the second company that did the replacement points out just how poor the work that Austin Concrete Specialists did was. Perhaps if you're very knowledgeable about concrete and know exactly what you want and speak Spanish to communicate that to their sub-contractors who actually do the pouring, holding them to exact specifications and spending more time overseeing the pour than they did, then you might wind up with something you can use. However, I would strongly recommend using someone else. It's just not worth it. read more