My 25 year-old driveway has been slowly crumbling and settling for quite some time. I had it mudjacked once to raise it a few inches, but that was just a short-term fix. Overall its surface was badly pockmarked, and had sunk several inches lower than the garage slab. Before contacting any contractors, I looked at the options for a replacement driveway: basic concrete, stamped concrete, pavers, or concrete with a paver border. Ultimately I decided on basic concrete, for cost and ease of maintenance reasons. I got quotes from about a half dozen contractors before deciding to go with Sennstrom.
While his proposal was not the lowest, I felt that the product they were providing (e.g. 5-inch thick, reinforced, 4000 psi concrete on compacted gravel base) along with their positive customer reviews, justified the cost.
Once I accepted their proposal, the actual work started about 6 weeks later. From start to finish, it went like this:
- Monday: start demolition of old driveway and front walk
- Tuesday: finish demolition, install wooden formwork, install gravel base
- Wednesday: inspection by city engineer
- Thursday: no work, rained out
- Friday: pour and finish concrete
- Monday: apply polymer coating to existing front stoop, remove formwork
The crew size varied from 1 to 5 depending on the task that day. The day the concrete was poured involved 4 workers and Tom (the owner). I liked that Tom was very much hands-on. (You can see this in my pics).
The crew worked with a quiet efficiency where everyone knew exactly what to do without the need for direction. On Friday, they poured and finished the driveway and walkway (2 truckloads of cement) in 3 hours. Watching them finish the concrete was like watching artists at work.
I had a chat with Tom while he was prepping the stoop for painting. I asked him if it was hard to find good workers. He said that he preferred to hire workers with either farm experience (who have a capacity for hard work and don't mind doing it) or a military background (who are trained to take orders without complaint). A good strategy. His crew foreman, Dennis, has been with him for 35 years.
The finished driveway and walk look great, the crew's workmanship and attention to detail were outstanding, and the owner is someone who truly does right by his customers. Can't get better than this. read more