We met with Luis Figueroa (President of CSM) some back in 2020 to come up with designs for our back patio. He worked with us, and had some great concepts. We paid him a healthy fee (about 15% above competitor quotes) because we believed in his sales pitch of what he could do. I've never felt like more of a fool.
When working up the designs we settled on constructing a patio using a patterned and styled stamped concrete with a fieldstone-lined firepit at the edge to make a beautiful centerpiece to our rural Loudoun home. There were a number of delays and slipped schedules getting started, but we didn't think anything of it (now I know they were indicators of Luis' trademark mismanagement and lack of professionalism).
I started to get concerned as I watched the crew fumbling with how to stamp concrete. His crew (including his lead stonemason) stood around scratching their heads a bit as they looked at the stamps, sometimes looking on their phones (I now surmise they were looking up how to do it). In the end, they couldn't get the freshly poured concrete stamped, and instead, graded it flat. Once it was dry, they proceeded to lay a veneer of concrete on top (approximately 1cm thick) and stamp that. If you have any idea how stamped concrete works (as I do now that I've had to learn) and/or can visualize how the bonding would work in this scenario, this is all kinds of wrong, as the thin layer of stamped concrete on top cracks and pops off in high heat or low cold.
When Luis came by for his final walkthrough (with his girlfriend of the moment on his arm, in what set the tone for his unprofessionalism the rest of the engagement), he assured us it would settle well and the color (which came out blue) would settle down.
Fast forward 6 months: The concrete is cracked, bluer, and the firepit had sprouted seams from where it was losing its foundation to due woefully inadequate footings. At this point I reached out to Luis and my troubles really began.
To call him non-responsive would feel too kind. It took several calls and emails before I got him on the phone, and rather than listen and parse my complaints, he unloaded his own woes upon me as he was struggling through labor shortages during COVID. He promised to get me on the schedule in the next month. Two months later, he had not reached out. So, I reached back out to him (again, taking several calls/emails before getting a response). Again, he promised, again, he ghosted. This process repeated for a year.
In each instance, rather than listen to my complaints on how poor CMS' workmanship was (my patio continued to crumble), he complained to me about his own professional (and sometimes personal) life. On the 4th or fifth round I grew frustrated, and made an implication of investigating legal action if he couldn't give me at least some kind of commitment--and within hours, he responded back to me with his legal council copied, promising that he is "very well represented and it would not go well for me."
A contractor who can produce a Lawyer in minutes, but cannot schedule a competent concrete finishing crew is not the right kind of contractor.
Obviously, I didn't engage counsel--as small claims would not be able to reclaim the losses I incurred hiring him to assemble an overcharged pile of rubble in my back yard... It's been 16 months since he last promised he would get back to me. I've long-since given up on the $20k+ I've wasted, and hired another contractor to re-do the work he did. I will add, the new contractor had no trouble finding labor in the same market, and marveled at how shallow the footers for my firepit/patio had been dug and was surprised it had stood up as well as it had (which wasn't saying much).
Luis is the least reputable contractor I have ever engaged with. Unprofessional, and devoid of any sense of accountability. He like that friend of a friend who offers to help you with something, comes over, does 60% of it. read more