I should have followed my gut and not hired Dan in the first place! after 3 missed appointments to come over and quote a new patio and no phone calls ahead of time cancelling plus the last excuse that "it snowed up north and I just had to go snowmobiling". However when he came out finally to quote the job he and he had all the right things including "look, I am not the cheapest but I do great work" I agreed to the quote.
I now have a patio that has a different texture on one half because it started to rain during the pouring of the concrete which he says is not his fault. He did not route a drain off the house into the concrete like he promised so I now have a drain pipe running along the patio and the house which looks ugly. There is a piece that broke off during the final stage and was patched and its not even close to matching right at the front edge in the worst spot because it is so noticeable ( When Dan came back to the house to get paid I showed it to him and he agreed it it is the worst patch job ever and that he would fix it, said that was terrible and should never have been done like that. Guess what still not fixed). I have sealer all over the side of my house from them when the sealed the surface with a sprayer (He blames that on the crew foreman that did the spraying saying his normal guy would not have done that. Why did I not rate high enough to have his normal guy do it?). I also found out he did not reinforce a corner of the patio with rebar like he said he would so I could put a hot tub on it (I know this because my son actually did a time lapse video over the 4 days and we watched the video). When they came to bring dirt and back grade around the patio they used my dirt I had delivered for another part of the yard and then did not leave any replacement so now I need to buy more dirt (when I called Dan he went into a rage telling me how this screws up his schedule because now he has to make a trip back out with the dirt and that takes time that he doesn't have, guess what I still don't have the dirt)
We were initially delayed because his dump truck was broken, once he finally got there to do the job the dump truck leaked all up and down my driveway large spots and it is now stained and will need to be resealed.
He deflects the blame and never takes ownership for anything, instead blames it on the quality of his employees and their work ethics.
Then I felt so bad for him and his whining about how hard it is to make money I actually wrote him the check because he looked me in the eye and promised to fix everything.
I am still waiting to get these problems resolved and am pretty sure I wont. I am planning on reporting the dirt stolen, contacting the BBB and then taking him to court to try and get the entire job redone due to the drain, the texture and that I cannot put a hot tub on the patio because it was not reinforced.
Take my advice and find a different contractor. One who will honor his word, do what he says, not make excuses and will stand behind his work.
I am adding to this review: I just heard back from the owner Dan, he called me a m^%$ther f&^%er told me to get a lawyer because I will need one and that there is no way I can hurt his business so he doesn't care what I do.
That's the kind of guy you would be dealing with if you hire him.
Be warned.
So another update, its actually getting to the point where it is funny. I spoke with Dan by text and we made nice. He promised to come out last Saturday and replace the dirt that his guys used by mistake and fix the things that needed fixing (the sealer on the siding and the mismatched patch job) The dirt arrived on Friday while I was at work and instead of putting the dirt in the driveway like we discussed they put it in the yard on top of a area where I just put down grass seed. Then he never showed on Saturday once again as promised.
Just a total lack of follow through and execution in everything they do.
Seriously, you need to look elsewhere for a contractor if you are going to spend your hard earned money on a stamped concrete patio! read more