My experience with this company was a complete disaster from start to finish. I'll spare you the long list of finer details and try to hit the main points, and the attached pics should speak for themselves.
1. Communication and follow-up were terrible. Every conversation ends with Don saying "I'll have to check my schedule and get back to you" and every time, without fail, weeks will go by without hearing back until you eventually ping him again. This happened over and over, and at least one time he said he'd come by on a certain day and then just never showed without any notice. When he finally does show up and agrees to come back and fix something, it's another round of waiting weeks for him to "check his schedule and get back to you".
2. After months of waiting with no on-going updates from him, I finally got on his schedule to have the work done, but then he had to reschedule two days before he was supposed to start because he hadn't even obtained the materials yet. Another month went by before he could do the project, further delaying the completion.
3. During installation they managed to somehow break a couple of sprinkler heads despite them being moved out of the way beforehand. They moved one sprinkler head but left it sticking up 4 inches out of the ground, so I had to have that reinstalled properly.
4. During installation they also took all the turf and dirt they removed and just threw it on top of my mulched flower beds and under my bushes. I don't know if they thought I wouldn't eventually see that or what, but I had to go around and clean up all up after they left. They also left me with a huge mess of excess concrete everywhere that had to be cleaned up.
5. After installation I contacted Don with some concerns about the texture and coloring. When he finally got around to coming back to look at it a few weeks later, he basically told me to pound sand and that the variation in the final product was just how it goes. Eventually I was able to talk him into replacing the very worst section of curbing and decided I'd just have to live with the rest because it clearly wasn't worth fighting him over.
6. Weeks later when he finally got around to replacing the worst section, he then proceeded to apply the sealant incorrectly because "we got in a hurry", causing all the coloring to wash off. When I tried to get him to redo the sealing, he was once again unable to obtain the necessary materials and didn't know when he'd be able to find any more. At that point I was exhausted with the whole project and done messing around with him and his constant delays, so I asked him to refund me that part of the project so we could both just move on, which he did.
7. The result is that I'm left with curbing that looks awful. Major sections of it have little to no texture at all and just looks like a plain concrete curb, as though they didn't press deep enough with the texturing tool. The coloring they applied to the texturing is also virtually non-existent in most areas, slopped on in some others, and now a few months later has mostly washed off.
8. I later discovered that the curbing business isn't Don's full-time job, but rather just a side gig that he and his buddies do between shifts at their regular jobs. That definitely shows in both the customer service and the lack of quality in the work.
9. A year later I'm now facing the prospect of having his work completely torn out and having someone who actually knows what they're doing come in and replace everything. I guess I'll just have to eat all the money the paid him for a low-quality job.
10. Finally, don't' just take my word for it. I welcome anyone who is considering hiring Don to come out to my place and view his product and judge it for yourself. Simply contact me at thefabak-at-yah00-d0t-c0m and I'll be delighted to have you over and show you around. read more