We contacted Design Construction LLC (also listed as DS Construction LLC) about an estimate for an 18'x4' concrete pad. Danny (the dad of the owner) was very fast about getting back to us and getting an estimate done. The price was reasonable, so we went with them.
We should have been worried when Danny said that we needed to pay the full amount prior to work getting started. We're fine with paying deposits, and we should have told them we could do up to 1/2 up front with the rest after the work was done...
Work got started and the crew was efficient in getting everything prepped and ready. Once the concrete was poured, though, my wife noticed that they had not routed the gutter downspout under the concrete like Danny told us they would. The crew contacted Danny who said that he had "forgotten" to tell them, and then without telling us what it would entail, they cut into the freshly poured concrete to create a trough for the downspout. It was at that point that he then contacted us and told us that his workers didn't have either the cash or a credit card, and could we "loan" them $25 to go to Home Depot to get the necessary pieces. We did so. The workers then told us that they would make it look good by putting diamond plate over the downspout so that there wouldn't be a concrete patch, and that it would be easy to clean out.
The next day, though, they installed the downspout and mixed up a bag of Quickcrete and simply scooped that over the top. They did not set the downspout tubing in even a Quickcrete "bed" or encasement, but just scooped some on top and then used a wire-bristle grout brush to try to match the brush finish on the poured concrete from the day before - it definitely does NOT match in either color or finish. They had also scraped some Quickcrete over some small blemishes they made that were only about 1/4" deep, so we're expecting those "patches" to pop off any day. They had to put in a 4" deep amount of Quickcrete on one corner, though, because the original forms they made weren't done properly. (The pictures are more than a week after the work was done, so both the poured concrete and mixed Quickcrete are essentially the colors they will remain. You can see how bad it looks even though it's brand new!)
That night (when they put in the patches) I called Danny and said that the Quickcrete looked really bad on the poured stuff and that we were not happy with the patches that they had done - and that they still hadn't brought back the money they borrowed from the previous day. Danny listened and said he would be out the next day. The next night they did put the cash under our doormat in the evening, but Danny never came back out - and at that point stopped returning my phone calls, texts, or anything else. I tried for more than a week to contact him through texts, voicemail, and even calling his son (the owner of the company). None of it worked. Danny never responded. I was always polite and said simply that we weren't happy with how the patches had turned out, and asked what could be done to make things right?
Finally, about a week after all of this, we got a letter from MLGW asking if we had a leak in our water pipes because our water was running 24/7. It turned out that they had left a hose spigot on enough that our utility company noticed the extra water use!
Danny is really quick to try to get new business but doesn't follow through or respond if there's a problem. I would strongly recommend that people do NOT use this company. We've used other contractors in the past that we really liked and that were incredibly responsive when problems came up and we should've paid a little more to get the project done correctly. read more