Last week, Perfect Paving did more work for us, and I just have to say that they impressed me all over again. This time, the aging asphalt in front of the house and driveway were given a coat of what they called "slurry", which is basically a mixture of oil and other goodies that preserves asphalt, and makes it look new again. (I think it's the same mixture that cities use when they upgrade the surface of streets, to make them last longer and basically give them new life.)
Well, I was blown away by what a difference it made! You would seriously think we just got a band-new driveway. It went from being a dull-gray to being a rich, deep black. Compared to the city street that it butts up against, there's a night-and-day difference.
It took about 2 hours to complete the job, and I stood out there the whole time watching it being done. (The owner of the company, Robert, was the one who did the actual application of the slurry, and he is a total stickler for detail.)
They don't just show up and dump a bunch of oil, and then leave. No, instead, they prepared the surface by REALLY cleaning it first, and removing any debris and dust that is there. (They used a blower that LITERALLY blew a 5-gallon container's worth of dust off the driveway, and then they swept and scooped it all up, and then washed the surface with water to make it pristine for the slurry.)
While they were working, I asked if they had done any other jobs in the neighborhood, and Robert looked up and said, "Well, we did Mr. Smith's place on the corner there, and about 5 houses down, we did Mrs. Jones' driveway." Turns out, just on my street alone, he's done about 10 homes over the years, and he remembered the names of all his customers, too!
The only thing to keep in mind is that you can't park on the driveway for about two days, so you have to be sure to make arrangements for alternative paring. (They provided cones and taped off the area, so that nobody, [like UPS deliveries] accidentally parks there, either. Then they came back and removed the cones for me when it was all dried.)
Watching Robert work is a delight, because he's a true Craftsman of The Old School of contracting. (As opposed to the slipshod way a lot of contractors rush a job, and then move on to the next one.) I said in my first review that he's meticulous, and it was doubly true on this second job, too.
(I asked him if the oily slurry mixture is hard on his work boots, and he said, "No, actually, the oil makes the soles last even longer. But if I walk into Albertson's after work wearing these boots, I'll look like I'm ice skating, because the soles are so smooth, I start slipping and sliding all over the place!")
Once again, great work by a great guy. And a few days after the job was done, one of my neighbors who he had done work for previously was walking by with her dog, and she said, "Your driveway looks great! Did Robert do this job?" And I said, "Yeah, he did, actually. How did you know?" And she said, "Because I can tell from how precise those lines are. It's straight as a ruler. He's just that way!"
********************************
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I was very pleasantly surprised by not only the quality of the work they did, (very precise and meticulous), but also by the way they went above and beyond what they were hired to do. For instance, we had them repair a rarely-used side driveway that had fallen into disrepair, and Robert and his team also fixed my fence that was, (as Robert said "cattywampus" - or a little crooked and hard to open.)
On top of that, Robert even patched a 12 inch pothole that recently appeared in the street. I said, "Do I need to call the City to have them come fix that?" And he said, "They're not going to come out for something that size. Don't worry. We'll fix that for you." And he did! (In fact, he did a second patch, too, where my daughter parks her car -- at no charge.)
I didn't observe the entire job from start-to-finish, but I saw about half of it, and I was very impressed by the level of detail I saw in how well they blended the new work with the existing driveway, so that it was totally seamless.
This is the first time I've had asphalt work done, and I had no idea how much was involved in doing it right. (In fact, Robert showed me where a previous crew had cut corners on the existing asphalt, and we're now considering having it all torn out and starting fresh.)
Bottom line: This is a company that has high standards, and old-fashioned values. (The kind that says you should deliver what you promised, and even go beyond that, when you can.) Based on what I saw today, this family business ended up being a perfect choice for giving us what we needed. And when I said to Robert, "Wow, you even fixed our fence, and got it working right?", he just smiled and said, "Full service!" read more
