Are there two SAVON PAVERS?
There are rave reviews here on Yelp for a company by that name, but our experience was unsatisfactory, frustrating, and expensive.
I hate doing this, because Jamie Valdez and Michelle Valdez (owners, operators) seem to be nice people who mean well. It's just that in our particular case the project went very poorly, and the owners did not step up to rectify problems until I brought an attorney into the deal. Other prospective customers of this paver company should know what happened and take appropriate precautions.
The contract said the "cash down payment may not exceed $1,000 or 10% of the agreement price, whichever is less." However, we were required to generate a down payment totaling $8,204 on a job priced at $12,204. We tried to help because Jamie Valdez, the owner, said that the company is not making a profit. I erroneously accepted the idea that more cash in advance would be motivating, and would improve results. In fact, we received a notice of an impending MECHANICS LIEN from ORCO, the company that sold the pavers to SAVON, but Michelle was able to get that released.
The contract called for base preparation of SIX INCHES of Class II Road Base. Many times, I pointed out to the job supervisor that his crew was applying road base at less than three inches, and was told "it doesn't matter." I still don't know whether or not it matters, but do know that the material for which we paid was not used.
Here are other problems:
1. Schedule. The contract called for a start date of February 17, with completion on February 23. When we signed the contract, city signs were along our street indicating that new asphalt was about to be laid down. I cautioned Michelle to immediately call the asphalt company (number was on the sign) and coordinate. In fact, some disappointing things happened. Though street paving did not begin until after February 23, our driveway job began only a week after that. I could easily have been done when promised. Rain interrupted work, however, and the job was completed only on March 25, more than a month after it began. When it seemed to be complete, we paid the $4,000 balance without argument, despite our concerns regarding quality of work and other matters. It's clear that Savon did not coordinate with the city. Even more frustrating, Mr. Valdez told me later that it had been MY RESPONSIBILITY to determine when appropriate space would be available on the street - though we had no idea of the requirements of his equipment, sequence, etc.
2. Supervision seemed to be woefully inadequate. We never knew when the crew would be at work - days went by with nothing accomplished. The supposed supervisor did a poor job, and we were never informed. Even phone calls went unanswered. In many cases, pavers laid down and ready were uprooted and moved because whoever ordered those materials had made errors, requiring compromises regarding color distribution. Gaps between pavers were not properly filled and sealed until our attorney got into the discussion. Severe damage was done to one of our sprinklers (I repaired that after Savon declined).
3. When I pointed out an error in the slope of the driveway, that supervisor insisted that "It's an optical illusion" and refused to fix it. One of his workers had a better work ethic, and in the absence of his supervisor he used a level to confirm the problem, and fixed it. Michelle wrote to me saying that the supervisor had been fired and replaced.
4. The newly-paved street was damaged by Savon's steel containers, filled with concrete and dirt, which dug deeply into the new asphalt. Despite many promises to repair the damage, by Mr. Valdez and his replacement supervisor Mr. Wiggins, that problem has still not been addressed.
5. We were assured that Jamie Valdez would be personally involved in our job, but we saw him only when he took our money, and after our attorney lit a fire under him and he personally returned to try to fix mistakes.
6. As an inducement to do the deal, Jamie agreed to include staining the concrete on our back patio. The result is truly horrendous, as shown in the photo. I asked Jamie to look at the job to see if it was done as he expected, and he responded "I don't need to see it."
For these reasons and others that were trivial (but frustrating!), we cannot recommend Savon Pavers. Everything listed above has been carefully documented, and in this litigious society of ours it made sense to have our attorney review this Yelp! posting.
We overpaid, the driveway took more than a month to finish, there was terrible communication, the quality of work was less than that promised in the contract, and the relationship was extremely frustrating. However, THE $12,204 DRIVEWAY LOOKS GOOD...
Despite repeated promises, the street damage is still not fixed. read more