Marco put in a stamped concrete patio for us. We thought we found someone to do what we wanted but…read moreit turned into a stressful nightmare.
We were referred to Marco through Paradise Landscaping.
He agreed to do our patio in a way that another concrete company had told us was not possible. It has a raised wall around the edge to lower it to ground level at the base of the small. The price was comparable, and he could start soon. We thought it was great.
He excavated and put in compacted base rock. That was fine. He then put down a frame for the concrete pour. He was supposed to be doing 5'' of concrete because it would hold a hot tub. I questioned him because he had used 2"x4" lumber. He told me that he would compact the base further to make it 5'' deep. Instead he rebuilt the frame to make the concrete higher. That makes me to believe he was just going to do 4". I can see how a mistake was made since 5" is less common. However, It made the patio an inch higher and not as level to the ground as we wanted. A minor complaint.
When he finished, we noticed a light splodge, for lack of a better word, on one edge. It kind of looked like someone spilled bleach on the patio. I assumed it was the powder from patterning that needed to be washed off, but it was permanent. Marco expected us to accept this as-is under the blanket statement in his contract of "CONCRETE ISN'T PERFECT" rather than admitting he made a mistake. We also noticed several issues with the patterning where lines were not well defined. He told us that he could cut in some lines to fix the pattern but he couldn't fix the splodge. He said a wet look sealer would reduce the contrast, which was true, but it was still obvious when he showed us the patio wet.
I pressed him on what could be done to fix the splodge. He came back and without really telling me what he was going to do, he applied a layer of red stain to the patio. While this did reduce the splodge, it didn't completely fix it. He also did not apply stain to the wall around the edge. So our patio is mismatched and the surface is a significantly different color than we asked for. He also did not do a very good job of applying the stain, so there were visible brush marks and most of the patterned lines were only partially stained.
I pushed him on it and finally directly asked why it wasn't being replaced. This is where it got interesting.
He showed up at my house, unannounced, less than 30 minutes after I had sent him the message. He walked into my backyard and basically his only defense was that this was a learning experience for him and his guys to a do a better job. A guy that was with him came walking over with a jackhammer and plopped it down next to my patio. Marco then made me an ultimatum. If we paid him more than $1,000 in addition to the original cost, he would admit that he made a mistake and he would replace it. When I was disagreeable and clear I wasn't ready to pay, he offered to apply the sealer but that was it. And he wasn't leaving without an answer and he was clearly ready to start jackhammering at 7:30 in the evening.
So, I gave in to the bullying knowing he wouldn't make us a priority, could do an even worse job if he was unhappy about doing it, and we needed to be done soon, so I accepted the sealer.
The sealer made the patio passable, so the splodge is still there but isn't as noticeable. However, the patio is the wrong color and we wanted to put a matte sealer on, so it's the wrong sheen. But it's done and ready.
Also, we had to push him to fill the expansion cut in the patio. He told us it was unnecessary. I cannot believe that was even a question in an area where things freeze. My wife also asked for grey filler. He ignored that and used pure white.
Also, I noticed that the stamping pattern looked off, so I measured. The patio 1.5'' longer at one end. Probably a measuring error with the standard lumber used for the frame, so believable, but it is just one more mistake permanently memorialized in concrete.
