The two guys in charge were all customer service - during the estimate phase. They said steps would look great and I thought so too!! Keep in mind, they're the ones who originally noticed I like yards with steps and said it would look good in my yard and when I got excited about it, they included it in their estimate. I said my house is fairly all right angles and lines, wouldn't it be nice if the corners between intersections of driveway/walkways had curved corners instead of straight 90 deg corners. They heartily agreed, it would look really nice, and after showing me pictures and us all agreeing, said yes, they could totally do that. I said, the job needs to be done BEFORE the 16th, I'm having a party at my house, and if it can't be done by then, we need to wait til after. No problem, done before and your guests will rave about how nice it looks! So they came out to have the contract signed, and immediately started the downsell. Now, the steps were a trip hazard, especially at night, and my lawn wasn't nearly steep enough, and where the lawn met up, that would look terrible, he just kept saying, you don't want those stairs, you don't want steps. After being very disappointed but finally agreeing I said how much less does that make the job? Oh, it's about the same, was the answer. The workmen came out to pour the concrete. The bosses? Not there. Just a young guy and the Hispanic workers. They asked me to come home from work to check the framing was good before they poured it. The concrete pad by the side gate was much smaller than we had agreed on. I said this was supposed to be bigger. He said, oh more concrete means more money. I got the contract and showed them the measurements, and that it was too small. They still didn't want to change it, started talking about tree roots. I said, so if you leave it this small, how much less does that make it? Oh, it's about the same. So if I add anything, more money. But if they took something away, same cost. They said is ok like this? I said No! They finally agreed to fix it. The old narrower sidewalk continues into the back yard for like a foot, after the fence. They stopped the concrete RIGHT AT THE FENCE so the sidewalk narrows for a foot, it looks terrible, but they'd be damned if they were going to smooth it out and make it nice and easy to move trash cans on. But the bigger problem - all right angles, no curves in the corners. Curves would look terrible, again "you don't want that." I was getting mad by now, and I argued with them for probably 20 min. I said do you have pictures? He brought out the picture book and I showed him, like this! The head workman said there will be lines/blocks in the concrete? I said yes, just like the pictures, patterns in the stamping. He finally looks me straight in the face and says, if we put curves in the corners, none of these lines are going to be straight. Maybe he didn't mean that as a threat, but it sure a hell sounded like if I made them redo the work, they'd make sure it looked like shit. I stood there, missing more and more work, not sure what to do. finally said fine, whatever. This was the week before the party. He said, don't drive on it, we'll come next week and seal it. I said which day? He said, oh Monday or Tuesday. I called Tuesday night after no show. He said, oh rain next two days, maybe on Friday. I said no, not on Friday, the party is Friday! It'll have to stay like it is if it's Friday. I said there's no rain forecast for Thursday can you come then? He said, yes, we'll be there. No rain Wednesday, no rain Thursday. No workmen. Friday I went out to buy groceries for the party, came home about 2pm. They were spraying this clear goo all over the sidewalk and the driveway, sealing it. I said, how am I going to carry all these groceries in, the concrete is wet? No idea. I had to skip over it and take the chance of leaving marks. i said will this be dry by tonight? Oh yeah, no problem. It wasn't. It looked like crap because they had ripped away the grass and covered the bare soil with loose black dirt. I wanted photo voltaic lights . I can buy a controller at walmart for $5, i figured they could figure it out for the $1000 they charged me for six lights. He came twice to play with them, no joy I finally played with it one night and told them, your lights are blowing the circuit breaker inside the control box. He just put in a bigger circuit breaker. Installed by electrician? Doubt it. Will it burn down my house one day? Who knows. read more
