I paid AS Paving (Alan N Smith) $6100 to remove and replace the existing 25 year old driveway at my Doylestown home in the late fall of 2018. Upon completion of the job, the new blacktop driveway immediately started to show signs of breaking down in the first month. After three months, the surface completely broke down to the point that multiple divots formed and were collecting water at the top of the driveway. In the spring of 2019, AS Paving was informed of the problem and their remediation solution was to apply a heavy seal coat to the blacktop surface and to the divots as well. AS Paving performed this remediation action going against their contract "fine print" directions that states to wait 2 years before sealing the driveway. During the summer of 2019, the driveway blacktop surface continued to crumble apart and break down. All of my
efforts to get AS Paving to respond and correct the problem were addressed via email by Mr. Smith, who basically told me to read the fine print on the back side of my contract, which I was never informed of, or initialed as confirmation that I agreed to the fine print. I filed a small claims suit against AS Paving and Alan N Smith in Bucks County District Court and won a default judgement for $6500 in November, 2020 as AS Paving never acknowledged the subpoena, nor did they appeared for the court hearing. I further filed a complaint in Montgomery County in an attempt to collect the judgement money, to no avail as Alan N Smith and AS Paving completely disregarded this notice. It has been over three years now and I am still waiting for AS Paving to follow the decision of the Court and pay the judgment. It has cost me an additional $4800 to have a reputable paving firm remediate the substandard work that was performed by AS Paving.
Lessons Learned:
1. Do not ever have a driveway repaved in late fall where the
cold weather has the potential to impact the structure of
blacktop as it cures. In my research, I am convinced the
freezing temperature and heavy rain in the days that followed, played a critical role in the breakdown of the driveway surface, in addition to the substandard work / material performed by AS Paving, as decided by Buck County District Court. I had the driveway remediation work done in early June 2021 where the weather was in the high 80s and the temperature remained consistently hot to aid the blacktop curing process. Needless to say the new driveway blacktop surface is perfect!
2. Ask your contractor how many jobs they have scheduled on
the day that your driveway work is scheduled and insist that
your driveway is completed first, and there are no more than
two jobs done in your neighborhood on the day that your
driveway job is scheduled. As it turns out AS Paving did three
jobs in my neighborhood on the same day, ran out of daylight,
and were applying the finish coat to my driveway in the dark.
No wonder multiple puddles formed at the top of the
driveway, ultimately leading to the divots that appeared during
the winter months.
3. Make sure that there is a physical address tied to your
contractor's business. I came to find out that the physical
address associated with AS Paving is a UPS Store box. read more