D.C. Masonry LLC dba D.C. Construction Service

Review: I hired this company to do restorative work on my front brick wall and front cement steps. The work was not of quality and the work on the steps was never completed. I paid this company 50% of the fee up front per the contract in July 2014. The work was done in pieces over several months and never completed. The company has requested I pay the remainder even though the work wasn't done. Mr. [redacted] has emailed me many times saying he will come by to complete but he never does. He is now demanding I pay him the remainder of the fee and threatening to take me to small claims court. He is saying I haven't paid for 85% of the work which is not true. I paid him $1,700 which I believe is sufficient for the work done and I don't want him to do anymore work for me as the work done was not of the quality I want and obviously not within any reasonable time frame. I have pictures that show the cracks are still there and the colors of the steps don't match and are not attractive.Desired Settlement: I don't want to be pestered by this company anymore. They do not provide the service they promised and I have more than compensated him for the work done.

Review: I contracted with this business to repair a cracked and leaking concrete deck above my 3 car garage. I was told it was a 2-3 day job and the products, preparation and application would resolve the leaking issue. I paid half of the contracted price on 5/16/14 prior to the job being started. The job was begun shortly afterwards and instead of 2-3 days as told, it took approximately 45 days to complete. While the job was progressing I made concerns known that the cracks in the concrete were deep and was assured their method of repair preparation and filling was adequate and the final top coating and staining would seal the surface and prevent any further cracking or leaking. Final payment was made on 6/24/14 once the job was completed.

Within a month or so a crack redeveloped in one of the previous cracks causing a water leak into my garage below. I contacted [redacted], the owner of the company, via email and he responded and eventually came out to assess the problem. He reopened the crack with a grinding wheel and applied more epoxy filler and I was told he would be back to finish staining the repair to match the rest of the job once the epoxy set. Days had passed and one area of epoxy along an outside edge had not set up properly and I notified [redacted] of this problem. He eventually came out and removed and reapplied more epoxy but never stained the repaired area. I inquired when he was going to finish the staining and was told he didn't have any more of that particular color but would be back once he got a job using the same color. I was obviously not pleased with this answer but he offered no other solution and the change of weather meant it wouldn't be done until spring anyway. So I waited to see how the repair would hold up over winter.

Obviously it was a hard winter and upon assessing the deck afterwards I noticed that all of the crack repairs were showing through again in the applied surface material and I was beginning to have leaks in a few places when there was heavy rain or in winter when the snow was melting off the deck. I again emailed [redacted] and he expressed how hard the winter was. I had asked for him to call me to coordinate a time to assess the problem and come up with a solution. It has been several months since I contacted him and I have yet to receive a phone call or email to meet.

The majority of this work had been done while I was at work so I could not supervise or ask questions until after the fact. It would seem as though that he either did not prep the repairs as thoroughly as needed or used inferior products or his skills were inadequate for the job.

Whichever is the case, I feel the Revdex.com should be notified and to see if this contractor can be held accountable for his lack of follow through to completing the job as originally promised or for him to reimburse the full amount I paid as I may need to hire another contractor to redo the job.

All of my contacts with this contractor, except phone calls, have been in a continuous email for documentation sake.Desired Settlement: My faith in this contractor to provide a proper job and complete it is shattered. I would prefer he reimburse me for the failed job and lack of completion and wish that the Revdex.com will somehow prevent other consumers form using this contractor. Thank you

Business

Response:

I would like to explain to you what happens to concrete when it goes thru different tempature changes. Concrete moves and expands. This causes the cracking that you would see in concrete. There are many factors that attribute to cracks in concrete. I have a 6 page report on why concrete cracks. Mr [redacted] has a concrete deck which we prepared for a coating that was done in the summer. Yes a crack did occur later on, which we repaired. We were only contracted to repair the top of the deck. The sides of the deck as well as the underside which is above the enclosed garage are not protected from the elements. I cannot be responsible for cracks or other problems that occur after a long hard winter. I have no problem fixing the existing crack if it opened up due to poor workmanship. But after a long winter the crack opened up due to the severity of the cold winter.Thank you[redacted]Owner

Consumer

Response:

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because: When my wife and I first met Mr. [redacted] at the [redacted] we explained our problem to him and he came to our house to assess the problem and provide a quote. Our home is about 90 years old and the original deck (approximately 30' long by 10' deep) was, at some point, covered in concrete which over the years developed cracks causing water leaks into our garage. I asked him if it would be best to remove the secondary application of concrete decking and apply a new concrete deck or what would he recommend. He assured me removing the existing deck wasn't necessary and that he could "waterproof" our existing concrete deck with his skills at working with concrete, preparation of the deck and the applications of the products he uses. He never mentioned before, during or after completing the job, as he expressed in his rebuttal, how concrete will continue to crack due to extreme weather conditions. Contrary to his response, he was contracted to repair the cracks on the deck and one of them did go to the edge. How could he expect to do a thorough job if he didn't repair this edge as well? The edge of the deck he refers to is approximately 4 inches thick and the underside is barely an inch deep. The rest of the deck is within the garage below which is heated throughout the winter. I understand expansion and contraction of materials, but again, he shouldn't assure someone of his ability to waterproof something if he ultimately knows it will fail.