Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2014/10/16) */
I would like to start by apologizing to Mr*** for Pyramid's lack of response to his calls to the officeI pride myself in dealing with issues that might arise and in this case my managers let me downI personally was unaware of
our failure to address his concerns in a timely manner and first became aware on Oct14,
I immediately took it upon myself to visit Mr***'s property and was happy that coincidentally he was homeI was immediately able to diagnose the cause of his concernsThe "pitting" that is sporadically occurring is caused by an aggregate called ironstoneIronstone is very common in all the aggregates that are used for concrete in the City of EdmontonIt is a stone that is filtered, or washed out of the gravel used in all ready mixed concreteUnfortunately a very small amount gets by their screening process and becomes part of the concrete mixDuring the pouring and finishing process ironstone is impossible to detectIt usually appears after the first winter and will cause a small pit in the concrete to appear*** The architectural blemish that occurs is by no means a structural issue and the ready mixed industry has allowable limits that can be expectedTheir guidelines on what constitutes a full blown deficiency requiring removal and replacement of a project are quite clearThere must be an insurmountable amount of surface deterioration
After inspecting Mr***'s driveway, I have explained to him that the amount of ironstone present in his driveway surface falls within the acceptable limits of allowable ironstoneI have however made my supplier *** *** *** aware of his concerns and I have personally assumed Mr*** that if in the future the unlikelihood his driveway appears to exceed the allowable limits, we will stand behind our customer and demand action by our concrete producer
Sincerely,
*** ***
Operations Manager
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/04/17) */
In response to the letter dated March 31, 2015 from [redacted]. I would like to begin by offering my version of the events.
When our Estimator, [redacted], was first contacted, he booked an appointment to provide a quotation. ...
The project was quoted July 15, 2013, we were then informed that they had hired an engineer to oversee the project and to provide the specifications as well as the required concrete finishes. He would also be involved in inspecting our work periodically. During the construction process, we were called numerous times with construction questions by Mrs. [redacted] as well as me personally being called in the evening after hours with questions about the project. My construction manager [redacted] was called numerous times as well. We had two site meetings with the engineer on site that were attended by myself, my construction manager, and senior estimator. These meetings were also attended by Mr. and Mrs. [redacted].
The materials and construction methods were all chosen, designed, and supervised by their engineer and Mr. and Mrs. [redacted]. Pyramid, at extra cost to us, paid for a stronger concrete than what was specified by their engineer.
Once completed, the engineer and Home owners were satisfied with what we had done and we were paid in full. The following year we were contacted and informed that they had areas that had slight surface deterioration and inquired about what could be done. Our construction manager visited the site and stated that we should probably spray a sealer on the surface to prevent any further deterioration that he identified as salt damage.
The sealer was not applied by us due to the fact that we were extremely busy [redacted] We did say however that we would spray the cure/seal the following spring. We then received a phone call from Mrs. [redacted] on December 12, 2014 saying she is observing more surface deterioration. At this point I suspected that salt was being used on the driveway as a de-icer and sent my construction manager back to the site with a laser powered temperature gun to confirm our suspicions. I have attached two pictures showing an outside temperature of -7.6 c and water on their driveway. Water freezes at 0 C. Mrs. [redacted] was made aware of this and it was explained that Pyramid had done nothing wrong. We followed the engineer's specifications and completed their project properly. The damage is caused by the freeze/thaw cycle occurring because of salt. She was also told that we would address the sealer issue as soon as the weather improves, probably early May.
[redacted]
This project was engineered and we followed the specifications, we are absolved from any blame by that alone, never mind the fact we have pictures showing water present on her driveway at -7.6 C, we however said we would spray a sealer on it and we still plan on it.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 10, 2015/04/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
[redacted] We have never used salt or de-icer on driveway. A temperature of -7.6 C and one photo do not in any way prove that salt was used on the driveway. A proper chemical analysis of the water would have had to been conducted to prove the accusations. [redacted]
The liquid water, as well as the freeze-thaw cycle and temperatures well below -7C should be expected in Alberta.
[redacted]
Since the company continues to avoid taking responsibility for the situation, I would like the case to be closed as "unresolved".
Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
Slanderous, Please. We have been honest... Stating that we argued and were unruly is simply a lie! We too are sorry we ever hired Pyramid Concrete and will be sure to NOT recommend them to anyone in future. In our papers sent out by Pyramid, we were told to trust them. That turned out to be a joke. No one Ever talked to us about the landscaping of our yard. It was never any problem prior to the new concrete? We assumed that the contractors knew what they were doing. Obviously they did not. Or, it would have been done right the first time. But it wasn't! Obviously this is getting us nowhere. If [redacted] can feel good about the job his guys did and if he can sleep well knowing what they did not do, Then I guess karma will have to be my hopeful reward.
At this time, We would like the Revdex.com to simply note: Our review, would be a high dislike and disappointment of the service we had received.
Normally I do not respond to a concern in this manner but I can’t find any other words in which to respond to this complaint or the complainants. When my estimator did the...
original estimate in 2014, the customers seemed some what informed and knowledgeable about construction. When our field manager discussed the slope that was needed to shed the water away from the house and garage, the homeowner, in no uncertain terms, did not want to listen to our recommendations, he demanded we drain the water to a certain area of the yard. The created drainage issues for us that caused a small area near the edge to hold water. The home owners became quite unruly about this and refused to pay us until we rectified it. I met on site, looked at it and came put with a solution. We proceeded to saw cut, remove, and replace (at our cost) a small portion to drain the area as requested. I felt from the beginning that the drainage issue was created by the owners and their complete lack of knowledge when it comes to concrete installations but took responsibility to rectify their concerns. After getting paid a small crack appeared on their front sidewalk that quite honestly I shouldn’t have spent the time and material costs to repair, because our terms and conditions clearly state that we are not responsible for concrete cracking due to the complexities of ready mixed concrete eg. Shrinkage, expansion, ground movement etc. There is not an engineer on the planet or a concrete company in existence world wide that guarantees against cracks. Having said that, once again we sent manpower and material to repair the area and pacify their ever increasing demands on what started out as a simple job but made difficult by their demands for perfection of a non perfect building material. Both [redacted] and her husband [redacted] are ill informed and were a client in which I wished we hadn’t done work for. I’m sorry if they feel I am passing the buck on them for their latest complaint, but I happen to be a tad more knowledgeable in this area due to my 35 years of experience in concrete construction. As for rust spots, this is called iron stone that is present in all concrete in the Edmonton area and started appearing more frequently in the past 5 years. This is due to all suppliers of aggregate supplies and the difficulty in removing 100% of iron stone during the screening process. The allowable amount of ironstone is 20% of total area poured. So a few rust spots are not even worth a mention. This is happening with just about all concrete poured by every concrete supplier in the city not just theirs. Once again, these people need to do a little more research instead of assuming we are to blame for everything. Their most recent complaint contained a photo of water sitting against the edge of their patio because it couldn’t get over the grass which is higher then our pad. So if I understand correctly we are not responsible for not only pouring them a pad that drains water, but ensuring that their yard drains as well? I’m sorry, but their comment about me “passing the buck” or “refusing to cooperate” is a slanderous comment by a difficult homeowner wanting us to fix something caused by their demand for us to drain a pad to a spot in the yard of their choice. Not to mention that during the month of July it rained 23 out of the 31 days of the month which caused the ground to become so saturated with water that it literally could not hold anymore thus backing it up onto our pad with drains. Oh, and we poured this 2 years ago and they just noticed it? These people need to landscape their yard to ensure positive drainage. This is not a concrete issue.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/11/12) */
I would like to adequately respond to this complaint however I don't have enough information. I need to know in what year the work was done.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2014/11/20) */
(The consumer indicated he/she...
DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The work was done in May of 2013, which the company should have easily been able to verify.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 32, 2015/08/05) */
In response to Case # XXXXXXX Mr. [redacted].
On Friday July 31, 2015. I made a visit to Mr. [redacted]' residence and observed an unusually high rate of degradation of the last panel of his driveway. My immediate assessment is that severe salt attack during the previous winter was the cause of it. The increased freeze thaw cycles created by the over-abundance of de-icing chemicals and the fact that the Northern most part of the driveway receives the most sun causing heat and ultimately increased melting; was the major cause of the delamination I observed. However, having spoken to Mr. [redacted] I promised him that Pyramid would replace the bottom panel at our cost, but cautioned him on the use of de-icing chemicals in the future. He was pleased that there would be NO cost to him and accepted my assurances that we would take care of it before freeze up. We have since exchanged emails agreeing to the solution.
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 34, 2015/08/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
The company's proposal is fair and both parties are satisfied that, with the proposed completion of the work in the Fall, the problem will have been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2014/10/16) */
I would like to start by apologizing to Mr*** for Pyramid's lack of response to his calls to the officeI pride myself in dealing with issues that might arise and in this case my managers let me downI personally was unaware of
our failure to address his concerns in a timely manner and first became aware on Oct14,
I immediately took it upon myself to visit Mr***'s property and was happy that coincidentally he was homeI was immediately able to diagnose the cause of his concernsThe "pitting" that is sporadically occurring is caused by an aggregate called ironstoneIronstone is very common in all the aggregates that are used for concrete in the City of EdmontonIt is a stone that is filtered, or washed out of the gravel used in all ready mixed concreteUnfortunately a very small amount gets by their screening process and becomes part of the concrete mixDuring the pouring and finishing process ironstone is impossible to detectIt usually appears after the first winter and will cause a small pit in the concrete to appear*** The architectural blemish that occurs is by no means a structural issue and the ready mixed industry has allowable limits that can be expectedTheir guidelines on what constitutes a full blown deficiency requiring removal and replacement of a project are quite clearThere must be an insurmountable amount of surface deterioration
After inspecting Mr***'s driveway, I have explained to him that the amount of ironstone present in his driveway surface falls within the acceptable limits of allowable ironstoneI have however made my supplier *** *** *** aware of his concerns and I have personally assumed Mr*** that if in the future the unlikelihood his driveway appears to exceed the allowable limits, we will stand behind our customer and demand action by our concrete producer
Sincerely,
*** ***
Operations Manager
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/04/17) */
In response to the letter dated March 31, 2015 from [redacted]. I would like to begin by offering my version of the events.
When our Estimator, [redacted], was first contacted, he booked an appointment to provide a quotation. ...
The project was quoted July 15, 2013, we were then informed that they had hired an engineer to oversee the project and to provide the specifications as well as the required concrete finishes. He would also be involved in inspecting our work periodically. During the construction process, we were called numerous times with construction questions by Mrs. [redacted] as well as me personally being called in the evening after hours with questions about the project. My construction manager [redacted] was called numerous times as well. We had two site meetings with the engineer on site that were attended by myself, my construction manager, and senior estimator. These meetings were also attended by Mr. and Mrs. [redacted].
The materials and construction methods were all chosen, designed, and supervised by their engineer and Mr. and Mrs. [redacted]. Pyramid, at extra cost to us, paid for a stronger concrete than what was specified by their engineer.
Once completed, the engineer and Home owners were satisfied with what we had done and we were paid in full. The following year we were contacted and informed that they had areas that had slight surface deterioration and inquired about what could be done. Our construction manager visited the site and stated that we should probably spray a sealer on the surface to prevent any further deterioration that he identified as salt damage.
The sealer was not applied by us due to the fact that we were extremely busy [redacted] We did say however that we would spray the cure/seal the following spring. We then received a phone call from Mrs. [redacted] on December 12, 2014 saying she is observing more surface deterioration. At this point I suspected that salt was being used on the driveway as a de-icer and sent my construction manager back to the site with a laser powered temperature gun to confirm our suspicions. I have attached two pictures showing an outside temperature of -7.6 c and water on their driveway. Water freezes at 0 C. Mrs. [redacted] was made aware of this and it was explained that Pyramid had done nothing wrong. We followed the engineer's specifications and completed their project properly. The damage is caused by the freeze/thaw cycle occurring because of salt. She was also told that we would address the sealer issue as soon as the weather improves, probably early May.
[redacted]
This project was engineered and we followed the specifications, we are absolved from any blame by that alone, never mind the fact we have pictures showing water present on her driveway at -7.6 C, we however said we would spray a sealer on it and we still plan on it.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 10, 2015/04/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
[redacted] We have never used salt or de-icer on driveway. A temperature of -7.6 C and one photo do not in any way prove that salt was used on the driveway. A proper chemical analysis of the water would have had to been conducted to prove the accusations. [redacted]
The liquid water, as well as the freeze-thaw cycle and temperatures well below -7C should be expected in Alberta.
[redacted]
Since the company continues to avoid taking responsibility for the situation, I would like the case to be closed as "unresolved".
Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
Slanderous, Please. We have been honest... Stating that we argued and were unruly is simply a lie! We too are sorry we ever hired Pyramid Concrete and will be sure to NOT recommend them to anyone in future. In our papers sent out by Pyramid, we were told to trust them. That turned out to be a joke. No one Ever talked to us about the landscaping of our yard. It was never any problem prior to the new concrete? We assumed that the contractors knew what they were doing. Obviously they did not. Or, it would have been done right the first time. But it wasn't! Obviously this is getting us nowhere. If [redacted] can feel good about the job his guys did and if he can sleep well knowing what they did not do, Then I guess karma will have to be my hopeful reward.
At this time, We would like the Revdex.com to simply note: Our review, would be a high dislike and disappointment of the service we had received.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Normally I do not respond to a concern in this manner but I can’t find any other words in which to respond to this complaint or the complainants. When my estimator did the...
original estimate in 2014, the customers seemed some what informed and knowledgeable about construction. When our field manager discussed the slope that was needed to shed the water away from the house and garage, the homeowner, in no uncertain terms, did not want to listen to our recommendations, he demanded we drain the water to a certain area of the yard. The created drainage issues for us that caused a small area near the edge to hold water. The home owners became quite unruly about this and refused to pay us until we rectified it. I met on site, looked at it and came put with a solution. We proceeded to saw cut, remove, and replace (at our cost) a small portion to drain the area as requested. I felt from the beginning that the drainage issue was created by the owners and their complete lack of knowledge when it comes to concrete installations but took responsibility to rectify their concerns. After getting paid a small crack appeared on their front sidewalk that quite honestly I shouldn’t have spent the time and material costs to repair, because our terms and conditions clearly state that we are not responsible for concrete cracking due to the complexities of ready mixed concrete eg. Shrinkage, expansion, ground movement etc. There is not an engineer on the planet or a concrete company in existence world wide that guarantees against cracks. Having said that, once again we sent manpower and material to repair the area and pacify their ever increasing demands on what started out as a simple job but made difficult by their demands for perfection of a non perfect building material. Both [redacted] and her husband [redacted] are ill informed and were a client in which I wished we hadn’t done work for. I’m sorry if they feel I am passing the buck on them for their latest complaint, but I happen to be a tad more knowledgeable in this area due to my 35 years of experience in concrete construction. As for rust spots, this is called iron stone that is present in all concrete in the Edmonton area and started appearing more frequently in the past 5 years. This is due to all suppliers of aggregate supplies and the difficulty in removing 100% of iron stone during the screening process. The allowable amount of ironstone is 20% of total area poured. So a few rust spots are not even worth a mention. This is happening with just about all concrete poured by every concrete supplier in the city not just theirs. Once again, these people need to do a little more research instead of assuming we are to blame for everything. Their most recent complaint contained a photo of water sitting against the edge of their patio because it couldn’t get over the grass which is higher then our pad. So if I understand correctly we are not responsible for not only pouring them a pad that drains water, but ensuring that their yard drains as well? I’m sorry, but their comment about me “passing the buck” or “refusing to cooperate” is a slanderous comment by a difficult homeowner wanting us to fix something caused by their demand for us to drain a pad to a spot in the yard of their choice. Not to mention that during the month of July it rained 23 out of the 31 days of the month which caused the ground to become so saturated with water that it literally could not hold anymore thus backing it up onto our pad with drains. Oh, and we poured this 2 years ago and they just noticed it? These people need to landscape their yard to ensure positive drainage. This is not a concrete issue.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/11/12) */
I would like to adequately respond to this complaint however I don't have enough information. I need to know in what year the work was done.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2014/11/20) */
(The consumer indicated he/she...
DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The work was done in May of 2013, which the company should have easily been able to verify.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 32, 2015/08/05) */
In response to Case # XXXXXXX Mr. [redacted].
On Friday July 31, 2015. I made a visit to Mr. [redacted]' residence and observed an unusually high rate of degradation of the last panel of his driveway. My immediate assessment is that severe salt attack during the previous winter was the cause of it. The increased freeze thaw cycles created by the over-abundance of de-icing chemicals and the fact that the Northern most part of the driveway receives the most sun causing heat and ultimately increased melting; was the major cause of the delamination I observed. However, having spoken to Mr. [redacted] I promised him that Pyramid would replace the bottom panel at our cost, but cautioned him on the use of de-icing chemicals in the future. He was pleased that there would be NO cost to him and accepted my assurances that we would take care of it before freeze up. We have since exchanged emails agreeing to the solution.
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 34, 2015/08/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
The company's proposal is fair and both parties are satisfied that, with the proposed completion of the work in the Fall, the problem will have been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.