"We recently had concrete work done (both a new walkway and a new back patio). We used Mickey Construction ([*** Link removed ***] and had a great experience. We had five different companies come out to the house and bid on the project ranging from a one-off, independent crew to the institutional, name brand outdoor solution company. Stephen Mickey and his crew were heads above everyone else. For context, we used a few different dimensions to think about our alternatives: 1) Fair Price: Stephen was not the cheapest nor the most expensive. I’d describe him as competitive and reasonable if you communicate your goals/etc. openly. You can get a lot of price dispersion with concrete work – be careful if the price looks too good to be true. 2) Great Communication: Stephen returned my call the same day of my initial inquiry, came out to see our house within a couple days, and was incredibly responsive via text and phone call the entire duration of the project. I’m sure there are times where he gets bogged down on projects like any contractor, but our experience was nothing short of great on the communication front. Further, he was patient as we had other contractors come out and he also spent numerous calls with us talking through options. I took the time to give him the survey of our property and put in writing everything that we agreed to do so there was no opportunity for misinterpretation. I highly suggest you do this agnostic of who you hire, and Stephen was glad to accommodate this. 3) Solid Credibility: If you have different concrete contractors come out to bid, you’ll notice that there is a wide range of professionalism across the board. I found it exhausting to deal with folks who came out and tossed out a price after spending only three minutes looking at our job. Similarly, we had larger company salesmen who came out and while polished in communication, couldn’t answer technical questions around concrete work and it was clear they were simply looking to get commission on a sale. Stephen’s visit was a perfect blend of technical expertise yet personable communication. He’s a no BS, direct kind of guy. He has one dedicated crew of awesome folks he’s worked with for a long time through thick and thin. He spent a lot of time with my wife and I looking at the job, measuring, thinking through what could work and what wouldn’t, etc. I was convinced he wasn’t just looking to flip a quick concrete job but actually took pride in his work, his crew, and the ultimate outcome. 4) Deliver an Outcome: I knew our project would have to take into account non-concrete issues like sprinkler system rerouting, drainage, etc. and I did not want to have to juggle multiple contractors if something went wrong. Further, I knew we’d hit some unexpected issues and didn’t want a contractor that would be knocking on my door to share problems without solutions. Stephen has a trusted resource for every situation we encountered so once we hired him, it was one-stop shop to completion. Did we have some unexpected issues pop up during construction? Definitely. Did Stephen and his crew hop right on it, fix them efficiently, and get back to their concrete job without even a comment? ABSOLUTELY! 5) Transparency: You may know exactly what you want for your project or just have a rough idea. Stephen can help you figure that out. We shared our vision and Mickey helped us calibrate by taking into consideration budget, aesthetics, and structural integrity. He is not afraid to tell you that your idea may not be a good one for the specific situation, but if you’re open to listening and understanding the rationale for his perspective, you’ll end up in a way better spot at the end of the day. As stressful as it sounds, we made a material change to our project the day of construction based on some real-time advice from Mickey and it turned out to be an outstanding decision. A lot of contractors will simply do whatever you ask, even if it’ll look aesthetically bad or be structurally weak. Mickey takes too much pride in his work to let a client make such a decision without fully understanding the risk. If you tend to be someone who takes offense by input/ideas from your contractor or by direct communication, you might be better off working with a large company that cares more about the sales process than the substance of their work. However, if you value high quality work from someone who knows what their doing and will shoot you straight and fair, Mickey Construction is a great option. I’d definitely use them again.
Jon G. on April 2021