I.S. & Son's Asphalt Protective Seal Coating

Description of Work: While we were out in the yard one day we were approached by the Grandson of the owner, Isaac Smith, in regards to sealing our asphalt driveway . Apparently the Grandson (could also be Isaac - terrible to say, but not sure) noticed our drive while in the neighborhood. He stopped in and asked if we would be interested in having our driveway sealed. My wife discussed what he would actually do to the drive... pointing out several gaps needing repair in the edges of the drive where the asphalt had crumbled and deteriorated. The Grandson assured her that he would take care of the gaps as part of the service. Our drive consists of concrete and asphalt, with the asphalt part being about 675 square feet... about 15 X 45, making up about two-thirds of the entire drive, and is the part that adjoins the drive to our main road. Grandson and my Wife agreed upon a price, and an appointment was made. Grandson said that the job would take from 2 - 3 hours. The appointment was kept, and, basically, on time... they even called the night before to make sure that the job was still on. I remember thinking that I liked that touch of professionalism. On the morning of the appointment the grandson called to assure us he was on the way (he lives out of town). The appointment was for 10 am, and he arrived about 45 minutes late... which, in itself, is not what I would consider bad... especially having dealt with contractors before who would not even show up at all, and not even call to tell you they would not be there. He arrived with a helper and promptly began the job. They cleaned the drive thoroughly, sprayed weed and grass killer along the edges, and, with sand, filled 3 lateral cracks that had developed that were maybe one-fourth inch wide and 4-5 ft long (common to most asphalt drives). They proceeded with the job, and completed it in approximately 50 minutes... which set off an alarm with my wife and myself as he had said he would need from 2-3 hours to complete the job. The gaps along side of the drive that he told my wife that he would repair as part of the job (and was the deciding factor upon which we agreed to the job) had been filled with dry sand and sprayed with sealer over the top, with nothing to maintain the integrity of the edge. The sand collapsed with just a step upon it. The fill will not hold up to any traffic. When we asked about it the Grandson replied, "Well, I don't do asphalt... I don't have the equipment and supplies for that". This after the job was declared 'done' and he was expecting to be paid. To be fair, he had told my wife that he would "fill" the gaps when they were discussing the job... however... we felt that "fill" was to have been with asphalt. We feel very mislead in that we feel like we were being told "what we wanted to hear" when discussing the job, in order to agree to have them do it. My wife made it clear to him that the gaps being repaired was the main thing we wanted (In the past I would have done the job, but I had a stroke in 2009). While he filled the gaps with sand and sprayed sealer over everything, the gaps are NOT repaired. He also spent less than half the time he said it would take when we agreed upon a price. Bottom line.... If you use these folks make sure that you nail down (I would do it in writing) exactly what they agree to do. They are loose and misleading in their definitions of what 'fill', and 'repair' consist of. After the job was completed and when we asked about the way the gaps were repaired, the grandson said his grandfather had the asphalt 'repair' equipment, and that we should contact him to fix the gaps in the edge of the drive. Of course that would not be included in the price we paid him. We rated most things as 'fair', but that does not mean fair - as in equitable. The driveway was sealed. Only time will tell if it will hold up, but since they took less than one-half of the time that they told us it would take to do the job, our confidence is not at an all time high on that. It is our feeling that they did not do the job agreed upon, whether that was an honest mistake or not I cannot say. We do feel like they 'worked' the definition of repair in order to get us to hire them. In their favor they did show up as appointed, and even did pre-calls and what I call an assurance call when they realized that they would be a little late. It would work to their favor if they would define exactly what 'repair' means when agreeing on job plans. If you use these folks make sure you absolutely define (and I would write down) what the job entails. Unfortunately, this is not a company that I would (in the future) do business with on a handshake.