DENNIS & SON CEMENT

The crew arrived on schedule and completed the job in two days. I looked at the work briefly and, having the recommending person?s assurance that Mr. Dennis would come back to fix anything I found wrong, I paid him in full when he presented his bill at the end of the second day. (I know that it takes me some time to look over a contractor?s work and sort out what I need to have corrected from what is not quite right but acceptable.) I found that the line separating the sidewalk from the driveway had been cut in the wrong place and that there were irregularities in framing, including a strange curve where the driveway met the approach (?curb?). Mr. Dennis came to discuss my complaints, but he would not agree to make the changes I required. He asked for time to think about the matter. Reflecting on our discussion, I realized that I had lost confidence in Mr. Dennis? ability to do a correct, careful redo of the work. I wrote to tell him that I was releasing him and hiring another person. The new man?I?ll call him Mr. X?replaced two sections of the driveway, the approach, and one section of sidewalk, entirely to my satisfaction. Mr. X told me that mine was the third Dennis job to which he had been called to redo unsatisfactory work. On my site, in addition to what I had found wrong, Mr. X found that Mr. Dennis had poured extra-thick concrete in an area where he should have used a Class II base; had not used rebar spacer blocks; and had not obtained the required city permit for the job. (The city inspector told us that Mr. Dennis had done other jobs without permits.) Conclusion: Mr. Dennis evidently sets an attractive price, then does what is cheap and/or easy instead of what?s right, and gets away with it by avoiding permits and inspectors. My opinion is supported by what Mr. X and the city?s inspector have said, and by a landscape contractor who told me that he had used the Dennis company once and would not do so again. In grading this contractor, I have assigned ?D? to his price in spite of the fact that it appears to be a good one. No price is good if the quality of the work is bad. In my case, the corrective work done by Mr. X cost twice Dennis? contract price.