Atlas Concrete & Pavement Inc

I hired Pedro Rijos Jr. (“Peter”) from Atlas Concrete and Pavement to do a driveway, walkway and small patio at my residence in Miami. This is my experience with this company: 1. Pedro Rijos was not up to date with the City of Miami codes. It took him 47 days to get the plans approved. He had to submit and resubmit his plan 8 times. He ended up hiring an architect to do the plan for him because he could not figure it out on his own. He claimed that Miami 21 had just been implemented a few days ago and that he was not aware of that. The truth is that Miami 21 has been in effect for some years now. Actually, since April 16, 2005. His architect confirmed that. 2. Then he lied to me about how much the city permit fees were. He told me that the city fees were in the amount of $943.64 when in reality the city permit fees were in the amount of $525.85 plus a resubmission fee of $56.00 that the City of Miami charged for having to review his plan so many times. What an “innocent” miscalculation of $417.79 on his part. I guess he did not know that those were public records and that anyone could access them at any time. He also told me that I needed to pay $250.00 in architect fees. The guy he had to hired to do the plan for him because he did not know what he was doing. So, I ended up paying for his mistakes and lack of knowledge ($250+$56=$306.00). I let that one slide. 3. He is not following the City of Miami building codes at all. He did not dig the ground deep enough. He did not compact the ground. He did not install the minimum 6 inches of compacted base required for the driveway. He did not install any compacted base at all in the walkway and patio areas. He put too much sand. He did not install the required 8 inches by 8 inches concrete edge along the pavers. The driveway is full of defects and not up to code. There are violations all over. Some areas of the sidewalk and approach do not have the mandated minimum thickness of 6 inches. 4. He ran out of materials and wanted to lay two 1-inch pavers on top of each other to make one full brick. When I told him I did not want him to install them like that, he went on to try to convince me that it was perfectly fine. When I did not give up, then he wanted to charge me more money for the materials. So, once more he expected me to pay for his mistakes, but this time I have had it with him and his unethical manner of conducting business. 5. He was supposed to remove some old tiles I had on my porch and two other stairs to install 1-inch pavers in these areas. However, when the tiles proved difficult to remove, and he saw that he would need to smooth out the surface with concrete, he decided to install the pavers on top of the old tiles on a layer of sand. When I told him I did not want him to do it like that, once again he tried to convince me that it was the right thing to do. It is not the right way to install them. It is the easiest way out for him. Then he told me he needed to charge me more money for doing the job this way, the right way. This guy is unbelievable. 6. He would bring random people, with no skills whatsoever, to work on my driveway. If you couple that with an unethical contractor who does not know what he is doing either, what you get is what I got: a very poor-quality job that is falling apart already. 7. Contractor does not provide employees with a portable toilet, so they urinate all over your property. 8. All the sand he had left, he spread it throughout my lawn. Once again, he claimed that it was per city code. 9. Contractor supposedly failed to pay TJ Pavement, Corp for the concrete used in the approach. I received a letter in the mail from TJ Pavement, Corp threatening to place a lien on my property because contractor did not pay them. I visited the facility (TJ Pavement, Corp) and was under the impression that this is a fraud to try to collect more money from me. The letter was coincidentally dated the day after contractor informed me that he was not going to continue working on my property. Also, I could sense a friendship between contractor (Pedro Rijos Jr.) and TJ Pavement, Corp. when they spoke on the phone in my presence. This has been a horrible experience for me and an extremely stressful journey. This contractor is very dishonest, very unethical, very unprofessional, and lacks the very basic skills to do this job. He is a disgrace to the construction business. This contractor has no respect for your hard-earned money and effort. In exchange for my money, I got a sloppy job worth nothing. Every response from him is a big lie. He lies about everything. He can look you straight in the eye and lie to your face. I have never experienced such thing in my entire life. He claims that I am disrespectful because I did not let him rip me off and rob me of my money. So, in his book, I guess I was supposed to take anything he would throw at me. All he needed to do was follow the plan, do things right once, and that's it. We wouldn't be here if he would have done a good job.

Part of the job had to be subcontracted out, but the owner stayed on the job site the entire time to make sure everything was going well. The owner was very responsive and even stayed late to seal the concrete.

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Peter was very professional and attentive from start to finish. He listened to my concerns and addressed them, all while holding up his end of the arrangement. He went above and beyond to ensure my satisfaction with the project. The job was done within a week and the finished product is flawless. The written contract stated that 4 PVC pipes would be placed under the concrete. Rather than the usual 1" or 2" pipe, I asked him to set 3" pipes under the concrete. He proceeded willingly, without negative comment or hesitation. Atlas Concrete is a reliable well run outfit that can be trusted to complete your project in a pleasant and businesslike manner.

These guys know what they are doing. Over the phone we explained what was needed, the access to job site, etc. They gave us the cost, which we agreed as it was lower/similar to what the other companies were estimating. We agreed a date/time and they came to do the work exactly as required.

It went great! I got lucky finding Peter. I found him on Angies list he came out and I was so nervous because I was not sure what I was doing with my renovation. Peter advised me gave me suggestions and told me to call him when ever I was ready. NO pressure. He gave me names of other people to call to get estimates from. It all worked out beautifully. Peter was also always timely and fair in price.