All American Industries llc

Prior to granting access to my property I received assurances from Sean Carter that he would leave the property in the same condition as he found it. I was especially concerned that damage would be done to my newly installed ($20K+) driveway. I was assured he would not be using any equipment for other than moving materials, and he would do all required digging by hand, and would cover the pavers with plywood in the work area to protect them. I was also concerned with a concrete cove that was on my property at the base of the existing block wall (the outer edge of the block is the property line). Mr. Carter assured me and my wife that this concrete would not be touched in the course of the work. Problems started as demo began. Removing the existing block created a chipping of the concrete cove leaving a very uneven surface. Assurances were repeatedly made by Mr. Carter and his crew that this would be repaired at the end. With the block removed, they encountered tree roots inhibiting their ability to dig back into the exposed soil, and without any further discussion, Mr. Carter brought in a tracked vehicle with a stump grinder and drove it right into our carport and started digging with this. This threw dirt and dust throughout our carport, and the machine scraped paint on the carport poles and canopy. Once they began laying block, the crew for some reason (again no discussion) disassembled a portion of my existing retaining wall in an attempt to tie it into the new wall. Since the elevation was not the same, they ended up rebuilding my wall with spaces in the block joints since the blocks were not level. Also they dripped construction adhesive down the face of my block, and chipped the cap blocks they removed. I asked that my wall be restored to the way it was, and not tie it to the new wall of my neighbor. An attempt to do this was made, but they left a large void behind my wall, and did not repair the adhesive or chipped blocks, and left the wall improperly aligned. During the digging they broke my neighbor's irrigation line, and for two successive nights when the system came on it caused a mud flow across most of my two-car carport. This was eventually repaired, but the pavers had mud and dirt on them. Mr. Carter decided to pressure wash the pavers, and while doing so, blasted the polymeric sand out of the spaces between the pavers. While this was being done, Mr. Carter was scooping up the sand and removing it. After it dried and I pointed out the problem, Mr. Carter volunteered to sweep new sand into the joints, calling it "not rocket science". But I indicated to him that what we had installed was polymeric sand, including an adhesive to resist ant and vegetation activity in the pavers, and my concern that my warranty for the pavers would be nullified if someone non-qualified did something like this. Mr. Carter took the name of my paver contractor and said he would call and work something out to remedy. The work completed and I talked to one of his workers who was gathering up things and asked about the concrete issue and the chipped blocks in my retaining wall. I was told that Sean considered the work done and I would need to talk to him. When I called, Sean became immediately confrontational. He said he had done a trial to repair the concrete and there was no way to do it. He claimed he had told us prior to the work that the concrete would be damaged. (This is a ridiculous assertion...what homeowner would allow a contractor access to his property to complete work for someone else after being told he would have to damage our property?). He told me if I wanted the concrete fixed I should call a contractor and get it fixed myself. He also called me a "liberal" and said I was one of those people who wants something for nothing (pretty funny considering we've spent about $200K in the past seven years on home improvements). He said I should pursue him with the Better Business Bureau but that that would do no good, then as I tried to raise the additional issues (paver damage, paint damage, retaining wall damage) he hung up on me. We will be heading to court with this issue. I am mad at myself because having administered commercial contracts in chemical plants I knew about contracts and performance bonds. However upon our first meeting, Mr. Carter seemed very straightforward and candid, had ready answers to questions, and came across as an honest and hard-working small businessman. Lesson learned. In the future a contractor entering my premises will have a contract in place and demonstrate a performance bond to settle future liabilities. As an aside, although I did not pay for the retaining wall installation, it is obviously defective. With these modern stacked block walls that have no mortar, a key feature is to provide drainage on the soil side of the wall. At the start of the project, this was the design described by Mr. Carter, drain pipe at the bottom and gravel backfill to grade. This prevents hydraulic pressure in the soil from pushing the wall from behind and moving it over time. In the course of construction, Mr. Carter talked my neighbor into abandoning this approach and subsequently installed no drain pipe or gravel, and backfilled with soil. The wall is less than two months old but is already wavy and obviously being moved by ground movement when it rains. See photos where bow in wall, chipped concrete cove, and misaligned and chipped wall are visible.