Madewell Concrete - Atlanta

I strongly recommend against hiring Madewell Concrete. I signed a contract with Madewell to widen my driveway in January 2022. At that time, I was told it would take three weeks to receive the necessary permits and another three weeks for the install. However, eight months later, All I have is a giant hole in my yard with cement residue everywhere, no driveway, less my deposit, and radio silence from Madewell. From January to April, I received periodic updates (only when I inquired, not Madewell being proactive) from my sales consultant, Gage Holsombeck, about the permitting. In early April, I began to engage with the City of Atlanta on Madewell’s behalf (though I paid Madewell a fee to obtain the permits) myself. The first week of May, the City called and told me they couldn’t issue the permit because they had not received payment from Madewell. I forwarded this Gage on both May 9 and May 10. Neither got a response. By this time I figured out how to view the permit’s progress online and saw that the issue was resolved. Finally, I had an install date for June 8, but there were some last minute weather issues that delayed the install until June 9. At 7:30 am on June 9, the project manager, Reid, told me an associate, Jonathan, would be arriving around 9:00 am, but at 10:00 am no one had come, so I reached out to the Reid to inquire. Reid told me that the crew was in traffic and it would be another 30 minutes. I mentioned that I understood traffic delays happen but would appreciate if I was kept in the loop on all scheduling delays so I was not left wondering. The Jonathan arrived around 10:30 am. We went through everything and my only concern was that Madewell did not call the service to mark where the gas/utility lines were before digging. I expressed my concern and Jonathan told me to just have the emergency number on hand in case they hit a line. I was hesitant to move forward, but I had already been waiting nearly six months for my driveway so decided to proceed with the install. Madewell demoed the yard and poured about three quarters of the drive way when a representative from the City of Atlanta Department of Transportation showed up on site around 12:30 and shut the project down because Madewell had failed to secure three necessary permits. While Madewell did obtain the building permit, they were negligent in securing a required permit to close a lane on my street, a required permit to place a dumpster in the street, and a required qualified contract permit which I believe has something to do with a right-of-way passage where the apron meets the road. At this point in time, I contacted Gage and Reid right away. There were a few phone calls back and forth and ultimately Reid said that his boss, Graydon Lewis, who is a Regional Manager would be calling me. Graydon called me to discuss next steps. He was hesitant to take accountability for failing to obtain all permits. He thought that the City of Atlanta should be responsible for telling contractors what permits were necessary and that Madewell didn’t know they needed the three from the Department of Transportation. To me, this fell flat for three reasons. 1. If someone accidentally breaks the law, no judge is going to give you a pass because you “didn’t know.” As a contractor operating in the City of Atlanta, it is the contractor’s obligation and responsibility to learn and know how to operate their business in full compliance. 2. Madewell didn’t even call to have the gas lines marked so it was clear corner cutting is part of their practice. 3. Gage mentioned in an an email that this is not the first time this exact same Department of Transportation representative had shut down one of their installation projects mid-install. If it happened before, then they knew which permits are required. It doesn’t add up so hard for me to digest the “we didn’t know” argument. Nevertheless, I learned from the Department of Transportation that it takes ten business days to issue the three permits in scope once the Department has received the application along with all necessary supporting documents. The representative at the Department emailed me detailed instructions for the applications which I forwarded to Graydon. I’m being nit picky here, but Graydon asked me to forward this along to Madewell’s internal permitting department as opposed to him sending it to his colleagues himself. I did so without hesitation as it was clear I would need to begin micromanaging Madewell to get my project finished. On the initial phone call with Graydon, we agreed that Madewell would submit all documents and permit applications by end of day Monday June 13. This would allow Madewell three business days to complete and submit the permit applications. We also agreed that Madewell would proactively be in touch with me on a weekly basis to provide a status on the project—even if it were a to inform me there have been no updates since the previous week. (This never happened) I also asked Graydon if Madewell had planned to do anything for me to make up for the many, many pain points along the way. Graydon mentioned that it was a fair question and he would come back to me the next week. He never did, even after I followed up on this point in a text message. No response. In fact, the last time I received communication from Graydon and Gage was the day the project got shut down, June 9. I never heard from Graydon or Gage never again. On the morning of Monday, June 13, I emailed Graydon, Gage, a permitting email alias, Henriette Watford, and Justin Alley (unclear what Henriette and Justin’s roles are at Madewell) to inquire if they were on track to complete and submit the permit applications with all required documentation by our agreed upon deadline of the end of that day. I never received a response. On the evening of Monday, June 13, I emailed the same folks to ask if the applications were submitted as agreed. I never received a response. The following week, I took a vacation which included a break from dealing with Madewell. Upon my return and since then, I have left voice mails and text messages for both Graydon and Gage a handful of times (typically once a week). As mentioned I never heard back. On July 18, I called the main number of Madewell and left a voicemail explaining the situation and expressing my frustration. The following day, I received a text message that said “Thanks for calling Madewell Concrete, sorry I missed your call. I’ll call you back.” But, I never received a phone call back. Also, on July 18, I filed a claim on Madewell’s website explaining the situation and my frustration. On July 18, Jacob Clary (unclear their role with Madewell) emailed me and said he would be taking over the claim. Jacob informed me that Graydon and Gage no longer worked with the organization and that he was working on getting information regarding the permits and an install date. I was relieved to learn that Graydon and Gage weren’t purposely ignoring me, but why didn’t anyone at Madewell understand which projects were to be transitioned and why did it take me filing a claim against the company for them to inform me that there were personnel changes that materially affected my project? I pushed this new frustration aside given a new person was going to help me. I was wrong. By this time, I’m pretty much calling every number I can get ahold of at Madewell. I am pursing all paths at once. One number I found was for Ashford in the permitting department, I both texted and left a voicemail for Ashford on July 19. She replied and said she had a call with the inspector on Jul 20 and would know by then. By July 21, I had not heard back from Jacob, so I emailed him and also left him a voicemail as he said he would get back to me. On July 21, I also texted Ashford to ask how the inspector call went. She said they were waiting on the dates for the lane closure. I stressed my eagerness to get this project finished as soon as possible, that I had been waiting for this since January, and mentioned that no one had been getting back to me so appreciated her attention. On July

Our driveway is gorgeous! It exceeded our expectations. The Madewell Concrete crew did a top-notch, professional job from start to finish. Amazingly our driveway was completely replaced in two days! Gage, our Sales Manager, came to our house to discuss options we were considering. He was very knowledgeable and helpful as we reached a decision. He measured our driveway and sent us a quote. Once we accepted the quote, we were put on the schedule. Reid, our Project Manager, and his crew were fantastic! Reid’s experience was valuable. He was always willing to answer questions and explain the process to us. The crew worked non-stop throughout the time they were here. On the day work was scheduled to start, rain was in the forecast. We were notified that the job would need to be postponed. We appreciated that it would not be done in less-than-ideal conditions. We were rescheduled for the following week and had great weather. The first day was demolition. A Bobcat with jackhammer attachment was used to break up the concrete into big chunks. The chunks were then deposited into one of several heavy-duty dumpsters and hauled away to be recycled. Large roots that had caused the concrete to break up were removed. The ground was graded, and forms were set in place to be ready for the new concrete. The second day was installation. The crew and the first of several concrete trucks arrived early. As the concrete was poured some of the crew worked on spreading it out. Others followed behind to smooth and brush it to give it a non-slip surface. Control joints, basically grooves, were added to help control any future cracking in the concrete. The process was fascinating to watch. We are extremely pleased with our new driveway, and it was a pleasure having the entire crew here. We highly recommend them.

Terrible. I was quoted a price and an additional $300 off if I signed before Christmas. I did not get the price quoted nor the discount. I actually paid $800 more after being treated like I was buying a used car. They did not install expansion/control joints as we discussed. They poured concrete over my existing walkway. They let the concrete spill over into my yard. They left a mess in my yard. They had the grading equipment, but did not level my yard and left craters for me to fill in and mounds of dirt for me to level out. The steps they poured look like a child poured them. They are very uneven. They worst part is that the driveway is cracking at the places where it was grooved out to look like joints and the end of the driveway is cracking and falling apart. They came and patched the end of the driveway and it looks like they picked up a handfull of concrete and slapped it on. They just smeared concrete on the steps to smooth them out, but it looks like **** and is another color. They sawed off the concrete that spilled out into my yard but took down my fence and put it back up unlevel. They refuse to fix my walkway which slopes and is a hazard to anyone who goes down the front steps. You must hold on to the handrail or you will fall. They have offered to cut out only 6 inches at the end of my driveway and re-patch. The first patch didn't work, so why would the second. It needs to be torn out to the first joint and re-poured. This is definitely not the work of a professional.

Buyer beware! My experience with Madewell has been mostly negative post-estimate, which was the only pleasant experience across the whole ordeal. If I didn’t withhold the second half of the payment until after my issues were addressed, I don’t believe they would’ve been. BEWARE ON THE CONTRACT that you agree that you are COMPLETELY SATISFIED after you submit final payment. You are also required to provide final payment DAY OF the concrete pour, not until after they are supposed to come clean-up and you are able to see what rubbish job they did. I had two driveways poured on 23 April 2021, a main driveway which would be stamped and a side driveway with parking pad in the backyard. The problems started on the day of the pour where I had to supervise the crew pouring the side driveway. The concrete pad in my backyard was clearly higher than the driveway sloping down towards it; after I expressed the disparity, the crew’s solution was the dig out 6” from the middle of the pad to allow for runoff from the driveway. At the end of day inspection, I expressed concern about both the pad being higher and that the driveway didn’t appear to be sloping away from my basement garage. I was told that we would have to wait and see after first rain. Fortunately, it rained the next day and the drive did in fact slope TOWARDS my garage, as I had expressed. I submitted a claim same day. After back and forth with Madewell, two weeks passed before a team showed up to install runoff drains in front of my garage and catch basins on both sides. Again, had I not supervised the team, the drains would have been running uphill. I caught the team right before they were trying to leave and all the pipes had to be pulled up and reburied. First rain came that next day again, at which time I discovered that the catch basin’s weren’t properly installed. It took another 2+ weeks before a team came out to dig out the catch basin’s and install them properly (May 22). After several more weeks, I noticed that the drains weren’t doing their job. Upon further inspection I discovered that (1) the slot drain in front of the garage was installed higher than my garage floor and (2) the exit drain was never installed properly to the end of the slot drain. Water was just damming up next to my foundation and backflowing into my garage again. I ended up fixing it myself because I was tired of fighting Madewell’s claim department for service. On Aug 22 I submitted another claim that my main, stamped driveway is cracking across and down the middle. Upon second and third opinion, the reason appears that the subsoil wasn’t properly compacted before the drive were poured. I am still waiting on a response back from that claim. So much for standing by their work for 10 years. Pictures and communications available for support.

I would not recommend this company. The work done looks horrible and the service was horrible . We were actually told by the Atlanta Lead that if he showed pictures of our patio to his boss (requesting it be fixed according to our standards) that his boss would laugh. No one was present to oversee the project. We paid for a pump that did not arrive. We were not informed that a pump was not present and work commenced anyway without our verbal agreement. This resulted in damages to our existing front and back yard (broken concrete driveway, damaged sod and sod erosion - ruining the existing grading in the yard). The finished product is currently inconsistent integral color and texture, incorrect patio shape, erosion voids, a patio graded towards our home instead of away from the home, a damaged yard, damaged concrete driveway. All of this after we signed an over $11,000 quote. Do not waste your time or money with this company.

Do yourself a favor before hiring this company & organize the reviews by least favorable & read through them. Ask yourself if any of these situations would be worth the headache of hiring Madewell because I suspect that the type of work you receive from Madewell depends on the crew you end up with. Unfortunately for me, my crew created a headache that I have just now resolved in February with several thousands of dollars out-of-pocket from a driveway they installed in October. Nightmare #1: while demolishing the existing driveway, they didn't take care when removing the slabs that were attached to the front of the house. Instead they used a Bobcat to lift up sections & drop them to break it up. When doing so, they popped the brick facade causing the brick & mortar to crack spidering all the way up to my 2nd floor. Because I had a unique colored brick that couldn't be matched I ended up having to PAINT MY ENTIRE HOUSE! Much of the damage on the 2nd floor wasn't even discovered until then. The minimal discount I received from the owner didn't even scratch the surface of this cost. Nightmare #2: I have a storm drain at the end of my driveway. The crew washed concrete sediment down the drain which ended up hardening & causing a back up. For moths afterwards, we would have standing water at the end of the driveway until we used a blower to force the water down the drain. I eventually had to hire someone to break up the concrete so the water could flow better. I still have standing water after it rains though because the end of the driveway was not properly graded. See pics. Nightmare #3: If you think that #1 & #2 are unlikely to happen to you then consider this. They do sloppy work. They leave a crazy mess behind that my neighbors were not thrilled with. (See my pics.) I had to replace all the molding around my front door because they poured the concrete too high and covered the base molding. I also had to hire someone to cut away all the oozing concrete from the sides of the driveway as our landscaper advised us it would be difficult to regrow grass. Unless you want to micromanage, this is not the company for you. Madewell is not a local company. They hire crews all over the metro area lead by foremen with little to no concrete experience. My foreman (who had only been with the company 4 months & was not previously with a concrete company) didn't speak Spanish & couldn't properly communicate concerns to the crew who didn't speak English. There was another future-foreman at my site who was training and had ZERO concrete experience. His previous background was in Events & Entertainment! Be weary of Madewell. Do your homework. Look at smaller local companies that have roots in Atlanta, experienced employees, and stand behind their work.

Did a great job on my driveway replacement. Great customer service-completed all my requests and made sure I was happy before leaving the job site. Totally recommend for the job and the value.

Great customer service. Prompt and good communication.

Reid & Hunter were very Professional. My Driveway came out Fantastic! Definitely going to add some value to my Home...will definitely refer this company if you looking for a Quality Job with Good Employees.

Very efficient and easy to work with, really smooth process overall

Professional service very organized thorough in details and high recommend Madewell.

Very courteous, great communication, loved the crew, they were great!

Fantastic work, kept me informed throughout the whole process.

Very professional and polite. Would use again for any project.

Run a mile! I used Madewell after seeing them do several other driveways in the area. I wish I had checked with those owners prior to calling (as they would have warned me to stay away, which I only found out later). Andrew the sales guy was great and promised me the world and I felt confident in their work. That quickly changed on the morning of the pour. Crew had zero supervision. They spent the first 2 hours kicking dirt around and setting up the forms. Once I saw the forms in place I knew there was a problem. They were not what was agreed upon with me and Andrew or the “PM”. I didn’t want to be that guy who tells the guys how to do their job, but they where about to pour and I knew it was going to be a disaster. I called their “PM” and he told ME to go out and tell them to stop and to change everything so it was correct. He later blamed it on miss communication from him to the team. As a result of the wrong information the guys had to regrade the whole driveway whilst the cement truck was on the street waiting. He graded the whole driveway by eye from the bobcat, no grading sticks or anything. He managed to do this and the forms in less then 10min which really worried me. (I have this all on camera from CCTV and when I showed other GCs and a super they couldn’t believe it) “Risky gamble that rarely pays off was their feedback” As a result we ended up with an extremely poorly graded driveway which resulted in all the water been directed towards property rather then the street (like promised) also they managed to destroy half on my neighbors driveway and actually poured about a two foot wide strip of cement on their property, which is actually an asphalt driveway. It wasnt even a straight line either, it was all over the place and looked awful when dried. This resulted in a lot of drama and upset from our neighbors and us panicked every time it was going to rain due to the fear of flooding and property damage. They came out and half assed fixing it and left my neighbors driveway looking like a bomb site. They even used tape on the drain pipes for the storm drain (which I had to pay for) and that was incorrectly installed. That tape came off after the first rain and flooded the neighbors yard with water bubbling up from the dirt. Leaving me and my neighbor to do a lot of work at our own expense to try make it right after the fact. Do not use them, they don’t have any customer service. Just a sales team who don’t care. They just want to get in and out. This whole experience caused a lot of stress and drama in our house as well as with our neighbors. I’m angry even thinking about it

Very professional! Cleaned up well. It paid to not go with the lowest bid....

Very professional and friendly, I would highly recommend to anyone!

The professionalism of management team very articulate when explaining things they're prompt with arrival workers are friendly approachable and listens to customer concerns will highly recommend this company

Everyone at Madewell was extremely professional and made us feel confident in their work. They were on-time, professional and effective. They were excellent about answering any questions we had and our repaired driveway looks great!

They were excellent! On time, crew worked hard, excellent finished product! Looks wonderful! I will be recommending to everyone in my neighborhood!

Very professional and friendly. Highly recommend to anyone looking for concrete work.

The professionalism of management team very articulate when explaining things they're prompt with arrival workers are friendly approachable and listens to customer concerns will highly recommend this company.

Everyone at Madewell was extremely professional and made us feel confident in their work. They were on-time, professional and effective. They were excellent about answering any questions we had and our repaired driveway looks great!

They were excellent! On time, crew worked hard, excellent finished product! Looks wonderful! I will be recommending to everyone in my neighborhood!

Reid and Armando were great! They worked extra hard; very meticulously in their work; crew was kind and detailed; very timely; finished job was excellent! Will be recommending Madewell to my neighborhood.