Concrete Coatings of Illinois

I was the president of the Homeowner's Association for Cass Lake Village Condos in Westmont IL. We hired them to put a concrete coating over our old concrete swimming pool deck. We scheduled it to be done early enough before the memorial day opening of our pool but they did not show up and continued to postpone claiming weather delays that was way behind what could have been realistic for the couple of rain days we had that month. We ended up having to open the pool 3 weeks late. After finally arriving to do the job the workers did not seem very professional and once the job was finished they cleaned up their tools in our landscaping next to the pool. Within a month or so there was cracking. Then shortly thereafter there were large pieces of the coating coming up. By the end of the summer the pool deck looked very bad. After contacting the company, they said that the damage was due to the deck underneath shifting but they would come back and fix it this one time. If the concrete underneath was shifting, that might explain the cracking but it certainly would not explain the large pieces of coating coming off the deck. Their coating simply wasn't applied correctly and was not adhering to the subsurface. We had another 2 other contractors out to give us and estimate on fixing it and they both agreed it was an application problem. It took many calls on my part and the part of our management company to get them to come out almost 1 year later and the fix was very shoddy and ended up making the deck look worse. In my time as Board President for the homeowner's association I dealt with many, many vendors. They were the worst I have ever dealt with in terms of work quality and customer service.

I contacted the company regarding this issue on 11/19/09. It took me over 6 weeks of phone calls, messages, & e-mails to convince someone to come out & look at the floor. (I have e-mails & photos to prove that painful process). I e-mailed photos as requested by the company. After no response,I received a repair invoice in the mail without anyone willing to come out & look at the floor for an assessment and discussion with us. I had to result to a threat of calling the BBB before someone would agree to come to the house. They felt I should just sign the invoice for the repairs without ever physically looking at what needed to be done or explaining the process to us. Once one of their sales persons came out and looked at the floor, we were informed that the bubbules were caused by moisture. Moisture was why we got the floor in the first place. We were informed that it was moisture coming up from the concrete and that the whole floor would have to be stripped, the concrete sealed, and new epoxy coating applied! We were NEVER informed during the original sales meeting that this might be an issue even though we informed the sales person as to reasons for us wanting this floor. Since the "repair assessment meeting" on Jan 11, 2010, we have done additional research. It turns out that a moisture test should have been performed by this company before installing the floor as epoxy coatings are not recommended in high moisture areas. Or, at least, we should have been informed of these risks at time of signing the work contract. Thus, we continue to have bubbles in the flooring & have lost all hope in having a nice finished basement living area again.

The concrete began pitting within 6 months. I call several times and finally talked with Keith -- who promptly hung up on me. He didn't have a reason for the pitting -- said "this happens with new concrete". After a good 4/6 weeks of calls someone came out to examine the work. The pitting was now clear and pronounced. They agreed there was an issue of either too much water in the mix or the wrong type of aggregate used for a stamped concrete job. They said they'd come back with another rep -- never did. Never called. Never responded back to anything. Keith is a turd of a human being. This company stole my money and left me with a huge job to redo. AVOID at all costs!!!!

Gary was right on time and believe me he knows his stuff. He even gave me a few pointers on what to ask regarding a new driveway we may have poured. Gary took his time and explained his product and pointed out why we have our existing problem. He told us about some jobs they had done in our area and we looked at them and the work is excellent. The next day Gary sent us an estimate and we were very pleased with the cost. Because of their backlog of work we probably will not be able to get the work done until the spring but we plan on using them for our overlay work.

This is my second time I hired this company & each time they have been very helpful. After I had them do my Acid stain in the basement I told them about my interest in the garage. Bob told me to contact him directly & he would give me a great price. I trusted him but still received 2 other bids, they were $700.00 cheaper that the other 2 quotes I had for the exact same type of work. I am going to wait for my tax return & have them come back & install an organization system in the garage. They also told me that they do offer a $150.00 discount for anyone using or seeing them on the Angie's website & discounted my bill accordingly.

I RECEIVED QUOTES FROM 3 DIFFERENT COMPANIES OFFERING SIMILAR PRODUCTS. THE SALES PERSON KEITH BAUER TOLD ME DOWNSIDES TO THE CONCRETE FLOORING SUCH AS CRACKING & UNEVENNESS OF STAINED SURFACE DUE TO CHEMICAL REACTIONS. THE OTHER COMPANIES DID NOT ADVISE ME OF POTENTIAL DOWNSIDES TO THE PRODUCT. I AM FAMILIAR WITH THE PROCESS & HAVE RESEARCHED IT ON THE INTERNET. THIS COMPANY SEEMED TO HAVE OVERALL KNOWLEDGE ON THE ENTIRE PROCESS. I AM VERY HAPPY WITH MY DECISION TO USE THIS COMPANY. I AM PLANNING TO HAVE THEM INSTALL AN EPOXY FLOORING & CABINETS IN MY GARAGE IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

I HAD TO CALL CCI SIX WEEKS AFTER SIGNING THE CONTRACT BECAUSE THEY HAD NOT CONTACTED ME WITH A START DATE FOR THE WORK. THEY GAVE ME A DATE, BUT NEVER CONFIRMED IT. I CALLED THE DAY BEFORE THE START DATE AND WAS TOLD IT WOULD HAVE TO BE PUSHED BACK ONE DAY. I HAD ADJUSTED MY SCHEDULE AROUND THE FIRST DATE & WAS UNABLE TO BE HOME ON THE SECOND DATE. BASED ON THE PROBLEM WITH COMMUNICATION AND CCI'S ATTITUDE, I CANCELLED THE WORK. BOB BAUER, PRESIDENT OF CCI, VERBALLY PROMISED TO REFUND ME MY DEPOSIT, BUT FOUR MONTHS LATER IT STILL HAD NOT ARRIVED. MR. BAUER REFUSED TO RESPOND TO MY NUMEROUS PHONE CALLS, LETTERS AND FAXES, SO I HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO INITIATE A SMALL CLAIMS LAWSUIT AGAINST CCI. TWO DAYS BEFORE THE TRIAL DATE MR BAUER CALLED TO SETTLE OUT OF COURT. HE RETURNED MY DEPOSIT & REIMBURSED ME FOR COURT COSTS, SO I RECEIVED WHAT I ASKED FOR. I STILL FIND IT AMAZING THAT IT TOOK A LAWSUIT TO GET MR. BAUER?S ATTENTION & I RESENT THE TIME I SPENT GETTING MY DEPOSIT RETURNED.

WE CALLED KEITH BAUER IN APRIL; HIS RESPONSE WAS "DID YOU READ THE FINE PRINT ON YOUR CONTRACT?" WE SAID HE'D TOLD US IT WOULDN'T CRACK; HE SAID HE'D TOLD US NO SUCH THING; WE WERE LYING. WE CALLED REPEATEDLY AND KEITH WOULDN'T RETURN OUR CALLS. FINALLY IN JULY HE AGREED TO COME AND DISCUSS IT, BUT THEN HE CANCELLED. WE WERE EVEN AMENABLE TO PAYING THEM YEARLY TO FIX THE CRACKS IF IT WASN'T TOO EXPENSIVE, BUT THE ONLY OPTION THEY OFFERED WAS TO FIX THE DRIVEWAY ONE TIME. HOWEVER, FIRST THEY WANTED US TO SIGN A PAPER SAYING WE AGREED NOT TO HOLD THEM TO ANY WARRANTY WHATSOEVER. WE REFUSED. EVENTUALLY IN RESPONSE TO MORE FRANTIC PHONE CALLS SOMEONE ELSE FROM THE COMPANY MADE TWO APPOINTMENTS TO SEE IT, BUT FAILED TO APPEAR OR CALL BOTH TIMES. WE HAVE FILED A COMPLAINT WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU AND THEY WERE UNABLE TO HELP US. IF YOU USE THIS COMPANY, BE SURE TO READ THE FINE PRINT ON YOUR CONTRACT AND GET LONG TERM REFERENCES! I WISH WE HAD.