Allan D Surber LLC

Was handled very well and it turn out looking beautiful.

Alan is an honest hard working individual that I can trust to do good work. His price is reasonable.

Great work; very professional

It looks great, and is exactly what I needed

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Everything went great. Allan is very responsive and he and his team do a great job from start to clean-up. This was the second time I've hired Allan for concrete construction.

Terrific! Allan poured a great patio slab for our backyard to extend our current patio. It looks seamless and is the perfect addition to our home. Allan and his team were professional, friendly and did a great job.

The project initially started off well. Mr. Surber set up an appointment to discuss the job. There was some extra dirt from a recent pond expansion that he encouraged me to have removed before the project started so I wouldn't incur any additional costs for removal. I was unable to find anybody to remove the dirt in a timely manner so I let Mr. Surber know to just go ahead and remove the dirt at my expense. On that meeting, I stated first off that I didn't want the patio above the bottom of my fence. We discussed water drainage issues and he suggested a slight slope away from the house in all 3 directions. He drew up some plans, suggested sidewalks that were two and a half feet wide and a little small pad between the fence and air conditioner. After I informed him that I couldn't find anybody to remove the dirt, he said he would figure out the price and call me back. He admitted on his first visit that he was technologically challenged but would get an estimate to me. He called me a couple days later and gave me the price for the extension of the patio, sidewalks, and dirt removal. In his offer on Angie's List, part of the price included removal of existing patio and demolition. The price he quoted me over the phone was rather high. When questioned about this he said it was going to take 2 guys 3 days to prep the site for concrete instillation. I agreed and said go ahead. The project started a couple days after that conversation. Mr. Surber had one gentleman removing dirt for approximately a total of 6-7 hours spread out over a couple days. He came really early one morning when the weather forecast was 100% rain most of the day. He built the forms and before I could see what he was doing and I had to go to work. During the day I received a voicemail from Mr. Surber stating that they thought they had missed the weather but a storm cell surprised them when they were pouring the concrete, but he would be back the next day to jackhammer the mistake out. If I remember correctly, he took a couple days to remove the concrete and have it hauled off. Even though he removed the concrete, there was still a large amount of rubble left. Sensing what his intentions were, and doing some research, I requested that he bring out a compactor and have the rubble compacted. During the research, I also realized that Mr. Surber did not apply an appropriate subbase before the first pour, so having the rubble compacted would be better than his first attempt because the compacted rubble would act as the subbase. Mr. Surber had one gentleman out with a hand tamp preparing the subbase, when I questioned him about that he said it was fine and that "he has never had a patio crack, never had never will" and in addition he also said that he would repair the fence, and house which were covered with concrete. He poured the concrete and I wasn't able to see was going on because of the forms in the way and my work schedule. He came out the next day and poured the sidewalks and removed the forms from the patio. I had already provided him with the paint colors and stain for the fence. After he poured the sidewalk, I noticed that the patio was several inches above the bottom of my fence, which was buried in concrete. I called and left a voicemail for him and he didn't return my call. A couple days later I left another call and he finally returned my call that evening. I discussed with him my dissatisfaction about the height of the concrete and brought to his attention that the original bid was for 30 inch sidewalks, and the ones he poured was barely 23 inches. I mentioned how the patio had no expansion joints, and in general how sloppy the patio was. the corners are not square in the slightest, there is concrete mess everywhere, the fact that the original bid was for 2 guys for 3 days to remove the excess dirt and prepare for the concrete installation, and he only had one guy for less than one complete day. Mr. Surber became very patronizing trying to explain to me that the patio and sidewalks had to be that high for drainage, which it doesn't. the patio has a very steep slope in one direction, which is towards my pond. The slope is so steep that you can barely place a chair on the patio. In addition the patio slants towards the house not away from it. He actually tried to explain to me that water doesn't drain uphill. After the third time he stated this, I had to correct him that I am not a stupid person, I have a very good knowledge base about physics, and that he knows he just did a sloppy job. It is blatantly obvious that the patio and sidewalks are so high above the ground is not for drainage, but because he didn't want to pay to have the proper amount of dirt removed. He stated that the sidewalks were so narrow because there were bushes in the way and that I requested them that small. During the initial consultation he asked if I wanted standard width sidewalks which were "two and a half feet" and I said yes. I have pictures to prove that there are no bushes in the way to prevent the instillation of the sidewalks we agreed on during the first consultation. When I asked about the expansion joints he said they didn't need them, and that he has been doing concrete for over 44 years and couldn't explain the poor quality of the work. For the half of the patio that has the brush marks, there are raised areas where the broom was picked up and wasn't smoothed out, and the other half wasn't brushed at all. Mr. Surber said he would be out the next day to pick up his stuff and paint the fence and house. Mr. Surber, kept true to his form never showed up. This is something that happened several times during this project. He would say he would be there and wouldn't show up, and was difficult to get a hold of on the phone. During the beginning he answered the phone every time, but after the project started, he wouldn't answer anymore. In conclusion, he said that I don't owe him any more money from what the original Big Deal was purchased for. I have a problem with this because it just proves that he knows the work was done poorly. I am now having to have a contractor come back out and give me estimates on fixing my fence, and having the concrete that he has poured jack hammered out, and have another company come back and install them the right way. From just talking on the phone with different people, I am facing thousands of dollars to just repair the damage that Mr. Surber has caused and to have the patio removed. I don't want anyone else to face what I am having to face just because he wants to take advantage of people by his Big Deal on angles list. I don't suspect that he expected me to stand up to him. I have pictures that show the poor quality of his work and the damage that he has caused.

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Everything went off without a hitch.  I recommend the work done by Mr. Surber and his crew.

From the beginning we made countless calls to get the job scheduled and in progress.  They never did show up and make the final cuts to prevent the walk and pad from cracking.  Even with the constant phone calls I would have given a decent review but the fact that the job was not finished up ruined any chance for that.  I would not recommend!!!!

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It was a pleasure to work with Alan Surber.  He was very good with his follow through which wasn't easy because we weren't actually living at the property he was hired to work at.  He made sure I was involved and approved of all aspects of the job.  I would highly recommend him - it's a pleasure to work with professionals who actually show up when they say they will and complete the job they are hired for!

He was excellent.

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Asked for a written contract and took an unreasonable amount of time to get it, and it was not a full disclosure when I did receive it.  He had a lot of verbal agreements.  We did not get what we wanted.  The patio set too deep, and he had to come back and shave off the edges.  He tore up our yard even though we made clear we didn't want to work in wet weather.  He left a huge pile of dirt 10 ft.x9ftx 2 ft, in the middle of my yard instead of at the corner where we requested it be placed.  This ended up killing part of my lawn and he had to come out and reseed.  We needed him to come back to reseal it, and when we called to get him back to fix it, he did not reply.  It did not dry like the sample we were shown.  He took a pic of it for referece while it was still wet, but it did not dry that way.

They were on time and completed as promised.

I purchased the Angie's List coupon on November 13, 2013 and made contact with Allen Surber.  He told me at various times that I was close to being next on his list but it seemed I never made it to the top!  He said it could be done even if the weather was cold because he had tarps to put over it. The coupon expired March 23, 2014 and he still had not come.  Every few months I would call him again.  He finally came to start the work on June 16, 2014 and came back every few days to do a little more, completing the job on July 3rd.    He was very friendly and knowledgeable.  I was having my small back patio replaced with new concrete and he and his workers did a wonderful job.  I feel that since I had such a small job to be done that he put his larger jobs as priority on his list.  All in all, I would hire him again, especially if I had a larger area to be done, because of his skills and knowledge.

I will recommend him.  He is easy to communicate with.  The work was good and the finished product was nice.

The tear out was very prompt but the pouring was delayed over a month due to cold weather. Once there was a long enough break to let the ground thaw he was able to pour the patio.

Came during the winter when the ground was frozen to evaluate.  We had a smaller, cracked existing pad with stairs to the house that were half demolished due to some foundation work.  Allan recommended breaking up and pouring over (rather than taking out) as more cost effective.  The finished product looks great.

He is an amazingly friendly, polite, easygoing, and clean cut.  He is a good guy and he cares for the customers.

Started out great.  Allan came out to look at the area and gave us a price to do the job.  We called him back and asked to make a couple of changes.  He changed the quote and we were all set.  The first problem was we were delayed for almost a week due to him needing to finish up other jobs.  Once they got started, all seemed to be going quite well until the concrete started to dry before he and his crew were done smoothing it out.  We have several areas that are not smooth and are still needing to be fixed.  Also, he used old wood that was warped to form up our steps, so the concrete bows out in the middle and looks horrible. He came back out and agreed there were a couple of spots that needed to be fixed.  He told me we had to wait 30 days for the concrete to cure before he could grind them down and perform the repairs.  I called him back after the 30 days to see when they would be back out to get things fixed.  He told me they would get on it soon because he wanted to have it wrapped up before he went on vacation for the 4th of July.  I have not seen or heard from him since then.  He will not return my phone calls and messages asking him when we are going to get things fixed.  He is basically MIA at this point.  Unfortunately I paid him in full before the concrete cured, so I don't have any way to get him back out to stand behind his work.
If he ever decides to return my phone calls and come finish the job I paid him to do, I will gladly update this review.

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