Ralph Burdick Blacktopping Inc
About us
History of our Company Ralph Burdick Blacktopping, Inc. has been in business for over 50 years. Ralph Burdick, Sr., started his company as a backyard operation with a pick-up truck and a few friends and developed it into a blacktopping empire. Over the years we have become well known throughout Putnam and Westchester counties for the quality work we deliver. The majority of our crew has been working for us for many years, so we can also extend the advantage of a stable and well-experienced workforce. Additionally, we are still a family business that is devoted to satisfying your paving needs. Whether your driveway needs a minor repair or you need a brand new driveway, we are the company you can trust. In addition to residential work, we do quite a bit of work for large companies. Parking lots, sidewalks, tennis courts, even golf cart paths - Ralph Burdick Blacktopping can handle it all! Call or email us today for an estimate.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Driveways, parking lots, repairs & sealing., roadways, tennis courts
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
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"Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate your business and hope you enjoy your driveway for a long time."
"Thank you for taking the time to review our company. We look forward to working with you again in the near future!"
I have gotten a number of estimates over the years and have always felt they were over the top in terms of what they wanted to do and, of course, in terms of cost. For example, we have a relatively large parking (turn around) area in front of the house. This area is in fairly good condition; whereas the long and relatively steep driveway has been undermined by water and was getting to be very difficult to snow-blow. Other estimates that I have received included replacing the parking area and even a small return area at the bottom of the driveway where I park the boat--and there isn't a single crack in that area.
Fred Burdick told me right away that there was no need to replace these areas and gave me a reasonable estimate based on just replacing the driveway. He showed up within a couple of weeks from the date he initially estimated and finished the job in a couple of days. They cleaned up well and the driveway looks great.
This is was difficult job due to the level of damage to the driveway - we were not quite ready to rip out and in a new driveway so the team from Ralph Burdick worked with us to extensively patch, pave and seal the existing driveway.
The team used almost a trucks worth of hot asphalt and patches extensive areas of the drive and even fixed problems that were not part of the original scope of work.
It is clear that the team takes great pride in their work.
They come prepared with a large work crew and work efficiently until the project is done.
We are very pleased with the end result and hope to get another 4-5 years of life from the driveway before we need to undertake the larger project to remove and replace the entire drive.
"[member name removed], Thank you for the kind words. We appreciate your business and your review! We hope you enjoy the driveway for a long time to come."
"Hi Customer, Thank you for taking the time to review us. We appreciate the feedback and take your comments seriously. We are so glad you like the work we did. Happy New Year!"
"Customer, Thank you for your kind words. We are glad Fred (that is who you met) made a good impression. He is very knowledgeable. Please contact us with any future questions or requests. Happy New Year!"
"Customer, Thank you for adding this review. It was a pleasure to work with you. We hope we can be of service in the future. Happy New Year!"
"Thank you, member. We appreciate your feedback!"
I was a bit shocked how much a new driveway costs these days, so I ended getting 4 different estimates. They were not that different in price. If you google, you can find an on-line driveway calculator that will give you a pretty good idea what the contractor estimates will be for a simple job (such as http://www.buildingjournal.com/asphalt-driveway-estimating.html ). Each contracting company sent a pretty knowledgeable and convincing person to do the estimate. I checked the BBB website, as well as Angie's list, and just google searches, but didn't learn much. However I did learn a lot by asking questions of the contractors, and discussing options. They all do about the same cost calculations, but each one suggested different details. One guy said we didn't have to rip up all the old asphalt, for example, but the rest of the contractors including Ralph suggested completely removing the old asphalt in my case.
I didn't bother to call the "high-volume" contractor that does a lot of work around here, because of a problem I read online where there was alleged shouting and a threatened lawsuit just because of a scheduling problem where a customer switched to another more prompt contractor. I really hate arguing with contractors, and I had no such problems with Ralph.
I called a contractor further South in Westchester, and as expected they were more expensive, and had lots of suggestions that could have added thousands to the cost.
In the end, I chose Ralph Burdick, because even though he was the cheapest he also seemed the most experienced. He seemed very down to earth and common-sensical. Ralph does not have the fanciest website, far from it, nor the newest trucks (I peeked and I think one of his trucks had 240,000 miles on it), nor is he the smoothest talker, or particularly charming. He does have a lot of experience, and he has a stable team that works with him year after year. He did more than his share of the work himself. He smokes, but he won't be coming in your house, and a little smoke is pretty irrelevant compared to the smell of hot blacktop. His team didn't seem to want to talk much at first, but by the end of the job I did get to chat with them, and they seemed to be a reasonably happy crew.
My biggest complication was a very wet area where the driveway would almost turn to quicksand in the spring. A curtain-drain would have cost a couple thousand more, but Ralph agreed that just digging it out and putting in a load of gravel would work and was a lot cheaper. So far it seems to be working just fine.
If you want a fancy driveway designer and a artistically perfect "estate driveway", I'm not sure Ralph is your man. Personally, I told Ralph I was a lot more interested in function than esthetics, but in the end it looked better than I hoped. He had a guy who used to do stone-work on his crew, and he used some available stones to build a bit around the ends of the new drainpipe, when I wasn't around, which wasn't something we every discussed, and it looks pretty good. Today after a bunch of rain I was rearranging the rip-rap (large 3" gravel) stones alongside the driveway, and I realized that he recycled a bit of the old blacktop to fill in the deep eroded ditch. That is actually fine with me, but I imagine there are people who might be annoyed, even though it really isn't part of the driveway.
The end of driveway where it connects to the road was nicely flared and clean looking.
It took most of one day to rip out the old driveway and rebuild the base. He left the new item 4 base for a day or two before the new blacktop, probably for scheduling reasons, but in fact it may be good to let it "settle" if you have the time. You can drive on the item 4 just fine. The base was still a little bit spongy in a couple places due to lots of recent rain, but he said it would be fine, and he was right. I'm a little worried about frost-heave through the winter, since it looks so perfect now, but we'll see.
Ralph (and others) suggested not parking a car on the new blacktop for a week or so, and not letting a heavy oil-truck on it for a month after the new blacktop was down, to make sure it was fully cured. So remember to get an oil delivery before you get a new driveway. One of my neighbors also ended up using Ralph for his smaller driveway a few weeks after me, and I think that worked out fine also.
After he knew he was going to get my business, and we were negotiating "add-ons" like the new drain pipe, he did not gouge me at all. In fact I think he added loads of gravel at basically cost, not charging me for the extra digging etc., and charged very little for the drain-pipe beyond the cost of the pipe.
When he was done and I gave him the final check, he said to call him if there were any problems.
So, I can recommend giving Ralph a call, if you want a good solid job done by the same guy who gives you the estimate and owns the business, if you live anywhere near Brewster NY.
"Thank you for you valuable feedback. We appreciate your business."
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