Overall, my experience with Bearfoot Concrete was very disappointing. To try to be as fair as possible, I will breakdown this review by price, workmanship, attention to detail, and customer engagement/service. Price: The price agreed to was very reasonable. However, perhaps in the end, you get what you pay for. Workmanship: Bearfoot replaced my paver patio with stamped concrete; replaced a pad in the driveway, and as an add on to the contract, installed a 5 x 9 stoop at the exit to our garage. Patio: The stamped texture turned out fine. However, the color did not. During our estimate, we asked Bearfoot to match the patio to the fence. The secondary color was a darker brown. According to the manufacturer color palette, the correct base color should have been Aspen. Instead, Bearfoot chose Cappuccino. So, instead of a taupe/light brown, the base color had a very yellowish tint...completely unacceptable blend for the house and screen room. To be fair, Bearfoot asked if the color was correct AFTER they had mixed and poured the concrete. This is important...whatever correction came after that would result in a stained concrete, not a colored concrete, however, it would have saved an added step of sealing, resealing. When I first contacted Bearfoot about the wrong color, after a bit of back and forth, Bearfoot mentioned the clause in the contract which stated that Bearfoot wasn’t responsible for customer satisfaction with the color. I held firm stating, I could agree IF the customer asked for color X, you put down color X. Then it was on the customer for choosing the wrong color. However, when the customer asks for color X and you put down color Y, that is different. In the end, he agreed to redo the color staining the concrete. End result, instead of the two color tones, I now have a single stained color that requires annual sealing to maintain. And, the final color is much darker than our original requested color. I should add that during the agreement, we discussed Bearfoot would provide labor but the customer would have to buy materials to correct the Bearfoot mistake. More on that later. Driveway Pad: Overall acceptable. Only issue is attention to detail. 5 x 9 stoop: Outside my garage man door was a low spot that collected water. When it rained, the water pooled towards the house. One of the Bearfoot workers explained that overtime, this could affect the foundation and recommended a slab that would cause the water to run off away from the house plus eliminate the high step over from the garage to the outside. Well, the first rain came right after the slab was put in only to find the slab angled towards the house! And to top it off, there was a low spot just as you stepped outside, so there was a puddle as well. When I approached Bearfoot, they asked how I wanted it fixed. I mentioned they were the experts, tell me. End solution, they cut grooves in the concrete angled from the corner and along the doorway exit so water would slowly drain away from the foundation. Looks terrible but it’s in back of the garage where no one will see. Attention to detail: Could use significant improvement. But first, on a positive note. There equipment tore up the lawn. While it was quite a mess, especially since it rained there first couple of days on the job, they tried to fix. They brought in topsoil to repaid the ruts from the equipment and offered to put down grass seed. Given the weather and the nature of the work, not sure they could’ve done better. That being said, the concrete dust was everywhere—all over the brick facing of the house, on trees and shrubs, the paint on the screen room, all over the backyard. At a minimum, Bearfoot should have covered the other areas. They did try to clean up the area after their initial work was done and did a fairly good job. However, in getting the concrete off of the painted surface of the screen room, I must now repaint. They also hosed out their buckets then poured them out in our backyard. Of course, when it dried, we had concrete residue all over the back yard. None of the concrete edges adjacent to the house or screen room were smooth. It seemed the bigger the glob, the better the job when it came to the edges. When they returned to add the stain to the concrete, Bearfoot agreed to grind them down, and did a pretty good job on that. Problem—more concrete dust on the house and screen room that did not get cleaned up. Hopefully someday I’ll get it out. During application of the stain, they reapplied sealant. You can see the streaks in the patio where they applied the stain at different times over the course of several hours. More on that later. Most of this rework could have been avoided IF the right color was applied the first time. And, had they used a level when installing the slab, there would have been no need for the work-around cuts in the concrete. Lastly, not to be too nit-picky but while I’m writing, when Bearfoot was removing the damaged concrete pad from the driveway, they nicked the adjacent pad with the jackhammer. Stuff happens but it would have been nice had they simply patched it. Instead, we had to point it out during inspection. And, I understand they need water to clean up, however, on day 2 or three of the job, two workers grabbed the hose, removed the nozzle, then turn on the water. They pulled the hose to the street, still on, then sat in their car for nearly 2 hours. Explanation: they were cleaning up. PS: I found the nozzle laying in the mud the next day, hose still out. My wife finally turned off the water because the left for the day with it still on. Customer engagement/service. I read several reviews on Bearfoot and saw many complaints on rude, arrogant, unresponsive interactions with the lead installer. I did not experience that. In fact, I think the Bearfoot people really tried to make out right...problem was, there was so much wrong, they couldn’t get there. I attribute this to the attention to detail that was missing. Much of that could have been avoided by checking with the customer often during the project. For example, had they shown us cappuccino prior to mixing and pouring, perhaps the color problem could have been avoided all together. A pet peeve, and seemingly hopeless expectation of contractors is to be reliable. Too often I had to track down Bearfoot to find out what was going on and to know what time they would be there. The final straw was our last day of work. They initially called to say they’d be there at 1030. Then a call to delay to 113–1200. I called at approx 1230...new time 1300. They finally showed up at 1430-1445. Worked for an hour or so then said it was too hot to work, the sun would bubble up the sealant. That was very true, however, if they had shown up on time, would that still have been an issue? Instead, they came back at 1800 and finally departed about 2100. Bearfoot rationale: The delay in getting hear was unavoidable. We had to go to Cincinnati to pick up materials for the job. When I asked, why did you wait until this AM? You’ve known for approximately 2 weeks we were scheduled for today, there was no response. For me, I took an entire off work to be there with the concrete. As it turns out, there was no need. Back to the bill for materials to fix the color, I’m calling it even...one days pay = materials. Summary: If you are an exacting customer that wants quality workmanship, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a reasonable price for more basic concrete jobs Like driveway or sidewalk slabs and can accept minor defects, use them.
