Designers Choice Concrete

This contractor is very amicable and responsive to his customers.......until the payment check clears. After that he becomes a stranger. I hired him to pour a concrete driveway for me along with a chemical treatment that was to seal the surface of the concrete so as to protect against freezing & thawing. The job looked great until the onset of cold weather. At that point the concrete began to crumble and fall apart. The contractor looked at the surface and blamed it on a "beet juice solution" used by the county to treat icy roads. I accepted his conclusion and contacted the county engineer to see if this had happened elsewhere. The county engineer said that no such solution was used by our county and that he was unaware of this solution being used anywhere in this part of the state. He also said that the usual amount of salt used by the county had been reduced due to budget constraints. He went on to say that contractors will often blame winter road salt treatments for their bad work. He pointed out that if road salt was responsible for damaging concrete then every driveway would look bad instead of just a few. Then the contractor tried to blame the ready-mix company, saying that the concrete had not been prepared correctly. The manager of the ready-mix plant looked at my driveway and suggested that the perhaps the contractor had added too much water to the concrete. He also gave me copies of the "batch reports" proving that my order of concrete was properly prepared and arrived on site in good condition. Finally the contractor "promised" to fix the mess he created at the first opportunity. For a year he put off fixing this project. He would give me a date when he would repair the driveway only to cancel at the last minute. This happened about every three weeks from late March until October. At that time he said that the weather had changed and that he couldn't work until the spring, even though i saw his equipment & crew working on other projects. I called early the following March, hoping to get on his calender before his busy season. Again, he promised to come on a particular date only cancel. This went on from March to June. Finally at my extreme insistence that he keep his word, he made a feeble attempt of a repair that also fell apart with cold weather. Since then this contractor does not respond to phones calls and letters. In the meantime I had the driveway examined by a respected independent industrial lab. The technician from this lab submitted to me a detailed report stating their opinion that concrete was not properly applied by the contractor. I offered to give a copy of this report to the contractor but he refused to accept it. He seemed miffed that I would dare to suggest that his work was defective. To be fair, this contractor may be capable of doing good work, at least some of the time. However if your project happens to fall on one of his bad days you will be in for a big disappointment & headache. He will give you nothing but lies, put you off and eventually ignore you. He went so far as to tell my wife that he was not working to take care of his sick child. He promised to look at the project in "a week or so." Needless to say he never came by. In the meantime I saw him picking up construction material at the local big box store. I believe that he will tell any lie that seems to suit his purpose of evading responsibility for his poor work. What he will not do is fix the problem he creates. For more information go to the Better Business Bureau web-site and search "Designer's Choice Concrete." It is case # 70081291 Bottom Line: Unless you are interested in your concrete project lasting only to the end of summer, AVOID this contractor. No need to take only my word, if you want to see this contractor's work for yourself call me at 937 707-0317. Included in this report are a few pictures of this contractors work. I could post dozens more examples and not show the same area twice. After 4 years of dealing with this problem and retaining an attorney, this contractor has made good on a settlement bartered by my attorney.