PALMER CONCRETE POLISHING & FLOOR PREPARATION

Background: This is a modern residence where the living room, kitchen, sun room, and breezeway is to have a white or standard gray concrete with a river rock aggregate ground and polished. As Wilmington, NC is a severe termite infestation zone, a very fine marine grade stainless steel mesh was bonded to the top of all block walls. Mr.Palmer called me within one day to ask me what the screen was for, he explained that he had ground through several areas. It was very frustrating that he did not demonstrate a respect for the work of others. I explained that it had taken two months to put the screen in place. The next closest cost to install a stainless mesh had been $5,000.00. Had that company installed the mesh, his error would have invalidated the $75,000 warranty! I counted the number of areas he damaged. He said he would continue with more care, but I counted many more areas that he ground through after his initial destruction. He attempted to make repairs with epoxy, but he did not understand the attention to detail needed and the work was still unacceptable. He also missed other areas he damaged. I still had to repair Mr. Palmer's damage. Mr. Palmer had to be re directed many times to areas that were not blended correctly or forgotten. For example, he had to return from Myrtle Beach again to blend the breezeway and to finish the edge of the Sun room. After he had left, I looked carefully over the concrete and I found a cigarette burn mark in the middle of the white concrete kitchen floors. Was this and accident or passive aggressiveness? Palmer Concrete gave a competitive polish quote of 3.25 per square foot. The concrete looks excellent now. But the destruction of other people's work and the need to redirect him to complete the details really decreased the overall value of his work to a C-. Two other people went ballistic when I relayed the detail that I found a cigarette burn mark in the middle of the kitchen floors. Mr. Palmer seemed to be nice guy, but finished work requires excellence and his lack of attention to detail was his undoing. His card only had two phone numbers, but no address. He works all over Eastern Carolina but lives in Myrtle Beach, SC.