SolCrete, LLC
About us
Decorative concrete contractor specializing in concrete countertops, acid staining, and concrete resurfacing and repair. We offer a 1 to 5 year warranty on our work depending on the type of services being provided.
Business highlights
Services we offer
ACID STAINING, CUSTOM WORK, DECORATIVE CONCRETE FLOORING & CONCRETE COUNTERTOPS, DECORATIVE OVERLAYS, DRIVEWAY EXTENSIONS, PATIO EXTENSIONS, PATTERNED CONCRETE, RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES., STAMPED CONCRETE, WATER STAINING
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
| Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 78% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 11% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 11% |
"Thank you!"
"As we explained in our response to the the review dated 9/18/2016, the same client has decided that posting multiple negative reviews regarding the same issue that was already discussed is her way of, in her own words "I will do what I have to do to blast this all over social media." Please take a moment to read our response to her review and you can then judge whether our response is fair or not. What we are unclear about is how she now claims that the same job could have multiple starting dates (probably to be able to post more negative reviews) and why Angie's list allows for one client to post multiple reviews about the same job (can we get multiple positive reviews of the same job to then increase our overall score? The negative ones definitely drop it). What is even more unclear is that this post just showed up today, 6/3/2017, almost 9 months after the first review and was backdated to before the first post that was made on 9/18/2016. Alternative facts?"
"This gentleman called us asking for a quote, we responded in a timely manner and when we returned his call found out it was his office. He was not available at the time and one of his coworkers kindly suggested we try to contact him via email as he was busy and that way he would be sure to get the message. We did and after a couple of days we followed up with another email to which he emailed back stating we were very unprofessional for contacting him via email and that was not the way he did business. We were very surprised by the aggressive tone of his response and decided to apologize while explaining that we had been given his email by a coworker. Since we, in his opinion, were not professionals we thought that was the end of it. He then contacted us again, stated we should have let him know from the start how we had gotten his email and that he wanted a quote asap. FYI, he is an insurance salesman, he most likely gets 50 emails a day from total [Member Information Removed] so we were [Member Information Removed] a little taken aback about the whole thing since he had initially asked us to contact him. At this point we had a "gut check". [Member Information Removed] like Angie's list clients like to review contractors to see if they will fit their needs, there is a flip side to the coin, any experienced contractor will also try to figure out if a client is a good fit. Since he had been so aggressive in his response we decided that we probably wouldn't be the best fit so we respectfully declined to provide a quote. It's interesting to note that we seem to have been correct in our assumption. Not only did he put in a negative review here on Angie's list, he also did in the Better Business Bureau. All this because we simply decided to not do a quote for him. Seems a little vindictive but I guess for some people it's what makes their day."
The short version of the story is: My floors looked awful the first time they were done... just awful. I discussed my disgust with Amir, and his team came and redid them. Amir had to get involved and come on site. After that, things went smoothly, and my floors look good now.
The long version, now:
When I first met Amir, I was very impressed. He is great to talk to and is very knowledgeable and professional. The trouble began, however, when Amir went out of town and left his PM in charge.
The PM didn't understand what I wanted (English was not her primary language, which is fine, except it did end up becoming an issue). I had concerns from the beginning. She couldn't get the samples right. We had a picture from Solcrete's website that we wanted our floors to look like. I couldn't believe how incredibly difficult it was to get the color the same as the one in the picture. (They ended up telling us that you can never recreate a color, as stains change, weather impacts it, acid reacts differently, etc.) But, that wasn't the only problem. The team did a sloppy job with the floors the first time around when Amir was out of town. It looked like someone mopped the color on. (Pics included.) There were deliberate streak marks, which Amir told me were trowel markings. They were awful. Stained concrete is supposed to look like a randomized pattern, not a deliberate mopped/trowel pattern. Uggh.
I knew I couldn't live with them the way they were. I was spending a lot of money, to just hate my floors later.
They ended up redoing them completely.
Now, you would think the second time around that the owner of the company would show up on site and inspect the work of his team. However, that did not happen until we got absolutely furious! The second time we saw the color samples, we just lost it, since they were STILL not what we wanted. How many times do you have to tell someone what you want and they still don't get it? The samples were made by the same PM that made the first ones, and this is the same PM who never really understood what we wanted. As it turns out, Amir had not seen them, and just trusted that his team did them right. Amir did come out after we called him to discuss the colors were still not what we wanted and HE was the one that put the stain samples together that we actually liked. Our job required his expertise. Once he came on site, and created the samples for us himself, everything went smoothly. The floors look good now. There are some spots that are odd, but I think that is just how stained concrete looks. For example, some of the stain looks like dots instead of fluid color. But, when you look at the floor as a whole, you can't see it... it's only when you get down really close to the floor you notice it.
I was out of my house for 3 weeks vs. the original 1 week as planned. It was a good thing I rented the POD instead of the Uhaul. I also had to spend extra gas for 3 weeks vs. 1 since I was commuting an extra 40 miles a day. It was also a good thing we decided to live with family instead of a hotel room, or else that'd be even more money we had to pay. I also had to pay more in rent for the piano that I moved out. Be prepared to incur extra expenses, should you need to be out of your house for longer than planned.
In summary, I just wish Amir would have gotten involved sooner than he did. We needed his expertise, and so did his team.
In the end, Solcrete can do a good job, but you need to insist that the owner is on site when the color samples are created.
"Nothing here is exaggerated. {removed member name} is absolutely right, we dropped the ball and big time. It was a case of complete miscommunication between myself, my project manager, and {removed member name}, our client. The confusion was further aggravated by a trip I had planned a few months back which fell precisely during {removed member name}’s project. Why did this make any difference? Well it shouldn’t have. My crew and I go back a long ways, over 10 years, and at this point can almost communicate telepathically. I’m especially proud that I don’t have to babysit them, I trust them and if after all this time I still have to tell them what to do then I’m the one not doing a very good job. That’s why I was just as surprised as {removed member name} about the mistakes made, from the color samples to the workmanship, it’s just not something we normally have problems with. After we wrapped up the job, we got together for a “Lessons Learned” session and realized that we had just made assumptions; we had assumed we were all on the same page regarding color. Sometimes, when you work together for a long time, trust can change into complacency and when that happens things can get out of hand. Just because you’re doing a good job 99% of the time does not mean you can go on automatic, to assume the next job will go smoothly, and believe me, having to redo this job, a complete monetary loss for us, and a tremendous inconvenience for {removed member name}, really helps to drive the point home. I am grateful that after all that happened {removed member name} gave us a fair and balanced review and take heart that she said, in spite of all the issues, she would still be willing to hire us again for other work, that really means a lot to us."
On my previous home, I applied http://www.ucoatit.com beige epoxy with brown/black/rust flakes. My ex-wife is still in that home and it looks much nicer. Shows dirt a whole lot less and was about 1/2 the cost including labor.
Regardless of this company, I will never stain another garage floor or patio again. They must be hosed/squeegeed weekly to keep them from looking ghastly.
"I would like to be able to wag a finger and just say no, we didn't do anything wrong here, but I have to admit I dropped the ball in one respect, I didn't thoroughly explain to the member what to expect of his new garage floor immediately after we had finished it. When brand new, a sealed exterior acid stained floor is very glossy and he's completely right, it tends to show dirt quite a bit. However, after about a month or so it starts to matte out and then it you'll never notice if dirt falls on it or not. Now, as to the color not being what he wanted and overspray, I respectfully disagree with his recollection for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, he paid us by check for the job about two weeks after we finished and never once mentioned any of these issues, so I am surprised to hear about them. Secondly, it is our steadfast policy to have our clients look over the job after we stain but before we seal to precisely avoid any surprises. It's much easier for us to make color changes to a floor before sealing than after. Also we always, always, always, place a pretaped plastic dropcloth around the areas that we are going to stain. I like to tell my customers that "we do acid staining, not painting" and I'm a strong believer of "an ounce of prevention versus a pound of cure". That doesn't mean we are perfect, mistakes can happen, but I find it odd that the member paid us while never mentioning either of these two issues beforehand. As to the epoxy comparison, I certainly won't be cheaper than the cost of a do it yourself flooring installation. Now, Based on this experience, I made some changes about the way we inform our customers. These include posting videos on the website showing how we go about doing our work and also a new, six page floor care guide that goes into detail about what to expect when you receive your new floor, how to maintain them and things to avoid. I won't claim we're perfect but we strive to learn from our mistakes and do what it takes to make things right. Thank you for your time."
The initial contact and scheduling was a bit slow but once we got going and all the right contacts were made things went smoothly and it was all I could ask for.
Amir's team were grand. They were professionals throughout the process, all of them. Easy to work with and concerned with ensuring they delivered exactly the floor I wanted, they succeeded beyond my expectations!
While one of the reasons I decided to go with a concrete floor was ease of care (dogs and cats) and the element of putting a green product into my home, now that I see the finished product I am so pleased with the beauty of the floor. I can't wait to put my furniture back into the house and enjoy what Amir and his team have created for me.
We contacted three companies for estimates. One company was unresponsive, while the other two responded immediately.
Solcrete's website stood out among all of the other companies that were considered. Their website included pictures and descriptions of past jobs, a plethora of information regarding decorative concrete, and a downloadable Excel spreadsheet that serves as a great ROM estimating tool.
When the owner was contacted concerning a hard estimate he was very responsive. We received the hard estimate within two days of his visit.
We also presented them with a custom Celtic knot design that we wanted to have incorporated into the floor. Solcrete had no problems providing pricing for this.
Cost:
Solcrete did not provide the cheapest estimate we received, they were within ~5% of the least expensive estimate. In addition, Solcrete seemed to be more knowledgable about the potential problems and challenges our project would involve. This gave us confidence that the estimate that was provided would represent the cost of the project at the end of the day and no change orders would be applied.
Responsiveness:
My wife and I often travel for business during the week, so finding a time for the work to be performed was quite difficult. On a Friday my wife and I discovered we would both be working from home the following week. I called Solcrete to inquire as to whether the work could be performed the following week. Despite the very short notice, Solcrete juggled the schedule around and was able to perform the work. We were very pleased with their ability to do so.
Punctuality:
The work crew showed up late a couple of days, but I will not ding them for that as they had massaged their work schedule to fit is in that week (see Responsiveness section). When the crew arrived later than planned, they also stayed late to ensure that the tasks they had planned to complete that day were finished.
Quality:
I believe our project was a bit more challenging project that most for two reasons. First, we had two stairs that we asked Solcrete to apply an overlay to. Second, we had asked them to incorporate a custom Celtic knot design into the the border.
When planning the work for the stairs, the crew noticed that the stairs deflected slightly when walked upon. Solcrete offered to install another sheet of plywood and a few other items to reinforce the stairs. They did this without giving me a change order, which was refreshing.
When laying out the custom design, the owner and the project manager created a template, laid it out, and spent ~2 hours with my wife and I to ensure that it was laid out just like we wanted it.
At the end of the project, the stairs, the design, and the floor overall looked great (our neighbors and friends are jealous ;-))
Professionalism:
The owner, the project manager, and the crew were very polite and accommodating. If they were running late, they called beforehand. At the beginning of every day, they explained what the plan for the day was.
Overall:
Overall we were very satisfied with Solcrete's work every step of the way. We would definitely recommend them to anybody looking for decorative / stamped concrete work to be done.
"I was a little surprised to receive to receive a complaint regarding this appointment, first because it was originally scheduled over two months ago and the complaint was just placed today, secondly because I did call this customer a couple of times to reschedule the appointment (and this was before the scheduled appointment) and was not able to contact him, and thirdly, because I was never directly contacted by the customer afterwards regarding this appointment. Around two months ago we had set up an appointment but I had a scheduling conflict come up. I tried to call him up to reschedule but when I dialed the number, I was answered by what sounded to me as a child who said "Scott is not here now, too bad" and just hung up, I tried again and they hung up again just as they answered the phone. My phone then rang again about a minute later from the same number and they just hung up again. I tried again, hoping to leave a message but they hung up again. This was a little unusual, and at this point I thought that maybe I had copied down the wrong number. Unfortunately, I didn't have any other contact information for him and this was my fault, in the future I will make sure I get an email address in case I make a mistake with the number. I hoped he would call me back but never got a call. Now, he did state he called but he never talked to me directly. He did say he got my voicemail but he never left a message as I would have called him right back to reschedule. As everyone knows, customer service is paramount for any business, I don't have any reason to ignore a potential customer and I promptly return calls as soon as I get a chance. I was sorry to hear about this and will try to be more careful in the future about copying phone numbers correctly and getting alternate contact information."
Licensing
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