NORTH DALLAS CONCRETE, LLC

Jens was our contact for North Dallas Concrete. He makes a good first impression, but turns rude when problems occur... 3 big negatives. 1) North Dallas Concrete poured a back patio for us. The concrete was mixed incorrectly, so when it dried there were thumb-sized holes all over one of the three sections. Jens, who had been very friendly was now very difficult to reach. It took 3 weeks of calling and texting for him to come back and look at the patio. Jens was mad and very grumpy, even though it was obvious that the job had been done badly. He protested, but agreed to do it over. 2) As soon as the new replacement concrete dried, it cracked. This was a new job. It dried and cracked in ONE MONTH. This is unacceptable. The concrete was obviously not mixed well the second time. Again it took 2-3 weeks of multiple phone calls and texts before Jens came out to look. However, beware! Jens informed us that it is in the contract that they do not redo or repair cracks. If your concrete cracks, you are out of luck. 3) Finally, Jens and North Dallas Concrete refused to pay for damage done by their crew. The workers damaged a 20-foot stretch of our patio wall siding when they repoured the bad concrete. Jens refused to repair it, or to pay for repairing it. I have no idea how he reconciles that in his mind. It is obvious to anyone that his crew did damage, and the company is responsible. But Jens refused. We could do nothing about it because we had already paid-in-full. If I were you, I would never do business with this company.

I made the request via Angie's list messaging feature on 3/10. By 3/17, I had received no response from North Dallas Concrete. At a minimum, a message saying that the job was too small or they were too busy at the time would have been a reasonable response.

The pool decking was stained and stamped to match our existing pool stonework.  They also poured us a new sidewalk, front entry landing, and did an overlay on our back porch so everything matched.  It made our 1976 look like newly built home.  The crews showed up on time, were very polite, hardworking, and cleaned up after themselves.  Jens (the owner) and the crew he built at North Dallas Concrete are an excellent choice for any of your concrete needs.  I would highly recommend them.

Terrible!! As you can see from the pictures attached, this is what I am left 3 years after Hans work. The concrete started cracking from day one and has continued to desinegrate daily! I am left with a Mess of a front porch! He also drilled into my foundation of my house and tied the front porch concrete to the house foundation which has caused me terrible foundation problems because of the weight of the front porch!!!

The provider arrived on time and took measurements; we had a quote within the first 8 hours and when we changed our mind about the size of the job and the products to use, he reevaluated it and provided a quote again within the 8 hour period.  Once we committed to the project, he picked up our deposit, scheduled the job and arrived and finished in a timely manner.  We were very pleased with the end result. 

North Dallas Concrete was very professional and offered good ideas of ways to make the pool deck flow right.  I wanted hand seeded aggregate (pea gravel), wife wanted stamped.  NDC was pretty much the only company that seemed to know what we were talking about when we talked about the hand-seeded exposed aggregate.  In any case, the wife overruled me and we are having stamped.  NDC was a bit more expensive than we had budgeted, and while we would have loved to use them we ultimately selected another provider for cost reasons only.

Really had high hopes for these guys and be giving a glowing review, but the truth is we were underwhelmed with the final outcome of the job.  And, since we used Angie's List as the referral source, we will give back to the community a fair and detailed review.  Ultimately, I think the large patio poor was too large for them (especially in the high August heat). 
Pros:

• Highly competitive pricing
• Professional and courteous
• Responsive to our needs (design)

Cons:

• Cracks in patio and driveway extension (some folks say cracks are inevitable in North Texas, but I wasn't expecting this within 3 months)
• Concrete discoloration - this was a tinted patio, but there are obvious problems with the coloring being inconsistent (pretty sure it was the mixing process that was wrong)

Bottom Line:
This is not the first large patio job we've executed, and this one just did not meet our high expectations for this type of project.  Two things stick with me that needed improvement; 1) rebar was plentiful, but not raised off the surface with spacers  - they used a method to pull up the rebar during the pouring process which I why I believe the cracks happened so quickly, and 2) the tinting of the cement was too inconsistent for my satisfaction.
However, I think these guys might just be solid option for smaller and less technical jobs. They were very professional, timely, and willing to make some adjustments to the job and pricing based on the outcome.  They also left the job site clean and attempted to remediate the discoloration problem, unfortunately to no avail.

The driveway is falling apart and the owner refuses to respond. I have contacted my attorney and litigation is in process.

They were knowledgable and polite, got estimate back to us promptly.



We chose another company because they did not offer any kind of warranty for cracks or other problems that could occur.  The company we chose offered a 2 year warranty and we felt more secure with that.

I used the list to find this contractor and met with him at the location. He was punctual and gave me plenty of options. We scheduled the appointment and he finished the job at budget and on time as he quoted. Did a great job and would use him again!

They did a really good job. The experience was wonderful, they are a very good company. We had done a lot of research and they had a very good price. We went with them and we are very happy. There was a little flaw. We called them and they came right back out and repaired it.

Very Well.

We had a small leak in our pool where we had to go through the concrete patio. North Dallas Concrete came in to repair the patio after the work was completed. We are very pleased with the work they did for us. They were very professional and prompt. The work was superb as you can't tell that anything had ever been disturbed or that they had even been there. We will definitely use them for any of our concrete needs.

All work was done as quoted, on time, and without incident.  They even went beyond what we requested, by bringing in dirt to fill in spacing between the walkway and the yard.

It turned out pretty good. There are some cracks in the driveway but it may be because of the shifting of the ground.

They did a good job. It worked out great.

see above

It has been very frustrating trying to get Jens to come back to correct relatively minor problems.  I've lost count of the times we've asked him to come fix the patio where the sealer bubbled up and started peeling off.  This occurred very shortly after the installation -- within a month.  He came out once, but again made the mistake of doing it when it was 105 degrees or so and this patio gets the afternoon sun.  This "repair" again almost immediately bubbled and started peeling.  Whenever he finally responds to voice mails or emails, he promises to come fix it.  Then he never shows or contacts us to schedule a time.  We call back.  Again, he takes FOREVER to finally respond to voice mails and emails.  He promises to come and agrees he will fix it.  Then again, he doesn't show up or follow up.  TERRIBLE service!

At this point, it appears we will have to either file a small court claim against him or pay another contractor to fix his work.

They messed up one thing but they came back and repaired it. They did a good job.

Decided on North Dallas Concrete (NDC) after receiving three bids for the removal and replacement of the patio in the back of my home.  My intial impression of Jens Mueller was a contractor that looked at all facets of the project.  NDC was the only contractor that evaluated the site plan for drainage, sprinklers and reinforcement for the patio arbor that was going to be installed.  They were not the cheapast bid, however NDC was the only conctractor that took the correct approach as it relates to proper construction practices.

The NDC crew arrived when they said they would and performed the removal flawlessly with concrete saws and jackhammers.  I have three small children and they were engrossed by all the equipement in the back yard and the crew was very accomodating in trying to explain everything to the kids on what was going on.  Very personable crew with Marc, Spencer and Miguel!!

There had been no rain for six months, except when we were getting ready for the slab pour.  This was somewhat critical to get ti done because we had a birthday party for the kids and they were able to get it completed prior to the party which was an important issue to my wife.  The rain finally stopped and the pour went perfect.  The crew cleaned up the site, washed all the windows down and tried as best as they could to get the dirt back to the original condition which was pretty impossible considering all the rain we had and the standing water. 

Slab was poured with an integrated dye and scored with concrete saw to give the patio a "tiled" look.  Very modern look and I have received numerous compliments already from all of the neighbors and friends who have stopped by to look at the project. 

NDC is an excellent contractor.  Jens has a good eye for design and is able to make changes on the fly very easily without killing the pocket book.  I would recommend this contractor to anyone and will be using them again later this year for a sidewalk project.

it went very well. Strongly recommend

I would NEVER have them do work again Nor would I EVER recommend them!!!  When I called North Dallas Concrete, Jens the owner seemed a little arrogant on the phone. I started not to have him come out, but because of the reports that I had read about the company on Angie's list,  I decided to go ahead and at least get a bid. When he came out he seemed professional & straight to the point and seemed knowledgeable. We decided to go with him based soley on Angie List reports. When we decided what we wanted, & signed the contract. I told the owner Jens, that when he poured the concrete that I wanted it to be smooth like the old concrete. (He instead did what he thought was best & broom finished the driveway )  He came out the next week and started tearing out the portion of the old driveway that we were replacing. Everything seemed to be going fine. I stayed in the house because I had a very sick grandson. It took a few days longer than what he estimated but they finished the driveway and stamping the porch the friday before Labor Day weekend. He came to the door and said that he would come back the following Monday to start staining. When I went outside the next day I was very upset with what I saw. The concrete driveway next to the area they replaced had been jack hammered & a large portion had split off from the rest of the driveway & was leaning . The hairline crack was now a gaping crack & there is a hole in another area where they jack hammered to close to the edge! (When asked about it he remarked, "That I was eventually going to replace it anyway? )
    The NEW STamped porch had cracks, & chunks of concrete out of almost every stamped rectangle (which is approx every 6" to 8" of space) & there are also many places where they had smeared the forms through the design. The BRICKFORM product that they put over the existing porch so they could stamp it already had cracks ALL in it as well!!!  I immediately called Jens & told him that there were some issues that we needed to discuss and that we needed to hold off on coloring the concrete just yet.  When he came back on the following Tuesday he had an invoice in his hand. (I had already gave him $4,000.00 at the start of the project)  He was more interested in collecting his money than the fact that I was very unhappy with his work. We started talking and I told him I was not happy with the outcome. He looked around at all the bad spots that I had circled with chalk and agreed that it was not a good job and that it needed to be fixed. He said that they were going to fix all the cracks and messed up places in the design & replace the broken slab. At this point Jens demanded that I pay him the balance of what I owed him. I told him when he fixed everything that I would then pay him. He said that's not satisfactory. I am going to get the money! I said "No, Your not, Not until the job is finished and I am happy with it"  We then proceeded to go round & round. He said that he would replace the section of concrete that they broke & fix all the cracks & other issues. When he left that day, I had given him another $4,000.00 check because he assured me that he was going to come and fix the driveway and porch.
(Also during the conversation that day I asked why the BRICKFORM was already cracking & I could not get a satisfactory answer from Jens, so I called the manufacturer. I spoke with a rep from BRICKFORM and found out that the reason it cracked was because they used to much water. The rep said they also were supposed to score the old concrete or sand blast it so the BRICKFORM material would stick. Neither of which North Dallas Concrete employees nor the owner did. The BRICKFORM rep also said that no one was to walk on it till it had dried 24 hours, then you were supposed to seal it and that this was an important step in the process! Then why did North Dallas Concrete leave on a Friday with no intentions on coming back till Tuesday?  Jens never once said anything about not walking on it. He even watched as my husband put his chair back up on the porch and sat down in it! )
    Well I did not hear back from North Dallas Concrete and was wondering if he was going to come out and fix all the problems so I e-mailed him and told him what all I expected from him to finish the project. He e-mailed me back several days later.  In the e-mail he threatened to put a lien on my house unless I paid him most of his money BEFORE he finished the job. I told him I would see him in court.  Once again he was just trying to bully me as he had when he refused to leave till I paid him most of his money even before the job was complete!
During this time we were out of town for six weeks on business. Jens knew we were scheduled to have Hardy Board put on the house when we returned on the 8th of October and that the foundation work needed to be completed before then. When we returned nothing had been done. I emailed Jens and told him he needed to come out the next day and sand the foundation and fill the holes, which he did NOT do.
       We emailed back & forth several times. Jens contradicted himself several times about the slab that at been broke and that he agreed to fix & when or what he was going to do. Jens final email firmly stated that he would not do any more work unless I was there. My husband & I are self employed and we travel a lot so I emailed Jens back on October 18th 2011 & and told him he just needed to fix the things he said he would fix and be done with it. To do the right thing! I also told him that I left him a $2,000.00 check in the seat of my husbands truck to help alleviate his fears that he was not going to be paid. Jens came out that day and picked up the check. While he was here he smeared some kind of concrete along the rough edges of the foundation. He did not smooth it as he stated in the contract he would do. Jens then took my $2,000.00 check which now meant I paid him $10,000.00 &  left without doing anything else or fixing any of the damage or sloppy work he & his guys did!!
I am now left with an unsightly porch that looks like an ametuer did it.  A drainage pipe that sticks out.  Two areas on each side of my driveway that are Non-uniform, and that have Rough, sharp concrete edges around the drain area (that are so sharp my grandson cut his foot on it..  And after our first drain I found out the drain just holds water because he did not grade it like he said he would. Also found out after the rain that an area of the driveway that I had Jens pour holds water!!!

I also want to note that Jens broke off two of my drainage/clean out pipes that stuck out of the foundation and just left them that way. Left a 8" hole in the middle of my new porch that now holds water and smells like sewage (He said it was where the water shut off valve was. Which I feel he should of discussed his decision to leave a hole there with me before he did it. You can shut the water off at another cut off valve 30' away!!!)

see above

I was very happy with the work.  I got a number of bids and they had the lowest one.

Jens Mueller was very pleasant and efficient to deal with.  He impressed us with his knowledge, engineering savvy, and simplicity in presenting his recommendations of materials, colors, etc.  In addition, he did not play games on price, and came in right were our budget needed to be.  The entire work team at North Dallas Concrete were extremely hard working, efficient, and tidy, even though they were working every day in 104 temperatures with very little shade.  They cleaned up well and we never had one concern about workmanship with this excellent crew.