Concrete Impressions

Jacob was consistently late to the job site, arrived without the proper tools, and only worked a couple of hours a day.  The preparation for the concrete pour was inadequate.  The concrete was not of the appropriate thickness, he didn't compact the soil, he didn't place rebar in critical locations and tried to cut corners at every turn.  Jacob brought us a sample of concrete that has supposedly been colored with integral color which in reality was plain grey concrete with a colored release agent on the surface.  He repeatedly failed to provide a sample which even came close to matching the color we requested and we therefore opted to just use an integral color with no release agent.  We repeatedly voiced concerns about multiple problems including inadequate depth of prep, absence of rebar, not enough workers for the size of the job (900 sq ft) and his plan to pour the concrete in the heat of the day but Jacob told us to just "trust the process" and assured us that all would be corrected in time for the pour.  The morning of the scheduled pour jacob realized that the foundation for the stairs wasn't deep enough so they started digging out the base. The forms were poorly placed, some not long enough to span the distance needed by several inches.  Well the ready mix truck arrived at 1 pm but sat in the street for almost an hour while jacob added color and a lot of water the mix and then just waited to pour.  They then dismantled the forms on one edge so they could drive a concrete cart over it and they placed the cement in the front of the house.  The second truck didn't arrive until 5 pm but Jacob wasn't on the job site and no one would proceed with the pour.  At 6 PM the ready-mix driver complained that the shop was closed and he needed to get back so they arranged to pour the remaining mix.  Meanwhile the mix that was previously poured on the side of the house had dried and they repeatedly took picks and shovels to break up the drying concrete and spread it along the entire length of the house, watering it down occasionally with a hose.  At about 5:30 Jacob showed up and decided to start stamping.  He quickly discovered that the concrete he placed first was already too hard to make good impressions with the stamp.  In addition the concrete was already cracking because of the extreme heat and the excess water he'd added.  The concrete was already bad when it came off the truck due to the delay in pouring.  Concrete should be placed within 90 minutes of being mixed at the plant.  Jacob wasn't even close.  He quickly decided not to stamp the first batch of concrete because of all the cracking, and although the second batch was stampable, he elected not to stamp it because he wouldn't be able to match it to the first pour which he now thought he would have to overlay.  The concrete wasn't even finished properly.  There were multiple deep ridges and valleys, voids where no concrete was placed, rough spots and trowel marks, and long scuffs and drag marks where Jason tried to cover up numerous cracks that were appearing.  The concrete wasn't level and had a dome in the center of the slab and a large slump where the forms were inadequate and the concrete poured out the sides.  Jason was going to come back and overlay the entire project the next day but he showed up with portland cement and dumped a pile of sand in my driveway.  Worried that overlaying with cement and sand was going to be inadequate we asked him to hold off on the overlay until we could get more information.  Jacob then collected all his equipment and walked off the job leaving the huge pile of sand in the driveway, dumping a wheelbarrow full of debris in the driveway and leaving all the forms with exposed nails etc in the driveway as well.  He also left remesh scraps scattered around as well as a significant amount of concrete overflow or seepage under the forms into the grass. There was concrete splatter all over the rock on the house as well as the windows and stucco on the side of the house.  He did not cut any control joints to prevent cracking. He did not return and didn't respond to phone calls.  The concrete continued to crack extensively through the entire depth of the concrete.  We got estimates from other concrete contractors to repair the concrete but they all said the concrete was defective and lacked strength needed to be replaced and that we should contact the original contractor.  We finally were able to contact Jacob and he said he'd come out on the weekend to look at it.  Again he was a no-show.  We called him again and he said he'd decided he didn't want to do anything about the concrete and he hung up.  Jacob initially represented himself as a licensed contractor.  In the middle of the job he revealed that he wasn't really licensed and that this work didn't require a license.  He did however say that he was insured as was stated on one of his many websites.  When we asked him for his insurance information he refused to provide it.  In addition he broke our water main and made at least a half a dozen trips to home depot to fabricate a convoluted pvc solution to fix it.  When they left they took our tools with them.   Jacob Sparks, owner of Concrete Impressions is a complete fraud.  He is a con man who quotes a great price and makes big promises which he doesn't keep.  He provides a 5 year written warranty for all his concrete work but has no intention of honoring it.  He led us to believe that he had contracts with the city and university but when we checked we found that he was not contracted for those jobs.  He explained that he was a subcontractor on those jobs but even this may not be true.  To make matters worse he did not pay the concrete finishers who performed the work on our job per his instructions and he then lied to them saying that I had agreed to pay them and they should come to the house and collect their payment.  He told us that the concrete was bad because we chose to put a large amount of color in the mix and that made it set up faster.  He later said that he didn't pay the finishers because it was their fault the concrete didn't get stamped, because they didn't bring enough people.  But jacob had said all along he was bringing two finishers and they had plenty of time to finish and stamp if he had been on site and let them do the job.  But Jacob was constantly away from the site.  All of his websites mysteriously disappeared shortly after our problems began. He has no license, likely no insurance, and absolutely no integrity.  Stay away from Jacob Sparks and Concrete Impressions.  You get what you pay for.  We trusted Jacob and now we are really paying for it.  The money we gave Jacob is lost and now  we have the added cost to remove the defective concrete before a new patio can be poured.  This has essentially doubled the cost of hiring a reputable contractor to begin with.   It's an expensive lesson. You can bet I will be checking references in the future and not simply trusting internet reviews and bogus websites.

We had a home built and addition to the house put on. We had a patio in the back with cracked concrete. They demode out the patio and poured new, they colored it and put a pattern on the concrete. It looks like flagstone. They put a sealer on it and now its shiny. I would highly recommend them.