Supreme Concrete

Paving Contractors
Toronto ON
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HomeStars  >  Concrete Contractors in Toronto  >  Supreme Concrete  >  Stamped Concrete Driveway
Valeri in Etobicoke
Valeri in Etobicoke
9 reviews ETOBICOKE, ON

First Review

2/10

Stamped Concrete Driveway

This is an update to my original review. The job has been completed in 25 days, the work looks ok, except for the crack in the middle of driveway, different tints on two sides of the crack, white blemishes from sealer applied to wet surface and my house being covered in cement.

Payment vs completing the job: they demanded 50% before work started at $14/sq.ft for 650 sq.ft area and another 50% the day before pouring cement.

When I originally asked for an estimate, he said it would take 2 days, 3 days tops, weather permitting. Surprises started from day one when they worked only for 3 hours and were gone for the rest of the day and well as for the next 4 days. When I asked about originally promised 3 days and good weather being royally wasted, he said they usually do it in period of 10 days. Later, when 10 days passed as well, I was told that it usually takes at least a month to complete the job. When 3 weeks passed, he said that some of his customers wait for 6 months. I would prefer is someone could be frank with me from the get go.

Jus to complete the story, after demolishing and removing my old driveway, they disappeared for 4 days, 3 of which were absolutely beautiful dry and sunny September days that are not too hot or cold, just perfect for any outdoor job. Finally perfect weather came to an end with a pouring rain which lasted all day long. The very next morning, at the first sun break in the sky they came and immediately started pouring concrete, when the ground was still soaking wet and soft (too soft to pour concrete in my opinion). They did not prepare the underlayment either - did not set or compress or lever the crushed stone bed, did not put rebars or any other metal reinforcement. When pouring concrete they splashed the house with dirt, even windows on the main floor got dirty, not to mention main entrance fibreglass door with a big side glass lite all covered in concrete too.

Once they poured the concrete, they disappeared again so I was left with a thick layer of a releaser dust with no way for me and my kids to enter the house without getting all dirty. They came 3 days later to wash the dust away. They also removed the wood forms and ... put them on my front yard, where it remained for more than two weeks; leaving yellowed-dead grass underneath after it was finally removed.

The finished driveway now has two colors: second truck came with a different color tint and the division between two colors happen to be in the most visible area - right in the middle of the driveway. A week after concrete was poured the entire driveway slab cracked in half, top to bottom - right between two mixers. Anyone if this business knows that the concrete had to be cut the very next day after it was poured specifically to prevent it from cracking early into the curing.

The concrete was eventually cut, ten days after it was poured, by a hand held gas saw, making long lines not very straight, but that is ok. What is not ok is that they covered my daughter’s stroller with dirt once again, this time with concrete dust. Was it to hard to move the stroller away?

Sealing: 5 gallon sealer pile was there for a week waiting for “a professional” to come who was going to apply it with a pump. They man showed up 3 p.m. in the afternoon but could not power wash it because he lacked the connector to the water hose. So he just washed it from water hose without any pressure, which left most of the dirt where it was. It was getting dark when he started rolling the sealer (no pump); so half of the job was done in complete darkness. Don’t ask me why. Add to this that it was a rainy day with 100% humidity, meaning that the surface was absolutely wet with standing water in some spots.

My take is that most if not all things that went wrong could have been easily prevented, but no one seemed to bother. A word of advice to homeowners: if you think about replacing your driveway, learn from my example and invest into a interlock instead. Even if you are not happy with original work, it is so much easier to fix or change the design of it later. Stamped concrete, in contrast, is close to impossible to fix. The only way to change anything about it is to completely demolish it and do something else from scratch.

Approximate cost of services:
$10,000.00
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Previous versions of this review:

Valeri in Etobicoke
Valeri in Etobicoke
9 reviews ETOBICOKE, ON

First Review

0/10

Stamped Concrete Driveway

Had one frustrating experience with this company. They demanded to pay 50% upfront at $14/sq.ft for 650 sq.ft area. The owner said it would take 2 to 3 days, 4 days maximum if the weather is not permitting. In reality it took a month. Mind you, I "reminded" them about myself almost daily. I wish I didn't have to do that.

After demolishing old asphalt driveway, they disappeared for a week and I was left to walk and park my car in dirt and dust for a week. It was a week of good weather, warm, dry and sunny, ideal for pouring concrete - all wasted.

Then it finally stated to rain and it rained heavily all day; they showed up the very next day when the ground was still soaking wet, soft and dumpy. They did not prepare the underlayment in any way - did not level the bed, did not set the crushed stone, did not put gravel sand. They also did not put any metal reinforcement, no rebars, nothing. When a concrete mixer truck came, they just poured it down, covering the entire house in dirt.

When pouring concrete they did not cover any of my windows or doors: all windows in basement and on the main floor (I can't believe how was it possible to splash concrete that high), entrance door with a big side lite all covered in concrete. The concrete "splash" is less visible on the brick walls, but still the whole house is covered top to bottom. I had to clean the door, side lite and windows myself, I especially got frustrated with the door - I have an expensive fiber-glass door stained to have natural wood look, removing concrete from it damaged the stain quite visibly. When mentioned it to the owner, he did not say anything.

Once they poured the concrete, they disappeared again so I was left with a thick layer of a releaser dust with no way to enter my house without getting all dirty - no they didn't build any bridge or put even a piece of wood to walk on so stay way from the color dust, which is apparently is a strong chemical. And I have a family and two small kids.

They came 3 days later to wash the dust away. They also removed the wood forms and ... put them on my front yard! I asked them to remove the junk from my front yard, they said no, they don't have a truck today and will pick the waste later. It's been a week already that I'm living with a pile of junk sitting on my front yard.

The driveway has two colors: each concrete mixer truck came with a different color tint and the division between two colors happen to be in the most visible area - right in the middle of the driveway.
A week after concrete was poured the entire driveway slab cracked in half, top to bottom - right between two mixers. I was reading about it, the concrete had to be cut the next day after it was pured specifically to prevent these type of problems from occurring; they came to cut two weeks after it was poured.

The concrete was cut by a hand held gas saw, making long lines not very straight, but that is ok. What is not ok is that they felt if necessary to cover my child stroller with concrete dust once again. How hard it it to move the stroller away? Apparently they don't care about customers.

The last thing, sealing was done wrong too: they showed in the afternoon and wanted to power wash the driveway, but could not connect to my water hose. I gave them my own connector adapter last time when they washed away the releaser, but they took it with them or lost it and came without it. Because of this they could not use their power washer. I don't know much about anything, but I have rented power washer from HomeDepot in the past and they always come with all required connectors. I mean if you are professional you come with your tools and you make sure you can use your tools. Not the case with these guys. So they just washed it from water hose. This left a lot of dirt stuck to the driveway. They sealed it in 4 hours after washing it - if it was a dry warm weather it could have dried it up, but in reality it was another rainy day with close to 100% humidity when everything takes forever to dry up! So they applied Kimbol sealer with a roller, a poor guy was doing it in complete dark. Later I read on the Kimbol product this: "Before application, it is imperative that the surface area and sand joint for pavers, is 100% dry. Failure in following this step will result in a whitening appearance on the surface and bonding issues with the sealer."

I could even forgive the lack of professionalism if they showed willingness to do something right and could listen to their customers. But since none of that happened, I was left out frustrated paying though the nose for low quality job, I cannot recommend them to anyone.

Approximate cost of services:
$10,000.00