We hired Northland Paving to do a lot of work around our home recently and must say we are extremely pleased with the quality and of the final product and the craftsmanship of the teams involved.
We were a bit uncomfortable with signing the contract not ever doing anything this big before and with only our research (including Homestars) and the fact that we had seen the Northland trucks around the neighbourhood as a guide.
We had nothing to be concerned about.
The Challenge
Here is a rundown of the task ahead of Northland.
We had:
- a cracked asphalt driveway
- crumbling and unsightly asphalt in the rear lane way of the house
- cracked and uneven concrete pavers
- a mixture of dirt, weeds, hay like grass, and crumbling uneven pavers in the back/side yard
- The back/side yard was barely useable and hadn't been used for anything in the 8 years we occupied the house
- a wooden (insect infested) border around the house separating the lawn from the "garden"
- wood inside a basement window well and a broken grey wood fence that was almost falling apart
- crumbling front steps
- 3 small tree stumps that we were unable to remove with just a shovel
Act I - The Courtship
From the very beginning the company (fronted by Giorgio the company's salesman and civil engineer) treated us with the utmost care. Giorgio took stock of the work to be performed, offered advice on what could be done and provided guidance on the best way to go about things. We went back and forth for about 3 weeks. Our original thought was to have them quote on doing the driveway and possibly the pathways around the house only. Or perform the driveway now and do the rest of the work at some time in the future. It became apparent that Northland had multiple areas of expertise and that it would make the most sense to get a quote on doing the complete job as a package. The clincher (and what made us sign) was when Giorgio offered to do our front steps. I signed the contract shortly after that.
The job would include:
- A New asphalt driveway
- Interlock around the home pathways and side/back yard (Giorgio suggested the design)
- River-rock around the base of a tree in the side/back yard
- 2 retaining walls (one along one side of the driveway)
- Steps front & back leading into the side/back yard
And another thing:
- Interlock garden border
- 19 feet of wood fencing
- concrete driveway border
Act II – Enter the Xcavators
On a hot bright sunny day (at around 11 am) the ground shook around our home. In came an army of trucks and an assortment of smaller construction vehicles along with a small army of workers. They spent the entire day at our home. Starting with pulling down the fence (and saving 5 pieces of wood that I promised my neighbour) they went to work removing all the dirt, wood, tree stumps, old asphalt, pavers and backyard concrete steps. They were very efficient. We have 3 large trees on our property, so the team and to spend some time cutting roots from the paths after the dirt was removed. They topped off their day by laying a mixture that looked to me like dirt and gravel and pressing it all down with a mini roller. All in a days work and then before I knew it, they were gone. The idea was that the mixture would remain to settle until it was time to continue for the next stage of the work.
Act III - Inter-Lock Down
I can’t say enough about the crew that did the interlock. I’m not sure where Northland found them but they were excellent. Their attention to detail and meticulous way of working was a sight to behold. They were about 6 men strong and they worked very hard. I can’t imagine the toll it takes on their backs to bend, lift the individual bricks and work the bobcat (which they used to move the interlocking stones that was delivered in front of the house on skids). But before starting they poured a mixture of sand I believe and rolled it to create a semi-wet sand like base. The bricks were laid on top of this base and each brick was lined up as they went along. They also had to put a pattern in the driveway so it took careful planning to place the brick and then put the edging (a maroon colour I think) along the length of the walkways & side yard. This edging was place in the front walkways, the back laneway and the side yard. Polymeric sand sealed the deal (literally). Everything looked absolutely solid and beautiful. They also replaced the steps leading into the side yard, put up the retaining wall, laid garden fabric down around one tree on the property, laid the river rock (a very nice multicolored stone). Fantastic job. The whole crew was great and the end product was beautiful. I can’t thank them enough.
Act IV – Blacktop Down (or Smokin’ Hot)
I wasn’t home for this. So I can only provide anecdotal evidence of their arrival and their departure and the excellence of their work. Legend has it that they were only their for 2 hours and did both mine and my neighbour’s driveway. When I got home one hot summer day I was presented with freshly laid asphalt. Whoever these phantom men were who did the deed I cannot say but it looked smokin’ … literally. The left instructions to cool the heated asphalt down for the first couple days. I obeyed the mystery men. All is still good and my driveway is the envy of the neighbourhood. Well I like to think so … it looks and feels solid and makes the rest of the are pop including a white carriage style garage door with black hardware accents which was recently installed.
Act V – The David’s take on Goliath
As I said above, the front steps were crumbling. We had two trees growing right next to them for the 8 years we occupied the house and who knows how long before that. We cut the trees down ourselves earlier this year. Due to the proximity of the trees to the front steps and nature (and the Canadian climate) being what it is, the trees and porch met in a marriage of rain, snow, ice, frosting and defrosting for I don’t know how many years. The brick behind the trees and part of the front steps started to literally disintegrate. The removal of the trees just left an unsightly mess. The paint on the stairs was also starting to chip leaving a combination of cement, chipping grey paint and red material behind the paint. Giorgio in our original discussion suggested Epoxy and said he knew a guy and added this to the quote. David arrived one day with his son … David and a couple other “helpers” who were in and out. I believe the job took about 3 days. Keep in mind that my house is not a mansion. Just a small bungalow. They worked for many hours cleaning and removing old material from the veranda and steps to lay a “clean” base. Over the crumbling brick they placed concrete board? And prepared the area for the final work of applying the epoxy and pattern to match the border / colour of the interlock work done earlier. In between, they covered the area with tarp to prevent any rain damage while they worked. The end result? Another job well done. The final epoxy pattern was a textured, wavy pattern with a maroon border around the top step. It looked excellent and fit nicely with the rest of the hardscaping. Excellent job!
Act VI – The True Measure of a Man
I’ve seen many quotes on the internet about the true measure of a man … here’s mine. “The true measure of a (business) man is his willingness to attend to his customers concerns without regard to his station”. I had the pleasure of meeting Bruce, the owner of the company due to a few small items that went awry with the project. There were three things really (minor in the grand scheme of things) but still requiring attention. 1. The interlocking sealed in my laundry dryer exhaust which was very low to the ground in the rear of the house. 2. My garage door was broken, the chain was off due to (it turns out) a missing “master pin” 3. There was a slight gap underneath one side of the garage door after the asphalt was laid. I could see sunlight creeping into the garage when the door was down. Like I said, minor. I called and let the company know about the issues. It took a couple days but I was visited by Bruce the owner. We exchanged “pleasantries” and I showed him around the house and pointed out the issues. I made a point of commending him on his company and the fine work all of his crew had done. Here’s the rub … instead of calling a guy to take care of the issues, Bruce actually got down on his hands and knees and a ladder to help fix each of the minor issues. He and I first went to work on the dryer exhaust. He worked to pull one of the interlocking bricks out of the ground and we struggled a bit to place a new & better exhaust tube (that I bought recently) through the wall into the basement and attached the dryer vent hose. He cleaned a little sand underneath he exhaust to create some space for airflow and that was it. Problem #1 solved. Problem #2 couldn’t be resolved. The garage floor wasn’t exactly level to begin with so when the company poured the asphalt, it settled evenly across but there was a slight gap on one side. We spoke about separate options including pouring more asphalt but eventually I just decided to leave it as is. Since the garage door has a rubber sweep extending along the length of the bottom, my idea is to fill the inside of the sweep with some sort of material. I bought a length of pipe insulation foam from Home Depot and plan to try that at some point. It’s still sitting in my home. Problem #2 deferred. Next, the broken garage door. This was a bit tricky. There are three components to the master pin. We were missing two. Bruce helped me attach the garage door motor chain to one of the pieces so that the chain was connected but if it moved the pin would dislodge easily. I was still missing two pieces. I thanked him for his help and he went on his way. The next day, I spent some time going through a few trash bags that were in the garage. I had swept up some debris from a garage re-org I had done recently so I did some CSI work to try and find the other two pieces of the pin ensemble. The work entailed digging through small bits of debris taken from trash bags and separating them into individual piles. On hands and knees I sifted through each pile … dumping them as I was finished. My search was rewarded when I found piece #2 in one of the piles. I was elated. However, I was still missing the final piece and the key. This piece was needed to lock the other two pieces in place. I tried Sears & Canadian tire to see if I could find a replacement. Sears said they could order the item for me but it would take a couple weeks to deliver. Obviously I couldn’t’ wait that long. Giorgio stopped by soon after and we were sitting in the back/side yard. We chatted about the garage door issue and he mentioned probably using a twist tie to hold the two pieces together. This was brilliant. After he left I immediately went searching and found a plastic tie in the house. It’s one of those things that you can drag through a small opening and it holds in place. It worked like a charm. I used three of these for good measure and cut off the ends so they would get in the way. Problem #2 solved!
Act VII – The Verdict
I can’t say how much I was impressed by the fact that Bruce (the owner of Northland) actually took time out of his busy day to come visit and actually tried to fix the issues himself. If there is anything that sold me about the integrity of the company it was this simple act. I can unequivocally recommend this company for any of the work I menteiond above and you may want to ask them about other work as well. Giorgio/Northland seemed to have no end of trades /products at his fingertips to take care of anything I needed done. Definitely 10+ stars. I hope to work with Northland again in the future to do some final touches on the outside of the home. Thanks again. One happy homeowner & customer. Giorgio, Sheila, I owe you both a coffee.
D.K. & Family
