ComplaintsforMarvin’s Brick Pavers

• Initial Complaint

  08/15/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We hired Marvins pavers to replace the part of our driveway adjacent to our home, bury a downspout drain, repair our garage apron, and repair our front patio (which is brick). They completed this work in the fall of 2020 and at this time we were provided with a 2 year warranty against the concrete cracking. That winter the concrete cracked as soon as the ground froze. We contacted them and went back and forth with ****** several times about what to do about it. ****** told us that he had told us this might happen because of the base under the existing driveway but we do not believe this conversation ever happened. After several failed attempts at finding some resolution to this matter we finally caught ****** around Memorial Day 2022 as he was at our neighbors. We discussed how to go about repairing the driveway and agreed they would:-replace the slab, adding an additional joint across the slab and additional expansion joints on either end of the slab. The hope is that this would mitigate the cracking and separation that occurred previously.-repair the epoxy work on the garage apron (which had already begun to deteriorate).After not hearing anything from them for a few months they finally showed up unannounced and began tearing up our driveway. They replaced the slab, but the finishing work was quite sloppy and they didnt do any of the additional changes we had discussed previously. In fact, they removed the expansion joint in between the slab and the garage foundation and did not even replace it. Our assumption is the slab will now crack and separate worse than before. In the process they ************ splatter all over our garage door, which we have been unable to remove. I could go on but in short, they did a worse job than before. After several attempts at contacting them we finally got a response from ******. He basically accused us of lying and said my wife had told him to not do what we had discussed previously, which is untrue.

  

  Business response

  08/18/2022

  Companys statement of the problem: 

   

  Mr & ****************** hired Marvins Brick Pavers to replace two concrete slabs, repair apron from garage area and regrout concrete in between bricks and install *** pipes connected to downspouts to redirect water. When *** removed the existent concrete they realized there was no base underneath concrete. ****** suggested to the clients to replace the entire driveway because one of the reasons why the concrete cracked was because the entire driveway didnt have a base underneath and in the winter time the concrete freezes underneath and it moves. Knowing this, they didnt accept to replace the entire driveway. *** replaced the concrete slabs, add up the base underneath the work and in the following winter the concrete cracked. *** agreed to replace the concrete again but *** suggested to replace the entire driveway to avoid the cracking of the cement. ***************** took a year to answer if agreed or not to the suggestion. They reached out in 2022 responding they didnt want to do the whole replacement. *** and ***************** agreed to replace only the two slabs, knowing it might crack again. We had ***************** in our schedule to replace the concrete in September 12 but the first week of July the crew was working on project very close to them. ****************** saw the crew working there and went to speak with ******. ****************** asked when will her project was going to be addressed. ****************** and ****** agreed to replace the slabs at the same time the crew was working across the street. Due to the agreement, the crew proceeded to do the replacement. When the crew was removing the concrete, ****************** came back and spoke to ****** asking questions and asking the way they wanted the concrete to be done (is the new concrete is going to have rebars? ****** answered yes. During the process of removing the concrete is the *** pipe will be damaged? ****** answered no. When you guys complete the project, will guys put everything back as it was? ****** answered yes. When will you guys pour the new concrete? ****** answered the next day). The next day when the crew was pouring the new concrete, she came outside and didnt ask no more questions. She didnt open the garage door and took off. The crew rang the bell several times and nobody came out. We completed the project and the garage door got a bit dirty. The next day the crew went back and cleaned up and put everything back in place, nobody came out. Two weeks after the project was completed, ****************** called and complained about the job, saying it was horrible and that the *** crew damaged her garage door. The staff at the office suggested to write an email with all of her complaints. *************************** replied to the email and offered to clean up the garage door once again. ****************** kept asking for a replacement of the entire door, door which we never damaged and told ****** to do not stop over by her place. *** is willing to clean up the garage door and try to make the necessary arrangements to accomplish the client. ****************** answered she doesnt want nobody of the *** crew near her residential. 

  Customer response

  08/18/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  The contractor continues to misrepresent this situation. A few specific examples:

  -They state that "When *** removed the existent concrete they realized there was no base underneath concrete. ****** suggested to the clients to replace the entire driveway because one of the reasons why the concrete cracked was because the entire driveway didnt have a base underneath and in the winter time the concrete freezes underneath and it moves. Knowing this, they didnt accept to replace the entire driveway." We do recall him suggesting the entire driveway be done but we do not recall being informed that the current job as planned would fail. It's possible there was some miscommunication here. 

  -They state that "***************** took a year to answer if agreed or not to the suggestion." We did take a while to get back to them. However, that was in large part because we had so many difficulties contacting them in the past, and the solutions they had offered did not seem to acknowledge the warranty they had provided earlier. Rather, it seemed like they wanted us to purchase additional work from them. Some examples of what they suggested included replacing the cracked concrete with brick pavers (at an additional charge), re-doing the entire driveway (when the rest of the driveway is in relatively good shape), and covering the cracked concrete with epoxy (which didn't make sense to us since they were also saying the concrete would continue to move in the winter and therefore we assumed would likely just crack the epoxy). 

  -they state that "*** and ***************** agreed to replace only the two slabs, knowing it might crack again." While this is true, we also agreed on additional measures they would take to mitigate that, none of which they implemented when they actually did the job. The measures we discussed included additional joints to control the cracking and expansion joints on either end of the slab. 

  -they state that "We had ***************** in our schedule to replace the concrete in September 12 but the first week of July the crew was working on project very close to them. ****************** saw the crew working there and went to speak with ******. ****************** asked when will her project was going to be addressed. ****************** and ****** agreed to replace the slabs at the same time the crew was working across the street." They never let us know we were in the schedule for 9/12, and this conversation between ******************* and ****** did not happen. It was a complete surprise to us when we got home and our driveway was being torn up. 

  -they state that "She didnt open the garage door and took off. The crew rang the bell several times and nobody came out. We completed the project and the garage door got a bit dirty." They seem to be implying that it is our fault the garage door ************ on it. Given that we had no notice of this work being done we were unable to be home the entire time. Also, it would seem that there are reasonable mitigation steps one could take to avoid getting concrete on a garage door, regardless of whether or not the homeowner is home (e.g. setting up some sort of plastic sheeting/barrier).

  -they state that "****************** answered she doesnt want nobody of the *** crew near her residential." We did not say that. We did ask that no one come to our property in the future without notice.

   

  Ultimately, we feel like the best way to remedy this situation would be to provide a refund for the work done. Given our experience to date, we're not eager to have this company do any further work on our property.

  
  Regards,
  
  *********************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩