Ocean Pavers

The job was done very quickly and well at a competitive price. My neighbors have complimented me on the pavers. Also Ocean Pavers hired a gardener who was very careful to install the root barrier as the contract stipulated. He used a clean saw on the roots to prevent spreading disease to the trees. He also brought a bit of sod to repair the corner of my lawn that was removed by accident during the driveway renovation. However, I am upset that the workers who installed the pavers disposed of extra hardened sand by shoveling it into my front yard ivy. Quite a lot of the hardened sand is buried in the ivy and very difficult to remove. Also one of the workers apparently dropped something heavy on a square piece of concrete in my front patio, putting two large gashes in the piece.. I need to have the concrete square replaced or turned over so the gashes do not show. I left a message about that with Dieter, the owner, and hope he will take steps to rectify the damage. If that is done, I would change my rating on quality, responsiveness and professionalism to A.

Received estimates from 4 paver install co’s in O.C. , CA. Ocean Pavers estimate came out 2nd highest in cost. Dave the salesman was very good. He was observant of our home and tastes and offered suggestions with that in mind. He also offered solutions and design ideas that all but one of the other co’s reps did not. His plans were well drawn and he was willing to draw to scale if necessary for HOA approval. I wanted to coordinate the job with my vacation, so that I could be home during the work in the event of any questions the installers might have or if any unforeseen issues arose. Wanted to be available but not “stand over” the crew during their work. In hindsight, I should have monitored them more closely (lesson learned, read on). I booked a start date. OP’s crew showed up that day and on time. Materials had been ordered and delivered a day or two prior. Job was to take 3 to 4 days. Job completed in 3.5 days. One of my requirements was that someone in the crew be able to understand and speak English. Chepe, the crew chief did. Job itself went mostly well . We provided the crew cold drinks each day and lunch one day. Dave or Dieter showed up at least once each day of the job. Crew did a good job in general with the demo, prep and install, however attention to detail was lacking. Some of the things that were done incorrectly: Bullnose edges of front step and walkway steps were merely cut off straight on the sides, leaving exposed, the unfinished interior aggregate. Bottom of one side of walkway was flared out as drawn on the plans but other side was left straight. A cap that I had purchased to seal off a buried cutoff drain pipe was not installed. I found the cap in their trash pile. (At the job’s end, Dieter rectified these and other issues, but they should not have happened in the first place.) The bigger headache concerned the replacement of the torn out underground sprinkler pipes. We were told that any that were damaged/removed during the project, would be repaired or replaced. Crew did fine with the paver install but not the sprinkler system. Upon crew chief’s inquiring, I advised him that our front yard was on 3 different watering zones/circuits. Rather than testing the actual circuits afterward to verify correct repair/reconnection (realized this later), I was simply told “everything tested good, no leaks.” Turned out that the installers connected two of the zones together that should have been separate, and so 2/3 of the sprinkler heads were not putting out nearly enough water. Part of another section was completely cut and had no water at all. Also, at least twice during the planter construction phase, my wife and I mentioned that we didn’t see a sprinkler supply line, which would be required to water the planter. Each time we were told that the crew knew and that they would be installing a supply pipe to replace the one ripped out from that area. The crew never installed the pipe and the planter was left without a water supply. After my discovering these problems at the end of the job and upon advising Dieter, the next day he sent out someone he used as a troubleshooting repairman to correct the issues. He repaired broken mortar, drilled a required hole in a paver for a gate locking rod, and then went to work on the sprinkler system. He installed new pipe to correctly separate the zones, ran a new supply pipe to the planter and connected to another section that had been cutoff. A few weeks later I fortunately was out early in the morning after the sprinklers had watered and noticed an area by one of the repairs that was unusually wet. Digging down a foot to expose the supply line, I saw the soil was soaked around the connection to the new planter pipe. Turned on the sprinklers and saw the side of a new fitting had separated from the pipe and was leaking. The leaking water was already starting to undermine the soil under the pavers and sidewalk. Upon inspection I noticed that the repairman had simply cut out a channel in a T fitting, drilled a small hole in the supply pipe and snapped that part of the pipe with the hole, into the fitting. (see photo) It was glued without using primer, which likely contributed to the leak. This connection was under where the pavers meet the sidewalk. A difficult area to make a pipe connection/repair. I could have contacted Dieter to fix the problem but was not confident in the repair they might make. Quite annoyed, I decided to make this tricky, difficult repair myself. It took me the better part of a day all told. Now I wonder what other connections the repairman made that may fail down the road due to not using primer. We chose Ocean Pavers because of feeling confident that they would do a good job but if there were any issues, they would stand behind their work. Dieter did make things right by the job’s completion and the pavers look beautiful. One thing of which prospective clients should be aware: The various paver install co’s in our SOCAL area use subcontracted installation crews. The crew chief and his crew for our job were the same people who did our neighbor’s paver project but with a different paver install co. So when one chooses one of these co’s, the choice is really about one’s confidence that the owner is going to insure that the work will be done to a certain standard and that the owner will unconditionally back up their work.

Excellent!

unknown

Used Ocean Pavers for seating stucco wall and pavers installation in our front yard. It is very refreshing to find a business that cares about customer satisfaction and quality of work. Dave and Dieter are great to work with. Dave came by for a quote. He made excellent suggestions that we never thought about. The quote was in the ballpark of the other quotes we received. Couldn't be more pleased with the craftsmanship of Ocean pavers. The crew showed up on time and worked late. We estimated the work would take about a week but they finished the job in just 3 days. Dieter even showed up to help us with couple of changes after the work was done and full payment was made. The work is fantastic. We would highly recommend Ocean Pavers. Thanks Dave, Dieter and the crew.

I love my new patio and yard. Deiter and crew were very efficient and got the job done in 2 days. I wish I had some before photos but will post some after photos once I get my new plants and furniture. It looks great. Very happy with the job.

Dave was my initial point of contact. He was great. Very helpful, friendly and easy to work with. He provided excellent customer service, I just wish this was how the rest of the company worked. The first crew arrived on time, however the foreman was over an hour late. I was hoping to not have to take the day off to watch them but it became apparent that no one knew the plan. I walked through with the crew and did an overview of the project. This was my first meeting with Dieter. It was very apparent that he had little interest in the project and no clue what was going to be done. Dave arrived and provided them with general directions. Then they left. There was only one guy there who spoke a little English. My Spanish is not good, it was very difficult communicate with the. It was also very apparent that no one had the plans that I had supplied and that there was no foreman onsite. They would have "manager" stop by occasionally to check on the project. The workers were getting upset with me and informed me "we know what we are doing, its just that no one told us what to do." There were different people each day so clearly there wasn't any central person who knew the project. As things progressed, it became very evident that if I wanted this done right, I would have to watch their every move. I did have to go to work for a few hours and when I returned, they had messed up all of the buried conduits so, of course these had to be pulled up and redone. They all seemed annoyed at me about this. When they built the wall, it was not build according to the code standards that I provided and the footing sits above the ground level which I will now have to chip down to be able to hide under rocks or grass. Rather that building the wall as one continuous structure, they built it in three sections which greatly compromises the structure of the wall. They didn't put an irrigation pipe into the planter they built, I had to figure out how to tunnel under it and place pipe into the the planter. They cut the concrete in the wrong place and wanted to charge me $200 extra to make a new cut to fix it. When the stucco'ed the wall, they didn't continue the stucco to the ground level, basically a sloppy lazy job. I did call Dave about this and he sent a guy. However, this guy showed up out the blue without notice so I wasn't able to be there to supervise. As a result, they did a sloppy job, it is not smooth and the grit pattern does not match the other stucco. During this whole process, I spoke with Dieter and expressed my concerns that there was no one who knew the project or was supervising, his response..."it seems fine, I am actually losing money on this project." So apparently if you aren't paying a premium for a very expensive project, I should feel luck that he is "helping" me? In the end, the project is done, I question the quality of work and I hope that I don't have problems with the structure of the wall or settling of the pavers. Only time will tell.

Dieter, the owner, was great to work with. We dealt with him from the initial proposal to the end of the project. He sent us his bid within a few days of coming by for his initial evaluation. His bid was detailed and the pricing was competitive. He had recently put in pavers for one of our neighbors so we knew he did quality work. After we made the decision to go ahead and got approval from our HOA, he completed the job within one week. Since the job was relatively small (300 sq foot courtyard), it only took one day to do almost all of the work. After the pavers were installed, Dieter had some left over sealant from a prior job and offered to place the sealant at no extra charge. They completed all of the work according to the design that we requested. The rounded edges were all installed nicely. Everything looks great, quality work!