F J BRAWLEY CONCRETE INC

Issues and why I did not select his bid, nor would I accept a bid on future work pending on property: - Numerous calls to finally get him to the job site to review the necessary work - We walked through the necessary work and what should be included in the bid; Sunday 5/12/13 late afternoon. Bid rec'd on 5/15 at 2PM - I did not stay on site as he did his measuring for the bidding process; when I returned to the property on Monday 5/13 in the morning, I was unhappy to find that he had marked everything with orange spray paint (un-washable spray paint), including a 5' block wall on the south side bordering my neighbor which had "SAVE" in large bold orange letters. Couple of things: 1. This wall was not discussed as it is in good condition and not apart of the requested bid 2. He was very presumptuous marking everything throughout the job site with bright orange paint, as though he had won the bid - When I called him to return to the job site to resolve the bright orange painted arrows and lettering throughout my backyard, he was taken aback. He finally returned to at least attempt to resolve the bright orange painted lettering "SAVE" on my block wall which will now require painting to cover up his mess. Needless to say his attempt to resolve was unsatisfactory (lettering still evident) and will require me to paint that entire 5' block wall bordering my neighbor: 150' or so of concrete block wall. After inspecting his effort and realizing that the lettering could not be properly removed, he was a bit apologetic...but not really. I used another company (BTS Equipment Unlimited) to handle all the work identified above and they were terrific: - Very competitive pricing/bid- total was $15,270 - $9,685 for complete pool and decking demo; hauling out concrete/steel + back fill with 170 cubic yards of good dirt and compaction - $5,585 for two days of time/material to pull out & haul off property: corner planter & vegetation, back wall footings, clear all debris from 80' long and 10' deep of easement area, pull out 10 palm trees, pull out additional underground footings on property-found by skilled excavator operator, pull out 6 tree stumps and more - Great attitude on the part of the owner and his crew: service oriented - Equipment operators were very skilled at their handling of their excavator and bobcat equipment

As part of some exterior remodeling Brawley was hired as a subcontractor to Para Quality Construction to replace and extend an existing brick patio with a concrete surface. Given our experience we would definitely not recommend using Brawley. Our first problem occurred right before we were due to pour the concrete. Brawley announced that the soil was unstable and that we needed to have it compacted and needed to increase the thickness of the poured concrete and the size of the iron reinforcing rebar. (All at additional cost to us, of course.). If we didn't make the changes required then he would not stand behind the work, and could not guarantee that there would not be significant cracking over time. Brawley was probably right that the soil needed to be compacted, but we would have expected that to come out before we signed the contract, not right before pouring the concrete; they had full access to the site during the bidding, there was nothing that could not have been discovered before the contract was signed. Brawley offered to do the compacting for ~$4,000; our contractor found us another vendor on who completed the task for $2,750. Our second problem occurred after the cement was poured. We had requested a colored concrete and had gone to some length to select the appropriate color. After the cement was poured though, it turned out blotchy, uneven with discoloration. Other concrete vendors have told us that Brawley probably misapplied a sealer to keep the concrete from setting too fast during a hot day. Instead of working with us to repair the problem Brawley continued to insist that the concrete was fine. See the attached images to decide for yourself. Then they poured muriatic acid on a couple sections without our approval which cured the blotchiness in one case but made the concrete gray and pale. In the other case it made the blotchiness worse. We ended up withholding $1,500 until this summer to see if the problem would cure itself as Brawley insisted it would. It didn't, so we spent $1,100 so have it sandblasted which removed the seal and for the most part fixed the blotchiness problem. Within 6 months the concrete cracked anyway. (See images). Given the results and their conduct we would definitely not use him again.