VACCARO CONCRETE

They never returned our calls

It was a very positive experience. He's an old Italian concrete guy so it was kind of work.

Long time waiting for an estimate, price in the highest range, no go.

He is an excellent craftsman who completed the work in 6 days. He worked from 7 in the morning to 7 at night. On the first day, he did the forms and had rebar put in it. The second day was for pouring cement covering all the re barring and things. Then, he did the flagstone walkway. He thought he was behind schedule, and he worked through the weekend and partly on Sunday. He completed the work on Monday.

We phoned Joseph Vaccaro Concrete and that same afternoon Mr. Vaccaro came by to give an estimate. After taking measurements, he wrote his estimate of $1,200 on the back of his business card. This was much less than a previous estimate and we accepted immediately, as we were impressed by his friendly, business-like manner, evidence of long experience working with concrete and the reports on Angie's List. Mr. Vaccaro showed up precisely at 7 a.m. yesterday as scheduled and immediately went to work breaking up the concrete with a sledgehammer and pickax. He also used a concrete saw to cut out a strip we wanted removed just inside the garage door. His helpers came by on schedule to load up the broken concrete and then left. Mr. Vaccaro supervised the pouring of the concrete and did an expert job smoothing out the surface himself, using his years of experience to produce a perfect surface in just a couple of hours. He even brought two stakes with yellow tape to mark off the new driveway as it dried. He was finished by 1 p.m. after having cleaned up the entire area. We were extremely pleased with Mr. Vaccaro's work and would recommend him to anyone. He is a real craftsman and a pleasure to work with.

The experience was wonderful. He is an excellent contractor. He did excellent work, a couple of neighbors saw the work and had him come back out. He is very honest and stuck to the price, which was excellent. It took him a little less than a week to complete all the work.

It was June, and we were leaving on vacation. There wasn't a lot of time to get the job done. Vaccaro not only came in with the best price by far($70/square), but he made time for all three neighbors immediately. He showed up on time with an efficient and skillful crew. Vacarro himself tore up the concrete with hand-held tools (no jack hammers!). The job was done quickly and well. His crew took away all the old concrete chunks and left everything tidy. All three households were very pleased with his work. The city inspector came the next day and approved the job for all of us.

I think he did a good job. He's a very nice guy, it wasn't perfect but it was good. He came on time, and he stayed within the price range.

Mr. Joseph Vaccarro is a true old-school tradesman. He came over within half an hour of my calling him back, I'd talked to him before. He eyeballed my problem and wrote his price on the back of his business card. It was a fraction of what another contractor had quoted, and if he hadn't had such excellent reviews here, I'd have wondered what the catch was. No catch! A couple of days later he showed up promptly as arranged with one associate. He thought the job might take from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm, but was done an hour earlier. The finished concrete is a thing of beauty and flatter than any pancake I've made--the car should be quite safe now. Now I just have to call some garage door guys to get a door to fit the new opening, as Mr. Vacccaro was at pains to warn me beforehand. He left me with advice about the garage door drain, which he'd cleaned out before pouring the new concrete around it. Mr. Vaccaro answers his own phone, and he answers it "Hello," so don't worry you have the wrong number. His Italian accent is strong, so I had to listen carefully, but that's always a good exercise for me. He gave me another excellent quote on removing some patio concrete, so I will definitely be calling him back!

We interviewed four companies and decided to go with Mr. Vaccaro's firm. His estimate (U$1300) was reasonable and between other quotes. What impressed us was his professional experience and reputation. We have seen several examples of his work in the neighborhood. He and his assistant started and completed the work in one long day, which even included heavy re-bar installations. The clean-up was thorough and there were no additional cracks or damage to the vicinity. We are very happy with the work and are considering other projects for Mr. Vaccaro as well. I highly recommend him.

The city required us to replace the entire sidewalk, curb, and 2 feet of the street in front of our house. Our dreaded street tree, had pushed up the sidewalk around it. In addition, the curb's concrete was crumbling. I'd used A.L. to find companies and then got initial bids, all of which came in over $6000. I researched A.L. again, and found J. Vacarro's work and price getting good reviews. His $4000 was all inclusive: all we needed to do was provide access to the water hose. Other than during the concrete removal, he did all of the work himself: he is an experienced craftsman of concrete. Everything happened exactly along the schedule he set: he was there right on time, the concrete removal ended right as predicted, and so on until he was done.

We needed to have a new sidewalk and driveway installed because a root had split the sidewalk in numerous places. After calling about 10 other companies and receiving bids from $2500-$9600, my neighbor gave me Vaccaro's phone number. I contacted him and set up a date to get another bid. He came out and explained the job to me, presented a business card and a handwritten bid totally 1600 dollars. I scheduled a date for the job to begin, and at 6 a.m. on the day in question, Vaccaro and one helped were there quietly pulling up loose pieces. By 8 a.m. they have the entire site cleared, and by nine they have leveled and poured the cement. They were fast, friendly, and tidy. All in all Vaccaro is an example of what contract work should be like. He is great and he will give you an honest price and an accurate time line. He also does brick and masonry work.