Sandmans Paving & Concrete

Think twice before hiring this company!!!! September 9th we had Sandman paving do a complete new drive with a dig out and had it widened. They came as scheduled and had the drive done within a very short amount of time. Both sides of the driveway are crooked as you can see in the photos. None of the edges are smooth there’s asphalt laying all over the grass and side walk. The cut my concrete on an angle…all and all this is probably the sloppiest driveway I’ve yet to see. Eva said someone would come out to look not sure if they have because they won’t respond to our calls/emails. My husband and I have made multiple attempts to have these issues resolved and yet we can’t even get a response back. I can’t believe a company like this is licensed to work here.

driveway B. stoop D- to much chloride and damage to new stoop. said he would fix it I still have his voice mail say he would..

Cracks in the asphalt on the edges of the new asphalt drive in the first year. Poor phone response. Did not follow up. NO Help.

Fine- got what we paid for as far as quality of asphalt

Best of 4 estimates. Job was done quickly and professionally with no short cuts. Crew was friendly, knowledgeable, conscientious and helpful. Highly recommended.

This was a very good experience for us from getting the estimate to the completion of the job. Sandman called us back the next day after I left a message to get an estimate and we set up an appointment. Very professional from the business owner Jerry to all of the guys that working on our driveway, which at one point I counted 10 men. Kevin was very nice along with Bob, who became my grandsons friend. I would highly recommend this company if you are looking to have a professional job with a professional staff. As my grandson told Kevin, "you all worked together as a team and got the job done". My grandson is 4 years old.

I was a little concerned when they showed up late but when they explained they needed extra time to finish the previous driveway, 'oh' and they showed up with 10 trucks and 15 hard working men I new my concerns were for nothing. They totally prepared our driveway to pave in 2 hours while doing the same to another driveway down the street. They were back 8:30 am the next morning and totally paved our driveway in an hour and a half. The entire crew worked like the movement of a Swiss watch together, always very polite and respectful to fellow workers and us. I recommend them completely.

Great. I was happy with the entire process from the initial quote, to the scheduling to the completion of the job. They completed it in one day and gave me instructions to maintain my new driveway.

Excellent. After having several other companies come out i found Sandman on Angieslist. They were prompt and straightforward. Jerry abused that the only way to do it right was to completely remove the old, repack the base and install new asphalt. Some of the other companies wanted to just go over the top and were going to charge more. All the work was performed as promised and quickly.

Poor communication and response to fix poor quality work performed. They were prompt in coming to see property and give me a quote. gave a discount for me and the neighbor getting driveways done at same time. completed the service but the driveway wasn't sloped properly and had huge water collection afterrain. when I tried reaching them to get situation resolved I didn't get any calls back not even to acknowledge they got my messages. Finally got a call back and they came out and agreed the driveway wasn't completed properly. didn't hear anything back for weeks.... too much more frustration to write but finally after couple months repair was complete but looks bad. :(

I was very happy with the quote and worked on getting a permit but needed some information from the company. Eva told me she was working on it back in the beginning of August but no word since then. I called, I emailed but nothing. I would have even accepted a response that we are behind and we just can take on this job right now but nothing. I wished I read these reviews earlier because I would not have wasted over a month on this and could have worked with another company. I live in a large populated area that many families share reviews or recommendations of companies they worked with so it is a shame that I have to share that I would not waste my time on this one because they just leave you hanging with no communication what so ever.

Several dates that needed to be rescheduled due to bad weather. Once started, things went at an appropriate speed. Had one small issue with the drainage pipe prior to laying down the driveway. They fixed that promptly then laid the driveway. They even put some extra concrete around some fence posts for the driveway gate that were loose in the ground. No other issues. Overall, very pleased with the job and would recommend to others.

This is a hugely disappointing transaction that has dragged on two years because of Sandman's inordinately poor customer service. I contracted for this new driveway in the spring of 2012; After the first phone call about cracks in the new installation in summer 2012, without any discussion, Sandman simply skim coated the new driveway and billed us. We paid half which I regret. Since then Sandman has not responded to my concerns - the original cracks which are expanding significantly -despite phone calls, letters to Jerry Sandman, pictures, emails that I have sent each spring/summer. When I can get office staff to return calls, they cannot even find the correspondence; I provided copies. This is personally distressing to me because I chose Sandman because of the quality of the work they did for us many years ago. Now I can't even get my problem addressed, much less solved. I guess I should just go to court to get Sandman to talk about it. All I want is what we asked for in the summer of 2012: repair significant cracks to maintain integrity and appearance of expensive driveway.

They were responsive and called me back however they said that I was too far away. Their locations served on Angie's List says that they cover all of the Northwest Suburbs, however they notified me that I was too far away (1 hour from their location) which would negate their locations served. They may be a good company to work with (I have no idea) however make sure you are local to them otherwise they probably won't come.

We look at it this way. Here we are trying to give this company business and MONEY. And yet they cannot contact us? Even to say they are behind schedule, there's a shortage of asphalt or some other excuse why they have not fulfilled the contract. Imagine if they had ACTUALLY done the job and there were problems within a week. If they won't respond when we are trying to pay them for services, they would NEVER get back to us with an issue on the work provided. STRONGLY recommend that no one use this company. Of course, since they never call back, it would be impossible to do so!

Excellent, I called them on a Monday they got back to me same day and scheduled an estimator. He came out gave me a price, explained what would happen and told me I needed a permit in my town for driveway. They then confirmed everything and scheduled the job on 4/21. They were a little late but that can happen. They showed up with plenty of workers, equipment and product (gravel, asphalt) and checked with me to make sure we agreed on what they were doing. They stared by removing old drive, I was very impressed at how careful they were to not damage my lawn. They then used a Bobcat to rework gravel, add any new needed, spread evenly and steam rolled out in final prep for new driveway. They then put down a new 3 inch thick driveway with blacktop equipment as they specified, hand spread where necessary, steamrolled, hand tampered as needed and were done in about 2.5 hours. While I was very impressed with their knowledge and workmanship I was equally impressed with their clean up. They picked up any lose asphalt that might have got in lawn, scraped sidewalks and streets, washed everything down and were gone. Like they were never there except for my beautiful new drive way. Fantastic job, now we see how it lasts but I feel it will be just fine, they even left me a booklet on how to care for the drive way over the time.

Excellent. Great response, fast service, quality work. Asked us to get a permit, but village said we didn't need one. That delayed us a few days, but it was taken care of.

Great communication during the process and work was done as specified. I would recommend this company.

did not return my call after 2 attempts

Sandman came out quickly and gave us a quote, and said that they could start two weeks after we obtained our village permit. It turned out to be a week longer due to a few reasons (vandalism, weather, broken down truck), but on the day of the job they arrived at 7:00 am, and were finished by around lunch time. Despite the delays, everyone we dealt with was incredibly nice and professional, and their workers were timely and efficient. We chose Sandman based on their good Angie's List reviews, and competitive pricing.

UPDATE (2014-08-12): Tom from Sandman called and said that they will be scheduling us later this month to get the job completed. Back in late June we had some very severe, back-to-back rains that dug out some major ruts in our inclined, 500ft long gravel driveway. After a quick back and forth via the Angie's List Messages system, Bryan with Sandman called me on July 8 saying he was going to be in the area and that he could swing by to take a look at the driveway. Bryan did come by and meet with my wife to go over what we were looking to have done (including: regrade to fill in ruts and direct water away from house, expose existing concrete diverter that was below grade, re-dig and extend existing trench along top of driveway, potentially dig an additional trench along the street side of the middle section of the driveway, remove and reuse gravel that had washed into the yard, compact entire driveway). I then received a phone message from Reagan with Sandman on July 11 saying that regrading would be $800, Bryan would be available to come out the next day (Saturday) and that and quot;if we could do cash that would obviously be great.and quot; Neither a quote nor a scope of work was provided in writing. I called Reagan back and agreed to the $800 fee and scheduled the work for Saturday morning. Bryan and Jeremy came out the next day (later in the day than was indicated) with a Bobcat, regraded, filled in most of the ruts with existing sand and gravel and compacted the driveway. Intermittently throughout the work I talked to Bryan about situations that needed extra attention such as the trenching and reusing the washed out gravel in the yard. I agreed with his assertion that reusing the washed out gravel was not possible as it was mixed with the dirt of the yard. I was assured that they would take the bobcat and re-dig/extend the trench at the top of the driveway and dig an additional trench along the middle section of the driveway as discussed. After they rolled the driveway and said the work was done, we pointed out a few spots that were not completed and / or not to our satisfaction. They addressed some of these. The work that was completed was adequate. They worked for about 4 hours. The work that was not completed is described below. The bobcat would be needed to complete the remaining work and was no longer on site. As the equipment was not on site, it was early evening by then and we at least had a passable driveway, we paid them the $800 cash and agreed and quot;on good faith that they would returnand quot; on Wednesday, July 16 (4 days later), to finish up these last details. These details are as follows: 1) They did not re-dig and extend the existing trench along the top section of the driveway. In fact, they loaded a bunch of gravel at the end of the trench (see image 1). It had already been stressed and acknowledged that this very spot was the source of the recent rutting and that it needed to be regraded to direct water away from the driveway to avoid a recurrence. 2) They did not trench the street side of the middle section of the driveway. It was discussed in the initial consultation, and acknowledged on the day the work was completed, that they would use the Bobcat to dig a nice deep trench for rainwater to be redirected away from the driveway and the house. (see image 2) 3) There was a rutted/washed out spot at the very bottom of the driveway that they mostly filled, but stopped about 4 feet short. We requested that this be completely filled in when they returned to dig the trenches. (see image 3) They did not show up on Wednesday, July 16 as scheduled. I called the main office number for Sandman on July 16 at noon and left a message. I received a call back at 2:15pm that day from Reagan informing me that Bryan and Jeremy were not available as they were busy with other work, but that Jeremy is her husband and she would and quot;have him nail it downand quot;. I called the office again on Monday, July 21at 1pm and Wednesday, July 23 at 4:15pm, and left a message. I called Bryan's cell phone on Friday, July 25 and left a message. In each of these messages I requested a call back to schedule completion of the job. I have not received a call back. The last time I spoke with anyone representing Sandman was Reagan on July 16. Because the above-described, agreed-upon work that was not completed, after another heavy rain on August 4 storm water has started to re-dig ruts in the same areas of the driveway that were addressed by the regrading less than one month earlier. Some of the work that was completed needs to be completed again, and the work that was not completed obviously still needs to be done.

I asked them to quote the 2 projects separately because I wasn't sure I could afford to do both projects - especially in light of the fact that other home repairs were also being done. I was delighted to find that both projects were affordably priced and I could accept both quotes. The work was done in a timely fashion and was done neatly with a high degree of professionalism. They explained the work and what needed to happen in each project. They coordinated with the Village inspectors and even the village officials said they were a great firm and easy to work with. They took special care in explaining how and when we could use the driveway as well as what we could do to help the work last. At the end of the project they also left a booklet on caring for the driveway. They encouraged me to call them if I had any questions - even after the project. I highly recommend the firm and their work.

The initial contact went well. Extremely approachable and professional company!!! We maintained contact through out the process and they were extremely courteous and genuine people. The day of the operation went extremely smooth...they certainly know what they do and they do it very well. After they left, they cleaned up the driveway and loved the result. I will definitely refer them to anyone!!! They are extremely competitive and very nice people!

It went very well. They were very good. They showed up when they said they would show up, they got it done in a timely manner and it looks lovely. I think their prices are a little high.

On 3/22 a representative from Sandman Paving came to my home and submitted a quote to replace my front walkway. We discussed the need to replace the walkway because it had sunk near the entryway to my home. I explained that I needed the job completed by the end of April in order to put my home up for sale. I was informed that the sidewalk was out of compliance, it had sunk 5.5 inches. I was told it would take one full day to do the job and he saw no issue with getting it done in April. He called first, was very polite and behaved in a professional manner. On 3/25 the owner called and apologized stating the representative that submitted the quote to me was in training, was inexperienced and quoted way to low for the job. That the company could not do the work for the amount submitted. The owner continued to give a verbal quote on the phone stating it was low to help make up for the inconvenience. I was very disappointed but understood, everyone makes mistakes. I was assured once again that April would not be a problem, that they do many jobs in my area and due to the low quote they would need to do my job with another in the area in order to make any money. Understandable. I was not offered a separate bid for the job that was not tied to another job. There was no need to ask for one with them doing so much business in this area and April not being a problem for them. I called the office back on 4/4 letting them know that I would go with them as long as it could be done in April and asked what was the next step. They said I needed a permit and I went out immediately to obtain and called the office with my permit number. I called the office each week egger for an install date. My time frame of April was running out. The office called me on April 22nd asking if they could come on April 23rd to do the job. They did not show up, I did receive a call late in the day with the office stating that there was a machinery breakdown. They would be out the next day which rained so no show. It continued to rain the next week. I called the office once again on Monday, May 5th when I was told I not only was not on the current schedule but that they did not have any work in this area at this time. I was very frustrated due to the lack of communication and appreciation for my time frame requirement. I asked if they had any real intent of following through with the actual job to which they replied they did have the intent but needed another job in the area. I explained that through the entire process how the April date was very important and at no time did anyone suggest that was going to be a problem. I stated that I felt inclined to write up my current position in Angies list. That I would wait out this week and hoped they would be calling me with an install date. I have not yet heard from the company