Mabe Concrete & Construction

We had a new sunroom installed, and wanted a new concrete patio to go along with it. First, the positives: Contacted Mr. Mabe after seeing him listed here on Angie's List. He came out to our house, inspected the site, took measurements and gave us a quote. To his credit Mr. Mabe made some suggestions that improved the design of the patio (like rounding the corners, and such). He was also flexible enough to alter the proposal to increase the size of the pad at the very last minute (the day they arrived to start excavating.). Additionally, when it became apparent that the BOBCAT that they were using to haul rock and concrete was leaving ruts in my yard, Mr Mabe and his helper used a wheel barrow to move rock and concrete from my front driveway to the rear of our house (to the patio site). Due to delays finishing the installation of our sunroom, we didn't start the patio project until November of 2013. The proposal was signed on November 12th. The actual work started about a week later. The ground was excavated, the forms were laid, and the rock base was spread. All this went off with out a hitch. Now the negatives: After the forms were laid, and rock spread, the concrete truck arrived to pour the concrete. Because of the late start of the project, it was now the 3rd week of November and we were trying to finish before the weather turned bad. The day of the pouring, the weatherman predicted rain late that evening. We decided to risk it, and started pouring. Toward the end of the pouring, it started to rain. Mr Mabe scrambled to finish 'leveling' the concrete before the sun went down. He was kneeling on a pad, trying to trowel the pad as level as he could. When he finished, he didn't have any plastic to cover the new concrete, and had to borrow some from me. When he finished and was packing up, he asked for the balance of his payment (50% of $1300.00). I told him I didn't like the way he rushed the final troweling (he left obvious trowel marks, and I have a knee-pad impression right in the middle of my pad), and that I wanted to hold 10% of the payment until he came back some other day to finish it. Mr Mabe gave me a hard-luck story of needing all the money to pay material costs, and offed to annotate the written proposal to say he would "come back after the weekend and patch any areas needed from the rain or resurface the entire pad". I agreed, and gave him the balance of my bill. The following week came and went without any word from Mr Mabe. I wasn't too upset, the temperature had dropped, and it was unlikely that we would use our new patio until the following spring. I assumed Mr Mabe would contact me to schedule a return visit. Nothing. Finally, I called him on the 6th of March, got his voice mail and left a message asking him to call and schedule a return visit. No response. What followed was a game of me leaving voice mails every few days until the 24th of March, when Mr Mabe returned my called, explained that his cell phone 'broke', and wasn't aware of the calls I had made, and promised to come out in a couple of days. Nope. Never showed up. This farce continued. I would call, leave voice mail, he return my call, and promised to show up. Never did. Finally, in April (I forget the date), Mr Mabe shows up, and we go to the back yard to look at the concrete pad he poured. He looked at it, said "That's not too bad, we can fix that", and left. We have NEVER heard from Mr Mabe since. I am upset with the quality of his workmanship, but I am d*** mad being lied to, direct to my face. Word to the Wise, if you work with this gentleman, under no circumstances, pay the full balance until you are satisfied with his work.