Cement Tech

We had Cement Tech pour a roughly 1600 square foot patio this Spring after seeing favorable reviews on various social media websites as well as a recommendation from a friend. We were pleasantly surprised that Kris, the owner of Cement Tech, advised he had availability to quote our job when we could barely get other contractors to call us back. The initial on-site consultation was good, and the price seemed fair, so we scheduled the job to be started at Cement Tech’s earliest availability. Kris and his team worked up through the Memorial Day weekend, and everything seemed to have gone as planned up to the cement pour process. Though we are not concrete specialists, it was clear from the time the forms were removed that the final look of the concrete was sloppy. We also were unhappy with the failure to protect our home from spray/splatter and just generally clean up overall. We have had prior contractors out for things like our roof or even our driveway that took considerably more care to protect our home from potential damage than was done with this job. One slider door was covered with plastic sheeting, but the main entry door and an entry door off of our bathroom were not protected in any way. Though we have tried to clean up the splatter ourselves, there is still concrete spatter on both doors and our siding. We also had downspouts that were pulled from the side of the house and not replaced as well as a couple of 5-gallon buckets worth of concrete chunks we had picked up out of the lawn around the patio. The final and worst part of the prep was that the subcontractor Cement Tech used for prep work tore out a newly installed drain tile for diverting rainwater away from the house. Upon realizing they did this; they replaced the solid tile with perforated tile and poured concrete over it. Now I have rainwater coming into the basement. The main issue is we have with this project is the look of the finish work. We have had friends and family ask if we had done the work ourselves as a “DIY” project due to its overall appearance. It appears that the concrete cured too fast for Kris and his crew to properly complete the project of this size. Some of the steps leading in to our home are badly misshapen and have a very obvious uneven appearance. The most egregious parts of the appearance are the pure lack of care in the finished work. There is lots of chatter in the brush strokes, concrete was being picked up and rolled with the broom as opposed to brushed, and a number of uneven spots creating visible dips in the flat work. There was also an area where it looked like nothing had been brushed/broomed, but we were later informed that one of the crew members tossed a form and damaged a finished area in the center of the patio. Apparently, this was known but not addressed immediately after it occurred. After several attempts at patching this damage, the patches are a different color and actually draw more attention than the initial damage itself. Though we have expressed our dissatisfaction with the color inconsistency and overall poor quality of finish, Kris’ remedies to date have been nominal at best and frankly always seem to be someone else’s fault. We contacted Kris Elve (owner operator of Cement Tech) 4 days after the initial pour. At Kris’ request, we waited 28 days later to allow further curing and to see if some of the concrete color would even out and provide a better appearance. However, 30+ days later the concrete still looked bad, and the stained border had already faded significantly. Kris did come back out again to re-stain the boarder and made additional necessary relief cuts that had not been previously considered at our request. Also, on that day, Kris took pictures of the concrete and said he would get with his supplier of the concrete sealer he applied to see if they would take responsibility for the look of the concrete. After first telling us he would not “hide” and that he would pay for staining the entire patio at his cost, he let us know that he would not stain the patio free of cost unless the concrete supplier paid for it. It was at this point we knew that Cement Tech would not be standing by their work and left us to pay to correct their errors. It has now been (9) weeks since Kris was going to “look into” the sealer supplier and the concrete supplier and we have heard nothing back. The only response we have seen was to negative reviews we have left online in where he has admitted cutting off contact with us because we asked him to stain the concrete at his expense, which ironically is what HE proposed to resolve this (we have this is writing in an email). In wanting to verify if the entire patio project was done as poorly as the finish work, we had another, large and well-established concrete company come out to review the work performed. They immediately noticed the glaring deficiencies in the finish work, but confirmed the base layer appeared to have been done correctly. He recommended the additional relief cuts as the existing were spaced too far apart for industry standards (as large as 16’ x 13’ for 4” thick concrete). They further advised the discoloration was likely due to the extra water put into the concrete trying to extend the working time. Overall, it appears Kris and his crew took on more than they could handle with our project and that they are now hoping we will just go away. Unfortunately, it is concrete, and it is meant to last for a number of decades and this takes up a large portion of the rear of our home. It is unfortunate that Cement Tech cannot own up to their short comings and learn from this experience in not only providing better customer service but in their overall final product.