Hayes Concrete

I purchased a foreclosed home with a pool. The concrete pool deck was pushed up about 6" by a large tree on one corner. I had the tree removed and asked Preston Hayes of Hayes Concrete to give me an estimate on removing the corner section of the concrete pool deck and repouring. This section was approximately 10'x12' and 6'x4' if divided into two areas, but was one consistent replacement on the corner. I searched google for concrete repair in the Burlington, NC area and Hayes Concrete was one of the companies I called. I was a bit skeptical of his work after seeing some photos on their company website and their "projects" section. One project was called "Reidsville N.C. - Swimming Pools" which was exactly what i was looking for. You can CLEARLY see in the photos posted on their website, the quality of work, or lack thereof. In several of the photos, there is concrete "splash" all over the swimming pool ladder legs, a diving board square mount, and the ladder exiting the pool. I was concerned about this poor workmanship and attention to a clean job, but thought I would address it with Preston when he arrived at my project to give me a quote. I should have known better...cheap is not always the best solution. Preston scheduled to meet me on a Saturday at a specific time. His fiance called me the night before saying they would not be able to meet me tomorrow and wondered if we could meet on Sunday morning. I reluctantly agreed. On Sunday, the time for his appointment came and went. After about 45 minutes, his fiance called again and said they were in route to my house but would be another hour before they arrived. This really upset me as their tardiness was now pushing into my already planned afternoon activities. When they arrived, I was quick to point out my dissatisfaction with their lateness on an appointment that they had already requested to be rescheduled to a later date. He apologized many times and was understanding. I showed him the repair work required and as he stood on top of the 6" ROOT lifted concrete slab, I told him I wanted this all removed (as in hauled away) and replaced and needed a price for the work. He made a few measurements, did some calculations and quoted me $1000 for the work. I then asked that he preform some small patchwork on other areas along the sides of the pool and he said he could do that for an additional $200, total of $1200 for the work. I also asked him about his work qualitiy issues of the pool project photos on his website and he assured me that they would clean the work area as they worked and that this "over splash" from pouring would be wiped clean before it dried on my metal pool coping edging. I agreed and signed his quote to have the work done. He scheduled the work to start after my pool liner had been replaced, and they started the work on 4/4/11. I left him a check at the house, hidden at predetermined location for him to pick up. I installed a video camera in the kitchen to monitor the start of their work. They arrived onsite around 9am and Preston's first action was to go to the hiding spot and retrieve his money. He then set about starting his crew on the work of removing the concrete slab in the corner with a jack hammer and small front end loader called a BobCat. He was there with 3 other guys. Sometime around 11am, he called to tell me that the tree root was going to be a problem with setting his forms for the concrete. "Are you kidding me??? You didn't NOTICE the tree root when you stood on the lifted slab quoting the price?" was my response to this call. He said he needed to rent a stump grinder and asked that I approve additional money to pay for this. I argued profusely about this and said that stump removal was not his specialty. He begged and pleaded saying he gave me the best price but didn't consider needing a stump grinder. He claimed that he thought he would be dealing with only roots and didn't anticipate the size of the roots under the slab, despite the evidence of the LARGE ground level stump and wood chips only inches from the corner of the concrete pool decking. I specifically informed him of the size of the tree that was removed and it was quite apparent from the lifted concrete that this was more than a few small wrist-sized roots underneath. Again, I gave in, because I just wanted the work done. I agreed to an additional $250 for the grinder and his labor hours to remove the remaining stump and roots under the slab. By this point, I couldn't stay at work any longer. I had to go home and monitor this train wreck happening in my backyard. When I arrived, Preston was gone and according to his crew, at the rental place picking up a stump grinder. They were casually chipping away at the remaining 2/3rds of the slab with the jack hammer. Preston returned shortly with a small stump grinder, better suited for removing dogwood trees, than the remains of a 3 foot diameter, 120' tall pine tree. I then noticed the growing pile of concrete chunks and debris in the back corner of my yard. Again, I asked Preston, his intentions with this debris and he said he didn't agree to removing it. Blood pressure rising and anger building, I returned to this house to review his quote and of course it was no specific to the work and did not mention debris removal. My fault. I should have required a more specific detail of work to be preformed. So I asked that he get a dumptruck to the house and load all the debris up for hauling away. He called a contact and they were by the house within a few hours and Preston loaded it all with his Bobcat. I had to pay the driver for his time and trip to the landfill. This was an additional cost of $125 not included in this report regarding Hayes Concrete. My total for this project was now up to $1575. $375 above original quote. Preston Hayes and his crew finished the first day and had the forms set for a pour the next morning. I was not happy with their forms either. Before they left, I asked one of his workers if they were going to secure the very thin 1x4 boards more securely with stakes prior to pouring and he assured me they would. They only managed a few stakes and the 1x4 form boards had been previously used on another project and were warped. The few stakes the did place did not straighten these out at all. I told him I wanted clean straight edging on this pour and he said they would take care of it. When I returned home from work the next afternoon, the form boards were gone but their shape was indelibly left as a crooked, twisting edge on my concrete pool decking. In addition, Preston had told me they ran short on concrete during the pour because he had underestimated the amount, so there was evidence of an area that was noticeably thinner the the rest of the slab. Also, there was evidence of a boot print in the middle of the slab that was not floated out properly. Additionally, the expansion line that was drawn into the concrete was not parallel with the edge of the pool. In other words, when you stand at the front of my pool and look down the edge of the pool coping toward the rear corner that had the concrete replaced, you can CLEARLY see the expansion line angling away from the pool coping corner to the edge of the concrete pour. This was done by sight without any regard for making this line parallel to the pool edge or perpendicular to the concrete edge. It was also, over notched to a size of almost a full inch in places. VERY UNPROFESSIONAL work! There is MORE! Remember my concerns about the "over splash" and concrete mud on my coping? Yep, you guess it. It was all there, all over my coping, harden and dried. I was FURIOUS. There is even more, this doesn't end. Preston's truck broke down and he had to leave his Bobcat in my backyard.....for over 2 WEEKS!! That thing leaked hydraulic fluid all over my yard. We had a hard rain while it was there and you could see all the oil and hyrdolic fluid shimmering rainbow colors across the water running through my yard. I guess I could thank him for not having to mow the grass in that section of the yard all summer! NOT! Oh, and his truck broke down, again, across the street from my house, the day they returned to pick up this bobcat. He rutted up the neighbor's property where he pulled off the road to work on his truck until 10pm that night. Oh I forgot to mention, Preston allowed the concrete truck to "wash out" the chute on my driveway next to the road. To this day, I can still see the white concrete wash stained on my black asphalt apron to the street. When time came for payment, I of course had some choice words for him. He met me at the house and I explained to him everything I was dissatisfied with. Again, he appologized and said he aimed to please. He said if I needed him to replace the remainder of the pool deck in the future (which I need to do as it is cracked elsewhere and is old), he would remove this shoddy work and replace it again. Can you believe that? He openly admitted it wasn't his best work and that he would replace it if I hired him to do more work?? He asked that I pay him additional money on top of what I had agreed to for the stump grinding and said that he had lost money on this job due to all the set backs. I couldn't believe this guy. I paid him the remaining balance of $250 I agreed to on the grinder and said I was done. That was all I was going to pay. Can I say anything could about this guy? Yeah, I can. He was very friendly and courteous and really did try to please. He's just a terrible concrete company owner. DO NOT HIRE HAYES CONCRETE FOR ANY WORK. You've been warned. This experience is why I signed up for Angie's List. I needed to be sure on the other contractors I hired for my kitchen remodel. I have been happy with them so far.