STRICTLY CONCRETE

We have a second home in a remote location. Needed a pad to store a snowmobile trailer. The contractor also had a place near there and was going to do the job. He came and checked out the location and sent a professional estimate. We accepted and sent the down payment. He became seriously ill and his wife contacted us about his condition. After it was apparent he was not going to get well anytime soon, she sent our down payment back. I finally found another contractor to do the job.

I originally chose Strictly Concrete since they were very close in cost to others, but a small local company. I thought this would be a great way to help local businesses. That was a mistake. When Mitch came for the estimate he was very courteous. They started the job late, but it was due to the weather. They finally started November 2009 the week before Thanksgiving. I took the day off to see the progress, but with less than 1/2 day work, that was a waste of time. It seemed like there was always some sort of problem. Blew the hydrolic line on the skid steer. Once they finally got to the front porch, I decided to check the form work before they poured the concrete and it was off more than 3 inches in width over 18 feet. They promised 4" concrete pour, I measured that also, there were spots less than 3" thick. Mitch was not very happy I told him these problems existed. They also kept delaying the pour to ensure ideal conditions, but the concrete still cracked within about a month. Mitch 'repaired' the first crack. Just a waste of time. They dug the holes for the deck piers, only about 2 feet deep, and after placing the sono tubes it rained crushing the tubes. When I explained the depth required for code was not met, he argued with me, so I had to call the township and make sure they were inspected to meet code. They redug the holes, but they were still out of round after pouring them. When they did the basement steps, they made the first pour even with the basement floor. This was probably the only error that was corrected without a major attitude. After all pouring was complete I asked them to also parge the basement wall to make it look like it belongs with the new poured walls, there were cracks in the parging the next day. Here is where the fun came. I still owed a few hundred dollars and asked the cracks be repaired before I make the final payment. Mitch started yelling at me that he wanted his money now!! I begrugingly gave him the check after he promised to correct the problem the next day. He did come back that one more time, but there are still many cracks. I know it is too late, but to make a long story short, this was possibly the worst experience ever.

This has to be one of the worse contractors I have ever dealt with. Very un-professioinal, as there were phone calls that we had, where Mitch (the owner) actually started swearing and hung up on me. Unfortunally they already had my down payment, so I had little choice but to stick with them. His wife Joann was very rude as well. It took them over a year to finish the job, as I continued to get excuses from them to poor the concreate. The fact is they had my money and knew I had no way of getting it back. On top of this, once I got the concreate, I had it for less than 3 months and it cracked. They refused to do anything about fixing it. Also the stamps were not done very evenly and you can see forms where some are higher than others. Go with someone that takes pride in their work. Others have recommend DanTam, but I have no experience with them. But do not go with Stricly concreate, keep on looking for a better contractor. Best of Luck!