Worton Asphalt

Mr. Worton was recommended by an old friend, now deceased. I contracted with him last May to pave my driveway. There was an added garage to my property, so he laid asphalt over my old driveway and up to the concrete slab of the new garage. There is a drain problem near my old garage and I specifically told him that the asphalt must slope down from the garage to drain properly. The workers worked quite fast and did not appear to consider fine work around the edges, in other words they were good with large equipment, the required areas got covered alright, but they did not tamp edges well, consequently, there were some cracks around the perimeter of the asphalt. The workers used a large steamroller where the extended concrete slab of the new garage met the new asphalt. The roller cracked the concrete slab in a few places. I let it go and waited for the next rain to check the drainage. After a rain shower I noticed the workers did not slope the asphalt down from the old garage threshold as I ordered, consequently water got inside my garage. I also noticed the surface of the asphalt was pretty rough in a lot of places. It looked OK for a strip mall parking lot, but had poor aestheticism for a residence. I figured maybe when Mr. Worton seals the asphalt it will look better. I expressed my concern about the drainage and Mr. Worton said don't worry we will come back and fix it until it is right. I had him come back on a rainy day and he saw how the water pooled near the threshold of the garage. I suggested that at this point it would be easiest to just install a berm of asphalt along the threshold and he agreed. The workers came back and installed the berm, it looked like a speed bump. However, through the Summer, heavy rains would still get in my garage. I called Mr. Worton and told him we will have to do better. I suggested in the Fall, when he seals the asphalt, that he "install" a swale to help with the rain runoff in front of the garage. He agreed to do this. Before his workers started on this project, I outlined how I wanted the project to go with Mr. Worton, I used a chalk line to mark a trapezoid swale, parallel to the garage, to carry the water away to the lawn area near the garage. He said no problem, then left, as before for his workers to do the job. This behavior of being all agreeable before the job, then leaving his workers to do it, and not coming back after the job was a problem. In this case, I expected the workers to cut out the area of asphalt I had marked, in order to bring down the level of the asphalt to carry off the rain water. The workers apparently decided that was too much work and instead decided to use a propane torch to heat up the asphalt in the swale area and scrape it off with a shovel to lower the grade. It was a long, slow process, that eventually used up all his propane and I had to go procure more propane to finish the "job" As it turned out, the "swale" they produced, was a third the size of the one I had marked out and looked very unprofessional with a rough texture. And, as I suspected, a later rain shower proved that it was inadequate. I had the workers add to the berm's height as I figured their job would not work and I was getting tired of arguing with them. Then they "sealed" the whole job. This consisted of spraying the asphalt with a large wand, again, on a large scale it works, but in the corners and along the edges there was no finesse. Done without masking, there was a lot of overspray including the walls of my garage, again, not professional. They could have sprayed short of the edges and used a brush to finish, but that would have required more work and I got the impression this outfit did the minimum. The amount of sealer they used also seemed very minimal. I had hoped that using the proper amount would help cover the rough appearance of the asphalt surface but that did not happen. I compared they appearance of my new driveway with my neighbor's older asphalt drive, and his looks much better, with a smooth finish. Mine looks OK if it was a roadway in Memphis getting a new surface, but a driveway? No way. My guess is he uses a cheap mix with large gravel that leaves a rough appearance, he hasn't been back here to explain. I complained to Mr. Worton the day after, he said he can't make it this week, maybe next. And that set the tone for the 3 months. I called him on a regular basis to have him address the problems, come out and look, but he always had an excuse, from vacation to sickness, to it being too cold outside to come over. I gave him plenty of time to fix it, but finally I have given up and resorted to writing this note, so others can avoid problems. I am left with a mediocre driveway, a huge speed bump to drive over to get in my garage and water still comes in during heavy rains, a fairly common occurrence in Memphis. Don't bother to use this contractor.