Custom Paving

Good crew. Steamroller operator a little careless, but overall work was done with quality materials to a professional standard. Six months later I am still very pleased with the work and the price.

It never will! Thank you Angies List client for saving the rest of us from your nightmare.

It still looks great and we're pleased with it and that's why the neighbors keep asking. He's one of the big companys because when I went through my ads he was easy to find. He did such a fantastic job that 4-5 of my neighbors hired him. Another person just called me to ask who did the work and I saw the Gorman truck in his driveway so they must have contracted with him. I was pleased that he worked with me for the timing of the job, he offered a sizable discount and I appreciated that. I talked to 3-4 companies. When his crew came out they did more than just pave it. I had a bad portion of the driveway that had to be chisled out and rebuilt and they did a very good job there. You can't see where it ever was. They did very nice edging along the driveway, it looks very good. Mr. Gorman himself came out overseeing the crew part of the day and I liked that, a lot of times with companies you never see the owner or manager. I did see him, meet him and talk with him myself and I liked that. His price was in the ballpark with everyone else and he honored his discount so that was nice

Companies that advertise like this should be shunned.

This is the worst experience we have had with a contractor, and we have worked with many contractors while renovating four houses during the past ten years. I would not agree to work with Pat Gorman again, even if he offered to pay me for the opportunity. This review is intended to convey only the facts about our experiences with Pat Gorman/Gorman Paving. You, as the reader, must draw your own conclusions and determine for yourself whether you should hire this company. We make no attempt to advise or persuade you regarding that decision, which should be made pursuant to your own judgment based on a totality of the circumstances. We'll start with a brief summary of the main issues, for those who do not want to read a lengthy tail, then relate the whole story in detail. Here are the primary points: 1) Pat Gorman talked a good game, saying things to us like, ?Don?t worry, I?ll do whatever it takes to make you happy?, and ?I stand behind my work?, but as soon as we had a problem with the work, he became irate and refused to correct the problem. 2) He represented himself as expert in areas where he appears to have little, if any, expertise. 3) He took on work that he and his crew could not perform, and then, when his efforts were unacceptable, he claimed that he does not do that sort of work. 4) He personally observed that his crew?s work was sub-standard and tried to get us to accept it anyway. 5) When we pointed out an obvious and serious problem with his work, he became personally insulting and then lost control of himself to the extent that his own crew physically removed him from the premises. 6) He ignored known industry standards for performing work. We did not know to ask specifically for every step that should be performed, and he did not advise us of those steps so that we could elect to follow them. Thus, they were not performed. 7) He stated that he would perform specific tasks that he did not, in fact, perform. 8) He used irrelevant clauses in his contract to threaten us when we did not accept the poor quality of his work. 9) He severed our electric dog fence, even after being advised of its existence, location, and importance and has not compensated us for the loss. Now the full story. We hired Pat Gorman based on the fact that he re-paved an asphalt driveway for a neighbor. Unfortunately, we did not check the Better Business Bureau, where he already has four complaints on record (about to get a fifth)--our first mistake. Also, if we had been members of Angie?s List at that time, we would have seen that he has no positive reviews from previous customers. During the initial meeting with Mr. Gorman, he talked a good game, claiming to be an expert in all the things we needed, which included resurfacing the driveway, laying concrete paving stones between our house and garage with a path leading to the back patio, and expanding our front porch and covering it in paving stones. However, at that same meeting, he displayed his lack of flexibility when he didn?t want to use the same stones that we had used on our back patio because they are approximately ? inch thicker than a smaller version he preferred. We should have dismissed him at that point--our second mistake. During that first meeting, we walked the entire area with Mr. Gorman and discussed, in particular, our concerns about drainage. We specifically focused on the need to control the flow of water between the house and garage and where the driveway meets the garage to avoid damage to either of the two structures. He casually dismissed all our concerns, stating that he would take care of the drainage, no problem at all, this work is what he does, etc. We did not require that Mr. Gorman state in writing the particulars of how the drainage would be handled, other than that the area would be ?graded?--our third mistake. Work eventually commenced, starting with raising some sunken patio stones on our preexisting back patio and laying new stones in a path leading to the front porch. Leveling the sunken areas on the back porch turned out to be problematic, because Mr. Gorman only wanted to raise and re-level two or three stones, thinking that doing so would level out a sunken area that was at least 10 feet in circumference. His approach to that problem revealed immediately that he and his crew did not intend to perform the work we had hired them to do. Moreover, he accused me of increasing the scope of the job by telling them to level more and more stones. That accusation was ridiculous; the sunken areas did not change in size, rather he simply did not want to lift all the stones required to level out the entire dip, and I would not approve the incomplete fix. Mr. Gorman ultimately did not fix the sunken areas completely, and many of the stones in those areas are still recessed. At the same time that work was being performed, other members of his crew were laying stones on the path. From time to time, Mr. Gorman would call me over to see if I would accept stones or collections of stones that were obviously unlevel. When I asked him if he would accept such workmanship at his own home, he admitted that he would not. Yet, he asked me to accept it at mine. Also, on several occasions, I pointed out a problem, and he replied, ?I was afraid you were going to notice that.? This approach to the work turned out to be typical, i.e., he would deliberately ignore a problem with the hope that we would not notice it or would accept it anyway. He routinely failed to correct his mistakes voluntarily. After the stones were laid between the house and detached garage, it was apparent that the drainage concern that we had discussed with him had not been successfully addressed. We pointed out to Mr. Gorman that, due to the angle and height at which the stones had been installed, water would run away from the house and pool against the garage. Also, the stones had been placed at virtually the same height as the foundation of the garage, which made it likely that water would go into the garage under the garage wall. When we pointed out the problem to Mr. Gorman, he quite glibly stated that there was no problem at all, and he would prove it to us. He then used the garden hose to spray water in the area. The water immediately created a large pool right up against the garage wall where the wall meets the foundation. The water took about 20 minutes to disperse, and the area was still damp over an hour later. And that was on a hot, dry, sunny summer day. When Mr. Gorman saw what had happened and that he had, in fact, created a drainage problem, he became extremely angry. He immediately threatened us and our neighbors?who had signed a contract with him for driveway paving earlier that morning?that he would put a lien on our houses if anyone refused to pay him or tried to cancel a contract. He then started screaming that we were a ?nightmare to work with? and ?the worst customers he had ever had?. He accused us of having made all kinds of changes to the scope of the work. (We had, in fact, made only one slight adjustment to the width of a step, a change which was so minor that the subcontractor hired to do that portion of the job implemented the change at no additional cost to us.) Mr. Gorman stated flat out that he would not take up the stones and re-grade the area to allow for proper drainage. His only offer was to charge us $2,000.00 more to put in a drain against the garage wall. Mr. Gorman also denied that he had ever discussed any drainage issues with us, and further stated that he does not ?guarantee drainage.? Of course, this was quite a surprise to us, since we hired him to address those very issues, and the contract even specified that the areas would be properly graded. At no time previous had he explained that he does not deal with drainage?on the contrary, he had assured us that he could, and would, properly handle all drainage issues. After his initial outburst, Mr. Gorman continued, for several more hours that day, to be extremely insulting to both me and my husband, calling me a mental case, among other things. At one point, he even started screaming at my husband, ?Make her go in the house!??meaning that my husband should make me go in the house. Sexist enough for you? Eventually, my husband became so offended by Mr. Gorman?s behavior that he strongly cautioned him to discontinue the insults. Mr. Gorman laughed at my husband and continued the insults and jibes until he eventually worked himself into such a state that he appeared both mentally and physically out of control. Observing this, a couple of members of Mr. Gorman?s crew stopped work and forcibly removed Mr. Gorman from our premises. Mr. Gorman never returned to the site, though work continued for several days thereafter. Two days after this incident, while the crew was taking the weekend off work, I decided to wash the stone dust off our house. Mr. Gorman had promised to clean the house after all the stones had been cut, but he did not do it, and his crew had removed their hose from the premises, indicating that they had no intentions of cleaning up after themselves as promised. As I washed the house, water splashed into the area between the house and the garage. My husband, who was working in the garage at the time, advised me that water was coming into the garage between the wall and foundation. The pool of water in the garage was precisely adjacent to the area where Mr. Gorman had made the water pool two days earlier. With the help of a neighbor, we moved our belongings out of the way of the water so that they would not get damaged and took a picture of the water inside the garage, which we then sent to Mr. Gorman via e-mail, again requesting that he properly grade the stones, as damage to our garage was now imminent. Mr. Gorman responded with an email message that included the implication that the water had not really come from outside the garage and referred to our attitude towards having water penetrate the walls of our finished garage as ?childish. He did, however, agree to send one man over the next day to look at the problem, stating that there would be no guarantee that the problem would be corrected. Our email exchanges with Mr. Gorman, as well as the pictures of the water coming in from under the garage wall, are available for review. So, the next day we started the ordeal of trying to explain to Mr. Gorman?s crew how to properly grade the area to allow the water to drain away from the two structures and into the yard. His crew vacillated between ordering us to tell them what to do and claiming that they were experts and knew what to do. (In actuality, their so-called expert on that day was, by his own reporting, a brick mason who had no professional experience in laying patio stones. It was only his second day of employment with Mr. Gorman.) They could not figure out what slope should be used to accomplish proper drainage away from the buildings. We advised them that 2% was the minimum industry standard and provided them with documentation of that standard. They then could not figure out how to calculate a 2% slope over the affected area, which is approximately 6? x 23?. We calculated the slope for them and told them how many inches down the area needed to be graded in each direction to achieve proper drainage. The crew then demonstrated that they did not know how to grade the area to match those measurements. They attempted to grade the area one stone at a time using a small level. This approach was unlikely to accomplish a consistent and correct grade over an area of approximately 140 square feet. We pointed out that they had a string level, which even included marks for different grades, and that they could use that level to calculate the depth of the slope across the entire area. However, they did not know how to use the string level, as illustrated by their having put the string up backwards so that the grade marks on the level were pointing in the wrong direction. We did our best to help them understand how the work needed to be done and how to use their tools properly, but they did not follow our advice. After a very long day, much of which was spent debating how the work should be performed, they managed to lay only about four feet of stones, and those four feet were not graded correctly. In fact, the stones still slanted toward the garage and were still aimed directly at the seam between the garage foundation and the wall, making it extremely likely that water would enter the garage again. Realizing that Mr. Gorman and his crew simply did not know how to grade for proper drainage, we gave up and told them to cease work. We will have to perform the work ourselves or hire someone else to do it. Mr. Gorman charged us $12,500 for stone work that he and his crew could not perform. Rather than tell us up front that he lacked expertise in laying patio stones, that he did not know how to address drainage issues, and that he did not guarantee good results, he took our money, then failed to perform the work as promised. He has never offered to return any of our money to compensate for his failure to perform. In fact, he threatened to put a lien on our house if we did not pay in full, including for work that was never completed. As for the driveway paving, we now know that industry practice is to adhere an old asphalt driveway to a new asphalt overlay with an adhesive, which is called a tack coat. We should have researched the correct way to repave with asphalt before hiring Mr. Gorman or anyone else--our fourth mistake. Mr. Gorman never mentioned a tack coat to us, even though he agreed that our existing driveway was probably original to the house, making it nearly 40 years old. Our neighbor, who did research industry practice, asked for a tack coat on his driveway, and Mr. Gorman agreed to put one down for him. Mr. Gorman also told our neighbor and his own crew that they would put a tack coat on our driveway as well. However, he did not do so. When our neighbor asked Mr. Gorman why he had not applied a tack coat to our driveway as promised, Mr. Gorman stated that we did not get a tack coat because we did not personally ask for one. So, Mr. Gorman was not true to his word and did not follow well documented industry practice, nor even advise us of the option so that we could choose to adhere to industry standards. Mr. Gorman?s contract terms also deserve discussion. In regard to driveway paving, he states that he will not guarantee proper drainage. So, if water flows into the garage or house, understand that?despite anything that he says prior to signing the contract--his contract indicates that drainage problems and consequential water damage created by his paving work are the customer?s problem. Also, his contract requires the customer to stay 20? away from the job site, and any attempt to communicate job requirements or specifications to his crew will be considered interference and will void all warranties. Read his contract carefully and realize that it is a weapon he holds in reserve to use against you should you take issue with any aspect of his work. We didn?t read it carefully enough?our fifth mistake?and he then threatened us repeatedly with those terms. Specifically, he claimed that we had no right to be on the work site or to advise his crew?even when both he and his crew routinely asked for our input. He also stated that, per his contract, he does not care about, or guarantee, proper drainage, thus directly contradicting everything that he promised to induce us to hire him. No one who does quality paving or patio stone work should neglect to accommodate proper drainage, as it is a crucial part of doing the job right and avoiding consequential damage to customers? property. Last but not least, Mr. Gorman?s crew severed our electric dog fence, including cutting out a section of the fence approximately 50? long. The electric fence wire was repeatedly pointed out to Mr. Gorman and his crew, and they were cautioned not to cut it. They cut it anyway, and Mr. Gorman has never offered us any compensation, or even an apology, for the damage. Good luck to any who hire Pat Gorman/Gorman Paving.

The job went well. They arrived within 15 minutes of their start time (9am on a Saturday), the crew leader explained the whole process and then went to work. They did the work with a minimal amount of disruption to my family (noise/inconvenience) and finished much sooner then expected. The crew leader would see me pop my head outside and see how it was going and he would explain what was going on at that point. They cleaned up the site very well and did a great job overall.

They did terrible work. He did not show up on time, and the asphalt seams were terrible. There are areas where stones are coming out of the asphalt, and I am going to have to redo several areas. This is the only negative report I have made on Angies List.

They didn't compress it enough. The asphalt was crumbling apart. When I called to complain he got agitated and wouldn't even come and look at it at first. He eventually did seal coat it at cost. The seal didn't work properly as well.

VERY GOOD JOB. ON TIME, ON PRICE, & VERY GOOD QUALITY. A VAST IMPROVEMENT OVER EXISTING DRIVEWAY. NEGATIVE: HARD TO CONTACT, BUT DID EVENTUALLY RESPOND & COMPLETE THE JOB ON TIME.

SENT THE GRANDSON, WHO IS 16, TO ASK FOR THE BUSINESS. THEN HAD TWO PEOPLE, WHO COULD NOT SPEAK ENGLISH, DO ALL OF THE WORK WHICH WAS HORRIBLE. THEY WERE NOT HONEST ABOUT THE PRODUCT OR THE GUARANTEE.