Add On December 08, 2013, you provided the following information:
My last response to this BBB complaint was simply a cut and paste from my Angies List complaint from Mrs. Rivera.
I now have the time to properly respond to this case.
These are the absolute facts of this case;
Mrs. Rivera called me to her home to bid a solvent based re-seal for her pavers in December of 2012. I formulated a proposal for my complete job at $1.10 per foot (my normal price is $1.35. I also deducted my 15% discount for Angies List customers, bringing the total bid to $6,217.75. When I went over the bid with her and she told me that should would not want to spend that much money because she had just put the home on the market and she expected to sell within 3 months, and that she wanted the pavers to look good and be free of her weed problem during the selling process. She asked if there was another cheaper option that I could offer her. I asked her to give me a couple days to go over the numbers, and I would try to come up with a cheaper solution. I returned a couple days later with a new proposal (a snip of the new pricing along with the ALL IMPORTANT reason for such a large discount is attached). I added another discount of $1,517.75 with the following stipulation (also plainly visible on her signed proposal); I would complete my regular process of sealing with the exception of the labor and expense of deeply penetrating the sand joints with sealer to help prevent weeds from coming to the surface. I also verbally told her that the weeds WILL return, but with the weed killing application that I would use the weeds will not come back for at least the 3 months that she was needing to sell the home, but if for some reason she decided to remain in the home I would, at her request return to complete the job for the $1,500. difference in the 2 bids.
We discussed IN LENGTH the fact that her pavers were not properly installed, and that this is the main cause for the excessive and accelerating weed problem. We also discussed the fact that the pavers were not properly bedded in, and that if she does not have an excavating company come in and build and compact the ground along the entire edge of her pavers they will continue to break loose on the edges, and the joints will continue to open further until she will, after a few years, have an irreparable mess that would need to be removed. I told her that this was my opinion, but if she likes I would have an expert in excavation come out to give her his opinion. She agreed -- the expert came and agreed completely with my opinion and referred her to a company to come out and give her a bid. This did happen, and as far as I know the much needed work to save her pavers was never completed.
When installing pavers there are some very important basic rules to follow. 1) Excavation of driveways should be about 10 to 12 inches below what will be the bottom of the pavers. 2) At least 6-8 inches of lime rock gravel should be compacted heavily, followed by 1 inch of sand before laying the pavers. 3) The top of the paver, after installation, should be slightly above the surrounding ground level. 4) ALWAYS bed the edges of all pavers on top of a concrete trenched beam. As you can easily see in the attached photos, NONE of these standard procedures were done at installation. In fact, as you can see, the pavers are WAY above ground level, actually making them look, in my opinion, ridiculous.When I did the repair work that is seen in the attached photos I found virtually no sand, and very little (maybe 1 inch) of base. In the photos you can see roots and weeds underneath the where I pulled the pavers up. You can also see how far away from the border the pavers had moved in the picture that I took before I reset the border pavers. Her entire driveway WILL continue to shift and pavers WILL continue to move unless she makes some major repairs to her property surrounding the pavers. There is absolutely NO WAY to control weeds under these conditions. Her joints will NEVER be stable enough to even hold sand, and she has a virtual breeding ground for weeds under all of her pavers. As you can see in some of the pictures, you can run your hand underneath the pavers along much of the broken, very poorly installed concrete edge as an attempt by the installer to hold the pavers in place.
My only offer to Mrs. Rivera is to allow BBB or another unbiased entity to choose an approved expert to visit her property -- dig and replace any area of the driveway and if the expert opinion is in Mrs. Rivera's favor, that my sealing job is the result of her weed problem I will write her a check for the $4,700. But if the expert finds that the excessive weed growth is the DIRECT result of improperly installed pavers, she must pay me $5,000, and agree to rescind ALL negative reviews and complaints, and I will rescind my defamation of character lawsuit against her.
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