Have you ever paid someone a lot of money to do a job and ended up screwed.

[yomax4]

My buddy paid cash for a driveway paving job, they spread all the asphalt around with rakes and tamped a bit by hand, then "went to get the roller" and never came back! They actually seemed to know what they were doing as its all sloped correctly and amazingly flat for a rake and tamp, but you can see the rake marks in it still. When I first saw it I thought it might be a new "textured" finish or some new fad like that Live and learn!

I had a blacktop guy stop by one day and mentioned that he was booked out the rest of this fall but if I paid in advance for next spring he would knock off 15%. I'm starting to think that somewhere out there they all follow the small contractor hand book.

 

[newbury]

Recently there was a guy in my area that would come by, promise a job for a rate slighly above the average.
The crew would show up, do the driveway, then almost immediatley he would collect the money.

In an unusual scam, a man went door-to-door in Northern Virginia offering paving services and then hired a legitimate company to do the work — as he collected and kept the money himself, the company and police say. News4’s Susan Hogan reports.

Driveway paving scammer hired real paver, kept homeowners' money

The company got very mad.

 

[riptides]

Recently there was a guy in my area that would come by, promise a job for a rate slighly above the average.
The crew would show up, do the driveway, then almost immediatley he would collect the money.

Driveway paving scammer hired real paver, kept homeowners' money

The company got very mad.

Saw that. Only caught because a customer talked to a crew person.

 

[EddieWalker]

Cracks are from too much water added to the mix when the concrete truck is pouring the concrete. This is very common because the crew spreading the concrete wants it to be as easy as possible. You did not have any slump in the concrete, and it flowed easily.

All concrete will crack, but with proper slump, the cracks are usually so small that most people will never see them. Rebar installed on chairs so it's not laying at the bottom of the pad will hold the concrete together so the cracks are invisible. Wire is worthless and it's the first red flag of a job that's going to fail.

The biggest lie told is that they will lift the rebar if it's not on chairs, or they will lift the wire while spreading the concrete. When the job starts, they will do this for pictures, but usually stop pretending once the work gets serious, and then just walk all over it. Walking on rebar or wire will push it to the ground. Next biggest lie is that the rebar or wire will sit on the round aggregate rocks in the mix and remain there when people walk on them.

Cutting relief cuts into concrete after its poured just encourages the concrete to crack where it's not so ugly. If the concrete is poured with proper slump, relief cuts are not needed. Expansion joints allow concrete to expand and contract when it's out in the elements. When concrete gets hot, it gets bigger, when it gets cold, it gets smaller. Cutting lines into the concrete that has a building over it is more about hiding too much water then anything else