Blue Tide Exteriors

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• By Theodore L.

  August 25, 2023

  Pour new patio and end of driveway including new culvert

  $7,400

  I had Blue Tide exteriors replace the end of my driveway with a new culvert as well as a new patio. I did my homework looking for the right concrete guy, checked BBB, looked at reviews, everything I could think of. Jordan Strader, the owner, was even $1000 more than the next bid, but with the professionalism of the contact of Gabriel Chance and the interactions coming up to the work, I thought Blue Tide was my best choice for getting a professional job.

  Boy, was I wrong! The end of the driveway is a mess. I had a concrete culvert and was told I was essentially having what I already had—never made mention of a plastic culvert. And the concrete was shoddily put in as it is cracking at the street. Further, when the workers took out the forms both in the driveway and patio, they broke pieces off the edges with their hammers. And they left piles of broken concrete and a pile of hardened concrete. I had to call for them to clean their mess. I had to call to complain about the quality of the job. The foreman came out and agreed that he would not be happy with work like this at his place, the number two in charge agreed to at least cap off the ends of the driveway around the culvert because their work looks horrible. Then Jordan came and said he will no nothing of the sort.

  Within two to three weeks I noticed cracking on the patio. I called Jordan. I don’t remember his excuses in the beginning, but naturally it’s not his fault, but since he is nice he will fill in the cracks. He said that they clearly wouldn’t match the original pour but he would make them flush with the concrete and it would still look good. I told him I would think about it for the time being and get back with him if it gets worse.

  It continued to get much worse. I contacted him in July is 2023 stating the patio is spiderwebbed with cracks and there is one crack completely going through the patio from one side to the other. The front part actually dropped and is no longer on the same plane as the half closest to the house.

  I need to mention that my old patio was all broken up almost exactly as it is today. Water would also back up into the house at the slab because the concrete had heaved. I told Blue Tide Exteriors all of this when I hired them and my goal was for them to fix my problem so that I will no longer get water in the house and I will have a patio without cracks. Jordan assured us that will be no problem as he is the ONLY company in the area to use 3500 psi concrete with fiber to strengthen it further and he puts wire in all of his projects so that the customer will be satisfied and that way he doesn’t have to go back to fix problems.

  Fast forward to now, he says the cracked up unstable patio is not his fault because we have water and soil issues causing it. I told him she should have told me before the work was done so that I could address any issues before having work done. He told me there was no way he could predict if I would have had future soil problems, nor did he ever say his work would not solve my problem. On the contrary. I hired him because he said he could fix my problem.

  He offered to come out to fill the numerous cracks but only because he is being nice. He said he is under no obligation to do even that because according to him, this is not a workmanship issue, it is my issue.

  The number one reason I chose Jordan because he said he fully warrants his work. That is what made me finally choose him over the other company. The problem is that I have soil issues and had the issues when I hired him. It is easy for him to say he will warranty his work when he can later say the problem is mine because of soil issues. In my opinion, he offered his warranty on bad faith as he knew he would never guarantee his work because he had my soil he could blame.

  When I talked to him over this and told him I need him to replace the patio, he said he stands by his work and told me about a couple of instances where he said he did not believe that he was to blame but he replaced the concrete to make the customer happy. He also let me know he does rework on his projects quite frequently. He said that 2-3 times a week he is doing rework as an example of how he stands by his work.

  If he told me he does that much rework in the first place I would have never hired him. Rework should be a once in a blue moon occurrence, not several times a week. And now when I check the BBB site, there are numerous complaints about him. How I wish they were there when I was looking for someone to hire.

  After he filled the cracks with some pliable crack filler, the filler looks yellowed and is not flush with the concrete. I have no experience doing concrete and I literally could do a better job. And that’s my plan. I have other projects I need to get done, but in 3-4 years I’m going to have to tear out this nightmare that Jordan poured and will have to do it correctly since he will not stand by his work.

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