Madewell Concrete

My driveway was flaking and after having several quotes, I decided to go with this company because of the reviews and customer service during the quote process. The sales team seemed like they knew what they were doing and even a manager followed up to make sure I was treated well and wanted to see what they could do to gain my business.
But once I signed the contract the experience went downhill. Once signed, I was not contacted again. After 3 and a half weeks, I had to follow up and see when I was on the schedule.

Execution of the Project:
In addition to replacing my driveway, I had a patio done. Concrete splatter was left all over the garage, siding, gutters, the old sidewalk and even the new concrete that was poured. The company did come back to pressure wash and got most of the splatter on the house off but apparently got to close to some areas of the siding and now I have siding that I will have to replace.

There was a threshold supporting the doorway that I will now have to replace as well. The bottom of the gutters that they took off were also not put back on. I have two huge bare spots in my grass now from where the works started digging out the grass because they framed it in wrong before pouring the concrete.

The Concrete:
The concrete looks very messy. On the patio, the edges bow out in some places and it is very noticeable. You can feel that the concrete is not leveled well just by walking on it. The driveway has a section where a huge puddle of water just sits now and does not run off like it should. There is an imprint on the sidewalk from where the workers left mesh after pouring the concrete. The picture frame finish is halfway done and very messy on some of the areas that it was done. The upper half of the driveway is a different color than the rest of the driveway. I have had guest since the concrete was done and they have even commented on how sloppy it looks. When they came back for cleanup, one of the workers did patch work because the concrete was cracking. Now the area looks worse than just the crack.

I reached out to the company once the project was finished and they sent a worker to come check it out. He said that they would come back to make it look good, but it has been 2 weeks now and all I have seen is pressure washing. The project managers should really be more involved and oversee the project. I did contact the sales manager who reached out to me before signing the contract to try to get to a manager, but he never contacted me back. They will do anything to get you to sign the contract but don’t keep their word afterwards.
If you like your house and do not want to have more work done once the concrete is done, I would stay away from this company.

I hired Madewell Concrete, to replace my concrete driveway. I paid Madewell Concrete $50,000. I thought Madewell was a reputable, reliable company. I was wrong!

I chose them because they offered a 10-year warranty. What good is a warranty if no one returns your calls?

Since Madewell completed the driveway, my garage continues to flood every time it rains. The water comes in from three of four downspout locations. The project manager, Jonathan Lesh, attempted to repair it with some glue. The water also comes in from a corner where the concrete channels the water flows back toward the garage.

After the Madewell crew left, I started working on my irrigation system and noticed one side of the driveway is no longer working. Another area has a broken pipe and a missing piece of pipe that was broken off.

The concrete started cracking 2 days after the crew left.

The project manager, Jonathan Lesh has become unresponsive. I attempted to have the sales representative, Michael Richardson, get involved but he also has not returned my emails.

During the process of hiring Madewell Concrete, I walked everyone through issues and requirements I wanted to be covered by the quote and handled during the job. This list was created so there would be no surprises during the job and was given to Madewell employees (and other contractors) during this process.

During these discussions, we talked about have all the downspouts put into piping under the concrete. I also wanted some electrical low voltage wires put into piping. During the pouring of the concrete, I keep asking where the piping was. One was put in at the last minute, and some had to be retrofitted into my flower bed after the fact. And some never made it into the project.

I would not hire this company ever again.

”WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DO A GOOD JOB FOR YOU.” -Chase, Commissioned Sales Representative, Madewell Concrete

My initial experience with this company was excellent. The sales representative, Alex, was very knowledgeable, pleasant, and professional.

Unfortunately, the driveway project was delayed several months due to the involvement of the City of Alpharetta, who graciously agreed to perform the work on the apron and sidewalks due to a street grading issue.

Upon resuming the project, I was informed by Alex that Chase was my new point of contact. He was moderately friendly, but new, and wanted to requote ”from scratch” since the city was reducing the project scope by nearly 1/3. Although the work was reduced, Chase’s new quote was roughly identical to the initial one and even the labor to demo 33% less concrete was increased by $200. After bringing this to his attention, he admitted he was new, made a mistake by not reviewing the initial quote, and promised to make it right. I took the young man at his word.

He arranged a call with Alex, who informed me the buckets, where they placed customer charges on a quote, were ”ambiguous” as they only focused on the bottom line price.

Ahhh, commission dollars($)!!! I get it.

Nonetheless, they promised to clean up the quote so we could meet our installation date.

After several days, I called Chase to see where the new quote was. He later called me back to tell me that he spoke to his supervisors, and ”they were not going to be able to do a good job for [me].” What does that mean? He would not say anything further. I asked whether it was a performance concern or a profitability concern. Again, no new response. He kept saying, ”We just won’t be able to do a good job for you.”

I reached out twice to the owner via LinkedIn, but he never bothered to respond.

If Madewell cannot do a ”good job” for a simple driveway, how do they plan to stay in business?

How this company receives good reviews on Home Advisor, I'll never know.

Fortunately, the new concrete companies have been great to work with.