Please help before we make a mistake set in stone

September 17, 2008 1:32 PM

My wife and I own a home in central Florida. We would like to hire a contractor to add to our backyard a 10 x 20 concrete patio with a stamped pattern and an acid stain and seal. Help?

My questions:

1. We have never hired a contractor like this before. I gather that bad concrete contractors do fun things like taking the deposit and disappearing into the night, or getting halfway through the project and disappearing into the night, or actually finishing what appears to be a good product that turns out to start cracking into pieces a few months down the road. What steps can we take to minimize the risk of this happening?

2. How do we go about finding a reputable contractor to do the job? I have asked my neighbors, and they have nobody to recommend. I found one guy who came out last night and gave us an estimate, he seemed nice enough, and I have asked for references. But I basically found him by googling, which does not inspire great confidence in me.

3. If you happen to be in central Florida and know any honest and reliable concrete contractors, by all means pass along their info. My email is in my profile.

posted by Lokheed to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

I gather that bad concrete contractors do fun things like taking the deposit and disappearing into the night, or getting halfway through the project and disappearing into the night, or actually finishing what appears to be a good product that turns out to start cracking into pieces a few months down the road. What steps can we take to minimize the risk of this happening?

By finding a good contractor, who is local, well-established, and has a reputation to maintain. They probably won't be the cheapest, however, but part of why they will cost more is that they will do their prep work correctly, and won't skimp on the reinforcement and finishing.

Can you find a contractor of some kind? Carpenter, plumber, anything like that? Asking them who they recommend for small jobs like yours would be a good start.

I also know someone who found their concrete contractor by going to the big industrial cement yard (where they fill up the big cement trucks and sell gravel by the dump truck load) and asking the guys at the front office what contractor they recommend.

You could even call the person who runs the building trades program at your nearest vocational college and ask them if they have any graduates they would recommend for your job.
posted by Forktine at 3:07 PM on September 17, 2008

try the chamber of commerce and/or the better business b
don't pay a DIME till the job is done.
bottom line
posted by patnok at 6:48 PM on September 17, 2008

BTW cement will crack....the trick is making it crack where you want it to. Proper reinforcement & correct locations of saw cuts (where the concrete cracks but you don't see it).
posted by patnok at 6:56 PM on September 17, 2008