We had a new concrete driveway installed by Florio Brothers Cement in June for $7000.By January of our driveway was starting to chip away. As of this writing, it continues to get worse by the week.
I first contacted Florio Brothers in January about our driveway and wanted them to come look at it and hear what they would do. After 3 months of calling and promises on their part to come out, Vito Florio Sr. Finally came out on April 20. He looked at our driveway and said the problem was caused by road salt. (Note: we sealed our driveway in Oct. 2005 with 2 coats of sealer as recommended by Florio Brothers. According to my online research, this should have prevented any damage by road salt.)
Vito Sr. Proceeded to tell me that the problem with our driveway WAS NOT THEIR FAULT! He said if the driveway was CRACKING or HEAVING then it would be their fault. (Note: their contract states that they are not responsible for cracking driveways!) He said maybe it was the concrete that was the problem but they were not going to replace our driveway for free. He said he would contact the concrete supplier and have them come do core testing on our driveway. He also told me that testing of concrete could only be done when the weather warms up and testing takes months and months.
I spoke with the concrete supplier about getting them out to do testing on our driveway and was told that the initial contact about testing needs to come from the contractor, but they would put a call into Florio Brothers about our driveway. I heard from the concrete supplier a few days later and they had called Florio Brothers but never got a return call from Florio Brothers.
The concrete supplier also told me that they have been in business long enough to see the same 4-5 contractors have problems over and over and Florio Brothers was one of those contractors!!! I also spoke with a testing laboratory that has done testing for Florio Brothers in the past, and was told that testing can occur at any time of the year and it takes 2 weeks to get results!
As of this date, May 19, we have not been contacted by Florio Brothers or the concrete supplier about scheduling testing to be done on our driveway. We met with a lawyer and was told that we have a breach of contract case but that to file a lawsuit would be fruitless against a contractor since they would make sure that the lawsuit dragged on forever and would therefore cost us more money than we would get back.
Florio Brothers also has an unsatisfactory rating with the Cleveland Better Business Bureau due to unanswered complaints.
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