ComplaintsforMurray Construction

• Initial Complaint

  10/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We hired Murray Construction to pour a cement patio at our home. The quality of the job is unacceptable. ***************************** agreed that was the case. We had an agreement that he would refund us "a couple grand", his words. When pressed on when we would receive the refund, he informed us that he would not be refunding us any money. The subpar workmanship is clear. The broom finish is extremely inconsistent with different levels of grooves and in various directions. There are gouges of missing cement around the perimeter. The two cement steps that were poured are unsightly. They are uneven with chunks of cement missing and a finish on the face of the steps that is clearly not a high level of workmanship. As was confirmed by other contractors. There are splatters of cement on our windows and siding and lumps of cement on our patio. When ***************************** viewed the finished patio he wholeheartedly agreed that the job was awful and agreed to redo it. We were hesitant to have him "try again" since he was unable to deliver a quality job the first time. In August we agreed to a refund. He promised to start working on getting us the refund that he offered. We have not received any money from him and he has informed us that he will not be refunding us any money. We feel a full refund is in order since this patio needs to be replaced. We have pictures and texts to back up this claim. One glance at this patio and it is clear that Murray Construction was unable to provide a quality product and some retribution is in order.

  Business response

  11/18/2022

  The owners leave out some information as well as putting words in my mouth.  First, they actually wanted a "smooth finish".  Of course i wasn't told this
  
  until two days after we poured.  A little late!!  I told him had i been aware of that i never would have bid the job.  It's a liability issue.  In 45 years i've never
  
   seen a print or building code that doesn' t require a broom or some type of anti skid finish.  and this started all the issues.
  
  As far as the finish goes, well, this patio was approximately 14' x 30'.  The concrete in a patio of that size or bigger,  doesn't set up evenly.  It ussually 
  
  sets faster along the foundation and because of the pitch of the pad the middle and end of the pad set slower.  Thus, on concrete pads its virtually impossible
  
   for me or any other concrete guy to guarantee that all the broom bristles will pull through the concrete perfectly.  Also, I never said the finish sucked.  I said that
  
  obviously, it wasn't what they were expecting { eventhough thier expectations were a little unrealistic.}  
  
  Also, after quite a few discussions. the homeowner said that i should come back, replace the steps,  and not to worry about the patio.  which i agreed to.
  
  Two days before we were to replace the steps the wife texted and said she didn.t want the steps fixed.  she just wanted money.  what they don't tell you is that they never paid 
  
  me $800.00.  I think that's fair for a refund,for an issue i've e never had before in 45 years.  you can check to see how many complaints there have been.
  
  finally, could the finish be a little better?  In a perfect world, sure.  There is nothing structurally wrong with the pad.   we used 4000 psi concrete with fiber mesh on a 4" stone base 

  Customer response

  11/27/2022

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
   Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: The reason for this claim has nothing to do with a broom finish or a smooth finish, and everything to do with poor workmanship and an unsightly and unacceptable finished product.  When we started this project, we didn't even know that "finish" was a thing, so *** is incorrect in saying that we wanted a smooth finish from the beginning.  All we simply wanted was a consistent finish that was done with care and workmanship.  We don't have a problem with a broom finish as long as the entire patio has the same finish.  Our patio has one section with a smooth finish and another with an extremely rough and rigid and uneven broom finish.  In addition, the broom finish isn't even in the same direction throughout the patio.  Some sections the broom finish runs horizontal and some places it runs vertical. This is not an opinion, it's a fact.  One look at the patio and it's plain to see. *** mentioned in his reply that the uneven finish is because of the size of the patio which he quoted as 14x30. He stated that patios that large don't set evenly.  He is incorrect on the size of our patio, the patio is 14x19, much smaller than 14x30, so setting unevenly because of the size of our patio is untrue!  Every person who has seen this patio, including other cement contractors, agrees that the workmanship is awful. In addition to the poor job on the pad, the steps are even worse.  They are uneven, globs of cement were left to dry around them, gouges and lumps, there is not one consistent section of the steps, the finishing work is of low quality.  There is cement splattered on the windows and siding, just sloppy work. Also, we never said that *** said that the finish "sucked".  We did say that he agreed it wasn't a good or acceptable job, hence him being willing to redo it and give us a refund!  *** also mentioned that it was two days before he was scheduled to redo the steps that we reached out and told him we didn't want him to redo them.  That's also not true.  He never gave us a date to redo the steps, all we knew was that he had to wait for the weather to cool because of his health.
  
  Here is the real root of the problem with this project:  Unfortunately *** ****** experienced health problems after we hired him.  So ***'s time on site was very limited and he wasn't able to perform much of the actual work.  His son Ryan was the lead worker on the project and the reality is that he just didn't have the experience to handle this project on his own.  We chose *** ****** because he came highly recommended by neighbors.  We had other estimates and we picked *** because of these recommendations, his estimate was not the lowest that we received but his reputation was important to us.  We also felt that *** was easy to get along with and we had a good working relationship.  It started to become clear that Ryan may not be experienced enough for this job when he came to frame out the steps and realized he couldn't do it on his own and had to come back with a family member or friend to help him.  Even to a novice eye, the framing for the steps was uneven and makeshift.  The day the cement was poured, *** was briefly on site but had to leave by 9:00 because of the heat.  He performed a limited amount of the actual labor, so Ryan and other workers were responsible for the majority of the finishing work.  We paid for the guy with the 45 years of experience and he wasn't the one doing the work. The craftsmanship necessary for quality finishing work just wasn't there.
  
  When it became apparent that the workmanship was unacceptable, *** agreed.  We have texts to prove it, in his own words.  We went back and forth as to how to remedy the situation.  *** was going to repour over top of the existing pad and break up the steps and repour them but he couldn't get to it until the weather cooled because of his health.  This project started with the estimate in April and we were now in August and were looking at September to get it redone.  We lost an entire summer of outdoor space, lived with a muddy mess and ended up with an unsatisfactory patio.  At one point *** felt that he wasn't going to be able to deliver what we wanted so he offered a refund of a "couple grand" (his words) but he told us that it would take him time to get the money to us. We then decided to allow him to redo the steps and that we would deal with getting the pad redone (it wasn't logical to think that a second pouring of the pad by the same guy would give a different result).  After a few weeks went by and we didn't hear from *** with a date to replace the steps, we reached out and told him that we decided to take him up on his first offer of a refund of "a couple grand" instead of doing any more work.  That was on August 28. We did not hear back from *** and we needed this money to move forward with the replacement patio.  So on September 7, we sent another text inquiring about the refund.  *** replied on September 8 with this text "I'll get it to you as soon as I can. I really want to wrap it up as soon as possible also.  It's constantly on my mind also".  On September 25 we still hadn't received any money so we sent another text and on October 1 we received a reply telling us he had no intention of giving us any refund!  What changed?  You can't just decide that you're not going to honor an agreement.  
  
  In retrospect, what should have happened with this project is that when it became evident that *** could not perform this job himself because of his health, he should have told us to find someone else with the necessary experience for a project of this size. We're certain that *** is a skilled cement contractor and that **** will be as well with the necessary experience.  We were sensitive and understanding that Ryan was also placed in an unfortunate position.  Throughout this process we were nothing but patient and understanding of ***'s health issues and financial issues.  We are sensitive to the unique position we were all placed in, but we should not be the ones left taking the hit for this while *** takes no responsiblity. Yes we did not pay him the $800 balance and he did not ask for it, it was evident by all that this job did not warrant any more payments.  So at this point we're left with a patio that we paid $4500 for that has to be replaced.  Proof that we were being fair is that we were willing to take only a $2,000 refund which means we would be left paying $2500 for a patio that has to be redone.
  
  It's unfortunate that we will have to go the legal route because that will cost us both more money.  But this is clearly a situation that we cannot allow *** ****** to walk away from and we are left with a $4500 patio and steps that have  to be replaced.  This can be avoided by *** ****** refunding us the $2,000 as promised.
  
  Regards,
  
  **** ******* 
  

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