MasterWorks review: Concrete driveway replacement

I contracted with MasterWorks (of South Riding, VA) to have two out of four concrete driveway slabs, about 10X20 each, removed and replaced with new concrete.

In the final analysis, I would not recommend this company, at least for any kind of concrete work. The owner is condescending and has a smart-alecky attitude. When I asked him when the crew was returning to remove the concrete forms along the side of the driveway the day after they poured the concrete, he tersely replied with one word, “soon” (like my father would say to me when I was 4 years old and, in the car, going someplace and wondering when we would get there). That kind of smart answer from a company owner to a customer, says it all. It showed the owner lacked customer service communication skills and had questionable supervisory control over his concrete crew, who I believe were sub-contractors.

The owner finally texted me at around 9AM on Friday and said a crew would be here sometime before 6PM to remove the concrete forms. Nobody showed up by 6PM and the owner never called in advance to say he would not make it by 6PM. Had the same problem with them removing the trailer that had all the concrete debris (hooked up to a SUV, not a truck). They left that trailer, unhooked from the SUV, in front of my house overnight because the guy driving the SUV was on some other job despite the owner saying it would be removed that night.

There were other things that went wrong, like the crew blowing my outside electric plugs and tripping the GFI circuit breakers (annoying but not critical) and slicing through my underground irrigation line (critical) despite them being marked. It appeared the crew got sloppy (maybe overworked) and was not paying attention. The crew didn’t even have shovels to shovel out the small concrete debris, so they asked me if I had shovels. When I emailed the owner about that, he dismissed it and said they didn’t need shovels, but brought some out to them anyway.

The owner didn’t seem to understand that removing the concrete forms was necessary on Friday since I had to also arrange for a mason to replace paver stones along the walkway that had to be removed for the driveway replacement and an irrigation company had to come out to repair the irrigation line they severed. Those repairs were scheduled to take place on Monday, so I needed the concrete forms to be removed on Friday, two days after the concrete pour. That seemed reasonable to me. At 6:01PM, I texted the owner that nobody showed up and he texted “he would call me back”, but never did. He later texted me, however, that the new time would be 7PM. The next text he sent me said how “awesome” I was because I texted him only one minute after the time, they missed the time they were supposed to be here. Again, condescending, and smart-alecky customer service from the owner.

Overall, it was not a pleasant experience, and I would just not hire MasterWorks again. I think the company is just overextended and has more jobs than they can handle, and customer service suffers as a result. The condescending and bully like language and attitude from the owner was a turn off, too. Stay clear of this company if you don’t like to be insulted and don’t like sarcastic comments from a contractor you gave your hard-earned money to. The owner never even came to the job site to inspect the completed project when the crew finally came to remove the concrete forms on Friday two days after the concrete pour. The owner’s favorite sayings when I complained were: “no worries” and “have a great day”. I didn’t.