From Josh Sagarin.
Sudlow Concrete Marietta
Sudlow Concrete was the right choice for us. We have lived in this house since the 90's and have had many contractors doing various things in the past with a huge range in terms of quality of work and professionalism. I am so impressed with Bill & his Sudlow Concrete crews. Bill's price was reasonable and when we added an additional wall that had not been part of the original quote, the price was reasonable too.
Our home is over 100 years old and the driveway was at least 50 years old. Our long narrow driveway runs between two closely spaced houses, and touches the basement wall along the length of one side, making the possibility of water problems, and /or damage to either house a real possibility. The driveway needed replacement when my son was born, and he is entering college so it was long past due.
The job involved removing and replacing the 50 year old crumbling driveway, carefully removing the remains of the retaining wall holding up the driveway, that was steadily falling into my neighbors living room, and putting in a safe modern replacement, as well as, removing and shifting and replacing, a second retaining wall to make our driveway wide enough to use without danger of scraping our cars every time we entered or exited. Finally this had to be done on a lot too small to fit a dump truck, concrete truck or dumpster. Oh yeah, the driveway was too narrow to allow a concrete truck to enter too.
Aaron who did the original quote was so professional that I quickly decided to go with Sudlow, even though I had a lower quote (and a much higher one.)
Kristi in the office was quick to follow up with scheduling the job. Due to the close quarters nature of the demo work She suggested that we delay the job by a week to allow her to schedule their most experienced crew job to do the demo the asphalt and retaining walls and install the new concrete the driveway.
As scheduled about 4 weeks out, the crew arrived, on time, at 7:00 am ready to work.
In an amazing display of highly skilled Bobcat ballet the old driveway was gone and hauled off in dump trucks by 10:30 am. Concrete arrived by 11:00. Using powered buggies to run concrete the crew had poured and finished 2/3's of the driveway by 2:00 pm. After the second concrete truck finally the crew finished the rest of the driveway. Then disaster struck, out of a clear blue a sudden shower appeared. The storm appeared so fast, and hard that covering the work would have been useless. In only 16 minutes the storm washed out the left side of driveway to bare gravel, spitting a trail of sand, gravel & concrete for 50 feet down the street.
Before I had even had time to think about repair options, Bill Sudlow, the owner called, and let me know that he had already scheduled a second crew to fix the destruction. I asked how they would patch the wash out, and, without hesitation, Bill told me that a patch would never be the same quality. They would remove the entire bottom half of the driveway, again, and install 4 yards of totally new concrete driveway. Before they left the crew cleaned up the entire area including all the material that had run down the street, leaving things broom swept.
The second crew arrived early, broke up and removed the damaged driveway, and by 3:30 they had poured, finished and cleaned up the area.
The final wall crew arrived early the next morning to install the block retaining wall. Quickly cutting blocks and shaping the wall to follow the steep hill, they finished and stucco coated the wall, cleaned up and were gone by 4:30.
I recommend Sudlow concrete without hesitation. My driveway is phenomenal, the quality and craftsmanship are excellent. As an added benefit, for the first time in 30 years, my basement isn't damp when it rains. I can not find a flaw with the driveway, with the walls, with the teams or with the company. This is coming from a restaurant owner who has worked with many, many contractors over the years. A great one is a very pleasant surprise. I highly recommend Sudlow Concrete of Marietta.
