Low Bid or Low Quality Asphalt Repair?

Every day we receive calls from customers looking to get a competitive quote for their asphalt repairs. Like all good contractors our estimators provide them a price and follow up to see how that price looked. Nine out of ten times our price is in the same ball park as the other contractors at which point it comes down to service, customer rapport, and trust.

Occasionally however, a customer will let us know that our price is out of the ball park. Usually this comes down to someone bidding the wrong scope of work, but once in awhile something is wonky and we have to tell the customer we can’t compete. Now, let’s rewind the clock back to the job shown below. To set up the video let me first explain. Our customer came to us and asked us to do some minor skin patching on his lot that was overlaid just a year before the video was shot. We looked at the project and provided them with a price for the repairs.  The customer had mentioned that he wasn’t pleased with the previous contractor and we assured him that we had integrity. We also assured him his work would be completed just as it was bid, and it was.  However, when our crew went out to clean the parking lot, what we found was this ball of yarn so to speak, and it just wanted to keep unraveling and unraveling. Sadly this happens more often than we’d like to see.

Have a look below:

Asphalt Repair Done Wrong

There were so many things done wrong by the last contractor I am not sure where to start. The most blatant is to overlay a parking lot with a quarter inch of asphalt. The customer didn’t state it, but we are guessing that the asphalt repairs were probably bid for a half inch overlay. Also, for parking lot as busy as that one they should have considered a full inch overlay. The second problem is that the parking lot was clearly not cleaned well before the asphalt was installed. This would explain the dirt blowing out of the cracks four feet behind the crew member. Lastly, the parking lot must not have been tacked properly before the paving started. The biggest problem we faced was trying to figure out where to stop peeling up the old contractor’s shoddy work. There was no budget for the removal of the entire project only some minor skin patching. Oh well maybe next time?

About Empire Parking Lot Services

Empire Parking Lot Services is a Southern California paving contractor that specializes in asphalt repairs, concrete repairs, seal coating, and parking lot striping. We offer top quality paving, customer service, and value to our customers. We are not the cheapest paving company, but we are not the most expensive either. Call us today to learn what we can do to get your parking lot back into shape and keep it there. Our company is located in Orange County. From here we are able to service the surrounding counties including Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, as well as parts of Ventura and San Diego Counties. Call us today for a quote.