Mary Smith is hopping mad and complaining to everybody from the Better Business Bureau to the state's Attorney General's office about what she said was a botched job on May 16 of re-paving her driveway with asphalt on N.E. 97th St.
Worse than that, the Kirkland resident said, the contractor, Inter State Asphalt Paving Inc., dug out about half of the newly laid asphalt when she refused to pay them until they'd finished the job to her satisfaction.
The crew would have dug out the entire job, too. But police were called after one of the contractor's employees allegedly threatened to kill one of Smith's neighbors, she said.
"Police got here and told the dozer guy to stop, and he did," Smith said. Police also issued a no-trespassing order to the company, which packed up its equipment and left, she added.
Inter State Asphalt owner Joe Stanley insisted his crew did a good job, and he places blame for the blowup at the end of the day on one of Smith's neighbors, a man who is a general contractor. "He said the job was rotten," Stanley said. "She agreed with everything (he said), her being a woman."
Smith denies being clueless. "I was a contractor myself for 20 years," she said, adding that she also worked for seven years as a plumbing and mechanical inspector for the city of Kirkland. "I've dealt with men for a long time."
Smith said she had already been looking for a contractor to do the job, and she checked with some companies she knows through her job with Kirkland. But they were all involved with big projects and couldn't get to hers, Smith said.
So when someone from Inter State Asphalt stopped by that Monday and offered to do the job for $2,800, she decided to go for it. "It was in the range of the cost I was told it would be to do the job," Smith said.
Plus, the employee said they were already in the area doing another job and could get to hers immediately, Smith said. "They showed up in less than an hour the same day."
But Smith noticed some problems as the job progressed. The work didn't include applying an adhesive to the concrete before the asphalt was laid, something she was told would be done, Smith said. That's not listed on the contract she signed, however, and Stanley said it wasn't necessary because the asphalt was so thick.
However, the asphalt was so high in one corner of her garage that a sliding door would no longer work, Smith said. In addition, although Smith said she was told the grass at the edges of the driveway would be cut before the asphalt was laid, the asphalt was laid on top of the grass.
Smith said she was also told the front of her driveway would be dug out so it would be level with the street, and Stanley insisted that was done as the contract said it would be.
But Smith pointed to an orange line that had been painted to mark where the street asphalt should be cut. "But they couldn't get the saw to work," Smith said.
On top of everything else, the weather turned bad. "It had rained pretty good," she said. "That concerned me because they can't lay (asphalt) on wet surfaces." Stanley said the rain wasn't a problem, however. "The water all ran off," he said.
And it was still while the crew was rolling down the asphalt that one of them came to her door and wanted a check for the full amount, Smith said, "And I said not until you're done and cleaned up."
It was around then that her neighbor stopped by and Smith pointed out areas she was concerned about, she said. The neighbor did not return a call for comment, but Smith said one of the asphalt crew members came up and started yelling at the neighbor, asking whether the neighbor was some sort of expert on asphalt. "He just kind of exploded on (the neighbor)."
Following that, the same crew member again demanded a check from Smith, she said, adding the heavy equipment was gone. "And nobody was working on the edges or anything."
Then, according to Smith, the crew member started yelling at the other workers, telling them to tear up the asphalt, which they started to do. Stanley tells a different story. "She said 'do what you've got to do,'" he said.
Stanley said he usually doesn't get complaints about his job. "I may have had one or two in nine or 10 years," he said, adding he has always fixed things up for his customers if there's a problem.
According to Kristin Alexander, a spokesman for the Attorney General's office, Inter State Asphalt was named in a 1999 complaint in Everett and a 2001 complaint in Marysville.
But not everyone complains the way Smith has. Norman Maas said he is refusing to pay Inter State Asphalt because the company did such a poor job on paving his driveway this past winter.
The company tried to fix the problems, but two sections are washboarded, weeds are growing through sections of the asphalt, and poor drainage on section leaves puddles when it rains, he said.
Maas said he got a complaint form from the Attorney General's office, but won't follow through. "I decided I'm not going to."
Instead, Mass added, he's going to eat the expense and go with another contractor. However, it's going to cost him an extra $1,000 to get the old asphalt torn up, he said.
Smith said she's getting new estimates, too. One of them is for around $3,000. It includes an adhesive coat for the concrete, along with roughly $1,000 to tear out the remainder of the asphalt left by Inter State, she said.
Stanley said Smith's complaint is about one job out of countless numbers he done over the years. "I don't think I did anything wrong," he added.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or (206)461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
