My Experience with Florio Brothers Cement Contractors

Here's a detailed account of my experience using Florio Brothers to install a new driveway.

This story takes place in the West Valley neighborhood of Fairview Park, Ohio. No names have been changed to protect the innocent!!

In June 2005 we contracted with Florio Brothers in Cleveland, Ohio to install a new driveway and sidewalk. We paid a total of $7000. They installed the driveway, a new front sidewalk, sidewalk leading to our side door and a basketball court area off the main driveway. We proceeded to seal our driveway in Oct. 2005 with a speciality driveway sealer. All was good and we were happy with the work.....

Fast forward to January 2008 (2.5 years later). I noticed chipping and flaking of the cement surface on the basketball court area in multiple areas. I called Florio Brothers and asked that they come out to take a look at the problem. Vito Florio Jr. came out (it took several phone calls for this to occur) and said we had a problem but his dad (Vito Florio Sr.) needed to look at it and we would have to have core testing done on the concrete to determine the problem....

Fast forward again to April 2008. After many phone calls from me (and promises on the part of Florio Brothers to come look at our driveway), Vito Sr. finally came over in his big Mercedes to look at my driveway. He had a look at our driveway and basketball area (by this point the main driveway was chipping as well as the basketball court was looking way worse!!) and proceeded to tell me that this was not his responsibility!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He said it was damage due to road salt and that they did a good job since we didn't have cracking or heaving.

He then said they weren't responsible for the cement used and perhaps the cement was the problem. The cement supplier in our case was Tech Readymix of Cleveland, Ohio. He said he would call Tech Readymix to have them come test our driveway. When I asked why he couldn't have done that during the winter, he said cement testing can't be done in cold weather. The concrete has to warm up. He also said that the testing takes months to get results. (Keep these two items in mind as you keep reading.)

He couldn't answer why the basketball area was so much worse than the main driveway. (Note: the basketball area was poured a week after the main driveway. The main driveway was sprayed with a curing or sealing agent by Florio Brothers. But when the basketball area was poured they never sprayed that same agent on the concrete. Could that have something to do with the differences we're seeing??)

I contacted Tech Readymix who told me that Florio needs to contact them for any testing of the concrete to occur. I also called Solar Testing Labs to get some general information on concrete testing. The nice woman at Solar Testing Labs told me that testing on concrete can be done at anytime of the year and it only takes 2 weeks to get results! What??? Wait a minute-Florio told me that testing could only be done in the winter and it takes months to get results!!!! What's going on here?

Florio then told me they wouldn't replace our driveway our driveway for free (because it's not their responsibility) but maybe if the cement was shown to be the problem, he could get Tech Readymix to pay for new concrete, Florio Brothers would chip in a "LITTLE" labor and we could pay the rest to get a BRAND NEW DRIVEWAY!! All this and a set of ginsu knives to replace a not-quite 3 year old driveway!!!!!!!!!!!!

As of today, May 13, we have the following results: no further contact from Florio Brothers, no testing has been done on our driveway, Tech Readymix left messages for Florio and never got a return call, and our driveway continues to get worse by the week!!!!!!!!!!

Let's recap: we have a driveway installed in June 2005. By January 2008, our driveway is starting to fall apart. And it's not the contractor's fault??? If only I was Raven on Disney, I could have looked into the future and seen that our driveway installed by Florio Brothers in Cleveland, Ohio was not going to last 3 years and I NEVER WOULD HAVE HIRED FLORIO BROTHERS!!!

Note: Florio Brothers is not a Better Business Bureau accredited business and they have an unsatisfactory rating with the BBB due to unanswered complaints.