More pics, it won’t Let me post all but easily 10 trouble areas in 550 sq ft

Should look like this (from site they told me to pick stamp from)

is it acceptable? not from where I sit. you said you paid 'about average'. I don't know what that is. Did you get 3 estimates? This sure isn't 'average' work. So, no, I wouldn't pay. (you haven't paid in full yet, have you?)

any low spot are going to collect water, so those would need to be fixed. does it slope outwards for proper drainage? you can set a 6' level on the slab and see for yourself.

mistakes like this:

should be avoidable. this is just him laying out the rubber pattern incorrectly.

here too. looks like he didn't press down hard enough to get the border lines

I don't know what happened here. looks like he started to 'cut', but then changed his mind.

This is horrid. too many mistakes. I wouldn't pay him a dime for any of this

You need to circle (in chalk) all the mistake you see, and all the low spots. Have him come back and ask him what he plans to do to rectify it. hopefully you haven't paid him yet because if you have, it's going to be next to impossible to get him to fix it.

It needs to be ripped up and redone and don't accept nothing less. Hopefully it all works out for you. Keep us informed.

One more, this one wouldn‘t load last time but I think one of the worst. I have not paid yet.

That made my day knowing you have not paid yet. Now you hold the trump card and demand it is done right.

When ours had similar looking spots we didn't even have to ask - they ripped it out and started over. Same pattern.

That's really bad. In our old house we had a large area of stamped concrete and even after 27 years it looked like the photo from the site they sent you to. I think yours is a complete do over. I hope the company steps up.

Whoa!! That is bad!!! So glad to hear you didn't pay. I would demand it be redone and watch over it like a hawk, not trusting anything that was promised but must SEE it be delivered. We can't see overall grade, but do you have confidence it is correct? What is company owner saying about this? Was he present when it was installed? If he was, I'd be looking to get rid of these people ASAP.

It’s too bad I’m having a really hard time uploading more photos, I have at least 10 more to share. That said it seems like the responses are already the pretty in line even with just the sample of pictures.

I’m a simple home owner, tearing out seems crazy but I don’t know how else you fix concrete I guess.

i could cover a lot with rugs but then I’m certainly not getting what I’m being charged for... I’m not even sure if a discount can rectify something like this.

icing on the cake is the contractor is a great guy so even harder to bring up.

Overall the pad itself looks to be well placed and grade ok, another thing making it hard to justify tear out. It’s just the aesthetics of a stamp job that I think might be the worst possible.

its been raining the last week while it’s been curing and they just washed off the release on Sunday and it started pouring again so they left again.

ill send him some pics and recommend he come have another look and see what the response is.

at the time he said we can talk a deduction at the end, but with the rain we only really noticed a couple spots and not the entire pad like I’m seeing now.

Chase don't just cover it up. It has to be fixed. I am not a super picky person but this is real bad and very noticeable.

Oy--the "great guy" dilemma. Nope, nope, nope--this work is not acceptable, no matter how nice the guy is. I worked for a hospital once that told us that being *nice* could keep people from suing if something went wrong. Don't let "nice" cloud your judgement. Either this job is free and you live with it or he has to redo it.

This is a hacked up stamping job... Like others suggested this needs to be re-done which in most cases it's not happening... at least get of your money back.

Also I'm not sure if it's the picture, but it looks like the grade is a bit higher than the patio... If that is the case the water will not drain fast enough and it will puddle around the perimeter.

Good luck

You are getting a lot of great advice here. I completely understand your statement that he is a "great guy" and I understand that it is hard to tell someone that their work is not acceptable. But in this case you really have no other choice. We just built a house and I have friends who are Builders, Electricians, Plumbers etc.... but I wouldn't use any of them just in case something happened. Sure I spent a little more but I didn't want to take the chance of ruining a friendship.

Have you seen other projects that this stamp contractor has done, in person? My experience is that of all the contractors who offer stamped concrete, 5% (on a good day) can do it well. If this was done for one of our clients, we would insist it be redone.

Beth's question "did you get 3 estimates" demonstrates EXACTLY the problem with thinking that's a cure-all for these problems. 3 estimates from companies similar to (or worse than) this company wouldn't have gotten any better of a result.

RevGardens

Beth's question "did you get 3 estimates" demonstrates EXACTLY the problem with thinking that's a cure-all for these problems. 3 estimates from companies similar to (or worse than) this company wouldn't have gotten any better of a result.

Oh really? Thats the EXACT problem? smh. I asked about 3 estimates because OP said they paid 'average pricing'. I'm wondering how OP knows it was average. I never said it was a cure-all, nor did I say OP could have gotten better results to get 3 companies out there. I didn't say that to imply that choosing the most expensive would have gotten better results. I said it merely to get an idea of what the average cost was in their area.

I say average because I got several quotes and this company wasn’t the highest nor the cheapest. I felt comfortable with them Although I did not go view any of their work which was clearly a mistake. That said, this job was a bit tricky so others could have messed up too, but it no doubt should be better.

Update is I have been offered a sizable discount to keep it, I have a local decorative concrete specialist coming on Saturday to look at it and see if there are any issues other than the aesthetics.

Do report back. Everyone wants to know how this comes out. That discount had better be huge. :-)

Will do. I have some people lined up to come look in person and will go from there. Should have a resolution by the weekend one way or another. I appreciate everyone’s comments and the time it takes to respond.

Some overall pics, see if they post. This is wet which I imagine it will look like with sealer

Buddy, that looks like a—. I hope it’s not sloping toward buildings.

Another thing to consider is resale. I have to say, if I looked at your house and saw this I’d be wondering what else hadn’t been completed well.

Just something to consider. Good luck and keep us posted.

They need to rip it all out and start over. If you aren't comfortable that they can do it correctly, make them take it out and hire a new contractor to do it right. You should not accept this, even with a discount. It is very poorly done and I agree that resale will be a problem as well.

Were they a state-licensed contractor - who did the work?

Report it.

In my state, they can place a lien on the properrty if they don't receive full amount due.

You need a paper trail to justify the discount decision.

I'd be very angry at such a crummy job. i wouldn't accept.

@Beth sorry, I misunderstood where you were going with that. Disregard.