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House Vent
So I just need to vent to you guys for a minute. We bought our house in November and now that it's starting to get nice out, we've decided to widen our driveway from a one car width to a two... DH gets home before I do but leaves before me in the morning, so it's just a pain to do a car shuffle each night. We've done a little research and there is one paving company that has gotten really bad ratings (ie. does shotty work, the driveways sink within two years, when you go to get them to fix it they never return calls, etc). Well we've had a few companies come out to give us estimates. We find out that this company with all the complaints are the ones who did our driveway!
Now the cost to widen the driveway is a good chunk of money... but now I don't know what to do. I don't want to have this widening done if there is a good chance we're going to have problems with our existing driveway next year (of course once our warranty expires)... and it potentially ruins the new driveway expansion. But I also don't want to fork out the money now to completely rip up our existing driveway and have a completely new one put in.
The guy who came last night to give us an estimate commented on what a shotty job whoever did our driveway did. So now of course this has me concerned. We're having the guys who did our original driveway come out to give us an "estimate" on the expansion... more like allow us to find out what they really did... but now I don't know what to do.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Re: House Vent
That sucks. Honestly, I would probably redo the whole thing. DH and I have owned our apartment for 1.5 years now and have done a few home projects, and the one thing we've learned is that from here on out, we do things right even if it costs more. I would rather wait a while longer and save up for the whole project than take my chances now and be kicking myself in a year or two.
Do you have any guarantee on the house since you bought it new? Or would homeowner's insurance cover future driveway problems? Because either of those might change my answer - if you'd get reimbursed for having to fix the driveway down the line, then it might be worth the cost savings to just do the expansion now and deal with the hassle of fixing it in the future.
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Aw man, that definitely sucks. I'm going to parrot emily and millejj in saying to just do it right the first time -- even if it means ripping it up and starting again. Would it be possible to save money over the summer and have it all redone just before the fall? Then it'd still be done before winter weather hits. Good luck!
I had to have the slope of my driveway redone after our community had the alley repaved. The first company didn't slope it enough and my garage still flooded when it rained. I had to have a second company come out an redo the slope, then reslope the interior of my garage to fix the problem. It was an awful pain the whole time. Thus, I agree with all of the above: Do it right the first time. Unless, of course your HOA, insurance or warranty would cover the cost of fixing it later down the road.
What about just altering the curb cut and putting down pavers as a short-term solution until you can save up to do it all? If you put an equal border on both sides of your existing driveway, it could look nice and decorative instead of an afterthought.
We have the money to completely redo the entire driveway but the accountant in me doesn't want to think about spending all that money out of our savings, especially when we've only been in the house less than a year! Plus, we're still waiting on the IRS to stop dilly-dallying with our first-time homebuyer credit plus our normal tax refund so after we receive that we'd be more financially secure (ie. pay down the remaining $2k on a no-interest CC and have 6+ months of mortgage payments for an emergency situation).
Last night H went out and figured that the base of our current driveway (the gravel) extends out about a foot-and-a-half past the asphalt, which is good. So part of me would hate to rip up a driveway that is structurally sound because of reviews online. But the other part of me would hate it even more if I woke up one morning and my car was in a ditch because the driveway sank. H has our insurance deductable high (FIL is an insurance associate) because FIL said that if we ever filed a claim, it wouldn't be for something small... so our deductable would be almost what it would cost to just do the driveway.
And then I start to wonder if our builder was willing to work with someone who does shotty work and is shady, what does that say about him?!?!
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