Tottenham Paving & Construction Ltd

Update: I received the exact same response to the Google review I had left for this company.
The response is blatantly untrue- there was no communication from the company and up until 25 June John was still promising that the work would be done (he had promised 4th or 5th Aug and again missed that date, at which time I cancelled with him).
Even worse, he states he returned my deposit to me at my house in cash. THIS IS UNTRUE!! I was away the week he claims he came by and I have still not received my deposit from him. He is no longer replying to my messages or calls to ask when he will be returning it to me. As a result I am escalating my concerns to the regulatory bodies and the police.

I contracted with John at Tottenham Paving in March of 2021 to do my driveway and walkway (concrete). John provided me with a date for the work to be done in May of 2021.
Up until today no work has been carried out at all.
No upfront communication is given at all to say that the work will not be done- I am left waiting at home all day with no contact at all. Every time after the date is missed I would reach out to John to ask what happened- he would give another excuse and tell me it would happen the following week. This has been going on since May 2021 until July 2022 until I got fed up and reached out to John to discuss a return of my deposit since it was clear that we were not being provided with an honest and professional service.
John as usual had multiple excuses but promised to return my deposit within 3 weeks. Unsurprisingly he has again not kept his commitment.

I strongly suggest that anyone interested in having concrete work done look at alternative options. The lack of communication and transparency has made this a very unpleasant experience- and to date I am still out of my deposit so I am needing to file claims with Consumer Protection Ontario and Better Business Bureau.

From start to finish. John, owner of Tottenham Paving & Construction, were very informative, prompt, and provided top notch quality install. Very pleased with the work. Will definitely use them again, and refer them

We hired Tottenham Paving on Feb 26 2021 to redo our concrete garage floor, install a new concrete walkway and new asphalt driveway.
All excavation occurred on Thurs April 29, 2021. (3 other neighbours were excavated for driveways only)
Our garage floor was poured on Sat, May 1st. The walkway was formed 30 days later (due to some weather delays and lack of communication) and concrete was poured on Tues June 1st.
That lack of communication should have been a sign - This is where our experience went downhill.
Numerous follow-ups occurred over the 2nd half of June and all of July to get an idea when we would be paved. We were well past our minimum ‘curing time’ to get paved.
Our phone calls would not be answered unless we used a different phone number. Text messages were not always replied to, and when they were, our question was never directly answered on when we may get paved.
In mid-July, we were also texted that Tottenham Paving has 100 Business days plus 3 weather delays to complete the job – this did not appear in any of the fine print on our agreements. Our 3 neighbours would routinely reach out to us for updates, as they were not contacted directly by Tottenham paving since April 29th
The one time we were given a paving date of Jul 24th, Tottenham Paving did not show up, nor did we get a call/text advising us that we were not getting paved. After some back and forth texts at the end of July to get an estimated paving date, we were only given excuses, or our scheduling questions were avoided all together.
Aug 2nd, 62 days since our concrete cured, (95 days since excavation) poor and lack of communication, avoiding our questions and no-shows, we had to hire another company to complete the paving job, (which was done within 2 weeks). We advised Tottenham Paving that we would be moving on with another company due to our lack of confidence in their business as a result of poor /no communication and lack of commitment to complete the driveway. We were subsequently blocked that day from sending any further texts.
As of Aug 2nd our 3 neighbours were still not paved nor were they contacted.
All 4 driveways that were excavated by Tottenham Paving eventually had to be paved by different companies due to the same experience we had – poor/no communication, variety of excuses and no-shows.
All positive 2021 reviews seem to only be concrete related – not paving related. As a customer, our experience was quite negative when we tried to get our driveway paved by Tottenham Paving.

On May 1st of 2021, Tottenham Paving arrived to excavate and grade my driveway along with three other neighbours. On that date, I received verbal confirmation that the driveway would be paved within 6 to 8 weeks putting the jobs completion near the end of June. I handed a 50% deposit that day with the remainder to be paid when he returned to regrade and pave. Unfortunately what followed was a horrible and unprofessional experience. As we moved into July, the owner seemed to only occasionally respond to one specific neighbour while ignoring our messages regarding a date for the paving. In August we finally got a reply and was promised to be paved 100% by September 9th. When I expressed concern with the length of time it was taking, he gave the date of paving as August 28th. On that date, he never showed up and never called regarding any issues. I was once again strung along with occasional messages and promises of paving but was told of machine issues, weather issues, and of personal issues. All of which I accepted at that time with good faith that Tottenham Paving would complete the job they had started. Finally on October 13th after once again not receiving any confirmed date for paving or having my messages returned, I decided that enough was enough and I would look elsewhere for a company to finish the job. All three neighbours had the same experience and they all went elsewhere to be paved between the months of August and September.

Because of this horrific experience, the only actual work I saw from Tottenham Paving was the excavation and nothing more. The company I hired to finish the job had to spend a great deal of time re-cutting the driveway straight, regrading, adding more gravel and ensuring it was ready for the actual asphalt.

Things I recommend when looking for a paver:

It doesn’t matter how much experience a person or company has if they don’t show up to complete a job that was started. No way to judge a lack of work.

Do not trust a company that hides behind their ‘iron clad’ contract that offers the consumer zero protection.

Have an expected finishing date on the contract so there is a deadline that allows the consumer some protection.

If a paver requires more then 20% of a deposit for the initial excavation, look for another company.

Keep all correspondence of interactions with contractors so if you feel taken advantage of, you have recourse.

Update:10/18/2021 - John was again a NO SHOW on a date set up by our lawyer to meet and agree on a date for repair work. No surprise there. Another day wasted waiting for this guy to show up. When are you coming John? You have a lot of excuses but there is never any action? This concrete isn't going to fix itself.

UPDATE: 10/9/2021 Still waiting for this owner to commit to a date to fix this mess. When are you coming John? You have a lot of excuses but there is never any action? This concrete isn't going to fix itself.

UPDATE: 9/15/2021 We have had to retain a lawyer to deal with John, owner of Tottenham Paving and Construction. Hopefully a resolution can be agreed upon to have them come and fix this job before we have to move on to a civil lawsuit to get this huge issue fixed. :( Do the right thing John.

UPDATE: 9/13/2021 I just noticed the company answer! A lot of rambling that I have read/heard many times before on his review answers about how great he is. In particular I just want to say that I/we never had a conversation about putting down bad concrete. As if someone would demand bad concrete! There is no recording of me saying to put it down because it did not happen. I have a vast communication trail of the whole situation with him in writing. What he posted here is not true. No surprise there. He told us that he fired 2 of his 3 workers the night of my job. They were new to him, showed up with brand new tools that were never used before. His one worker who didn't get fired told me he subcontracts out the concrete work but this year that that company didn't have time to do the work for Tottenham Paving. Below I have added an email copy of job resolution agreement in the pictures section. Totally different to what this company owner is saying now. You can judge for yourself who is telling the truth.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: If you see this guy .. RUN! John, the owner of Tottenham Paving and Construction, comes across as a good guy until the work is supposed to start and then there is nothing but lack of truth, no shows for work, excuses, lack of ethics and very poor quality of work when and if he does show up. I've never met a person who has more of a victim mentality but actually turns his customers into victims with his total lack of sincerity, decency and competence to do a job that he is hired for.

He totally botched a large patio and walkway cement job, said he would fix but then disappeared and no longer answers emails as to when he will be back to fix. It will cost us over $10,000 to fix this mess he left us, the concrete needs to be removed and replaced. As per our discussion with him the day of, and the day after the cement pour, he admitted that the concrete job was terrible but said he was damned if he did, and damned if he didn't do the job with bad concrete. YES!!, he knowingly put down bad concrete on our property instead of sending it back to the company it came from. As soon as her poured and left we went and looked at the work and the concrete already had large cracks in it! The only people damned were us cause we are stuck with this crap and it is expensive to remove.

But it was much more than bad concrete, from forming to finishing our job was an absolute disaster. Clearly no one used a level, measuring tape or screws during the forming as they concrete and stair are not symmetrical, the patio is not sloped away from the house or finished to have water drain away and not pool in puddles on the top of the patio. The forming and finishing is so bad that there is no way that these were guys with any cement finishing experience. Also I should add here that there was an incredible amount of splatter that they left behind. They did not shield our house to we had cement splatter from the front door to our side door, including our mailbox and fencing anywhere near the job. Don't make the mistake that I made and believe any photos that John puts up to advertise his business, clearly it is not in line with the quality of job that we received from this company.

Photos are included with this review to try to show how bad it is, but the reality of looking at it is far worse.

Many neighbours hired John too after he came to our community group asking for work. My immediate neighbours fired him after they got sick of his no shows and saw the quality of our job. Neighbours on surrounding streets are beginning to fire him as they too are tired of his excuses and no shows. Some have reported deposits that he hasn't/won't return.

Neighbours who actually had their property excavated, but never paved as John never showed up again, now have to have the work that John did removed to complete their job with another company because the work he did was not correct. Reports of lack of correct excavating and compacting, wrong gravel, existing asphalt that was left behind are included in this issues. This is costing these people more to have to excavate again.

I should also add that my husband is an hourly employee who only gets paid while at work, he had to take off many days unpaid because John did not show up when he said he would. John knew my husband was taking off unpaid days but didn't show up anyway. His only remedy was to offer to compensate us for the income lost, but of course that has never happened.

So I hope if you are considering hiring this guy I really hope that you took the time to read this review. We suffered the most damage in our neighbourhood because our work was further along than others, but there are a lot of people here that are very upset with John and Tottenham Paving and Construction. John doesn't even bother showing his face around here and sends hostile emails to those who still are trying to get their deposits back or get their work done. These contracts were set up in March, it if now late August.

I am so disappointed with John, I really thought that this would be a good experience with him and I couldn't be more wrong.

Now, even though John can't answer our emails asking when he will be back to fix, or show up to fix his mess, I know it won't take him long to appear here to argue about this review. He seems to always have time for that. Just know, that everything that comes out of his mouth is not based in fact and that there are a lot of unhappy people that I know who hired him in March 2021 and 5 months later are tired of his excuses.

John, and his crew did a fabulous job. Hired John, in Feb 2021, he came answered all my questions and made us feel completely at ease. Very knowledgeable. Very pleased with the results, they came excavated in April, just completed the driveway last week. We are in Newmarket, Few streets down they have quite a few, and i now see why.

What a great job john and his crew did in my backyard. From start to finish, john informed us of each step. Educated us of all options. We can't be more happy thank you Tottenham paving and construction. Definitely be referring you

We called John, owner of Tottenham Paving and Construction in March. With pandemic just starting, John came out took all safety precautions for us, and himself. He was great to deal with from the beginning. We have seen his work over the years. They do so many in Newmarket, so it was an easy call. They came first week of May once lockdown was lifted. They completed the job 3 weeks later. Wonderful to deal with. They are very busy, the day finished up, took me 1 hour to pay, I would say no less that 10 calls within 1 hour for his services. Very high in demand, I can see why, they will be around a long time

Spring 2019 - I met with owner - John - who went over thoroughly what the work entailed. He was very nice and made a few suggestions. Once we agreed on the paving we signed a contract and he gave me an approximate date of when the work would be completed by, There was a short delay, but he called in advance and we agreed upon a firm date. Driveway was paved and we were totally satisfied. Thinking of having him look at another project for interlock in the near future.

John, the owner of “Tottenham Paving and Construction” has taken over $9,000 from me since June of 2019. Not only has he failed to pave any of my driveway, but he has also caused thousands of dollars in property damage, including destroying 40 feet of sprinkler line, crushing my culvert, and leaving tonnes of trash stone and asphalt on my lawn.

See my photos and decide for yourself if the workmanship is worth what I've paid.