In January of 2007 we bought our house from Jamestown Builders. When it was about a month out of warranty, we noticed that like some of our neighbors’, our driveway had begun to spall.

I called them to see what they were going to do about it and their response was basically that I shouldn’t have parked my car on it in the winter. Well, I didn’t very often, but IT’S A DRIVEWAY! Can I cook in my kitchen? Can I poop in my bathroom? The rationale is that the freeze/ thaw cycles are exacerbated by the stuff they put on the roads (and then drips off my car) to melt ice and that cracks the driveway. According to my research, while that certainly can happen, it should not happen to properly formulated and installed concrete.

Furthermore, I had a concrete driveway in MINNESOTA that was who knows how many years old when I bought the house and on which I parked my truck every day for the 6 years I lived there. Last time I looked (in 2010) that driveway was fine. By now, The Jamestown driveway is 4 years old and it is quite simply disintegrating. I think it’s outrageous that I’m going to have to spend at least $3000 on my driveway when the house is barely 5 years old.

The bottom line is that they clearly had a quality problem with their concrete contractor. They know this perfectly well and if they’d just say so but say, “sorry you’re warranty expired”, I could accept that. But it rankles that they claim it’s my fault and that it’s to be expected for a driveway to disintegrate if you use it for it’s intended purpose.

So I do not recommend purchasing a house from Jamestown Builders.