Lianlia Paving has the most shocking workmanship
I had a spare parking area where I lifted some cobble pavers and contracted Lianlia Paving and Gardening in November to clear a section of my erf where a new spare parking area would be created using those same cobble pavers. The pavers were not new, but they were in perfect, unbroken condition. They were not factory rejects and it was not a mix of different bricks. First problem was that there was no cement on the right hand side border edge - this side is at the bottom of the slope and also gets the most “foot traffic” as that’s where cars enter. Little did I know at the time that there also wasn’t any cement underneath it! The pavers were also uneven with some higher and some sunk in. Julian claims they are uneven as “it’s a cobble that’s how they look”, which is false as I have the same paving throughout my property and each brick is at the same height as the one next to it.
These problems were fixed 5 days after the job was complete, so the grouting had set. They added some more water to a cement batch they mixed at Kinswood earlier in the day — big no no as it weakens the chemical bonds and it later crumbles - and chucked some along the side of the border header row. Guess what? That cement on the side of my border can be pulled loose and can be crumbled in my hand. The uneven pavers were fixed by using a padded stomper: a) the grouting had already set, so the base beneath the pavers was already hard meaning that brick is not going to go any deeper, and b) the force used to whack the pavers cracked the grouting.
Fast forward to Feb where we had heavy rains, and all the cracked grouting washed out. Asked Julian twice to please have a look, but he tells me nothing is wrong and he’ll refund me. I was rather gobsmacked that this was the solution, but ja ok no fine. Had to find someone else to redo the paving.
Fast forward another 2 months as I now have to time to re-do the paving, but after 3 promises to come to site and subsequent no-shows, he now has lots of excuses (for this you’ll need to read through the full review on attached image) and refuses to do the refund and actually tells me I sabotaged it. I can wiggle pavers loose around the entrance border as there is no cement underneath. The cement along the sides crumbles in my hand. Cracked and missing grouting all over the show meaning lots of water seeping underneath. Plus 25kg of pool salt under the paving as that was a recommendation for weed control - it’s actually highly corrosive to cement (who knows what damage has been caused to my paving), and draws and holds moisture causing soggy unstable foundation.
So apart from gravity alone, there really isn’t much holding the paving together. No structural support along the border as the cement is poor quality; no structural support below the border as there simply isn’t any cement; no proper lateral support as the grouting is cracked; and an iffy foundation from possible permanent mud thanks to the salt.
Please avoid using this company - he claims to offer a 2 year guarantee on his work, but my paving didn’t even last 2.5 months. It probably would’ve started disintegrating immediately if the rains came sooner. It is also a spare parking and is very seldom used - if it had been parked on daily, I’m pretty sure it would’ve sagged/collapsed by now. There is also 25kg of corrosive pool salt under my pavers which I cannot get rid of. He will not fix it and he will not refund me as promised. It’s one thing for bad quality paving on a driveway as you can simply move the car to fix it (most likely at your own expense), but it’s another thing entirely if you have 5 tons of water in a tank sitting on dodgy paving - that is a kak-load of damage if it collapses.