Customer ReviewsforBella Cement

Very sorry we hired Steve Bella of Bella Cement to replace driveway and 3 city sidewalk blocks, $13,650. Was often dishonest. Did not properly complete the plan for the apron of our driveway--one of the most important aspects of the agreement. I found the measurement at the curb 10 inches too short the day before pouring cement. Steve said they would fix it before pouring, which was in the dark before 6:30 AM, and the video from the security camera shows problems that would take too long to describe here. Photos I will provide in my reviews elsewhere will help me describe more problems without exceeding the word limit. He ruined the wet cement on my front step with sealant just applied, talking to me before leaving, impulsively taking a rubber mat with carpet on the top, framed in rubber, and turning it upside down on the wet cement for my dog to walk on in case she had to go out before 2:00 pm. It was around 11:30 AM, and he gave me no warning that he would put it upside down on wet cement. Photos will appear with other reviews. Steve is a fast talker and said many things to minimize the damage. Initially he said it would go away when he resealed the cement. Another day he came out to look at cracked cement, I questioned him about that statement in front of my son. He had to admit it was not true that sealant would hide damage. He told me he would rub it with a lead pencil before resealing it, but when the day came he told me he scrubbed the area with a wire brush. It does look dark like graphite; maybe he also used lead. Wire brush bristles still stuck in sealant. When my dog went out before the cement dried, no paw prints when she stepped off that mat Steve put down and onto cement. Would prefer paw prints to the mess Steve made of my step. Cracked cement around the corner of side step noticed less than 2 weeks after the concrete was poured. Steve texted me a photo of cracks on his own patio to console me. More problems than that. Zero stars.

None of this is true. Apron was installed larger then contracted to install. Marie walked on concrete to early that’s what the marks are from. Crack on bottom corner of step is normal and is correct. We installed the job in October of 2021. The job turned out amazing. Everything we did was 100% right. I had met with Marie in October to review the apron size and prove to her that everything that we were contracted to do with the apron was done correctly and larger than we were paid to do. I cannot help if someone does not listen to instructions and walks on the concrete too early. That is not our fault. In our contracts it states concrete cracks and sometimes in unpredictable areas. The crack in the step is 100% normal as I described to Marie. I find it hard to believe that someone would write a review six months later on a contractor that did everything they were supposed to do and more. To receive a one star rating when deserving a five star rating makes no sense to me.

I hope he leaves his reply here. ...As if it takes so much intelligence to know how to let cement dry before walking it--that must be too technical for a woman, right? If only I could attain Steve's level of wisdom. I knew how to let cement dry long before he was even born. If I walked on cement before it dried, there would be footprints, right? It looks like what it is--blotches from a swirled carpet brushed over the side of the step, framed straight verticle lines from the rubber border of the mat, after the mat was in place. He can make bold accusations because I can't show the photos, texts and emails here. He is chummy with a couple of my City's departments--that gives him a lot of power, in my opinion. He does not seem to think ahead and control his impulses, in my opinion, so errors in his work and defensiveness later. I thought ahead, planning to write reviews. Documented facts, communication, and photos in text and email. He did not disagree that he damaged the step when I complained verbally, in text and email. He never blamed me for that--otherwise I would not have hired him to reseal the concrete weeks later. Nor would he have wanted to come back and reseal if I were falsly accusing him. Steve was brushing off my complaints about bad work, and I was preparing to leave feedback about it. 9/25: texted Steve about damage he did to wet concret on front step, documenting a verbal discussion. Sent photos and typed "can anything be done for the dirt from that mat turned upside down? It broke down the swirls in the spots. Dirt is stuck." He replied "Leave it alone it wil go away as it dries." He DID NOT DENY the mat did the damage! 9/27: texted Steve with 3 photos on the damage from the mat he threw down. (1) photo of the bare damaged step (2) photo of that mat with rulers measuring 14-inch width between the rubber frame surrounding the carpet, (3) photo showing same rulers between the vertical lines imprinted on the cement from the rubber around the carpet. It's exactly the same 14" measurement on the mat and cement: (one ruler plus 2 inches of a second ruler). Typed "I realized it is not dirt when I saw the vertical lines the width of the rubber border around the carpet mat. The carpet and rubber went through the seal and it was the crumbling cement, not dirt as I first thought. I am surprised YOU PUT THAT DOWN for the walkway with the dog." He replied "It's not crumbling cement the sealer lifted off of it." Again, he DID NOT DENY that he put the mat down. I replied "just a note that if the mat went down at 2:00 instead of before you left, cement and sealer would have had air to dry. It did not have the benefit of time exposed to the air." (That is Marie explaining logic to Steve.) 9/30 email: I described 2 other concerns (with photos). For documentation again, I included the same 3 photos from the front step mat damage. Steve emailed back without responding to this part where I typed: "The mat on the front porch made a mess of it. My dog's footprints would have looked better than the marks left by the carpet and rubber rug upside down. No people had to walk on that area. Very disappointing to see every time we walk in and out." Again, he DID NOT DENY that HE did the damage! When Steve said I could walk on the cement at 2pm, I did not think that was long enough for the cement to dry. There was no hurry to walk on it. I got in and out of the house from the ground on the side of the front step where Steve picked up that rubber/carpet mat and flung upside down on the new cement just sealed. It was two full days after pouring cement that I walked on the grass, around the back of garage to the backyard, took my shoes off, and walked barefoot for the first time on the cement in the back. Using my brain, I did not walk on a step first, but an inconspicuous place in the back by garage. I continued to walk barefoot on the cement for a couple days after that, while no one else had walked on it at all. I am a detailed person and a person of principle. Won't not get tired of speaking the truth. Not intimidated by lies. Regret I asked my mom to hire Steve after my mom wanted to hire someone recommended to her, who gave us a quote first. When one worker was slopping the concrete on the front step and trying to shape the corners, he was making a lumpy mess of the cement. I asked him if that was okay like that and he said it's fine. I wanted to take that tool and do it myself. I am not exaggerating when i say I could have done it better. My old step corners had clean lines, straight and even, as people will see in future reviews with photos. The new steps look like slop, with waivy edges and clumpy cement at the corners--especially the front step, also the side step that cracked around the base of the corner (Steve put caulk on the cracks right before resealing 10/23/21). When planning driveway, I asked Steve if he would make a drawing of what I was describing. He would not, so I made a drawing showing the measurements of the existing drive within the measurements of the new plan. Steve would not comment on the drawing, was tight-lipped. 5/27/21 I emailed a better drawing and he replied "No problem I attach that to the original contract.". 6/8/21 he emailed, "permits are completed." When his measurements were not as planned (in the sidewalk area that should lead to a flare we need on the north side, he told me "your drawing doesn't mean anything." All along the south side of the driveway (telephone pole side), the drive was widened two feet. The cement is only 20" away from the telephone pole by the flare. (They pushed that frame open more at 6:30 am (why?!), after they had to dig out dirt to expand the north side.) Day before pouring, 9/23/21, I emailed "Steve, I'd like to see the tape measurement along the curb after you move the wood frame to the north. We have to measure the distance inside the frame whwere the cement will go and measure a straight line as you know, since the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. (and more about not wasting space by adding it at the telephone pole). That is how I addressed the measurement issue I reported in my first post, where the tape measure was flung over the frame and pulled down at an angle. I got out of bed to see how they adjusted the frame and if the width was correct. It was still dark. Steve was moving speedily, talking fast, telling me what they did and sounding irritated, whipping his tape measure as if I could see the numbers on it. The City inspector didn't see it--Steve had told me all he needed was a photo. Yet the inspector told me he would come back to see it when I met him on the street and I told hime the width was wrong. History repeats itself...when my mom had this house built, the house next door on the corner was not built yet. City came to her and said the buyer wants to turn the house to face us, so it will not face the main street, which was the plan for it and all the corner houses. She objected, and they turned the house anyway. With no male presence in our home, it was the same experience working with Steve--like he could do anything and no one would hold him accountable. My mom's a retired Berea High foreign language teacher with a Master's Degree and my dad's a dentist retired from Cleveland practice who has been a dental professor at a University for the past 20 years. My grandmother was an immigrant from Crete where she was helping build their home patios before she came here at 16. She poured a cement landing next to our side step, framing it and mixing stones in the cement, which stayed beautiful until the day Bella removed all of our old cement. When the home builders left buckets of tar (pitch) behind after coating the foundation, my grandmother said we have to go higher with it than they did; we can see the tar where my mom and grandmother put it on the bricks. I'm standing up to say, who is Steve to mess up our cement job, collect his money on the spot, lie about sloppy work and think he's getting away with it. Steve said cement's beautiful: A contractor witnessed the cement work as it was being done. He said, "Did you see what they did? They ruined your driveway." Referring to the apron on the side which is not symetrical, cut in odd ways, there is barely a flare to the curb. This contractor was shocked at how fast they did the cement work and had something to say about the number of loads of cement they used for the price Steve charged. He said the cracking around the step corner was not normal, as Steve claimed, and thought they should have done razor cuts. I complained to Steve that there was not enough flare on the side I needed it--I back the car around that corner with a big vehicle is usually parked on the street close to the drive. Maybe it's irrelevant that it was a City worker in an appointed position at the time? Let's just say it. Steve said the flare "was done by hand, not machine". (And framed in the dark, I add.) "It is what it is. You can't do anything about it now." Then he added a lie: "At least we didn't move the frame wider on the other side by the telephone pole. Sounded fishy, so I checked the video camera and found that it was a lie...the footage shows one guy moving the frame wider while the other stands by him. The cement is about 20 inches away from the telephone pole. The flare at the pole is wasted inches that are needed on the other side, as I comunicated to Steve several times in advance because he did nothing to assure me. And it does not look right. The owner of another cement company came over. The first thing he said was "Who did this beautiful work?" in a slow sarcastic tone. He remarked on how they messed up the apron on the opposite side of telephone pole "making our drive go into the sidewalk", missing a flare, saying they could have cut the front yard leading to cut-out treelawn. There is a wide smooth border around the driveway that is very slippery when wet, even in the warm weather. When my mom's cane goes on that border, the cane can slide out from under her. I pull the car up the walkway leading to the front step so my mom can get in. The wide border is right where she gets in and out of the car, where the driveway meets the walkway to the step. Even worse when it's cold. I try to avoid stepping on it too. The dog's feet slide out from under her when she walks on it. Since when is the sleek wet look in style for driveways? The only purpose I see is that it looks shiny for Steve's photos. They took all of our dirt. The driveway was raised, so there are deep ditches all along the driveway. Since it was widened, there was loads of dirt they took away. They left a few scraps of dirt with grass attached--nothing compared to what we need. I complained to Steve and he said most of it was hard clay. Well we could use hard clay for two cement blocks they removed on either side of the side step--the one my grandmother made and a smaller actual step, as well as a big drop off of the driveway that could get someone hurt if they fall off the drive or the car could get stuck if a wheel goes off the drive. Is it also for Steve's photo gallery that he did not want piles of dirt in his photos of the driveway? I'm still bringing home bags of dirt.