So, this morning some kid came to the door, nice and clean and a very clean work truck, trying to sell me the leftover asphalt from a job they just did. He was cleaner than a newborn. Even coveralls can't stop that messy job. Half the blacktop on my driveway is chipped up and gone. It was from another one of these guys that the previous owners and my neighbors fell for. I wasn't in the mood to mess with his head so I politely told him "no, thank you." I haven't heard of or seen this sales tactic in a long time. I can't really call it a scam, but the way they do it certainly is; no prep work, nothing but dump it and smooth it out. Cash discount, I'm sure. Angel dog was trying to jump through the storm door to 'meet' him! I guess some things are alive & well.

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There's a Monster on the loose

Those folks and the people who had leftover shingles and “I see you may need some” were rampant in NY.

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Sure you did

Had a fellow last week, here in NE Ohio. Had 4000 yards left over! $35 a yard, installed!

I politely told he needs to learn how to estimate better, both the number of yards needed for a job and who might be stupid enough to fall for that ****.

Kevin

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Unshared knowledge is wasted.

That's about like the guys that come around the neighborhood selling frozen steaks that were "ordered by a restaurant and the packing house sent too many".

Typical scam. Many of these "pavers" are serving time in North Carolina prisons for fraud.

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Bill

Mom got caught out by one like that who were going to "fix" her cracked driveway by slathering a 1/8inch thick layer of Quickrete on it. They took her for $2000. Unfortunately I was at work and she did not call me. I was one POed son, for sure.

25 years ago or so, we had asphalt pourers come to us three times. We had a very long driveway between a pond and a neighbor's swamp. They came by with leftovers about once a year. We were happy to have them. Our driveway was nothing to look at, part of it would be under water in a storm a couple inches max.
They would spread it and bring in their roller. Our application was perfect for leftovers. We would see them working a job around the corner.

Dad wanted an estimate to reroof his house, a Home Depot recommended contractor came out and didn't measure a thing and gave an estimate for a little over double the number of square when we built the place. A complaint was filed with the deaf ears of HD. You would think that HD would care, so a complaint went to HD HQ. We heard crickets! That's the only time we tried any store recommended contractors.

Ivan

"Tarmac your drive, Soir!" in a thick Irish brogue was a common thing in the UK. Most of it was by Paddy contractors who overestimated by 30% the amount they needed for a council job then sold the rest to a member of the public. They got paid twice for that much material because the council didn't have anybody smart enough to do their own estimating.

Some of these jokers were pretty good, but some had other layers of scam like, "To be sure, the weedkiller is mixed into the tarmac, Soir." Yeah, sure. They tried it with a coworker, so he sent them down the garden center to get weed killer and stood and watched while they applied it. Later he realized they had left with the empty container. We all wondered how many more driveways that container "treated".

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Release the Kraken

Might have meant square yards. Not cubic yards.

Neighbor was taken on an asphalt job. Thought he was being quoted linear feet on a narrow driveway. Was billed square feet.

My patio is leftover concrete, but a different scenario. Neighbor was pouring a footing for an outbuilding and needed less than the minimum for delivery. Didn’t even have to pay for since I was the designated excess dump area. Another thing I found out working with some retired firefighters at the P.O. , pretty much anything you need there’s a firefighter that does it on the side.

Were the dump trucks red? Scammers for sure...

Many years ago a neighbor, few houses down the street, was having his driveway replaced.
Old one broken up and hauled off.
New driveway poured in place.

I had hauled off most of the old broken driveway to a friend's farm for erosion control.

Asked contractor if there would be extra concrete.
"I ALWAYS HAVE EXTRA! "

Made sure to be home the day they poured the drive.
Verified with foreman that there was extra concrete on the truck.

"You have extra concrete."
"I would like concrete back there, between the shed and the fence."
"I have your lunch money in my pocket."

"Show us where you want the concrete."

Ten minutes later several wheelbarrow loads of concrete were spread between the shed and fence.
No longer need to mow that narrow strip.

Paid the crew more than enough for good buffet lunch and drinks.

I got off super cheap.


Bekeart

Any leftover asphalt can be delivered to SC, where the road crews will shovel it into potholes and stomp it flat with their bare feet. Yeah, best roads ever.

Quite a few of the left-over asphalt scams ( and other construction scams) around here are by Irish Travelers from around Murphy Village, S C. They make rounds in several states for a few months then return home.

A little different story on "extra" concrete. My neighbor had his asphalt drive broken up and was replacing with concrete. I came home from work and the "extra" made it into a drainage next to my house where we had large stone on the grade to control erosion. It was well hard as concrete when I noticed it. The contractor just dumped it there with no permission. The neighbor was good about it and contracted the company and they offered to have it removed. After I thought about it, I just decided to leave it. Ironically it has worked out well over the years. One of the few times these things have worked out ok.

Another old scam that makes the rounds again every couple of years.

Half the effort and creativity applied to a real job could result in a decent life. As an old fraud and forgery investigator I can tell you that most of these folks aren't interested in a decent life; they thrive on running the scam.

Caveat emptor.

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Life of the party until 8:00PM