Description: Welcome to TopNotch Construction of Illinois Complete Building Maintenance. With more than 15 years of experience in the industry, J. A. TopNotch provides full building maintenance services for residential, commercial, industrial, retail and multi-tenant buildings. You can count on us to provide inventive, practical and professional building maintenance solutions for your property. We provide both interior and exterior services. When all is said and done, the quality of a completed concrete project is dependent upon the workmanship of the paving contractor plus the quality of the concrete used in the project. We guarantee that when you choose J. A. TopNotch you get the best of both. Call us today!
7 Reviews
Review MeGeneva IL
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Work Description: Concrete stoop, stairs, and walkway
Comments: We hired Jake’s J.A. Topnotch concrete company after receiving a referral to him from a local carpenter. We had received several bids and Jake’s quote was competitive. His proposed design solutions for our crumbling front stoop were thoughtful.Communication to set up the install day (1 day for demo, prepour inspection + 1 following day for pour, and finish) were good. They prepped the site well to try to prevent damage to our front door and adjacent window.
Demo took longer than expected because the stoop had been poured with the foundation and Jake’s team had to work longer and harder to cut and chip away underneath brickwork. He also had to run out to rent a larger compressor for this work. I agreed to give him a couple extra hundred because this day was the hottest, most humid day of the summer (July 18, 2019-- 105 heat index) and the guys had worked really hard, even thru some morning rain.
However, if I had known the ultimate result of the work, I would not have offered more money, nor would I have hired J.A. Topnotch in the first place.
The first problem came when 2 weeks later we removed the protective sheeting to see 2 cracks in limestone caps under our front door and window. These were probably caused by tremendous vibrations during jackhammering for the demo. I do not think these cracks were caused by negligence; however, when I asked Jake if he knew about the cracks and how we might repair them he replied angrily and never got back to me about ways to repair.
Months later, in January, I noticed that large parts of our concrete started flaking/spalling (IMAGES). We had a mild winter to this point (and overall), and I had applied one sparing dose of rock salt. I had also applied Valspar concrete sealer in October. When I sent Jake photos, he claimed it was salt damage. In this same brief text response, he suggested that I powerwash and epoxy the damage.
He has not responded to other attempts to contact him, I shared my research with Jake which shows that properly mixed, air-entrained, and tooled concrete is highly resistant to salt damage. On the install day, I heard one of Jake’s workers say that the concrete driver had added too much water at the jobsite. Or, perhaps this was a bad mix to begin with. Or, maybe because of the humid conditions, too much bleed water was still on the surface when they did their final float, which is another finishing problem many websites describe.
Trying to communicate with Jake about a repair has been extremely frustrating. The only time he seems to respond is when I have threatened to post this review. Over the course of the last 5 months, I have received 1 phone call, 2 texts, and 1 unannounced visit to my house (while I was in an important video conference with several of my supervisors). While I was working from home on 6/15/20, Jake showed up claiming he was going to repair the concrete without giving any details about how. I asked him to leave because he had not communicated and just showed up, and I had to return to my meeting. He suggested he should just do the work because “he didn’t know when” he could come back, implying that I better let him do his thing or I might not ever get a resolution. He has not responded to a follow-up text from that same day, nor a phone call a week later.
No matter the cause of the initial problem with our concrete work, I believe the lack of communication to try to work out an acceptable solution because of the failure of his install to withstand even one mild winter means that J.A. Topnotch should not be hired for your concrete work. The work may look good at first, but if things don’t go according to plan, you can count on Jake to cut corners and not return your calls.
Elgin IL
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Work Description: Driveway and walkway
Comments: DO NOT HIRE!!!!!!! My brand new driveway is cracked already and it's only December! The driveway lasted 6 months! Jake the owner destroyed all of my grass 10 feet in each direction of the driveway!Schaumburg IL
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Work Description: Removal of concrete driveway and new concrete driveway poured
Comments: The company did a fantastic job on our driveway. Jake, the owner, and his crew completed the job in 2 days. Jake was on site and working along side his crew both days. Hard working group of people. The driveway looks great! I would highly recommend JA Topnotch to anyone needing concrete work done. Very professional and knowledgeable.Hampshire IL
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Work Description: Driveway and walkway
Comments: DO NOT HIRE!!!!! I had my driveway and walkway done in the summer of 2018. It is now winter (six months after work completed) and my driveway has 3 cracks in it already as well as 4 marble sized holes!!!!!! It is crazy that my driveway did not even last a whole year!!! Do yourself a favor and go with anyone else!Schaumburg IL
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Work Description: Decorative driveway and patio for our home
Comments: They were fast (three days) and did excellent work. We love our driveway and use our patio almost daily. We got 4 estimates and this one was in the middle of them. When we met and spoke to the owner Jake he was the most knowledgeable and had most information out of the contractors which is the big reason we decided to go with his company. Before everything was done three of our neighbors came over and also got estimates for driveways because they liked ours. We have recommend JA Topnotch to friends and will use them again.
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Work Description: J. A. Topnotch poured a driveway and did some concrete work in the garden.
Comments: The quality of work is great. I am very happy with it. We have recommended J.A. Topnotch to friends.Schaumburg IL
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Work Description: Removal of concrete curve around the patio
Comments: Estimates is 25% over the actual paid-
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