A frustrated tradie embroiled in a bitter dispute with a homeowner has smashed her concrete driveway into pieces after claiming she ‘refused’ to pay his team for their work.
The drastic action was taken by concreter Jesse Crowe, who runs a small business in Logan, Queensland, just days after he and his team worked to lay the new driveway.
A video showing Crowe and his team destroying the driveway was shared to social media just days ago, despite the incident happening late last year.
Crowe had spoken with the homeowner, Viola, and negotiated the price of $6,000 for the job, which involved creating a new surface for the large driveway on the side of the home.
However, he claims Viola only paid $2,500 and refused to pay the remaining amount after the pair argued about the quality of the job and the price of rubbish removal.
Queensland concreter Jesse Crowe and his team destroyed a driveway they had just laid after the homeowner ‘refused’ to pay the full amount they were owed for the job
The video shows Crowe, along with a co-worker, lifting a pick-axe above his head and swinging it into the concrete, causing a large hole in the freshly-laid drive.
The two workers then repeated the move all the way up the driveway, leaving it patchy, uneven and full of large holes.
‘This is what happens when you don’t want to pay for works carried out at your house,’ Crowe says before smashing the driveway.
Crowe’s colleague, who filmed the destruction, is heard saying: ‘You should have paid. And it’s going to cost more to get it all dug up, taken away and poured again.’
‘Didn’t want to pay? This is what happens.’
The frustrated tradie said he takes pride in his work and was upset to destroy something he had just built.
‘It comes to a point where you’re in the trade for a long time and you’re doing the right thing by people, and they don’t want to pay at the end of the day, so what are you gonna do?’, Crowe told 7News.
‘I don’t like to destroy something that I’ve just built. I take pride in my work. I love concreting and I love doing it. I just wanted to get paid.’
He added Viola should have paid him the full amount for their work as it is going to cost her even more to repair the damaged driveway.
Jesse Crowe (pictured), explained he negotiated with the homeowner that the job would cost $6,000. However, he was only paid $2,500
However, Viola fired back at the tradie claiming she was not happy with the work and accused Crowe of threatening her when she complained about the quality.
‘[They said] ‘you pay now, now or we will smash the concrete’,’ Viola said.
When asked if she would have paid Crowe and the team she replied: ‘of course’, but added the tradies did ‘what they wanted’ and not what she had asked for.
Viola claims the incident caused her so much stress she was taken to hospital when she collapsed at a shopping centre two days after the driveway was destroyed.
She added Crowe and his team treated her as a ‘thief’ and a ‘crook’ for complaining about the work.
Viola and her family have lived with the damaged driveway since it was destroyed and plan to fix the concrete themselves.
Homeowner Viola (pictured) said she was treated like a ‘thief and criminal’ and was ‘threatened’ by Crowe for complaining about the quality of work and price of rubbish removal
Social media users were divided, with many claiming there were noticeable faults with the job.
‘The lady did the right thing,’ one person wrote, while another added: ‘I wouldn’t pay either.’
A third chimed: ‘There wasn’t one control joint in there.’
Others claimed Crowe and his team demanded payment too soon for the job as the concrete was ‘still fresh’.
‘I’m not paying until the cement sets and has no cracks,’ one person commented.
‘How soon do you expect to be paid? Seven days, 14 days after completion?,’ another wrote.
‘Gotta see the concrete go off before you know if it’s worth paying for,’ a third added.
