Lazaro Paving Corporation

Lazaro Paving Corporation is a Shirley, Massachusetts paving contractor working across eastern Massachusetts on residential driveways, commercial and municipal roadways and parking lots, asphalt milling and reclamation, and commercial snow removal. The company says it was founded in 1963 by Bernard J. Lazaro and is now a three-generation family business running its own crews and equipment; it is a MassDOT-prequalified contractor and has been BBB accredited since 1998 with an A+ grade, and the BBB lists a Massachusetts Department of Public Safety license, HE-131684, expiring in September 2027. When the job goes well, homeowners describe unusually careful process work. A July 2025 reviewer who compared two bids within $400 of each other chose Lazaro on proposal detail and described a two-stage job — old asphalt removed and the surface prepared, then paved — with levels used, multiple roller passes and edges treated. A January 2024 reviewer whose 350-foot common drive was paved in September 2023 reported a full removal and new base with compacted edges, still holding up. A 2021 reviewer said a gravel drive that pooled water was paved with a drain added and has had no water problems since, through multiple tropical storms. Others credit accurate scheduling and estimating, and named the estimator and paving supervisor they dealt with. The complaints cluster in two places. The first is durability and follow-through after payment. A July 2026 one-star reviewer with a 300-foot drive said the asphalt has cracked since installation ten years ago, that repeated callbacks produced only "these things happen to asphalt," and that a second company told them the base was not done properly. A 2022 two-star reviewer said Lazaro promised an early-spring infrared repair and then stopped returning calls; two 2025 one-star reviews say the same thing more bluntly — that problems are not fixed and calls are not returned. The second cluster is job-site conduct, and it comes almost entirely from bystanders rather than customers: 2023 reviews from neighbors describe trucks blocking a whole street and crew members shouting obscenities, a 2023 review from a delivery driver describes an unmarked site and an abusive confrontation, and a 2025 reviewer in Reading said machinery was staged on a walkway and left it a muddy mess. The Google rating averages 4.3 across 87 ratings, so the reviews on file skew toward the extremes. This is a long-established, properly licensed and prequalified operation with genuinely detailed praise for base preparation and drainage work. Before signing, pin down in writing what the base preparation and compaction spec is, what the warranty covers and for how long, and how a callback gets scheduled — that is where the complaints concentrate. If you have close neighbors, ask how the street will be staged.