Why is the paving business so riddled with fly-by-night operations? Lorne Browe, proprietor of L. Browe Asphalt, thinks it's the nature of the beast. "People can learn to do their own sheetrock, paint, do carpentry," Browe says. "But hardly anyone actually knows how to go to the plant and obtain and manage this 300-degree material in mass quantities. So the homeowners just have no idea what's actually involved, no way to tell if it's being done right or not until it's done. They're left looking at the result and knowing something isn't right, but without the confidence or the vocabulary to say what."
Browe is everything that the scammers are not, laying down sturdiness and good looks as the family business has been doing for over half a century out of Saratoga Springs. "It's a craft that takes years to master, and it's gratifying," he says. "And I love that we recycle every bit of material these days. I always hated dumping it."
