Driveway project nightmare

[Julia Taylor]

We are new long-distance investors and purchased our first STR 5.5 months ago. If there is a different forum that is a better fit for this post, please let me know.

The driveway is steep and gravel, and our handyman/cleaner (who worked for the previous owner and knows the house and its history well) suggested we have concrete poured to help with guests spinning out / getting stuck. We spent $7K to do this, and 4 weeks later we are discovering the concrete company did a terrible job. First, the concrete is only 8' wide, which is what the contract said they would do, but being totally inexperienced I didn't realize how narrow 8' is for a driveway (especially a steep driveway!).

Second, there is a significant drop off on the edges (4-5"), and our handyman's differential (of his Tundra!) dragged on it. I'm worried about future guests damaging their cars on it, or damaging the driveway. 

Third, we had a grading guy come to pour some gravel along the edges (an additional $3K), and his truck busted the corner of the concrete, breaking about a 1'x1' piece off. He said it's because the concrete company did not put 57 (3/4) stone underneath the concrete slab. The contract with the concrete company does not specifically mention 57 stone, it just says "sub-base". 

Both the grading guy and our handyman say the driveway needs to be ripped out and redone. Which probably can't happen till spring with winter weather moving in (we are at 4500 feet elevation in western NC).

The concrete company is not answering our calls or texts. I hired them in part because of their good Google reviews, but today discovered they have an "F" rating with the BBB (I didn't even know the BBB was still a thing). 

A friend said we should talk to a construction lawyer. My husband thinks it will not be worth the expense and headache. 

FWIW, we are on a financing plan through a 3rd-party company that the concrete company connected us with. I haven't even made the first payment yet. I'm wondering if there is some kind of out for us paying them since the work is unsatisfactory. There is a lot of fine print to wade through on the documents from the finance company. Unfortunately, the date the job was completed, I did sign off on the job being satisfactory from across the country (the project manager Facetimed me, but there are so many things I just don't know about concrete or driveways, I probably should have had my handyman be there for this).

Also FWIW, there is a 10-year warranty mentioned in the contract, but it does not say what that covers.

I'm trying my best to not let myself get bogged down emotionally about this, but it's so stressful. I'm worried about my future guests. We invested in real estate to make our lives easier, not harder or more stressful (probably our first mistake).

For those of you who are more experienced with projects like this (and things going awry!), what steps might we take or questions might we ask to get this whole situation resolved?