Installed second level deck (12x12) with stairs going to the ground
I will preface all of my comments and frustrations with this--His company built a good deck. I have no problem with the quality of the deck, minus the few details that I will outline. I have no doubt that he has a good ability to build fences and decks. With that being said, let me explain our situation. We recently bought a house. One of our contingencies in the contract was the owner to put on a fence. He used Tyrone and 1st Choice to build the fence. We were not involved in that process, and we were only going off of the final product when we contacted 1st Choice to do our deck. We contacted a few other companies, but 1st Choice was the lowest and presented a unique design. Going off of his previous work, we were excited for him to start the deck! After a quick HOA approval and 1st Choice handling all the permits and such, they gave us a Wednesday start date, with a 4 day timeline for completion. Wednesday turned into Friday, and then I was told by Tyrone that they were working on another project and would have to start on Saturday. They finished the 12x12 upper level platform fairly quickly. Around day two, after the platform of the deck had been just about finished, they informed that they were not going to be able to build it the way that we both had designed it. The stairs were supposed to run down the side of the house, as to not take up a bunch of our yard. It was decided after about half the project was complete that this would not be possible and we had to now run the stairs into the middle of the yard. They had already built half the deck, so what were we supposed to do? We had hired Tyrone and his company partially due to they were the only ones to present us with a design like this, so we were excited at the prospect of being able to have all the functional space in our yard. Since the 12x12 deck was already finished, we had no choice but to accept the changes and have them build the deck with the new design. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of a very long and disappointing process. I understood that it rained one day, which delayed the build by one day. I told Tyrone that I needed to be done by Tuesday (day 6) because I had a refrigerator being delivered and they needed to use the deck to bring it up. He assured me several times that it would be completed, and that they were supposed to have the first inspection Monday afternoon. Monday afternoon came, and so did the inspection. Unfortunately, Tyrone did not have the proper paperwork ready, so the inspector was unable to inspect our property. It was supposedly rescheduled for that afternoon, which never happened. Tyrone never contacted me and it wasn't until I approached him that I had figured out what happened. Tuesday came and the deck wasn't completed. I had to contact Tyrone several times--He never once through the whole process contacted me first--to see what was going on. By this time, the deck was mostly completed, with temp footing until the inspector gave the ok. The inspector approved the deck, but a few changes were needed to be perfect for the final inspection. We were supposed to have stair lights installed on the deck stairs to light the stairs. Tyrone decided that since the design had changed, that he would make the decision, without consulting us at all, that he would put a flood light on our house and not install the deck lights. He then removed our light fixture that was currently there and installed the flood light. At the end of the day, this was Wednesday (a week after he was supposed to start) he asked for the other half of the payment, because he needed to make payroll for his guys. I hesitated, since the work wasn't completely done, but we ended up writing him a check that day, since he told us all that had to be done was the final inspection and promised us that he would complete the work. Once we realized the following day that the new light was installed, we asked him where the old fixture was, as we wanted to keep it as a replacement to another fixture we had. He informed us that he had THROWN IT OUT! He never told us he was changing out our light fixture, never asked us if we wanted the light fixture and never told us that he threw it out, until we approached him about the change. When we asked him (through email) if he had a plan to refund us for the light fixture, his exact response was and quot;A refund for the light? Lol.and quot; As minuscule as he may have thought this was, he still took our personal property off of our house, without consulting us of the change from the stair lights, and then threw it out without ever blinking an eye. Saturday rolled around and his full team is back. They were cutting wood and screwing in another board into each of the rails leading down to the landing. These boards were on top of the already existing railing. My wife and I were concerned why the whole team was back, because we paid him in assurance that all that had to be done was the inspection. When these boards were put on, it really looked like someone had just taken two boards and pounded them on. It did not make sense and it made the railing look very bad. I went out to talk to Tyrone, since he told me that all was left to do was to get the inspection and was told that they now have to install the extra support and such, which I did not question, assuming that it is what happens after the inspection. He never mentioned anything about the additional boards on the railings. Once they were finished, I went out to look at the deck and asked Tyrone about the boards. He said--and I am not quoting--something about them being a quarter inch off and that was the reason that the boards were put on (sorry, I am not sure of the exact verbiage). He also admitted that he did not like the boards being their and agreed that they looked silly. He said that since the first inspector said they were a quarter inch off that they installed these boards in order to pass the inspection, but told me he would take them off after they passed the inspection, per my request. He didn't volunteer to replace the railing afterwords, but assured us that it would only have nails holes in it from the board on top of it and he would fill them with wood putty and make them look nice. I am not a deck builder, but the fact that he was just doing stuff to pass the inspection and then would and quot;fix itand quot; for me afterwords was a bother because obviously we would not be compliant anymore, as well as the fact that he was not offering to replace the railings that had nails pounded into them, but would instead just fill the holes. Why wouldn't you just build the rails to the right specifications in the first place? It is now Tuesday, almost two weeks after 1st Choice said they would start. The final inspection passed, but the boards still remain on the railings. My wife and I have decided to find someone else to take the boards off and fix the rail, since over the last couple days, Tyrone has sent us a series of emails telling me how I am and quot;knit pickingand quot;and and quot;looking for reasons to complain.and quot; WIth as much money as we were spending on the deck, we did not feel our comments and complaints were unwarranted. The final product, minus the two railings, turned out very nice. The biggest problem we had with Tyrone and his company is that they did not communicate with us AT ALL about problems, potential changes, delays or anything else. All the communication that was done was after we had inquired about things. He decided on things for us (stair light vs. flood light, throwing out our fixture, etc.) and to be honest, it got to the point where we didn't trust anything he said in regards to why things were being done and why things were delayed and when it would be finished. Also, a minor note, through the whole process, his team left all of their trash, including water and gatorade bottles and cigarette butts in our yard, and didn't clean up their trash until the last couple of days. I cannot recommend Tyrone on the fact that he was very cavalier about his lack of customer service, and never once made an attempt to make things better, even after I told him I wanted to be kept in the loop.
