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My husband and I hired a firm to build us a new deck. The deck is about 650-700 square feet on three levels. The verbally agreed-upon cost was $32,752. For reasons too complicated for me to go into in my OP, we never actually signed a contract, although we do have a copy of the contract we were asked to sign. So far, we have paid the contractor $24,564. He completed the work last Thursday (with the exception of what he referred to as "touch-ups"). Getting this deck to the point where we are going to be satisfied with it is going to involve a whole lot more than just "touch-ups." We're having a really hard time knowing what to do at this point. Have any of you had a similar problem? If so, how did you resolve it?
You have not given enough information regarding this contract, scope of work, drawings or other details as to why your expectations are vastly different than the contractor who has performed the work.
A firm that would do $30k in work without a signed contract is a squishy. For one thing, they may not have any valid lien on the materials and work; I am not sure if a mechanic's lien can be filed one-sided.
The verbally agreed-upon cost was $32,752.
So far, we have paid the contractor $24,564.
We're having a really hard time knowing what to do at this point.
Say thank you very much but we're done. Pack up your stuff and go.
Then find some other contractor who will put their estimate in writing.
You should probably find an architect type to look over the job
and prepare the document you need for the contractor and you to sign.
You have not given enough information regarding this contract, scope of work, drawings or other details as to why your expectations are vastly different than the contractor who has performed the work.
Well, I'll try to provide more details but I'm afraid it's going to be a lot of reading. If I can get some good advise, though, it will be worth it.
Back in January and February of this year, we started getting bids for a new deck. Of the seven contractors who came out to the house, talked to us, and took measurements, only three actually followed up by giving us a bid. The three bids came all in within $2,000 of each other.
After interacting with all three of the contractors who actually bid on the job, we ended up picking one that I'll call Bob Jones. Bob's bid included a lot of specs pertaining to the construction of the deck, as well as several computer-generated pictures of what the finished product would look like. We were impressed by the amount of time he evidently put into just coming up with a bid, and assumed that was a good indication of how detail-oriented he was. The problem was that the pages containing all of the design specs (mostly specs for the frame of the deck) were difficult for us, as non-professionals, to follow. What concerned us more, though, was that his computer-generated pictures of the deck were not as we had explained we wanted the deck to look. We already had a deck (redwood, 34-years old and starting to rot), and we wanted the new deck to be identical to the old one in terms of dimensions. He explained that although his computer software was not capable of drawing the deck we wanted, he did understand exactly what we had in mind and that building such a deck would not be a problem at all. Incidentally, he took pictures of the old deck, which I assumed he would use for reference, along with the measurements he took on his first visit to our house.
He came over to our place at the end of February, had us sign a "letter of intent" and told us he needed $16,376 up front. He did not say anything at that time to indicate he would want any additional payments until the job was complete. We assumed the only remaining payment would be at completion. We told him that two things were very important to us: (1) that the deck be completed by May 1 (that gave him two months; we figured it would probably take no more than three weeks to complete the project), and (2) that once his men started working, we wanted them to continue working. We didn't want one- or two-week periods of time when our project was just left stagnant.
I e-mailed him the next day and asked him to let us know two weeks before he wanted to commence work. I told him we'd write out a check for the down payment at that time. He said, "No, I need the money now, even though we won't start construction right away." We wrote the check and gave it to him a couple of days later. He then e-mailed us a "tracking board" that indicated he'd be wanting another $9,800 before the men would even start laying the Trex. That was the first time we knew that we were going to have to have paid for 80% of the cost of the deck before it was ever completed.
It was another month before he even sent a team over to tear apart the old deck. Three more weeks and several e-mails later, including a no-show on the first day of construction, he finally sent a crew over to start building the frame. It had been eight weeks since we'd given him a down payment, and by then, we were already super frustrated with him. It didn't even occur to us at that time that he'd never had us sign a contract. At the end of the second day of framing, we went outside to check out the progress. The frame that was being built was nothing like the deck he'd agreed to build us. The following day when the guys showed up, we showed them pictures of what we wanted and told them they'd have to start completely over. The foreman was stunned but agreed that they'd have to tear down everything they'd done so far.
It wasn't until half the deck surface was laid that Bob remembered that he's never had us sign a contract. Since his materials list specified a different color Trex than the Trex we wanted (the correct product was, at least, being used) and since we still didn't have pictures from him showing what the finished product was actually supposed to look like, we refused to sign the contract. By this time, it was late in May.
We were seeing his workers for two or three days at a time, every week-and-a-half or two weeks. Progress was incredibly slow and for some reason, he pulled the foreman off the job after just a few days. The men that showed up apparently had less experience that we'd assumed they'd had, and it was hard for us to be able to tell what was being done correctly and what wasn't. Finally, we called Bob and told him we'd pay him an additional $4,100 once the framing was complete, $4,100 more once the Trex was laid on the three deck surfaces and the balance of $8,185 at completion (which would include stairs, lattice work, railings and a built-in bench surrounding three of the eight sides of the octagonal middle level of the deck). We figured this would work.
Unfortunately, he had ordered insufficient materials to complete the project and didn't want to continue work until we paid for additional materials. He accused us of "changing the plans mid-way through the project," when it was, in fact, he who had messed up from the beginning. We refused to pay anything over the initial agreed-upon price and he finally gave in and said he'd finish the deck.
Well, the finish work (the stairs, lattice, railings and bench) was an absolute disaster. My brother-in-law, who is a retired general contractor, said it looked like an 8th grader had built the bench. Actually, the bench was the one part of the deck that Bob himself had built. It would be funny if it weren't so sad. So that's where we stand right now. We're thinking of hiring a lawyer, but we don't want to end up having to pay attorneys fees plus the $8,185 we still owe Bob. I'm sorry this took so much time to explain, but there you have it.
Say thank you very much but we're done. Pack up your stuff and go.
Then find some other contractor who will put their estimate in writing.
You should probably find an architect type to look over the job and prepare the document you need for the contractor and you to sign.
That's kind of the direction we're leaning right now. We've got $8,185 saved to "redo" the parts of the deck that need to be redone. If it comes to more than that (since it will involve more materials), I'd rather pay someone new instead of give the original guy another dime. He will almost certainly sue us, though, for not paying, so we have to take that into account as well. We just don't know which choice would ultimately be the best for us.
Landscape and outdoor contractors are among the worst I've ever dealt with. We did a very expensive back yard transformation (about a 200x10 segment of what had been irregularly sloping crappy lawn, to be brought up to drainage-level with a retaining wall). After about two weeks of work, the contractor just sort of quit with the wall at least a full foot short and the fill still sloping more than we wanted. Argument, he finished it all up (sod in, etc. ) more or less while our backs were turned, and it wasn't until he'd cleared out that we found the sprinklers were "zoned" about like a pile of spaghetti. No way to fix it at that point. I shorted him 10% on the net with the last check with a post-it that said "come get me..." and never heard another word. But had to live with a yard that wasn't quite right, needed a full season of adjusting sprinklers and timing one by one to get even watering, and basically couldn't have been fixed without a huge tearout. With ABSOLUTELY no reason for him to have chopped off the work 'mostly done.'
I agree with MrRational, and I would send a certified letter to the contractor to document that you will not make any further payment for deficient work (and list out those deficiencies). And I would also look into Bob's business license with the city/county to make sure he is indeed properly licensed and insured to perform decking work. Maybe you should talk with a lawyer.
Landscape and outdoor contractors are among the worst I've ever dealt with. We did a very expensive back yard transformation (about a 200x10 segment of what had been irregularly sloping crappy lawn, to be brought up to drainage-level with a retaining wall). After about two weeks of work, the contractor just sort of quit with the wall at least a full foot short and the fill still sloping more than we wanted. Argument, he finished it all up (sod in, etc. ) more or less while our backs were turned, and it wasn't until he'd cleared out that we found the sprinklers were "zoned" about like a pile of spaghetti. No way to fix it at that point. I shorted him 10% on the net with the last check with a post-it that said "come get me..." and never heard another word. But had to live with a yard that wasn't quite right, needed a full season of adjusting sprinklers and timing one by one to get even watering, and basically couldn't have been fixed without a huge tearout. With ABSOLUTELY no reason for him to have chopped off the work 'mostly done.'
So color me unsurprised at your dilemma.
"Come get me." I love it!
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