Deck Creations Of Richmond

To start from the beginning - I hired Deck Creations of Richmond VA to build a new deck where one once stood. I interviewed the Company and reviewed their on line reviews. All looked good so I proceeded with the company. I paid the first 1/3 of the estimate to get on their schedule (I typically do not pay a retaining fee for building projects). This should have raised some red flags however with all the positive comments and reviews I chose to pay upfront. Once the materials arrived I paid the 2/3 payment of the estimate. The company built the deck however they didn't necessarily stick to the original design agreement - wanted the deck 1.5-2" away from any portion from the house as the deck was to be free standing. They built it touching the house. They decided they would simply cut the upper deck flooring away from the house when I addressed the distance from the house issue. During the floor cutting process they gouged my fairly new sliding patio door outer trim (vinyl) and put a big gouge in the fairly new composite sliding door kick-plate. They also dented my fairly new gutter downspout - they hammered decking floor into the side of the down spout rather than perform the proper cuts. Additionally many cuts were so bad they had to re-cut the lumber and even with the second and third attempt the cuts were still poor. There are several splits in the wood where they haphazardly screwed the deck together not considering the width or closeness to the edge of the wood. The deck itself looks reasonable from a distance (25' away) but when close (10' or less) once can see it's clearly built without any sort of "exceptional craftsmanship" in mind. The funny fact about "exception craftsmanship" is that the term is used in their advertising materials. A few other facts: * Porta-poty left in front yard several weeks after construction was complete * Workers threw cigarette buts on ground and left them (we have a dog - cigarette buts are toxic to dogs) * Site foreman argued the closeness of the deck to the house; tried to persuade me to leave it touching when original desire was to have it 1.5-2" from the house * Deck house facing band-board is severely arched towards house; floor-joists were not properly cut for length * Company used a board for a floor joist that should have sent back to the lumber yard or thrown away ; they simply scabbed another board behind the floor joist to help strengthen the unusable floor joist * Deck flooring not cut straight on edges; I've never seen someone cut a line as bad as this company did * Several cuts not straight and some cuts having "ledges"; not sure what the people building this deck used to cut the lumber with - I can truly say the cuts in many areas fail any sort of straight test * Final step of landing below grade; not sure how it passed inspection?? * Allowed my neighbors to look / review the quality of the deck as they were considering having this company build their's; after seeing ours they decided to not proceed with this company To close this review out - the company did come out two times and replace a few board and performed a few items. The biggest complaints I had was never addressed or repaired (poor cuts on flooring, split wood from screws and damage to my house). The President of the company tended to "white wash" any complaints; example: one 6x6 post being out of level by more than an inch - he referred to it as being a 1/4" inch out of level. The company tended to "white wash" all complaints and be somewhat difficult to deal with; basically they threw up a structure and wanted to be paid. I didn't expect this type of quality - I expect much better. Bottom line - won't ever call this company for any additional deck projects.