Getting quotes for a deck

Its strange that we have so much trouble getting quotes for a deck and fence. You would think that, being in the residential design industry that contractors would, if not falling all over them selves to get on our good side, at the very least try NOT to get on our bad side!

Oh, I wish that were true.

Location of future deck

This shows where the deck will go. The BBQ will be on the deck and the trash cans will have their own little enclosure! The deck will be resting on the asphalt, which slopes, so one end of the deck has to be built up a bit with a step.

We were getting three quotes. 1 from the people who put in the fence on one side of our property Coastal Lumber, 1 from a company who did a gorgeous job with a fence and some gates for the property next to us (we’ll call them “Reuben”) and another from a company that called us out of the blue, Just Wood.

Just Wood came out on time, 2 guys. I was told when I made the appointment that “Alex” knew everything there was to know about fences and decks. I don’t remember which one was Alex but 1 of them was on his cellphone 1/2 the time, not paying any attention to our project. The other guy wanted to spend more time talking about his friends home remodel project than talk about our deck. They tossed off a quote for $12,000 (for a ground-level deck that’s 12×15) then said that there was a springtime sale of 20% off so the total would be $10,000.

$10,000! My mom’s deck cost $4800 and hers was more than 2x as big with stairs and railing and footings AND it’s made out of a more expensive product than what we were asking for. She used a Trex-like material and we’re using redwood.

They also said they’d follow up with a written quote – they finally called just now, 3 WEEKS later, to ask if we still wanted a quote! D’oh. I told them they were over a week too late, we’d hired someone else.

Coastal Lumber came out on time, was professional and followed up with a written quote – which, incidentally, was half, HALF!, of what Just Wood quoted.

Fence that needs replacing.

Reuben, ah, Reubon. Reuben’s employee, Jeffrey called me 45 minutes late, at 5:45pm and said he wasn’t going to be able to make it that day. He asked if he could reshedule to the next day, same time. Sure, I said.

Of course, he’s a no-show…and no-call.

I wait another day, thinking I got the day wrong…nope.

I call the company and they’re closed for the day, so I go on their website and, being the gracious, gentle soul that I am, ask them to please confirm when Jeffrey was coming out since I obviously got the time wrong.

A Reuben rep calls the next morning and says they don’t have us on their schedule – and , guess what, Jeffrey doesn’t make his appointments anyway. Oookaaay. No apology, nothing. Nothing about how Jeffrey just decided he wasn’t going to make it and didn’t bother to follow up with his people to make sure we got taken care of. No, nothing like that.

Now the rep is saying that there isn’t anything available until – not next week – the week after that. Fine, whatever, I make the appt for Tueday at 10am.

This bench is in the way.

(We’ll relocate the bench but the plant might get crushed by the deck construction – hopefully it will grow back because it is a lush, colorful plant.)

In the meantime, we received a nice quote from Coastal Lumber and decided to go with them rather than wait another couple weeks for Reuben to get around to seeing us. They did a fine job on our fence – although the marketing guy modified our fence contract because he didn’t understand why we wanted the fence we wanted – he thought we should only want a 5′ high fence…why would he think he knew what we wanted? Fortunately, we caught the error as the first panel was being built. Lesson? DON”T BE GONE DURING CONSTRUCTION OR YOU MIGHT NOT WHAT YOU WANT!!!.

Isn’t this a nice fence?

I call Reuben to cancel the appt and…sure enough, they don’t have us for Tuesday at 10am, they have us for Tuesday at 6pm! They are a mess! I certainly don’t want to hire a company who can’t seem to get 1 appt scheduled properly.

Coastal Lumber starts Wednesday…I’ll keep you updated on what happens then 😉