In December 2012, I contracted Toronto Fence to build a short section of fence and a gate to the back garden.
The fence is OK, as is another strip of fencing it constructed a couple of years ago.
By April, however, despite the gate having had virtually no use over the winter, it was apparent that it is defective in both design and construction.
Alex came back twice in the past couple of months and tinkered with it but the problems remain:
- the boards to which the gate is latched came loose because they were not securely anchored by screws to 2-by's in the house;
- the three hinges were from two different and incompatible sets, and neither were similar to the ones on the shed as I had specified;
- the gate sags because there is no diagonal bracing;
- the household-door latch-set is misaligned and not functional and will never be, since it requires a degree of precision and stability unobtainable on an outdoor gate.
It is plain that applying more band-aids is not going to solve the problem. I have no interest in contacting Alex several times a year to fix an unfixable gate and so requested a refund. He has refused to provide one, citing his two year guarantee. (And where are we when two years have passed and the problems persist?)
I clearly would not hire Toronto Fence again, and would encourage those thinking of doing so to consider my experience.