The Contractors Group

We hired The Contractors Group to build us a deck slighting over 900 sq feet and complete grading & landscaping in our backyard. Steve came out and impressed us with his ability to envision our wants and needs and was able to match what it was that we were looking for while adding minor additions without pressuring us to accept his suggestions. Unfortunately it only got horrific from there.

After 2 months of ignored phone calls, emails and attempts to work with them, we were left with an incomplete & sub-standard deck and a backyard that we had to put back together again ourselves.

Poor quality of work we received but not limited to:

~Failure to pass Final Inspection due to deficiency on stairs; leaving us to replace/repair them ourselves

~ Steve tried to lead us to believe that we did not need a permit to complete our deck and was unaware of City of Barrie Bylaws (deck must have a permit if over 107 sq meters; deck must be 2' from property line etc) When we insisted on permit he tried to inform us that these bylaws and been in place only since January of 2012 and he had been in business for over 15 years and did not have to do any of the things that were listed at previous jobs. Bylaws have been in place since 2006. He constantly blamed City Inspectors for delays in inspections delaying the job weeks at a time. When we completed the stairs we called at 6am and left message on machine and had Final Inspection the same day.

~Could not meet time lines or promised deadlines Deck was to be complete within 2 weeks. (Quote was issued on April 3rd and work to be started the next day) After 2 months it was still not complete and they were not'expecting' to have it done for at least another 2 weeks.

~Never communicated ~ would not return calls or inform us if anyone was coming out to work or not. Would promise to be on-site and not show up without letting us know. Men would be working on our job and then would leave without notice. We would be informed by the workers later that they were being called off our job to go to others.

~ We were constantly being told that they were taking men off of other jobs just so that they could complete our job and that we should be grateful for it. They never stayed on our job for longer then 2 days at a time when they actually showed up.

~Quality of wood that was used was extremely poor ~ we had to have 21 boards replaced (and still have some to do) due to splitting, knots on edges and popping through. Price tags were left on the wood and used..leaving them to show in many places all over the deck.

~Missing items from quote: 3 benches, 5 planters, lighting an additional set of stairs, fixing of an additional bench

~Left backyard in a constant mess with garbage, scraps, nails, screws left laying around

~Nails that were used started popping out after a week

~ Put down over-saturated grass that smelt of manure and told us to continue to water it.

~ Broke a shovel that they had taken from us to use and removed another one of ours from the job.

~ Moved our shed to complete work and then left it there after repeatedly promising it would be moved back

~Did not replace gate as promised when they took it off for the deck

~ Level of area they sodded was uneven and not prepared properly, leaving us with 4" holes and drops & dips in the area. We had to regrade and fix the area ourselves

We tried on several occasions to work with both Steve and Pete to have them return to fix the issues, but were again ignored when the date they promised to have an outline on how they were going to proceed to fix their mistakes came and went without contact. When a termination letter of their contract was sent to them we were emailed threats of court and lien and demands of payment due immediately with receipt of invoice, that was never received.