- Approximate cost of services:
- $13,000.00
There are always 2 sides to every story and it seems like this customer has forgotten the praises she left for my crew and I the day we finished up. As a courtesy I didn't bother charging for demo of the old fence and did work around some inconveniences like outside power not being turned on despite being asked upon signing and it being the Summer months. There is no mention of the mature tree and the discussion of roots and change in scope of job surrounding such. No mention how it took over a day for her and her husband to decide on how much to cut off of the one post 1" or 2". We had accommodated homeowner quite a bit considering it was a smaller job. Customer needs to understand that she was not the only job at the time. Timeframes and timelines are all explained up front. No customer is more special than the other. Timeline was buggered up when old chainlink wasn't removed and my worker had no hydro to undertake it to keep to the plan. I had mentioned to Lynda just leave it and we would do upon next visit, to avoid losing another day. Homeowner is accustomed to doing things her way and I can respect that; however, she chose not to build her own fence.
I have pictures of the completed job as well as images showing that before even finishing, how homeowner had started painting the fence. We always strive to make our customers happy and thankfully our track record is pretty good considering we don't have a name on our shirts, wear a company hat, or carry vehicle signage. I don't even use lawn signs but rely on word of mouth.
It's unfortunate that this customer maliciously took to social media instead of talking to me the day we finished. However, we wish her all the best and feel honoured to have done a project with the lady who discovered Mike Holmes!
This is not an average design deck with the inset steps and additional steps required to work with the grade at which deck ends at. I wish I could post pictures of Robert's deck because it is beautiful and garnered a lot of praise on social media. This was a permit deck meaning there are 3 inspections typically done with the final inspection catching any safety concerns as homeowner's brought up with "sloping". Decking itself is wood - boards are butt up against each other to allow for natural shrinkage - appx 1/8" on either side of board. If I had spaced it similar to composite, then homeowner would notice some time later that the gap was too large. Unfortunately, I am unable to control how wood dries out and that too is unpredictable and with premature warping/cracking, it is possible. However, for this smaller deck, I handpicked all materials and homeowner is very well aware of this. I simply cannot control how lumber will behave but I start with due diligence in not purchasing wood that already had splits or warping is evident. Because they have small children I even sanded the edges and thought how certain spots might cause splinters, etc etc. I didn't even charge for the extra steps needed! I even worked in the rain for this project just to keep to plan. I wish this homeowner all the best. Please contact me where I can post multiple pictures of this deck.