Decks By Design

We hired Jim Cobbett and Decks by Design to build a backyard deck at our home. Initially, Jim came across as very professional - in the planning and scheduling stages of the project - and even helped us with the City when they made mistakes in the issuing of a variance permit for the deck. We are mostly very happy with the quality and look of our deck. However, the deck is not complete, and what happened during the final stages of construction is utterly beyond our comprehension. On what was to be our next-to-last day of construction, we asked the crew chief about a couple of things we were concerned about. Jim was not on site at this time and we were worried these items could not be dealt with in the time remaining before the crew left our house for the last time. The first was a top rail that was bowed, and the other was about how the railing-to-stair transitions had been finished, which was different than what we had seen in product brochures that Jim himself had provided (the material is TimberTech). Note: At no time before construction started had Jim ever asked us how we wanted the transitions to look. We felt it was very reasonable as customers to ask why they looked different than we expected. We really, really appreciated the craftsmanship and kind nature of Jim's crew, and so we asked with the utmost delicacy. In the case of the bowed top rail, the crew fixed this in about 5 minutes. For reasons still unknown to us, the crew chief became visibly angry in the time frame of our inquiries (turning his back on my husband and going silent). We called Jim about it and he instructed us to not talk to him, and then Jim called him and told him to gather their materials and leave the job. Jim told us specifically that he instructed them to do so. We received no explanation for this action, and have not received any explanation to this day.This left us with an exterior sliding door going out to the deck uninstalled, and we had to hire another company to come do this work. Even when we met Jim at our house a couple of days later to discuss the incident, he couldn't (or wouldn't) explain what had and quot;set offand quot; both him and his crew chief. He just offered to come to our home and finish the work himself that was left unfinished by his crew. This was all and quot;finishand quot; work to our knowledge, nothing structural or that would hinder an inspection. On the day he was scheduled to come to our house, we found him wandering around our deck taking photos, without having notified us that he was even on our property. This was the second time he had done this. Prior to that day, we had had sod installed in the backyard. We advised him that we had been told by the landscaper to stay off the lawn to prevent damage, and asked him to do the same. He then proceeded to trample on the sod and perform work on it. When my husband pointed this out and asked him to stop, Jim became irate. This was after Jim had AGREED verbally to do his work on the deck itself and not on the yard. When my husband asked again, he actually claimed he had NEVER AGREED TO THIS, as if the conversation had never happened. When my husband asked Jim to perform the unfinished tasks in order of priority to us (when it was clear he had no intention of doing so) Jim again became irate, yelled at my husband who had never raised his voice to Jim, and then, again, walked off the job completely. We found the behavior to be bizarre, but on further reflection, believe he was purposefully trying to provoke my husband. Even after he packed up and claimed to be leaving, he came back onto our yard to take more photos. At this point my husband asked him to leave, but he ignored him and continued to take pictures. We are now left with several and quot;walk-throughand quot;-type and poorly-completed items unfinished that we will have to hire yet another contractor to do. Recently, he has also told us that one of the items unfinished - unbeknownst to us until now - was a and quot;grip/handrailand quot; without which the deck would certainly not pass inspection. We have told Jim that we will pay a new contractor to finish the deck, have the deck inspected, and then make final payment to him. We feel this is our right as consumers, and also adheres to our agreement with Jim that final payment would happen after final inspection, but still honors the work he did. Jim, however, has been harassing us for payment, and has said he will hire a collection agency to come after us for the remainder of the money owed, minus what he calls a and quot;generousand quot; offer of $500. We have no idea how much the final items will cost to finish, in particular now, this and quot;grip/handrailand quot;, so we have very reasonably refused this offer.Prior to the day Jim told his crew to leave our house, we had raised only three other issues with Jim directly which were handled poorly: The framing of stairs incorrectly to and quot;landand quot; before, rather than on, a lower deck (Jim's response: and quot;I can't remember every detailand quot;), and a child gate that had been forgotten completely as well. We also asked about the supports for the railings that had been constructed out of available materials rather than using specially-made materials available from the manufacturer. Jim claimed they were not available, but we called the manufacturer to confirm that they were.We've wondered and wondered what happened to turn these simple inquiries from a consumer into such an over-the-top response. One fairly forgiving theory is that we caught Jim and his crew chief in some bad emotional window of time, either personally or between them. I think the more simple assumption is that Jim - and by extension his company - just can't bear to be made to answer for anything, even when raised with great concern for feelings, as we did. Please take these theories as just that, but without specific explanation from Jim, again, we can only make assumptions based on our experiences. This is just our heads up and warning to avoid the current situation at Decks by Design until they understand how to address customer concerns professionally. We will edit this review to include a description of how this matter gets resolved and Jim's further actions, positive or negative.