CT Deck Pros

On June 1st, 2016, we entered into a contract with CT Deck Pros for a deck and patio renovation, involving replacing & reducing the size of an existing wood deck with new PVC decking and replacing a concrete & gravel patio with paving stones. Upon entering this contract, we paid them 25% of the contracted work. Work commenced on July 20th, 2016 during which the crew arrived onsite & completely demolished the existing deck; however, could not proceed due to lack of new materials. By July 22nd, 2016 CT Deck Pros had been paid an additional 25%, bringing their total received payments to 50% of the project total as per the contract with only 1 day worth of work. Realistically, only a half day of actual work was completed due to lack of materials & late arrival of the dumpster. We were informed that no new decking materials had been preordered, causing the first of many delays to the project. With 50% of the project cost having been paid, we had a difficult time understanding why so much money was required up front if no materials were going to be preordered to insure a continuous workflow. The contract stated that the project was to be completed within 15 days, making the completion date August 9th, 2016. Initial requests for onsite design & detail meetings did not occur, despite even CT Deck Pros’ email dated May 27th, 2016 that stated that owner wanted to meet with us to discuss the final patio layout. Owner later emailed on June 8th, 2016 that now the patio layout would then be determined when they were onsite. Please note that the owner has never been onsite during this ongoing project. Furthermore, the GC has only been onsite a handful of times. Initial measurements were performed by an inexperienced employee resulting in an inaccurate & misleading quote. Multiple onsite meetings had to be scheduled to rectify the errors in measurements. They claimed that the error was due to our change in layout; however, another bid from a mason provided the correct square footage based on the exact information we provided to both contractors. By August 3rd, still no decking boards had been delivered onsite; therefore, no real progress had been made either. Please note project delays were not weather-related but due to CT Deck Pros’ failure to properly coordinate its subcontractors and suppliers. We were informed via an email dated August 2nd, 2016 that the patio materials had been ordered & were awaiting confirmation & delivery; however, upon speaking to the supplier directly, we were informed that the materials were in fact ordered on August 4th, 2016 & on September 8th, 2016 had still not been paid for. To reiterate, by July 22nd, 2016 we had already paid 50% of the project cost & barely half of the project had been completed. CT Deck Pros repeatedly claimed that additional payments needed to be made in order to have materials delivered, despite not fully completing the next stage of work as per the contract payment schedule. By August 4th, 2016 due to the lack of progress, we emailed CT Deck Pros in an attempt to cancel the contract unless they agreed to return to work by August 8th, 2016 & amended the contract to include a late penalty for every week beyond an extended completion date of August 22nd, 2016. CT Deck Pros agreed to the new terms of the contract. The crew returned to install deck boards during the week of August 8th-13th, 2016. On August 12th, 2016 we emailed CT Deck Pros again in an attempt to cancel the patio portion of the project due to lack of progress on that part of the job. On August 15th, 2016 CT Deck Pros responded that we were unable to cancel due to contracts made & deposits paid to their subcontracted masons & also because patio materials had arrived at suppliers & were awaiting delivery. Their masons finally began work onsite on August 19th, 2016 & did not return until August 23rd, 2016. Masons returned on August 24th for only half the day. On August 25th, 2016 we inquired about the town inspection timeline with no response. On August 26th, 2016 they again requested additional payment in order to deliver deck railings. By this time, they had already received over 70% of the project costs. On August 27th, we agreed to make an additional payment in order to receive the deck railings & to keep work flowing. We were given his word that the entire project would be completed by September 2nd, 2016 & that we could expect to see both the carpenters & the masons return to work by August 29th, 2016. In addition, he also agreed to schedule the town inspector for August 31st, 2016. As of September 8th, 2016 no masons have returned to work, no town inspection has been performed, & CT Deck Pros has been paid over 75% of the project cost with barely 50% of the work completed. Carpenters did not return to work until August 30th – September 1st, 2016. Concerned about the lack of inspection, we decided to call the town building dept. to inquire about the inspection requirements & discovered that an inspection should’ve occurred after the new footings were poured. On September 7th, 2016 we were promised a delivery of patio pavers & then in a subsequent email that same day, were told that delivery was dependent upon an additional payment despite lack of progress since September 1st, 2016. In addition, when questioned about when the footing inspection would be scheduled, the GC was unhappy that we contacted the town building dept. & they would now be required to dig up the area surrounding the footings to allow for a proper inspection to occur. For the record, footings were poured by mid-August & the inspection is scheduled for September 13th, 2016 as a result of our inquiry. Neither carpenters nor masons have been onsite to work since September 1st, 2016. It has been over 7 weeks since they first started with still barely 50% of the project completed & over 75% of the project cost paid. Again, the contract stated that the project would be completed within 15 days & that “time was of the essence”.

I called and told him what I wanted, made appointment, took 2 weeks never got back to me, finally did and said the job is too small. I feel that he should have said that from the beginning.