DARRELL'S DOCKS INC

We had our seawall replaced in 2013. It was a nightmare. Darrell did not honor the terms of the sales contract and we were left with a list of costly, laborious corrections and continually subsiding ground up to the seawall. First, within months of completion, the ground adjacent to the seawall had fallen over a foot. They are supposed to have a warranty, but they refused to even come and look at it, so we had to spend hundreds of dollars to have fill delivered, which we wheel-barrowed and shoveled ourselves to bring it up to level. Now, five years later, it has fallen again and we are looking at the same prospect of filling it. When they backfilled the sea wall, they brought in material they had removed from another job they were doing, and the fill was littered with branches, PVC pipe, and other garbage, which obviously will not compact properly; not that they did anything at all to even try to compact it. We were following the excavator, pulling branches and garbage out as he went along, and amassed a large pile, but couldn’t get much of it. The wood they used on the dock steps was re-purposed from a job they had torn out (the wood was painted on the underside and had nail holes in it.) They damaged our neighbor’s fence during construction. She called them numerous times (as we also did), but they refused to respond at all, and we had to have it fixed ourselves. We had a preconstruction meeting with Darryl, during which we planned with him that he would access the back yard on the left side of the house, and leave the right side access untouched. We had strategically cut the pipe on our sprinkler system, knowing the weight of the excavators would crush it, and by cutting it, we would limit damage to the sprinkler system to the agreed upon access area. We arrived on the start date to see he had removed the gates on both sides and was driving around the house in laps, using both accesses. Besides destroying the entire yard, front and back, the entire sprinkler system was crushed. We had to replace it ALL, of course at our own expense. We had a 6-ft high aluminum fence along the seawall. In the contract, Darryl was to remove and replace that fence, as well as removing and replacing the access gate on the left side of the house. We were going to store the aluminum fence ourselves, but Darryl said he would store it for us, because he had lots of storage space. When it came time to put the fence back up, he said “he didn’t know how to tell us, but it had been stolen”. Talking to his office manager, she said Darryl had sold it for scrap. Then, he changed his story and said he gave it to a guy who watches his place for him, and that guy sold it for scrap. When we protested, he said we had told him we decided we didn’t want it, and not only that, but that his WHOLE crew had heard us say that and would testify to that if it came to it. So sad that he is even forcing his crew to lie for him (we assume their jobs would depend on it). At any rate, it was just our loss, too bad. He saved himself the labor of having to put it back up, too. Then he said the fence wasn’t worth anything (it was less than 5 years old, and certainly well over a thousand dollars in value). We asked him to try to avoid the Bismark palms we had recently planted in the front yard, which he agreed to. One day, when he left, his fork lift was directly on top of one of the trees. When we protested, he said Bismark’s get too big and we shouldn’t have planted them anyway (they were about 5 feet tall at the time). The contract had stated that they re-sod the back yard up to our pool. They refused to do that, stating that their usual amount provided was x-number of feet. We said, no one told us that before, and the contract clearly stated they were to sod up to the pool. Once again, too bad for us. At the end of the job, Darryl was supposed to re-install the gate and fence at the side of the house. Of course, since he had removed BOTH gates, so we felt he should re-install both. We eliminated one gate and built a solid fence there (ourselves), but Darryl wouldn’t even replace one gate. Then he decided it should have a “footer” and that would be $500 more. We said, just replace it the way it was, and he refused, so we had to re-install the gate ourselves as well. During construction, one day when Darryl and crew were not there, a material supplier stopped and asked if we knew where Darryl was. The supplier said he had not been paid and Darryl owed him a lot of money. This was upsetting, because material suppliers can lien a property for nonpayment, even though their contract isn’t with the homeowner. There’s even more...but enough!!! The truth is Darryl did not honor the terms of the contract and left us with a list of costly corrections and a seawall that has the ground continually subsiding behind it. He was insulting and difficult to deal with.

They weren't responsive. It took a really long time to get us information on dates that they would show up. It was just a really slow process.

He was just terrible. He lied, he cheated. He didn't stand by what was written in the contract. He used some used materials. And he didn't honor the warrenty.

Excellent.

When they started, they had to take down my gate and a piece of the fence. They bent the pole that was attached to the house to hold gate, also bolts into house broken. (no one told me this I noticed it myself and when I questioned the owner I recieved the reponse well I could have done it the way I drive the back hoe I don't know, yeah right) we all know what that response says! The sea wall was built too high. When I questioned them with the first panel they put in, told them it was too high the worker responded don't worry we know what were doing! I measured the height against my neighbors seawall (because when there worker originally measured the area to give me an estimate I watched and measured after he left, it appeared to be about 6-8 inches above my neighbors seawall) it measured 18 inches above his seawall, about 12 inches to high. I told them this and there response was they always put in a seawall 3 feet above the water level. I went inside and contacted the woman at the office and told her the seawall is being put in too high, her response was I should have said something before so they could have ordered shorter panels like its my fault . I told my mom whose property it was that it was too high and I wanted to contact the owner, but she said leave it alone. Well they finished for the day, I measured the height against the water level and it was 4 and 1/2 feet above the water level. When they came back 2 days later I told the worker that it was a good thing they weren't starting this day because the panel is over 4 feet off the water level he laughed and said oh yeah. (This is just a big joke). They were supposed to replace my sprinklers with funny pipe, instead they used cheap poly pipe. They were supposed to level the yard after they were finished before they put the sod down, they didn't do that either. I was told they about a drainage ditch which would be put in on one side however the owner informed he didn't do this because the county wanted the rocks in the ditch covered with felt which defeats the purpose. However on the survey taken after the work was completed the owner told them there was a drainage ditch there, which there isn't, but now it appears on the survey. The contract calls for my deck to be 4 feet by 30 feet in the center and the sides 2 feet wide. The sides are approx. 18 inches wide, is this my fault too? I would never use these people again or recommend them for anything!!