American Aluminum Contractors LLC

We got his estimate towards the end of the pool build and he was supposed to start when it finished. It took him two weeks after we were ready to start building to tell me he would be out for additional measuring. I did add in soffit and fascia all around the house because once we cut down part of the roof to make it flush for the new enclosure I needed new soffit there and I realized I should do hurricane clips and also allow better breathing for the attic. I told Dave this and he said no problem, but that it would be three more weeks before anything got started. I couldn?t have the underside of the house open that long told him I need that moved up or I would get someone else. He finally got someone else to do it for him. That got done quickly, but the cage took the same weeks to get started. They finally got going a couple days before we left on a trip. Most of the shed we had them build went up in a day. Great some progress finally. They were working on a few last details on the shed the next day and I clearly asked about the screws they were putting in, asking if they were going to be stainless. Dave said without hesitation ?oh yea they?re stainless? so I didn?t give it another thought. I called him the following day when they were not there about something and told them I was surprised they were not on site. He said ?oh no, we had to build the cage today so we?re at the shop.? Given this was weeks after he had measured and told me they would be building I still let it go. We left on our trip the next day. After we got back we found a beautiful enclosure and at least 15 or so screws everywhere. I?m still finding them today as a matter of fact. Some were even in the pool. My neighbor comes over to take a look and the first thing out of his mouth is ?looks great, but you don?t have stainless screws.? I knew for a fact that I told Dave I wanted stainless screws. I also clearly referenced my neighbor?s enclosure and it was done with stainless. Why anyone would not use stainless around a salt pool or in Florida in general is beyond me. So I immediately called Dave. I said everything looks great, but the screws don?t look stainless. He said they were not. They were painted steel screws and that was what was in the contract. I reminded him that I asked him if they were stainless and he had said they were. He then danced around and laid out some BS about ?stain-free? screws. I told him that was unacceptable, the contract called for painted screws and he knew that is what I said. He got belligerent with me. I told him that he would not be getting the rest of what I owed him (just over $9K) unless the screws were replaced. My wife thought he sounded drunk on the speakerphone. At that point he hung up the phone. That was a Thursday. I didn?t hear from him until the following Monday when he was sitting there in front of my house with his truck and two guys (a relative helper). Nice, well I let them do it and I even paid him a couple hundred extra to cover the cost of the screws. The price of 1000 #4 SS screws is under $200. Again, why would anyone not use them rather than have unhappy customers is beyond me. Ok, so all is good right? No, the 2 foot riser was put together out of three panels which I found out later from my GC?s guy could/should have been done with one panel. Anyway the joints you could see sky through and of course they leaked. The shed is really meant to be an office and he knew that. Of course an office or any room for that matter would need to be waterproof. Well the room leaked like a sieve in all directions, top of the walls along the super gutter, bot side walls and down along the floor, again, no caulking at all was done to prevent it. They promised me a fan beam for the office and never delivered it. He argued with me over the end of a beam that hung down with an open end. He did fix that. Other than that it?s ok. Lesson learned. I can?t recommend this two-man company prone to lies and rampant unprofessionalism. I had to pay my GC to try and stop the leaks and he got most of them. He?ll try again, but trying to fix something that should have been done right the first time when it was easier and had access under the walls is not easy. I?ve had to delay emptying my PODS and its costing me over $100 a month. I actually had more for him to do but I have not heard from him in weeks. Now I have the GC?s guy giving me an estimate. In hindsight paying the extra $5K to my GC?s guy would have been worth it.

The job went much better than expected. It took about three days to fabricate and install the pool enclosure. Dave Murphy and his crew completed the work on three consequtive days. There were no delays, waiting for missing parts, old material laying around or other nonsense often involved when working with contractors. Our old pool enclosure had 2" x 4" walls and 6" roof rafters. The new pool enclosure has walls as big as 2" x 8" and 2" x 10" roof rafters. Other contractors wanted to do a dual-peak pool enclosure to reduce the material cost of the roof. Dave Murphy recommended against that and yet, his price was competitive with other contractors wanting to reduce the cost of the roof materials to "save me money". Long, heavy roof trusses are considerably more expensive and a lot more work to put up. However, the result is well worth it. Our roof is very high and the area looks even big than it is.