MARTIN FENCE & DECK INC

Started off terribly, with the sales rep. lying to us about the permit and it's progress. He told us that the permit had been denied by our city, when in fact he had never applied for the permit. This took the job twice as long to complete. Materials are supposed to be warrantied for 5 years, so when I called last year to let them know some boards were spitting and cracking, it was impossible to get anyone to call us back. When they finally did call back and look at the boards, of course they said they wouldn't replace those boards. I would not recommend this company to anyone. Also, I don't know if this has anything to with the quality of the wood or if this something that always happens, but we stain our deck and every year it needs to be either stained again or totally stripped and stained again.

She was very difficult and she made a lot of excuses about having personal issues. When she did finally show up, she didn't actually leave an estimate because she had more questions. They were very difficult to work with.

I requested a quote and left a couple of messages. Someone named Jacob Morelos called back and left a message about coming to do an estimate. I left him two more messages and he never called back. I assumed if they can't be professional enough to provide an estimate then how will the actual service be?

There's nothing to tell other than a no-show

Overall, they did a very nice job. They showed up on time. There was one small problem, but they came and took care of it right away. They gave me a lot of options to choose from. My fence looks great, and I am very satisfied with how everything turned out.

John provided us with a quote that was competitive, but not the cheapest we received. John did a good job of estimating the number of holes to be hand dug but when more needed to be hand dug he did not go back to charge us more. John said he would pull a permit for us if it was a deal breaker, but we decided to apply for our own permit. From that point on, they dealt with the city to arrange all the needed inspections, so all we needed to do was apply for and post our permit. They told us where we were in their schedule, and started our fence even earlier than they predicted. They were prompt, worked extremely fast and hard, and finished on a Saturday. Dave Martin called us with a status each night, which we appreciated. The fence has been up for a couple months, and we have had no problems with it. Wish we had done it sooner! We appreciated their commitment to quality and attention to detail. For example, they use stainless steel nails so that we won't get rust stains on the boards. They nail down the fence post tops, which are made of a nice cedar. They also mix their concrete onsite, instead of in each post hole. They completely cleaned up after themselves, there was not a scrap of wood or material anywhere in our yard.

The experience was okay. They showed up on time, the quality of work was good as well. I would use them again in the future and I would also recommend them to others. Sometimes they were hard to get a hold of.

I called Martin and left a message describing my project. I received a return message from John in a couple of hours. He left his cell phone number, and I called back and arranged to have him come out for an estimate. John showed up for the appointment, showed me pictures of possible styles, went over details, and was a very affable fellow. He indicated that the project was easily done, and that he would get back to me with an estimate in a few days. John also indicated that, while Martin would probably not have the lowest price, they were very proud of the quality of their work. After a couple of weeks with no communication from Martin Fence, I called John's cell number and left another message to check the status of the estimate. That was two weeks ago, and I am still awaiting a reply. I feel that these folks wasted an hour or two of my time, and they also delayed my choosing one of the other companies I contacted to complete the project. I would never use Martin for any project based on this dismal experience.

NON PERFORMER.

Dave was very responsive from the initial phone call. They came out and gave us an estimate within a few days. The fence itself went up in three days and they finished the job on a Saturday so it could be completed before the rains the following week. I also really like that they use very high quality materials and hardware. We are considering adding a deck and would absolutely like to work with them again.

It was a good experience.

The deck installation went very well. We had a small problem with the end caps being glued on the posts. Glue dripped and dried looking very sloppy. We spent one weekend sanding the glue off of the cedar posts. The brick work was subcontracted out and there were problems with with the sub completing the work. Dave did not communicate the problems or delays very well to us. Dave hired a new subcontractor and once on the job they completed the work very quickly.

Initially, Martin Fencing called me back right away and came out for their estimate on time and was very polite and professional. We decided not to go with Martin fencing because they refused to pull a permit for the fence, despite it is/was required by the Chicago of Chicago. The contractor politely suggested we acquire the permit ourselves, which would require taking an unscheduled, unpaid day from work while spending money on transportation/parking costs. All of this despite we were willing to spend approximately $7,000 for work done on our property. My husband was told that in the 20+ years they've been doing fence, the estimator had never once pulled a permit and even challenged us to name another contractor who would (which we did). When he was told that the permit would be a deal breaker for us, he said he'd get back to us, but never did. They were nice enough, but I have concerns over "professionals" that don't get permits as a rule of thumb.

They are very punctual. The fence was very close to the utilities, so the men had to dig all the holes by hand to ensure the utilities were not interrupted. They did a great job!

Did not reply to an e-mail. I tried to contact one more time because I was looking for repairs to both my fence and deck. Did not return my call.

Dave Martin is a pleasure to work with. We were able to make an appointment for an estimate easily and work was started a month later. He obtained our permit, contacted the utilities, and did the take down of our old fence and hauled it away. His crew was on time, worked hard, did an excellent job and was done in 2 1/2 days. This was for a 294' fence and two gates. We are very pleased with the way it looks!

They stink, is my comment.

Dave was really helpful, and you can tell that he takes pride in his work. We decided to hold off on adding a deck for a while, so we did not hire him right now.

Dave was very nice and I felt he would have done a great job. Unfortunately, he couldn't start for about 2 weeks and we needed someone to start right away, so we went with another company.

This was our second use of Martin for this same yard. Previously we had them put in the same style fence to divide our yard from our neighbor. The service this second time around was just as we remember from the first visit: prompt, professional, clean, and fast. We knew that we could have had a slightly lower cost for the fence from other companies, but we felt the higher quality was worth the small extra cost.

OVERALL, THE EXPERIENCE WAS VERY GOOD. DAVE MARTIN CALLED ME BACK THE DAY AFTER I LEFT A MESSAGE. HE STOPPED AT MY HOUSE THE NEXT DAY TO GIVE AN ESTIMATE. SINCE I WAS ONLY HAVING ONE COLUMN REPLACED, IT TOOK THREE WEEKS TO COMPLETE, BUT THE ESTIMATE WAS FAIR AND THE WORK WAS EXCELLENT.

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HIGH QUALITY WORK MAKES UP FOR THE PRICE (ON THE HIGH SIDE). THEY BUILD THE FENCE ON-SITE - NOT BROUGHT TO YOUR HOUSE IN PRE-FAB PANELS. DID A GREAT JOB - VERY SATISFIED. WOULD USE THEM AGAIN.

THE PREMIUM WORK AND RESPONSIVENESS JUSTIFY THEIR HIGHER PRICE. PERFECTLY SATISFIED.