Wilcoxon Construction, LLC

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We had an excellent experience. They’ve been in business a long time, they do this a lot, so they actually corrected problems that somebody else created.

It didnt....

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On 03SEP13 I called and spoke with Roseanna about a price quote for an expensive pool job. I need my pool resurfaced, new tile and coping in all a $14 to $25K job. Roseanna told me that there was a 24 Hour turn around on price quotes. 48 hours latter I was calling back to ask about my quote. Roseanna said that a Jim McClellan would be getting in contact with me. A week later I called back to ask if Jim was going to contact me. I was then told by the Wilcoxon office that they would get in touch with him to get in touch with me. A week after that I scratched them off my list as a MAJOR disappointment. I have by this time found a company from Angie's List that will be doing the work and between the four price quotes that I was given by their competitors it resulted in a range of $14-25K. Maybe they don't need business or maybe they know other companies will sub them out so they don't need to compete I don't know. However I will say as most of the reviews that I read about this company state. They are TERRIBLE at communication and I guess they don't have to be. If you are reading this I would go with another company that will probably sub them out to do the work for them on your pool and save yourself the hassle of having to deal with this company.

The pricing seemed a bit high

Excellent

This review is mixed because my experience with Wilcoxon was very mixed. I want to say up front that the work their crews did is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, and they truly were skilled in their specialty areas. I am very, very pleased with the end results. All the work crews were pleasant, polite, and got right to work. They clearly were the best at their jobs, and took pride in their jobs, and the end result shows this. It was a pleasure to watch them work, and their good reputation within the pool services industry for the quality of their work is clearly deserved. HOWEVER, as great as the experience with the work crews was, the communication and responsiveness of the office staff was the exact opposite. In fact, the words "horrible" and "unacceptable" are appropriate here. Whereas the estimator and the project manager both were pleasant, professional, and in frequent contact while I was deciding whether to sign the contract, and then while selecting a tile design, once I signed the contract and sent in my first of three payments, that attitude changed totally. It was as if I and my project no longer existed. The original start date of 19 April came and went, and each day when I called to see why the crew had not shown up as promised, either my phone call was not answered or I was told that "everything is weather-dependent and it's raining at one of our other jobs." While I certainly understand that weather cannot be controlled, and that some scheduling slippage could occur, it became clear over the course of the next 3 weeks that this was not really the reason, at least not most of the time: my homeowner job was being pushed aside in favor of commercial jobs, some of them in Virginia, and the crews weren't even in my area at all. I was taking off work each day so that I'd be home during the project and I was basing that decision on what the office staff told me the night before. On three occasions I was told that my pool job was the first one for the next morning, so I would take off work the next day Then they wouldn't show up--and no phone call to say that. When I said to the office staff that this was unacceptable, I was told that I should not be taking off work--no need for me to be here. But this is major and sometimes dangerous work, and I was not about to have such work done on my property without being home. The office manager admitted to me that she herself would not allow any work on her property without someone being home for it. So I did not appreciate their attempt to turn the blame for my lost days of work back upon myself--if a company tells me at 6:30 p.m. that its crews will be at my house at 8:00 the next morning because I'm job number one, then they don't show at all because it's raining on another job, then clearly l have been lied to because I was never number one to start with--why would they even BE elsewhere? When I asked them to just please call when they knew for SURE that crews were on their way to my house, I was told, "We can't call our customers to tell them that. That would just be too much work. We have too many projects." It seems to me that many of their customers are commercial ones and the work is happening at their actual workplaces, so they're not taking off work to be there--the work happens there. But homeowners are a different story. We are taking off work, losing money, using leave, and putting extra burden on our coworkers--a simple phone call to help people schedule accordingly is NOT too much to ask. It's not only good business practice, but it's common courtesy. On top of all that, I caught the project manager in an outright lie. After waiting 8 hours on a Friday for a crew that was supposed to have shown up early that morning, my husband was told that the reason the crew was delayed was because it had been "pouring in Edgewater all day." Well, since we live in the 21st century and have weather radar available at our fingertips on smart phones, I went to three reputable weather sites and checked the radar, the forecasts, and the video that covered the entire course of that day in Edgewater. Guess what? No rain. None in the forecast, none on the radar, not even a chance of rain was predicted. To double-check, I called a coworker who lives in Edgewater and who was home on leave that day. He confirmed: no rain that day. I suspect the "raining elsewhere" is used constantly as an excuse for disorganization or incompetence in the Wilcoxon office. At one point, the project manager made an excuse about how the work crews were terrible about communicating with her, so sometimes she didn't even know where they were. I guess that was a way of deflecting blame from her to them, but from what I observed with the work crews, there was always a team lead or foreman who seemed to be taking and making calls frequently. The office manager also told me once that my job was less expensive than others they were doing, and some of them were on deadline for Memorial Day openings. Well, yes, but if the others are commercial or government-owned pools, that's not someone's personal money at stake. Plus, many are indoor (according to one foreman), so they could have been done in advance rather than during the April-May rush. Not my fault. I want to stress that at no time was I rude, threatening, or even unprofessional when I called the Wilcoxon office. And I was not constantly calling. There were days when no crew showed up, no info was forthcoming, and I just decided to let it go and wait to see what happened the next day. After 2 weeks of this, I did start to call or email daily to ask for an updated date prediction for the next stage of the work. Other than telling the person on the phone at times that I was frustrated with the delays, I was overall pretty darned patient with the situation. Coworkers, family, friends, and even a pastoral friend all told me that I was being too nice and patient and that I should be calling the Better Business Bureau. But at that point, I had a huge hole of busted-up concrete in my backyard, I had taken out a 3-year loan, and I wanted to stay on good terms with the company so that the work would be done and would be done well. Speaking of that hole. When the estimator came out in August 2011, he told me that the entire job, start to finish, would take 4 to 5 days, weather permitting. He stressed that they had to work fast because having an empty in-ground pool is risky because the hydrostatic groundwater pressure can literally pop the whole thing out of the ground and ruin it beyond repair. I knew this, too, from draining the pool twice over the 25 years we've lived here. But he and others on his staff later practically ridiculed me when I called during the project and pointed out that every day they didn't come was another risky day of letting my pool sit empty, vulnerable to the elements and to the possibility of hydrostatic pressure damage. I did not appreciate that attitude, and I'm sure that if the pool had popped out of the ground it would somehow have been turned around into not being their fault, despite all the delays. The delays also affected other businesses. I had an electrician on standby to replace the pool light, and then when the resurfacing was finished, a water company had to be at the ready to start filling the pool right away.With new plastering, the water level must keep rising constantly and quickly in order to avoid bathtub-like rings on the plaster. But since the plastering team was not showing up when they said they would, I had to keep calling the water company day after day to cancel and reschedule. I will also say that two water companies refused to take on my job when they heard that Wilcoxon was the contractor, because they had been forced to pay a LOT of overtime in previous situations where the Wilcoxon crews did not show up on time. One company said they would only do the job if I agreed to pay double the cost if the job started anytime after 4 p.m.,based on past experiences with Wilcoxon. When I told the estimator and office manager about this, they said that it was unprofessional for the water companies to charge extra--they just did not get it, that it was because of their own company's unreliability that these small, family-run businesses had been forced to implement that policy. The company I went with was great, and they told me to call them the minute the crew actually showed up in my driveway--which is how it ultimately worked out. Upon completion of the project, no one from Wilcoxon ever called me to see how I liked the work or to see if there were any problems with it. Not a single phone call or email on a $20,000 job! I had offered to send a photo to show the beautiful end result, but .... guess they weren't interested in seeing it or getting my feedback on the work. The only follow-up call I got was from their billing department asking for the remainder of the balance--before the last step (caulking around the coping, usually done 3 weeks after plastering) was completed. At that time, their records showed me owing $4,000 more than I actually did, so I straightened that out by reading invoice numbers and EFT numbers from my bank statement. Once the last step was done (and again, the work was beautiful--the caulking is perfect, smooth) I made my payment the same day. I really wanted to ask for a partial refund because of my 64 HOURS OF LOST WAGES. But I took the high road. To recap:The work crews were great to work with and they did amazing, amazing work. The office staff was unorganized, unprofessional, non-communicative, non-responsive, and did not seem to care about me or my project once I had signed the contract. The "4-5 day" job took over 3 weeks. If you want the best pool restoration possible in the Maryland-DC-Virginia area, this is your company. But be advised that you will have to put up with the downside of the company, too--and it will be very frustrating and painful.

I hired Wilcoxon Construction to pour a driveway at my home. The area is approximately 50' x 17' and runs from the sidewalk to the rear of the house. The pour included working around the root system of a very large maple tree and a city water manhole cover; joining to an existing concrete walkway; and ran along the side of the house. The crew did a great job with driveway. Mark worked with me before the job began, talked to me about the potential problems with the tree roots, the height of the water collar, and even the potential drainage issues because of the length of the driveway and the existing grade. He was very patient with me when I expressed my concerns and took the time to address them and answer all of my questions. The job started on time and was completed on time. The crew did a great job and left no mess. The work looks great, lines up perfectly with the existing walkway, and drains wonderfully. The job was very well done and was reasonably priced. If I ever have any other concrete work I need done, I'll not hesitate to use Wilcoxon again.

Our 1959 Paddock pool finally needed re-plastering and we took the opportunity to replace the tiles and coping at the same time. Got several prices and one other company in Maryland looked good. But, Wilcoxon came highly recommended by my pool supply company (Dominion Aquatics- also very good!) and I was impressed with Rudy, the Wilcoxon rep. Later, as we moved through the project Rudy was attentive, professional, and genuinely concerned about the details and our satisfaction. And, he has a great sense of humor. They did have a minor problem during the install but Rudy and Wilcoxon made sure that the remedy was fast and thorough and they really proved their dedication in making the corrections. I highly recommend.

Wilcoxon seemed to be working pretty well and efficiently. They cut the area clean. They are a bit more pricy but they seem to do a better job.

Wilcoxon removed all the old plaster from our 25 year old swimming pool. A few tiles were damaged in the process and they had matching tiles to replace those that were broken. These were odd shaped blue tiles and they matched perfectly. The work site was very clean and vacummed after that messy process. They carried all that broken plaster by buckets to their truck to prevent damage on the lawn with wheelbarrows. They had a tarp on the asphalt driveway to keep that clean. The next day they came to plaster the pool at 9:00 a.m.The job was completed and the pool ready to fill by 11:45 a.m. when the water truck arrived with the first load. EXCELLENT JOB! We are very pleased.

They are excellent. I would recommend their service because they were very professional, neat, efficient, and timely.

Wilcoxon completed deck work in May. Company's work initially appeared to be good, but after only 4 months of summer weather, it began to heave again. The new caulk between the coping and the new deck began to split apart. I had to have pool re-caulked that same year in October, well before any winter freeze. The next Spring, the deck had raised up considerably causing the new caulk to split apart again. Deck has continued to heave and is now high enough to cause a tripping hazard and is jeopardizing integrity of pool. Wilcoxon states that it is natural for all pool decks to heave and they have refused to make any repairs or to redo the poorly installed deck despite their pledge to guarantee their work for at least one year. They also said that they just pour concrete and do not get involved in engineering or drainage issues for the job. Claim that Act of God caused deck to move, and so it is beyond their responsibility.

I first used Wilcox on to do my swimming pool decking as well as tile and coping in 1976. In 1999 we redid the entire process again. Both time Mark Rodgers handled the work for us. This time I needed a patio to be removed and re-poured into a new one. They did a great job as had been before and I highly recommend them for anyone needed concrete, pool, or patio work.

They did an excellent job. This is the company that many of the pool companies subcontract with for pool plastering, coping repair and tile work. If you go to one of the pool companies, you might get Wilcoxon and you would pay more than if you went to them directly. A neighbor got several estimates from the big pool companies and Wilcoxon was a fraction of those estimates.

They did an excellent job. We had let the pool go for a few years and had some what of a big job when we did decide to get the work done. They really had no problems doing it though. They showed up on time and completed the work in a timely fashion.