Get matched with top deck and porch pros in Spencerville, MD

"We write this review as a sigh of relief now that our renovation project with River View is finally complete. The quality of the final work is excellent, and the construction crew, architect, and county inspector were all great to work with. The original crew we worked with, led by Edwin, were so hardworking, friendly, thorough, and fast. That's what really pushed us from 2 to 3 stars. However, the process getting here was frustrating and unnecessarily chaotic. Timeline & Communication Issues: Initial promise: We were clear that the renovation had to allow us to live in our home during construction and be completed before Christmas. Early communication: Our original project manager, Cris, was personable, and early communication seemed fine, if a bit informal and sometimes inappropriately personal. Major miscommunication: Near the holidays, we discovered that the plans submitted included cutting into the roof — something we explicitly said we didn’t want. This contradicted verbal assurances and caused major last-minute changes. Project Management Failures: Poor planning and oversight: Cris and the architect’s plan didn’t align with the construction work. We had to get involved directly with the county to fix errors. Paperwork errors: Incorrect submissions to the county added delays and confusion, which we had to monitor ourselves. Last-minute scramble: We were cleaning up dust on Christmas Eve due to these planning failures. Personnel Turnover & Lack of Handoff: Cris leaves the company: No proper handover to James, the new PM, who was unfamiliar with our project. Crew replaced: The original crew, who were great, were gone; new crew had no context or direction. James leaves: Another handoff with no context — the third PM had no idea about our project or its outstanding items. Escalation mishandled: When we raised our concerns with Kyle, the CEO, the response felt dismissive, with no accountability for the previous missteps. In summary, it's a beautiful end result... but we’re glad it’s over. The process left us frustrated, confused, and frankly, exhausted."

"Highly recommend. Timely and reasonable estimate. Very knowledgeable on how to do the repairs. Once schedule they were there on time and finished in estimated time. Great result!"

"We are pleased with the work to clear our lot and are looking forward to designing our front planting beds with them."

"Freedom Fence & Deck did an excellent job install our new deck. The sales rep and the workers were friendly and professional. Additionally, I love that the owner of the company is a veteran, and the company offered the best veterans discount compared to the competitive quotes."

"I had 5 contractors bid my deck, HD came in with some fairly decent discounts and seemed very professional and dedicated. The design phase was fairly smooth, I chose the signature package with LED lights on the rails with the caveat that I would choose the colors after the samples were dropped off. I sent off an email after I chose the colors that I wanted to the POC that I was provided. Two weeks ahead of the scheduled start date they dropped off a series of pallets with all of the material on the side of my yard, after I called and questioned the timing and effect it would have on my grass, they moved up the start date by a week. Demo went well, except for the cleanup. I had to pick up several bags of trash and nails that were left behind and they damaged a downspout on a completely unrelated area of the house when dumping the old deck over my fence. The install seemed to be going fine until I looked at the colors of the decking and it was not what I had indicated in the previous email. I went ahead and went with the colors that were provided, they were fairly close, and I am somewhat ambivalent in regard to color. Things began to slide rapidly from here, I had 4 support pillars previously with a downspout running down one into a drain that runs under my patio, which is brick. They had a 3-pillar design that completely disregarded the drain and the downspout. When I pointed this out, I was assured they would run a line under the patio and tie it in to the drain. The deck itself was put together in fairly short order, about 3 days. I had several discrepancies with the install, one board was rip-cut and very jagged and the V supports were not aligned to the edge of the support beams, no right angles and mis-aligned. The PM assured me someone would be out to fix it shortly. We are now 2 weeks into the build and 4 weeks with the construction material laying in my yard, grass is dead at this point and I am getting frustrated. They come out and fix the mangled board and the V supports and the deck itself is done. I still have a damaged down spout and my patio has a gaping hole with my drain sticking up out of the ground. About a week goes by with ZERO communication from HD, I’m outside looking around and notice a 3 inch gash in my paddle board. At this point I email the owner and offer to go with another contractor to fix my patio, damage to the spout and tell him about the p/b. He offered to buy me a new p/b, that was nice but missing the point entirely, he was aggressive and agitated, mentioning several time “I built this company” and only concerned about getting paid. I fixed the p/b myself. He assures me that someone will be out ASAP to fix my patio and that they will find similar brick for the repair. I explained that that particular brick was the only option and provided the information where it could be purchased. About a week later the patio crew came out, tied the drain in and laid the brick as it was before, leaving me with about 60 extra bricks to store, including the ones that were partially cut and completely useless to me. Inexplicably there is also white spray paint on a 4 brick section next to one of the pillars In summary, the deck itself is about 4 stars. Service, communication and execution of the project are one star, hence the 2-star rating. I do not recommend this company."

"Excellent work, very clean, polite and great craftsmanship."

"We were 100% satisfied with Washingtonian and with their work building our addition and deck. Not only was the workmanship and quality of the construction outstanding, but they operated with honesty and integrity. Their goal was our satisfaction and building a quality addition and deck. They accomplished all three and were reliable, dependable and conscientious. At no time did we believe that they had over-committed or were unable to deliver on what they had promised. They never cut corners to rush to another job nor did I ever feel that they were not spending the necessary time to ensure that the work on our job was thorough and complete. Travis, Kris and their crew were 100% professional, communicative and transparent. We will be using Washingtonian again, without hesitation. Our experience was excellent and they did an awesome job."

"Deck Soldier (aka Betterliving) did a fantastic job of powerwashing and then sealing my deck, installing new handrails, and staining the swingset in the yard. Very pleased with their work and their professionalism."

"The work on my deck was very quick and well done, and adjustments were made smoothly. The management was excellent and I couldn’t be happier that I chose Joist. I have already passed their information around to neighbors!"

"Had an excellent experience working with Jeff on my deck project. The work is top notch and exactly what I wanted for a fair price. No BS up sales or any of that. Will definitely look to rehired for any future work."