Creative Deck Designs

Very professional and attentive to our needs. Bob, the owner, did the estimate, and the work was scheduled for 2 weeks. On the day the work was to begin, they realized that they did not have the decking that matched the decking they had installed for our patio landing 2 yrears ago. Bob, came to our house at our conviience, with similar decking styles. We were able to find a style that was almost an indentical match but higher quality. There was no additiolnal charge. The work began the following week and was completed in 3 days. The workman were professional and cleaned up all areas. We are very pleased witht the work and intend to use Creative Deck for future declking and pavement work. We had used Creative Deck 2 years ago to replace existing landing and add new steps off the dining room, plus install 12 x 20 paver patio that was on slooping ground. Beatiful work and that is why we came back this year.

His price was reasonable and we were happy with his workmanship. He was working on the weather; so if it was raining or if there were lightening or thunderstorm, there is no way he is coming to work outside. I let him slip by because of that and I was okay with that. He was good overall. The one thing that I really did not like about him was he did not clean up after himself very well, even after I left the broom outside for him.

They were very professional and very knowledgeable. If their price was a bit lower then I would have chosen them to do the work for me. I would rate them high overall. I might consider in using them in the future.

They were very good with the install. They did a very good job. But later when my husband wanted them to fix a few things, they didn't want to come back. One guy said one thing and another guy said another thing. They finally sent some guy out on a Sunday to do a couple of little things. They didn't like the idea of coming back. They were dragging their feet on that. They were in the same ballpark as other people so I guess they were okay. The install was very good.

They did a very good job. They were very professional. The price was good, and the workmanship was also good.

Porch was done well. The electric was not done well or even safely. Electric was fixed in May of 2011. I am now satisfied. I adjusted my rating of the company.

The contract walked away from the job and over charged me. He put a $3,500 charge on by credit card which I did not approve of nor did he ask to put the charge on my credit card and then stopped the work on the project leaving it uncomplete. This was $1,500 more than the contract value. The project was assigned to Frank. He kept telling me he was to busy to be at the job site. He instructed me to handle the sub-contractors when they showed up and tell them what I wanted done. When it came to making selections of materials, he said to make my selection and if I would order and pay for it, they would subtract and reimburse me the value from the overall contract cost. That is what I did. He instructed me not to go high end materials so I tried to always pick something that I liked at the lowest possible cost. The first problem came when the shower was being started. They tried to change the floor plan which we initially agreed to. After that it became one thing after another. In the end, I had paid out of my pocket the bathroom sink, cabinet, 1/2 of the tile, all the lighting, bathroom fixtures, microwave and all the applicances. I also had to hire a company to come out and finish installing the glass around the shower at my expense. The floor was not installed corrected and the basement floor was never prepped before install the laminate flooring causing the floor to sink when stepped on in areas. The sound proofing was not installed correctly and they used materials which were not in the contract thus allows sounds to go through the house. When it rains, water comes under the french doors that they installed causing the floor to buckle. All the hardware that came with the cabinates were not installed. I had to arrange for final inspections after they walked away from the job since the County was going to fine me $250 a day since the company did not complete the inspections. I sent him a certified letter in January demanding a schedule of completion which he has refused to answer. He refuses to return any phone calls and I have no contact with him for 6 months. Do not use this company. They will tell you one thing and then later deny it. If you want to see their poor workmanship, please call me at 301-379-8324. I will be more than happy to talk to you about it and show you their work.

The project took over a year to complete. Many of the materials were not installed properly and to date there are items that need to be fixed which the company refuses to address. Within a years time, pavers came loose three times, the siding fell down three times, and all the flagstone on top of the planter came loose. They had to come out five times to fix an outside wall outlet and to date it looks terrible since they used contractors glue to attach it and got it all over the stonework. The Ipe wood which was installed has greatly shrunk since it seems they didn't use kiln dried word and used the cheaper "wet" wood. The flooring is not longer straight and have curves in them. The railing was not installed properly not leaving space for expansion and hence some of the railing is bulged out. When they installed the wall, they did not backfill the wall below ground level. My driveway caved in three times which they did come out and fix. In the end, they put unauthorized charges on my credit card and I was overcharged on the contract value. After many arguments they returned the overcharged amount. As I stated my contract states, they promised a life long guarantee on the work. After contact them for over 6 months, they refuse to honor that guarantee and fix all the things that have gone wrong. If you care to come see what kind of a job they do, please call me at 301-379-8324. You can see for your self the type of poor work they do.

I called Creative Deck Design on a Monday requesting an estimate and received a call back to set up an appointment on Tuesday. Bob Heckman visited on Wednesday. He inspected our existing deck and listened carefully as we explained what we wanted. The "low maintenance" aspect was very important; we were tired of pressure-washing and restaining our wood deck. Bob proposed a complete replacement including a new supporting structure (with the required County permits), AZEK or GuardDeck Elite (both PVC plastic) flooring, and Weatherwise vinyl railing. This was a simple job so Bob wrote up the proposal on the spot. Following Bob's initial visit, we did additional research on AZEK and GuardDeck Elite. The latter is a new product (which Bob had made clear) and little information was available on it. AZEK has been used for years and a vast amount of information is available for it. Based on that, we found the only negatives for AZEK were a tendency to flex and sag. These can be easily worked around by using 12-inch joist spacing v. the 16-inch AZEK specifies. We also decided we wanted floorboards perpendicular to the house (affects joist orientation), AZEK railings, and we finalized our color choices through the use of AZEK's web site. I e-mailed Bob asking about the board orientation, joist spacing, and railings. He called the same day with the pricing difference (it was higher). That price was ultimately reduced a bit following an additional e-mail. There was a lot to like about Creative Deck Designs' proposal. Most notably, they provide a lifetime labor and workmanship warranty, unlike the other two companies we received bids from. (One was 5 years, the other 10 years.) Nevertheless, Creative Deck Designs' price was about $1,500 higher than a nearly identical proposal from the bidder providing the 10-year warranty. In our opinion, the warranty value-add did not justify the cost so we went with the other bidder. Although we did not use them this time, we were impressed with Creative Deck Designs. Since they do many types of construction jobs, far beyond decks, we would not hesitate to contact them in the future for home renovation estimates or similar.

The job couln't have been a better experience for us. The crew arrived early one day, as scheduled, and the site foreman walked the perimeter with me to be sure he was on the same page as I was regarding placement of gates, where 90 degree angles were to be placed etc. The crew then began the installation process by digging the post holes and mixing concrete in the hole . Once the posts were in the concrete the hole was backfilled and tamped down. Because of some unexpected angles necessitated by the presence of a wastewater access cover they could not complete the job in one day since they had to order some additional posts. A few days later they returned and completed the job. The fence looks great and is very sturdy. The quote for the job was more than $2,000 less than the nearest competitor and they came in right on quote. This is the second significant project Creative Deck has done for us and we would highly recommend them to anyone. They are professional, courteous, and very pleasant to deal with.

Bob Heckman came and met with us. He was very professional and friendly and gave us some good tips based on what we were looking for. The crew came and removed our existing deck and hauled it away - thank God, what an eyesore! They then came regularly and worked on the project until it was finished. We had a bit of a delay at one point, but it was due to a production issue with Shade Tree and not the fault of this company. The workers were nice and did a beautiful job. We love our new deck! We were not able to enjoy the Sun Shades for long as we took them down for the winter, but we can't wait to hang them back up in the spring. After the work was done, we had a couple of minor issues with things not matching up to our liking, so the guys came out and fixed everything. All in all the project went very smoothly and we are very pleased. It turned out just as I had imagined. We have since had neighbors approach us asking who did our deck and we have given them your name. I will post some pictures when the weather improves!

The entire experience was positive. After settling with Bob Lehman on the details of the job hiscrew of four guys headed by Brian showed up on a Friday. For the next three weeks excluding only Sunday, one day for the blizzard (they showed up and shoveled a path from our driveway to the rear of the house in 2 feet of snow the day after it stopped snowing), and two days for Chtristmas these guys worked in bitter cold weather. Brian spent a fair amount of time with levels, tapes, and lasers at various times to assure accuracy in the whole project. A coiuple of times Brian proposed two or three possible approaches when a situation we hadn't anticipated came up. He was knowledgable of the entire business and explained clealry the options he was proposing. At no time did I feel he or any of the folks at Creative were trying to increase cost or attempt to get me to accept less than excellent. I watched them frequently and was always impressed with the teamwork and craftsmanship they dislayed.

They worked with us in a very cooperative manner as we faced many decisions on size, location, and materials. The deck job was not easy since the sloping terrain made it somewhat difficult to properly judge how the deck would work from various angles and elevations. The screen porch was fairly straightforward and ended up looking great. We opted for the vinyl sliding windows, and these work extremely well. Subsequent to the work that Creative Deck did, we had to finish the job with some landscaping. Overall, the finished product is very satisfying. Creative Deck were cooperative, cordial, and usually quite prompt in responding to the issues and/or problems that we raised. I would recommend them without hesitation.

The workers at Creative Deck did a really beautiful job on my deck and I have received many compliments on it. I liked that they had samples for me to look at. They have a stable presence in the community. They gave me nice, quality options. They were very responsive and professional. I would use them again if needed.

Our original salesman, Steve Walder, was super. He was very professional and told us things we didn't even know to ask about the deck, building codes, practicality, etc. We were very pleased to sign with him. The workmen who came out were very talented and skilled builders and so careful. I watched one builder carefully remove each board of our old deck- he had to be careful because we were re-using the beams. Two guys worked for 5 days in the sweltering August sun and built us a beautiful deck. The only thing I didn't like was the job supervisor, Mike Dunn, who we were told we could ask any questions of. I called him one time around 8:00 pm and he was very short with me and made me feel like I was imposing on him. When he visited my house to check on the builders, he didn't even look at me and never introduced himself. I finally asked if he was Mike and he barely said yes and still didn't seem to want to talk. Later on, I watched him try to "help" the builders cram the lattice into the groove it was supposed to go in. There was a little problem in that the lattice was a little too thick, and the builders wanted to fix it properly, but Mike wanted to force it in. Eventually it was installed just fine. Then the owner, Bob Lehman, visited near the end of the job and told me that Steve Walder, the salesman we had really liked, had moved to Arizona, so now we would be dealing with Bob. Bob did not have the professionalism that Steve had. At the time, I had considered having Creative Deck Design redo our paver driveway, so asked Bob to give me an estimate. he sat down and wrote up an estimate in about 5 minutes for $14,000 worth of work on our driveway and walkway. It wasn't a very detailed estimate so I asked him if he could itemize exactly how they would fix the driveway. He said that would give him something to do over the weekend. I never heard from him again. Anyway, we did get a wonderful deck that is still great 9 months later, but this was due to the professionalism of the actual deck builders, not their "bosses."

Bob and Mike were very helpful and knowledgeable about the products and explained the process in terms we could understand. Both were also punctual for any meetings. The crew was friendly and arrived early most days (6:50 am on Good Friday). There was one day when only a couple of hours of work was done and then they didn't show up until 2 days later. It turns out that not all of the materials had arrived, but no one told us that. Overall, though, the crew worked hard and did a good job.

The railing and the deck was done very well. They drainage system in the roof of the screened in porch, which is above the deck, leaks and they have not been able to fix it.

The crew worked in bad weather to complete the job without delay. Cleaned up nicely. Very polite.

They were straightforward and the contract was very simple. They have completed 99% of the work so far and a couple of minor finishing is yet to be done. They followed up carefully and what I liked about them was the 10 series of payment system they offered. They give you time to pay till they complete certain sections and it is all mentioned in the contract. Their work was good and the price charged was fair. I was pleasantly surprised with the major job they did. I expected a disaster as the work was started in the coldest period during the winter but they did a good job.

Phone contact was great and professional. Estimate was set up for three days from initial call. Estimator arrived on time and was very professional. He did a thorough examination of deckand made detailed recommendations for the existing structure and addition. He left us with a written estimate and followed up with a letter within a week of our initial meeting. We elected to use another company but were impressed with this one. They were a close second.

Lance (Creative Deck Designs) arrived on time for the initial appointment and after hearing what we wanted provided excellent suggestions. Creative Deck Designs provided a timely proposal and contract. They remained flexible to changes as the work progressed. They prepared a sketch of the proposed front porch that passed the Columbia Architectural Design Committee the first time around. They started the backyard deck (which did not require approval from Columbia Architectural Design Committee) while they waited for the approval for the front porch. Once the old deck top was removed they realized that extensive foundation work was going to be required before they could put the new decking on. I really liked DJ and Jeff, the team that did the actual work. They were very personable as well as being skilled and experienced. I was concerned that they might damage a delicate plant located next to the old sidewalk as they removed the concrete; however, they assured me they wouldn't. And they didn't. Creative Deck Designs added two additional post lights on the front porch (at my request) after the porch was completed - without charge.

This was an excellent experience. The company's design was of high quality. The workmanship was superb. The company was concerned about customer satisfaction.

Took a while to get started, but the work was outstanding. The original deck was all wood, old, and splintering. Enlarged, and rebuilt using composite materials.

The work went smoothly and was completed in a two week period. There was one delay while I secured an electrician to relocate an electrical junction box required for the hot tub. Bob Lehman made several suggestions regarding color, the addition of planter boxes and lights for the deck rails, all contributed to a beautiful new deck for our home.

The work was performed timely and quite well!!