The Deck Doctor

I am pleased overall with the work. The young man who did the work was exceptionally detail oriented and hard working. The only issue I have is that I had to put the furniture back on the deck myself, which wasn't easy.

The work of pressure-washing and staining began in April. Because of rain, the work was delayed. I was told it would be done the following week. No one showed up. E-mailed and called. Finally, two workers showed up and spent a few hours, still not completing. More e-mails, more phone calls, more excuses from the "Deck Doctor" as to why it wasn't completed, promising a new crew would be out to complete the job. Two new workers came out 2 months later, but did not have a ladder, so could not finish and promised to be back the next day. I have repeatedly tried to get in touch with the "Deck Doctor," to no avail. It is now Sept 30, and my deck is still not completed. Also, only one coat was put on in several places, and is already becoming weathered, and there are many areas that were just not touched. I foolishly paid in full because the "talk" was so convincing. This man and company has ripped me off, and I am going to report him to the Better Business Bureau. DO NOT....repeat, DO NOT do business with the so-called "Deck Doctor." He will rip you off, too!

Initially, his job would rate a B. However, after repeated contacts and broken promises, he has yet to come back to seal the front steps. His replies have indicated that he has more "urgent" jobs and would come back in a couple of weeks when he was "in the area". My last email to him was ignored. When he came back, we wanted to show him that sealant he provided on the back steps is inadequate. Water doesn't pool up as it should. Instead it soaks into the wood. I foolishly paid him all the money we "owed" him...even though the job was unfinished. I will need to seal the front steps and re-seal the deck steps myself before winter. We will NOT use The Deck Doctor again!

See above.

Was given estimate by owner who i thought would be doing the job....wrote estimate and I hired him....never sent actual contract until after job was done and I asked him for it....sent over workers who had made drips and after first coat looked like they had missed spots...I called owner to discuss that I was a little concerned and he got very angry and defensive....not sure why to this day...wondered why my concerns were of no concern to him....same workers showed up and supposedly finished deck ....the deck when I got home looked good from a distance and then after getting close realized that there were MANY areas that were not covered and some that had NEVER even been painted! Plus they had gotten paint on my siding as well. I wrote to ask if they had finished and they had....unbelievable really....I sent pics of spots and asked for owner to show up to see the finished deck....he sent his workers the next morning and they actually agreed with me...they did finish and I am now fine with the result but I was not happy with the lack of professionalism, especially by the owner.

From the very first call to Glen for an estimate he was responsive and maintained open and prompt communication throughout the process. His attention to detail is obviously instilled in his entire crew and they were all a delight to work with. They took special care to shield our siding , the plants and especially my beloved wisteria vine on the back deck which had to be carefully stained around. They even cleaned out the gutters on the front deck and gently pressure washed the siding and trim I can't reach. We are very happy with the results and will definitely use Glen and his crew for any and all future deck maintenance.

The Dr. was very responsive and did exactly what he promised. My deck was in bad shape, so I couldn't expect miracles. I don't know how long the sealant will last, but water did bead on the wood afterward for the first time in years. Oh yeah, and he got stung by yellow jackets pretty badly and didn't complain about it. He also honored the 10% Angie's List discount.

I think they did an excellent job! Glen put a lot of effort into preparing the deck by washing and sanding it thoroughly. I’m very impressed with the results of his work, and I would recommend this company to others.

Overall, this job went well. We are very pleased with the results. The surfaces, especially the walking surface, looks well covered and smooth. There are not detectable "missed" spots. Everything was cleaned up when Glen left, and he helped me get tables and grill back on the deck. Throughout the process, Glen was friendly and cheerful. Deck maintenance is of course a matter of judgement, and in the course of picking Glen to do this job, we got several other estimates and recommendations, which varied as to the suggested approach, etc. It's often a matter of judgment. But Glen was congenial in trying to provide what we wanted, and we think he did a thorough job, at a very reasonable price. The only possible issue I can think of were the logistical delays precipitated largely by the daily afternoon threat and reality of thunderstorms, which, coupled with another contract commitment Glen had (also delayed by rain), meant the deck was "in progress" a little longer than we'd have liked. Still, we think that is more or less inevitable with deck work in this locale at this time of year, and in the end, the job was finished by the deadline we had agreed to at the start. So, overall, we think we made the right choice with the Deck Doctor, and we are very pleased with the results.

We were very disapointed because we waited a couple of hours for the Deck Doctor to arrive for our meeting.. When we finally called his number, we got an answering machine.

I hired Glen to rebuild my deck railings and to add 3 support post with concrete footers to help support my deck which as starting to lean away from my house. He did do the work in a reasonable time frame considering that no one is ever on a true schedule. There were a few problems with the deck railing though. The first was that one of the boards under the hand railing was about 4 inches too short from meeting the house. So I did point it out and he did replace it. The second was that on one side of my hand rail where the two hand rail boards met at the corner, he made what I call a jig jag joint instead of a nice mitered joint like the other side of the deck. When I pointed it out to him he said that the hand rail board was too short to make a proper mitered joint. When I asked if he would make it match the other side he said he would and he did. The third issue was that the cable wires he used were not tight. He did inform me that they would stretch alittle and they would have to be tighten. When I finally paid him on 4-20-11, I pointed out that the cables were really loose and that they needed tightening , he said he would be back to do that. He has not been back yet...................

BRIEF VERSION - Hard working guy but, poor performance and job quality. - Tried to cut time and applied stain like paint, leaving the edges and corners for last. When he got to them, he created a double layer, making it uneven color and forcing him to do multiple coats to try to even it out. Some surfaces have up to 4 coats of the stain, when should have only had one coat. - Did not adhere to manufacturer application instructions. Spoke with thir tech support and it voided manufacturers warranty and exposing the porch and deck to future peeling. - Stained over dirty decks on subsequent visits, creating a uneven surface. - When he sanded some wood paches on the porch to try to make it look better, he did so with a very coarse sand paper and against the wood grain. Did not make a second pass with a lighter grain. It just looks look horrible when looked against the light. - Would not show up when he said he would and would initially showed up on rainy days. I presume that when no one else would allow him to do any work. - Hired an assistant (Kevin) and sent him to do work the fist day, without training and completely unsupervised. - Blamed some of poor work done by himself on his assistant. - Poor accounting. Lost a check and often came back demanding more money ahead of time.I Had to spend a lot of time doing reconcilliation. - Stained my lower concrete floor, the wall edges, and I have stain spots on the gutters and over the side of the house. - To the day I left for vacation on June 16, he had not yet finished the job started in Mach (Thats over 3 Months) - To this day, July 05, he has been fully paid for the work performed but, would not come to clean the stains or retouch the walls. The cost of cleaning up the mess will be quite significant, not to mention that having to unnessessary repaint some of the walls will make it look like a patch job. DESCRIPTIVE VERSION I initially hired him to sand and restain my 2 yr old wooden porch. He quoted me a very good price and sold me on his professionalism and previou jobs quality. My plan was to wait for him to finish to porch and see how it went before giving him the back decks. I didn't. I figured that if he quoted me for the entire job, I would not only get a decent price, but getting him enthusiastic about doing a nice job as well as having booked early in the season to get everything done at once. Big mistake!. Instead of finishing the porch, his strategy is to start all of them at once, so that I would increase my dependency on him while he worked on other jobs. He would promise me to come on certain days but it would not show up or show up close to noon. He would instead come on days when the weather was misserable. The porch showed some light striked so he decided to sand some spots. He used an electric sander, with a very coarse paper and used it agains the wood grain. Rather than making a second pass with a finer one, he just went ahead and stained on top. Looks awful... The back decks? multiple passes again. Add to that that instead of using a wool pad, he started using a brush, saturating the wood and dripping all over the wall, side of the house, concrete floor below and lower storage doors. There is just too much to tell. This has been a major headache.

Glen and his associate Kevin began work promptly as scheduled on April 11th. They power washed and stained my backyard deck, applying two coats of semi-solid stain. They even went the extra mile, buying paint stripper to remove some particularly stubborn stains on the deck and scraping by hand. Kevin, who did most of the work, was there promptly every morning until the job was completed. The deck looks as good as new and I couldn't be happier with the work they performed.

Did not do the work as of this date

Contractor power washed the deck on a Monday, returned the following day to seal/stain the deck. The Deck Doctor was very sensitive to our concerns to protect bushes growing next to the deck. Since we chose an oil based stain, all work was done with rollers and brushes - no spraying. The Deck Doctor arrived on time and completed the work in the promised time frame. We were especially impressed that the Deck Doctor reviewed the finished work, decided it did not meet their standard of excellence, came back and added another treatment at no additional cost. We would definitely use Deck Doctor in the future. The contractor's work ethic and customer service are excellent.

I left a message for Glen, he called me back the next day and set a time to come look at the job. He showed up when he said he would. He was very straightforward and personable, explained everything clearly, gave us a price and set a date to do the work. He called before the set date and said he could come sooner if that was ok with us, I told him that would be fine, and he showed up punctually on the new date, which was a Monday. He pressure washed as much as he could, but then we got an exceptionally heavy rainstorm and he had to stop. He sent an employee named Justin back Wednesday (we were tied up with other commitments on Tuesday) to finish the pressure washing and seal what could be sealed at that time, and then Glen returned the next day (Thursday) and finished the job. His and Justin's workmanship was excellent, we're very happy with the job.

Excellent from estimate to completion.

From the beginning the Deck Doctor was extremely reliable. The owner returned my call immediately and continued to do so throughout the project (as he graciously accomodated my requests to add additional jobs beyond the intial estimate). He came to the house the next day to give us an estimate and was able to start work the next week. The price was very reasonable for excellent work. The guys who did the work were very professional and were able to build me a custom gate that was exactly what I had pictured in my head. I am totally happy with all the work that was done!

The deck on our newly-purchased home was mildewed and probably had never been treated. Glen spent nearly 5 hours pressure cleaning, sanding and sealing the deck. It now looks brand new and we are extremely pleased with the results. We thought his work was neat, effective and reasonably priced.

He did a credible job, and it was a reasonable price.