Cobra Deck And Concrete Restoration

Quality of carpentry workmanship on new deck railings and steps - 5 stars Quality of workmanship on cleaning and staining deck - 2 1/2 stars Quality of customer service in the form of communications - 1 s

Cobra talked us into using "stabilizing sand" with a sealer because it would be better. The pavers do look much better. Unfortunately, the good news stops there. We had sand everywhere - what a mess! Cobra did send a crew out to clean things up but we still had sand everywhere including what looked like 50 lbs in the pool. As a result, water chemistry was a mess and an algae bloom resulted. Now 6 weeks later, we still have loose sand all over. We had polysand grout that worked well for the first 6-7 yrs but had begun to fail and allow weeds to grow between some of the hardscape. The recommended "stabilizing" sand is loose and moves around. The polysand was more like cement and locked in place. We have weeks growing in the new "improved" grout. BIG REGRETS hiring this company - paid a premium price, got shoddy service, poor communication with no response to numerous emails to Chris, and now will have to have someone else come out and make it right. Absolutely do not recommend!

Chris Miller and his company destroyed my new patio! The sealer the morons used was an incorrect sealer - which only trapped water/moisture between my paver stones and the sealer, They look wet - don't they?...but they're not! It took literally close to 2 weeks to completely dry out or evaporate, if it didn't rain. But after a fresh rain - back to what you see in the photos. My patio looked diseased! (see attached photos). Many months went by going back and forth with no one showing for scheduled appointments. When they finally did show - what was their answer? ...to add more of the incorrect sealer -- twice more! So now, the morons tried to use a paint stripper, to get off the three thick layers of the incorrect sealer. Power washing that off, damaged my home's vinyl siding and firepit cover -- when the bits of stripper that flew off -- landed on my siding and firepit cover -- leaving permanent marks on my siding and multiple chip marks on my firepit cover, where it ate away the paint. The morons were negligent and incompetent in not covering part of my siding in the area being worked on, with simple plastic sheeting, or for my firepit cover, with a tarp. You never speak to the same people at the office more than twice - and different workers show up every time....when they do show. This all due to a very high employee turnover rate, with these workers having little to no experience. The owner, Chris Miller, is another incompetent boob, not caring at all regarding fixing the problems, or the customer's needs. He's all about the money -- just wants to get paid for a failed job! I honestly don't know how this company stays in business. They have yet to fix these issues with my siding or firepit cover, many months later, both which need to be replaced. I had to hire another company to fix my patio paver problem, which THEY DID, the first time. Do yourself a favor, and save yourself a lot of headaches -- hire someone else for your outdoor projects! See you in court.

I had posted a review several weeks back and agreed to take it down after discussion with owner Chris. I chalked it up to communication issues and lack of properly trained staff and decided to give them a second chance. Sadly I was wrong and things ended the same way they began. Bad. Communication is a huge issue for this organization and office staff leave a lot to be desired. If you get Giovanni on the phone, you will get attitude, but you will not get any information or commitment on a callback or even any confidence that he will even convey the message at all or properly. The initial consult done by Chris was thorough and while I pointed all of the issues with my bad driveway, he assured me it could be saved. Then after weeks of chasing them around and the nice man who came here to do the work said 'no way' could the driveway be saved with a patch/paint/sealing. It was relayed to me that Chris said he did not know it was that bad until after it was power washed. Very strange since the items the man who was here pointed out as issues were the same issues I pointed out to Chris weeks back. The only good person there was Jennifer and I'm told she quit; small wonder. So, we canceled the rest of the work they were to do for us and settled on just paying for the power washing. What is really interesting is that they hounded me constantly for 7 days for the payment with many phone calls, and constant emails. They seem to know how to communicate when they want your money; that is the only thing you can depend on if you go with them. I am sad to have to leave this review but think it is best to make others aware. I would steer clear of Cobra Deck or Renew Crew, which was their former name.

Do not use this company! We got a quote in May, and the team started the job in mid July. When they pressure washed the deck, they used a power washer tip that was too strong and damaged the wood fibers on the deck. The pressure washing damaged a door (which is now completely unusable) and water came in through the door and damaged the hardwood flooring inside. They also blew out several spindles on the wood deck and just left them wherever they landed on the ground. We were on vacation at the time and did not see the results from the pressure washing, so the team then proceeded to stain the deck with the damaged fibers. They didn’t paint half of what they were supposed to paint (although they did paint many of our plants), left paint all over our stone walkways, and there was about 5-10 inches of stain overspray next to the deck on our white brick house. When we came back from vacation, we were completely shocked. It looked terrible. Really terrible. The deck looked better before the Renew Crew came out. Initially the owner just instructed his workers to add a thick coat of stain to resolve the issue with the wood damaged deck. This did not solve the problem at all. Walking on the deck was just asking for major splinters with wood fibers sticking up every where. I had to go back and forth with the owner/ crew leader pointing out areas that needed to be sanded and re-stained. When they sent a carpenter to fix the spindles, he put one spindle where two should go and it is completely and obviously crooked. We gave up asking them to work on the spindles and decided to fix them ourselves. In trying to remove the stain from the brick on the house, they used something that removed all of the paint, showing the red brick underneath.They painted that area of the house with what they said was color matched masonry paint, but I now have a bright white stripe along my house next to the deck. I didn’t even ask them to do anything with the door- it was going to be replaced anyway. Everything they did to “fix” and issue was so half assed, it felt like they were trying to see how little they could get away with doing. The Renew Crew did finally fix most of the issues related to the deck by the end of September, but it took numerous phone calls, and discussions. We had 2 summer months where we could not use our deck, and had limited use of our pool, as we didn’t want to be in the pool while they were working. I spent way too much time just dealing with the company in finding and pointing out issues. I hired a professional thinking they would do the job correctly and I wouldn’t have to worry about it. Instead I was constantly talking/ texting or having to look at the work to see if it would be acceptable. It would have been cheaper, taken less of my time, and probably looked better if I had done the job myself. The deck now looks okay. I wouldn’t say it looks professional, but I simply don’t have time to point out all of the issues or spots they missed. Hopefully the deck will last a few years until I get it redone again. TLDR: These guys don’t know what they are doing and will cause a lot of damage that will have to be repaired. Save yourself the trouble and find someone else.

The crew was confused when they arrived about what they were supposed to do. After checking with the office, they said they were supposed to sand. We were unaware of this, and showed them a post with "leaking" sap that the salesman might have been thinking about. Instead, they unnecessarily sanded boards in different areas of the deck, leaving them a lighter color. We have a small fence 3 feet high and 6 feet long; to stain this, they trampled and destroyed the plants around it. When we complained, the salesman returned and told us that we needed to repeatedly stain the sanded areas ourselves over the next year to make the color more uniform again. He noted that the trampled plants were irises and said they would come back because they were bulbs (true for most of them), but ignored the perennials that were destroyed. We and other contractors had stained this small fence many times in the past without damaging any plants. So we paid $1600 but still had to do work ourselves to stain the deck numerous times in the sanded areas, and were not compensated for replacement cost and labor for the destroyed perennials. We will not use them again as we have the work done this year.

Chris and his team did an excellent job (again) of our meeting our staining needs. Our deck is a semi-transparent paint rather than a true stain and they always work to make it look good and meet our expectations. The techs on site are always pleasant to speak with and the internal administrators - both before and after - are consistently polite and available.

Unfortunately, we had a disappointing experience with Renew Crew of Raleigh. Communication was a problem, as we had to follow up several times with the company to ask about scheduling, billing errors and other details. When the job started, there were several problems along the way. The biggest problem was that the technicians did not protect from their overspray, so there was excessive stain sprayed on our lawn, our gate hardware and other hardscaping, as well as some overspray on the house and downspouts. The crew also stained 60’ of our neighbor’s fence that was supposed to be power washed only. Ultimately, the fence turned out beautifully, and the owner did take appropriate steps to remediate the problems, but the entire process was frustrating from start to finish.

Below average customer service and follow-up visit was not handled professionally. From the beginning, they didn't respond to voicemail messages or emails promptly, or sometimes not at all, requiring a second phone call (this was during the scheduling phase). For the follow-up visit requested, due to a question on what appeared to be some unevenness of the stain, they showed up an hour earlier than scheduled, and I wasn't able to meet with them in person as I was told. They didn't extend the courtesy to me to call and let me know they could stop by sooner. The surprise visit startled my daughter who was in our swimming pool, which is surrounded by the deck they stained. Also the power washer kept cutting out, and we were asked if we had motor oil handy to see if that would help. We did, but it seems there should be better back-up plans for situations like this. The workers who did the actual power washing and stained were very polite however.

Overall the service was good. Our deck and porch look much better. We had some areas where stain overspray needed cleaning. It was a bit difficult getting them back out to do the clean up. Communication could have been more timely on the follow-up cleaning.

fine did a good job and totally happy

The guys all did a great job. It looks like some sanding needed to be done, but they left me some stain.

Sticking point was miscommunication during sales. onsite guy said they didn't replace fence boards. Later HQ called to find out why I hadn't moved ahead. I had already selected another provider who could do all three. HQ said they could have done. Their loss. Loved the guys I ended up using.

This was an awesome experience, staff was helpful and professional and very informative. Actually, got several bids and theirs was the lowest because they new exactly what to do--as in this is what they do so well. It looks great and I am confident that it is better protected.

RenewCrew outsourced the whole house power washing and it was done well. Next they came out to finish cleaning and prepping the deck. There were weather delays that kept the staining from happening for more than a week. They were good at communicating whether there was going to be a delay and what conditions were required to come out and stain.

After only a few weeks, poor coverage was evident. I got in touch with the office; the owner did come by in a timely manner, but said he felt the coverage was adequate. At my request, the owner visited again about 9 months after the job was first done. He agreed then that the coverage was inadequate. His crew redid it without charging me with a different stain. It has still not held up well so I will use a different company next time.

Perfection! And my job was UNDER $500. I was so pleased with every detail.

They were good. They did a good job. I wasn't there when they did it. My wife was there, but they did a good job. It was a two day project. The first day they protected everything meticulously. I felt like the second day they missed a few things. The cloak got stained a little bit which was not great.

Overall, miserably. The first time (March), it went well. The house looked great, and I was told that the deck stain and the driveway protective coating would be protective for at least a year. But by early June, the deck stain was already wearing off in places, and the driveway had algae covering it in many places. I called and politely requested to have the driveway cleaned and re-coated, and the company tried to charge me; I said no, that would not be fair. I also replaced some deck boards and requested the company to stain them and send an invoice. Thereafter, at least four times I was told that the crew would be there to recoat the driveway and stain the new deck boards. They did not show up, which was a major inconvenience each time, and only once in the four times did they did bother to call to let me know they would not be there after all. Finally, the crew arrived at 6 pm on a Sunday evening. They stained the deck boards and re-coated the driveway, but there was a cloudburst rainstorm 10 minutes after they left. I contacted the company and explained the situation -- the stain had washed away from the deck boards, leaving them yellowish when they should have been reddish-brown (I had had some boards replaced in March, and the new boards stained a deep reddish-brown, which is how I know what the color should have been). The company owner informed me through the appointment setup person that only one board needed restaining (!), and that it would be best to recoat the driveway after leaf fall (translation - wait another two months or more). When I expressed frustration, the appointment setup person let the owner know and he left a message to phone him. But, for me, his "only one board..." nonsense was the final straw. Rather than continuing down this frustrating path, I am completely fed up with this company's POOR service - so much so that I am working with another company and happy to pay them to fix the mess this company left.

No response to inquiry, no service.

The work was completed in a timely manner. Communication between myself and Renew Crew was frequent and consistent and I was pleased with the work provided. I think the price was very fair for the work that was performed.

We use Renew Crew for decks and porches. The main quality's rating was an 'A' but ancillary quality was bad. They didn't cover my bushes and several of them died. They were pretty good for the responsiveness. I will use them again assuming that I clarify with them that they can't kill my bushes again.

Chris Miller came to my home and provided an estimate for cleaning and staining my deck. He helped me explore options, like removing the remnants of a mostly-removed layer of surface stain that a previous owner had put on and partially taken off, matching the color of the remaining stain so as to save money by avoiding the expense of removal, etc. He also advised me about what was realistic for treatment of the concrete patio below the deck. Chris was knowledgeable and helpful. He didn't pressure me to do anything more expensive than necessary, in fact encouraged me that we could try to match the remaining stain and if necessary do the removal and update the stain treatment later on. He offered to include treatment of the portion of the concrete patio that most needed it at a reduced price as part of the job. The price he quoted was fair, I believe, though it turned out to be higher than I can afford at the moment, given the press of some other expenses I'm facing, so I did not have them do the work. If I need deck treatment in the future though, particularly when I have more available funds, I will seriously consider having them do the work. Based on my interaction with Chris, and with the nice lady in the office named Aaliya, I would recommend them.

We do a lot on the deck so it is never convenient to do it ourselves. Plus we always find an excuse that we are too busy doing other things! When we were leaving for vacation, I decided it was a perfect opportunity to get it done. I worked with the company and their reps totally by email to arrange to get the work done while we were gone. Since they had great Angie's list reviews, I was not worried about doing it remotely. They came out and did an estimate which I accepted, and they came while we were gone to do the work. Everything looked great! As advertised, the deck and railing looked like new without having to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to replace it. They kept me up to date about progress (rain delays) but I was always fully informed about progress. They are a great company.

Chris provided the estimate in a professional and expedient manner. The office manager called the next morning to schedule the service, which was done less than a week after the estimate. Two technicians arrived on site in a nice professional van to power wash the decking and did a very thorough job. They left the scene clean and returned the next morning to apply the stain. They were conscientious to help us choose and match the correct color. They did not get any on the house at all. We are thrilled with the results and encourage anyone needing a deck refinished and cleaned to call Renew Crew - a wonderful company!!