Creative Fences & Decks Inc

Cedar fence shared and iron fence front yard

They were very easy to work with, did exactly what they agreed to do, on time, great result. The deck and railings are beautiful almost 5 years later I'm still very happy with the work done. I would recommend this company in a minute.

Had a 33 year old deck, one story above ground, that need to be replaced. Mitica came put promptly and assisted with seclection of material and suggested relocation of the stairs. Crew arrived six weeks later as promised and worked continuously and hard. They showed great attention to detail and clearly knew what they were doing. I had not realized that the bid had not included a cedar side to the stairs, but Mitica agreed to do it at a reasonable price and they came back and completed it the next day. The result is a beautiful, durable deck that exceeded my epectations. Would definitely recommend them.

Discussed what I wanted with the owner and was shown pictures of what they installed. A little spendy, but expected the cost for the project. Installers were hard working. Stayed until dark through bad and good weather alike. Materials delivered on time and are high quality which means that the finished product will last for a long time. Solid construction. Attention paid to detail. I have a very uneven lot with a challenging property line. They dealt with the problems and I couldn't be happier with the results. My lot was cleaned up in a timely manner and the job inspected afterward with a couple of small details attended to. Would recomend this company to others.

Because of their high ratings on Angie's List I expected Creative Fences to do a good job on the fence, gates, and deck that they would build for me but I did not expect the totally amazing job that they did. Workmanship and attention to detail were impressive. The crew took great pride in their work and every day before leaving they meticuously cleaned up the site. Creative Fences could be a role model for all service providers. They are one of the best companies I have ever had do work for me and I couldn't recommend them more heartily

It went very well! We chose the design with Matika, the owner, and they built it beautifully! We really enjoyed working with them! Our fence is gorgeous! We wish we could afford to do the entire yard, but what we built, you see from the front of the house! It really improved the looks of our whole house and yard!

We are just thrilled with our new decks. The start date was set six weeks out and they started on the exact date selected. The men were always, punctual, extremely hard working, polite and knew exactly what they were doing. His men did fabulous work with meticulous detail!! They finished two days before the suggested deadline as the weather cooperated. We dragged our feet on having news decks put in because of the support beams under the living room that also needed to be replaced, but Mitica assured us that this was something they did quite frequently and we were totally amazed at how easily they were positioned. We chose this company partly due to all of the great reviews on Angie's List and word of mouth from one of our good friends. Also, we liked having a bid within a day of our first meeting with Mitica rather than paying an outside architect as other companies had suggested and dragging out the process. Mitica has his own architect that he uses. Our final reason for selecting this company was the type of wood he prefers to us IPE, a beautiful South American deck wood that is extremely hard and resistant to pests, mold, etc. If you need new decks and want them to look great and have a company that is willing to work with you on every level than this is the deck company to use!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mitika Leonescu came out to our house to assess the damage and give us an estimate. After we engaged him, he scheduled the work promptly. On the scheduled day, Constantine Leonescu arrived on time, scoped the work and instructed his team. The team was professional and polite. They completed the work competently. They hauled away all of the old debris and left the site in good shape.

I contacted this company on a referral from a from a family member who actually had some work done. They were very pleased with the work completed. I sent contact request via their website over a weekend in mid June and received a very prompt phone call in response on Monday. Unfortunately I missed his call and got a vm from the owner. i returned his call that same day a few hours later and got his voicemail and left a message. No return call. I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and called again in early July (about 3 weeks later). He picked up his phone and was clearly attempting to screen my call and send to voicemail, which resulted in a disconnected call. I again gave him benefit of the doubt again and called back and got his voicemail. I left a message hoping to schedule a time to meet to review our project. It is now mid August and no call back. A little disappointed since we had heard good things.

Constantine and his crew did a truly outstanding job for a reasonable price. An earlier contractor had literally ruined the decks appearance by putting on the wrong color (pecan) for a cedar deck when we were absent. I was later forced to take him to the contractor's board. A later contractor put on an inferior stain that barely lasted 10 months. Frankly neither my wife or i felt the deck could ever be restored to its previous condition. Constantine's crew of professionals changed our minds. They cleaned the deck down to the original wood and used a new product garrenteed 2-3 years to stain it. The results were astonishing. We had our old deck back as if it were new.During the job Constantine was easy to contact and kept close tabs on his crew. From now on there is no doubt Creative will maintain our deck.

Working with Creative was a mixed experience for us. However, we ended up with a very nice new deck. In terms of the quality of the construction, I don't think we could have done better than these guys. We might refer others to Creative based on the quality of the work, but it would come with a pretty strong caution to pay attention to the details and make sure that Mitica and his crew follow through with what they have agreed to do. We had decided that we wanted a deck that would require the lowest possible maintenance, and we ended up doing the decking in Ipe, with a tropical hardwood pergola (some sort of mahogany). Creative's crews are very experienced in working with these materials, and it shows in their work -- they work fast, and the work they do is solid and attractive. The crew did seem to have a "get it done and move on" mentality, though, and tried on a few occasions to blow off little details, like getting our Leafguard downspouts in place through the new deck, or wanting to do a squared-off corner when the plan called for it to be angled. We had to insist a few times that they do the things they were responsible for, but they always did. This is not necessarily a problem if someone is going to be around through most of the work, which was our situation. The owners of the company are two brothers, Mitica and Constantin. Mitica is the salesman and generally "in charge"; Constantin is just a really nice guy, and takes care of details in the actual work like delivering materials, but seems to have little to say in running the company. Problem is, Mitica is a bit of a sharpie. He's very charming, particularly when he's bidding for the work, but he is very quick to try to pump up the contract with extras (if you even mention the possibility of an add-on or change, he has his pad and pen out quicker than you can blink, with a price within seconds). Mitica is also, unfortunately, just a bit sketchy in his business dealings too. When the completion of the contract was delayed by the onset of fall rains, we held back $1000 against completion, but within a week or two Mitica was asking us to pay the money because the company was having cash flow issues. We caved in to his sob story, and he picked up the check. As soon as he had it in hand, he started implying that we would have to pay more for the completion of the contract (sealing the deck) because by the time they got to it, the wood would have "grayed." I thought this was more than a little sleazy, particularly since the delay was entirely the fault of Creative, which had plenty of time to seal the deck before the rains came, but chose to put their crews on other jobs instead. Mitica is also very unserious about contractual obligations. I bothered to have a written contract with specific terms that I put in for our benefit -- including that Creative would provide us with copies of all the materials invoices. Over the winter, I asked for these on multiple occasions, without results. When I finally got Mitica's attention, he actually had to contact the suppliers for copies of the invoices - meaning he apparently had no familiarity with the contract terms. I would guess he never read it after he signed it. Finally, Mitica is not big on customer satisfaction or going the extra mile (which most Angie's List contractors will do). Creative finally got around to sealing our deck, and did a good job as far as that goes. However, an issue came up with including the pergola in the job. We had not expected Creative to stain the pergola, only the decking, and said so, but it was clear that Creative (or at least Constantin) HAD expected that to be part of the job, and we found out later that it is the standard in the industry to "stain what you build" -- which would include the pergola. Nonetheless, Mitica quickly took advantage of our "non-expectation" to avoid staining the pergola -- a small thing which would have made us happy, and would have cost him very little. So, don't expect Creative to do anything just to please you.

We discovered structural rot in our 30-year old cedar deck in the fall of 2012 while replacing planking. The damage seemed to be only exterior, caused by age and water intrusion. Some of the rot started in end-cuts of the pressure-treated lumber that had not been properly finished by the original builder. In the spring of 2013 we contacted Creative Fences & Decks because they were a company ranked at the top of Angie's List. We contacted two other contractors who gave us bids for about the same price but we doubted their abilities to complete the very difficult and somewhat dangerous job. Mitica of Creative Fences & Decks arrived promptly for our scheduled meeting. He was professional, confident and convincing. We hired him to do the job. Our house is in NW Portland on a very steep slope. Access to the house is via the top floor that had a 160sqft front porch running from the driveway to the front door, with a stairway down the mountain, and covered by a pergola. Additionally, that floor had a 216sqft back deck sitting about 30? above ground level. Connecting the front and back decks was a 3?-wide runway that was 56? long; that deck started about 4? above ground level in the front and ended about 30? above ground level in the back. The second level of the house had a deck about 216sqft and sitting some 20? above ground level. Finally a previously demolished back deck on the ground floor was replaced with a new 5ft x 6ft deck with stairs connecting to ground level. The extremely polite and professional two-man crew arrived on 7/1/13, about 5 days late because of the wet spring. The large and complex job started with building temporary scaffolding around and under the old decks. Once those scaffolds were in place, they began demo of the original decks, some pieces of which were 6"x 13" x 18' in size. Rainy weather slowed the work significantly because the steep hillside became slippery and difficult to traverse. As the pressure-treated structural lumber and steel fittings arrived, the crew began interspersing the demo with new construction. Occasionally they were stymied by short shipments of of lumber and/or hardware. For information, a wrinkle can arise with the color of the structural pressure-treated lumber. It turned out that several long vertical structural members were only available in green, which would have been a strong mismatch with the already installed brown version. The alternative presented to us was a two- to three-week delay until brown lumber became available OR building taller concrete piers to go under the vertical pieces enabling the use of shorter, brown lumber to maintain schedule. We opted to save the schedule and now have several oversize piers which are intrusive and unsightly. While demolishing the side walkway a hole was found in the side of the house. The damage extended well into the house. To avoid trying to find another contractor to coordinate that repair with the deck replacement we asked Mitica for a bid. He provided the bid same day and the repairs were complete within only three working days. Final finishing of the interior wasn't completed for another week but that had no impact upon the overall project. Growth: in addition to the repair described above we decided to add a gate to the side walkway. Shortly after that growth in scope the weather turned very hot and work slowed again. The two-man crew showed up earlier each day to take advantage of the cooler mornings to avoid further slippage. They worked the final Saturday in order to meet the scheduled inspection by the city. In all, the job took five weeks rather than three. Weather, some supplier shortcomings and growth accounted for the delays. The design and work are beautiful. We love the Ipe planking as well as the utility and strength of the structure. The management and work force of Creative Fences & Decks were terrific and we have only praise for them ... well, ALMOST only praise. We had a several issues - two are aggravations, really. The first aggravation was the inattention of the workers to the plantings around and entwined in the original deck. We realized that too strict attention could be expensive and counterproductive. In one instance, however, the crew asked me how I wanted a trellis relocated (because the level of the new front deck was slightly higher than the old.) They didn't do as I asked and I am now faced with a significant work effort to reset the trellis and save the planting. A number of established perennial plantings were heavily damaged under the side walkway as well. It is noted, however, that the same workers did a VERY sophisticated and beautiful job in lifting the old pergola up from the original deck, holding it in place while the new deck was built and then completing an alteration to the pergola to marry it to the new deck. Likewise, they married the old stairs down from the original deck to the new deck beautifully. They also reset the original iron gate and integrated it perfectly into the replacement side walkway. The other aggravation was the new gate they quoted, designed and built. They built it of cedar instead of the mahogany with aluminum balusters originally quoted because we wanted the gate taller to keep our pets from escaping from the deck and into the surrounding forest. The design was satisfactory and the workmanship was sound. Unfortunately, they didn't ask our approval of the rough cedar planking. That wood is - in our estimation ? a blight on the job and a minor blemish on the company. The gate is 4? wide and 5? high. It is framed in clear cedar but the planking is extremely rough 1" cedar that is unsightly and poses a real splinter hazard. Additionally, the staples or brads used to fix the planks to the framing protrude in many places, forming scratch hazards. The third issue is more substantive. Through past experience, I've learned that pressure treated lumber is susceptible to rot and vermin infestations, especially where saw cuts were made in the lumber. I inquired of Creative Fences & Deck management and was assured that their workers carried wood preservative (something like copper naphthenate) and that all cuts of the pressure-treated lumber would be finished to minimize future problems. When I talked to the crew, however, they unaware of any issue with bare cuts but did promise to apply the copper naphthenate that I provided. Unfortunately, what I supplied ran out before they finished the job; untreated cuts remain widespread and evident. I would make this issue a part of any future contract. Finally, we discovered a safety issue in several stairways. They are all beautifully finished in Ipe but on several steps the facings extend up as much 1/8? above the tread of the stair. Toes have already stubbed and could cause a fall down the stairway onto concrete. Aside from those issues, the job was an absolute and thorough success. We would hire Creative Fences & Decks for future work unhesitatingly.

I've been threatening to replace my deck for several years, but never seemed to have the right connection or confidence in the contractors that I met. Mitica was prompt and very professional from our first meeting to discuss the details of the deck. He has an excellent portfolio and uses the best quality materials. George is amazing. He had some help with some heavy lifting, but pretty much built the deck by himself. He is an absolute craftsman. His attention to detail exceeded my expectations. The finish work and project clean up was thorough. We could not be happier with the finished project.

After calling me back (on not the number i requested or introducing himself so that I had a frame of reference to who was calling me), we scheduled an appointment to meet. in order to work around his schedule, we could only meet if l left work early from my work day. On day of the our scheduled appointment, the owner calls me 15 mins AFTER our appointment to tell me he can not meet with me after all. In fairness to him, he explained that he had a family commitment scheduled after our appointment and wouldn't make it to that activity without canceling his appointment with me. In fairness to me, he didn't bother just rescheduling our appointment in advance when he realized he was running behind schedule ( which according to him had been an all day event) so that I wouldn't need to miss work or quickly dash to make this appointment. In his explanation, he leaves the impression that the potential clients' time isn't quite as valuable as his and is a bit defensive when one is not willing to say," it's okay that you wasted my time and inconvenienced me". A shame, as that impression is hard to reconcile with some of the nice reviews people have shared about his company's work. I wish his company the best and applaud his commitment to his family, I'm just not appreciative of his poor acknowledgment of bad time management, and the impression that I should consider myself lucky to have been given an explanation at all for the cancellation.

Mitica and his team were amazing. They did all of the following work in 4 days... _Tore down our 1-story raised deck and old garden shed (previous owner) _Installed new deck frame that extended our deck out +2 ft from previous _Built a new 1,000+sqft deck with all Ipe and Cedar to the exact requirements that we discussed ...they finished 1 week early, did everything to exact specifications, and cleaned up everything daily. We are so happy with the results and will go to Creative Decks and Fences first for all future work on our house.

Fantastic job! The fence exceeds all expectations. The time from ordering to actual start of work was longer than we expected; actually taking several weeks. We paid one-half of the price down. But after talking with several fence companies, we thought Creative offered the best commercial-grade product. Work took a total of five days, as promised. They even removed the old concrete fence footings, which we had agreed was not necessary. The work was meticulous. The old fence materials were stacked neatly on the driveway and picked up the next day. The men worked around the sprinklers and the plants, with virtually no damage (a major accomplishment). Because of the slope of the front, at the last minute they had to move one side of the installation from the original fence line to the edge of the driveway (with our permission). It all turned out beautifully. The men were very professional, on time and obviously proud of their work. Our neighbors came by to praise the new look; the mailman commented; joggers stopped to watch; we heard congratulations from every side. Creative Fence transformed the front of our house from a wooden Alcatraz to showing our garden at its best!

They removed my old fence, gate and posts and put in a new fence, posts and gate.

Logged on to their website and requested they contact me to quote a 16x24 composite deck. Received an email indicating they would contact me the next morning to discuss and 3 days went by with no call. Followed up with another email and they responded again that the would contact me the following Monday morning. I got the call in the evening and spoke with Mitica. I normally don't rate experiences like this, but this one irritated me a bit. During the conversation, I indicated that I worked days, was working a new job and would not be able to take time off to have him come by during the regular business hours to provide the quote. He was not willing to come in the early evening and kept trying to get me to do it during the day, offering 9am or lunch. I tried to again explain that this wouldn't work...I then asked about a possibility of meeting on a weekend, and he gruffly stated, and I quote, "I don't work weekends". I then terminated the conversation indicating that I was sorry we could not do business. So, we moved on to 3 other "A" rate outfits who were willing to quote the job. I am sure this is a fine outfit as the other reviews indicate...I am sorry it didn't work out.

Bid was provided by company owner Mitika Leontescu who was very prompt and knowledgeable. We spent considerable time discussing the options and what our concerns were. He provided a clear bid that clearly showed what the wood options and parts of the project cost. The bid allowed us to reduce the cost somewhat: for example, by removing and hauling away the old cedar deck. Creative had previously performed several installations in our neighborhood. Looking at these gave us great confidence in what the quality of the finished product would be. After accepting the bid, the work proceeded in about two weeks and took less than one week. The work was performed by Victor and Constantin who are talented craftsman. During construction they frequently confirmed with me about structural and aesthetic details. Thus there were no surprises as they proceeded. The job site was always left clean without hazards. Mikita's brother, Constanin also checked in on an almost daily basis to check on progress and make sure I did not have any questions. We are very pleased with the finished product and would definitely use Creative Fences and Decks again.

They did an excellent job. They showed up on time, worked hard and actually finished early.The deck is beautiful. Everyone loves it.

It was a no brainer to use Mitica's company again. They had installed the most gorgeous IPE deck in my back yard and after seeing the workmanship and quality, I knew that if I needed more fencing/decking work done, I would only use his company. I received the price from Mitica and I will say that they are not the cheapest. But, in the long run and if you amortize what you are purchasing from him, he actually is the best darn value out there. Plus, the workmanship and quality of the wood is unsurpassed. The crew showed up and removed the old cedar fence that I had on 3 sides of my backyard. Within one week, they had built the most beautiful cedar fence with lattice. Not just any lattice, but awesome lattice! The wood is 100% top notch clear cedar. This is not Home Depot junk. They also lighted sanded and then oil my IPE deck that they had installed the previous year. There are no words to describe how gorgeous it is. Everyone who sees my back yard is floored. Well worth every nickel and if I have more work to be done, it will only be Creative Fences & Decks.

We simply can't say enough good things about Mitica and all of his workers. We had an estimate from them for the job along with two other companies. We made the mistake of picking a company over his because it was going to be cheaper. The bid from the other company was for composite decking material whereas Mitica prefers to use real wood (although they do build composite decks also). We scheduled the job to start on a Monday and we never heard from the company that we had hired despite many phone calls. AFter a week of trying to get ahold of them we had gone so far as to hire a lawyer to recoup our funds when we finally heard from the company's owner with a lame excuse. So, it was Mitica to the rescue. I believe that things happen for a reason, and my belief was vindicated. Mitica came to our rescue and they started our job the next day! We chose to go with really nice hardwood instead of the composite and after talking to friends about their decks and the issues that they've had with composite decking i was glad that we did. Also, when they were tearing out the old decks, it was discovered that the builder of the decks from the previous owners didn't bother to put flashing around the decks and so on the deck attached to the house there was extensive rot to the point that they had to tear out the "bottom board" which is part of the house. They were able to do this successfully and, frankly, we were concerned that the other company might have tried to skirt around this issue. They built both of decks to perfection, they did everything that we asked them to do with skill and professionalism. It was a huge job and it took 3 full weeks and now we have the most beautiful decks imaginable! John, the main carpenter on our job was so nice and was sweet enough to let our chickens run around them while they were working! (yes, they did get some eggs out of it!) We are both so thrilled with the job that they did and we scream their praises to anyone who will listen and so i am so grateful to have angies list so I can scream it some more! by the way, they also built our fabulous cedar fence 4 years ago and did an equally great job on it.

After my initial phone contact, Mitica phoned me back promptly and set up an appointment to come out to the house. We discussed the project and he gave me several good suggestions, as well as a quote on the spot. He was professional and courteous; the quote was lower than the other two we had already received. His company had great reviews from other Angie's List subscribers, so we contracted with him for the project. Once the permit was obtained, the project was completed in a little over a week. We were amazed at how quickly our new deck went up, especially since the majority of the time only one man worked on it! He was very polite and non-intrusive and worked hard all day long. He built us a beautiful sturdy deck and we are very pleased with the result. Mitica and Constantine (our main contact after the project was under way) were very upfront with us about all aspects of the project, and treated us with respect and integrity. We can highly recommend this company!

Brothers Mitica and Constantin run a top notch company. From the first contact, when Mitica came to bid on the job, to the last day, when Constantin came to complete a final inspection, everyone was professional, skilled, and entirely focused on doing a quality job. When things were not being built to our expectations due to a small miscommunication, the work was redone to our complete satisfaction. All members of the team were easy to work with and very responsive to each and every request. My husband and I are both very impressed with the quality of their work. We will be hiring this team for more projects in 2013, because we know that all work will be done correctly, at a high level of quality, and for a reasonable price. Thank you, Creative Fences and Decks!!

First one of the owners met with me, went over my needs and discussed options. I chose IPE for my deck. During this same meeting he measured the deck and stairs. He let me know what their timing was as far as how long it might be until they could start my job and gave me a written estimate. It took me months to think about it and get back to him. He still had the information. We decided on a course of action. He again let me know an approximate time frame. I sent questions via e-mail and they were responded to promptly. When they started work, they were fast and efficient. The guys were friendly and helpful. I did not have to worry if they would show up or when they were going to get done. The new deck looks beautiful . I know that it will stay beautiful and last a long, long time. I am a bit of a perfectionist and very picky about quality of workmanship. Their work was excellent. I would not hesitate to recommend Creative Fences and Decks, Inc. I am an very satisfied customer. Thank you!