HODGKISS CONSTRUCTION

My problem is his responsiveness after the initial deck build. Because of a delay in the arrival of a spiral staircase to be installed, he moved on to another job and once the staircase arrived, it took 3 months for him to get back to do the staircase. He also installed a dry snap ceiling under my deck and it is leaking. I've contacted him repeated to fix this since early March and he either does not respond or tells me he has no idea when he will be here to repair this. It is leaking so badly, it is not usable under the deck and has delayed me being able to finish the area under the deck.

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Unfortunately the project never went through. I had met several times starting in March and April regarding a patio, firepit, and under deck water system that was to be done. After much discussion with BoB Hodgkiss we planned on going through with the project and got our quote/estimate. Although at the time he did tell me they were somewhat booked up, he assured me the project would be done this summer and that we would be able to use it this summer. After several weeks of waiting to get s start date and communicating regarding small details of the project, I received an email from Jon stating that they would no

I learned of Hodgkiss Construction from the Trex website as he was listed as a TrexPRO Platinum builder I thought he must be a reputable builder and actually remembered his booth at the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show. Hodgkiss Construction was to design and build stairs from our cantilevered deck to our lawn. Jon came out and took all the measurements and drew up some plans to build the stairs utilizing the same materials as my existing deck (TREX and vinyl). We agreed upon a price and I submitted his plans to the township and acted as a middle man in obtaining the building permit. The permit was granted and Jon's crew started working on the project. When his crew came out they realized Jon's original plans were not going to work as the stairs in the plan would encroach onto a setback (This is after he had all the measurements). So they improvised on the plans to make it work within the setback. I agreed to the new plans and construction commenced. His crew was fast and efficient I was happy with the finished product. However It came to light that his crew got all necessary inspections done by the township for the footers during the construction but they did not have a final inspection to have the finished stairs pass the building code. We learned of this when we asked the township if we could remove the building permit sign from our window. I reached out to Jon Hodgkiss and he assured me that he would get it right and that it would pass inspection (I still have all correspondences with this project). Jon claimed that he could never get ahold of anyone at the township but he would get the stairs to pass. Now we had already given Jon the check for the project (buyer beware never hand over the final payment until it passes inspection. I just wish someone would have given me that advice.) and he became increasingly unresponsive to us. I liked the finished project and there were no structural issues and I could use them fine. Jon and I fell out of touch about this and it was out of sight out of mind until the township sent us a postcard saying we still had a building permit on file that needed to pass inspection. I reached back out to Jon as we were also starting the process of selling our home and did not want this to impede the process or lower our home value. His last correspondence to me was that he would take care of it in May when his guys were in our neighborhood doing another project and here it is mid June and no other communication from him. Now I need to spend more money and hire another contractor to finish this job so our house can be put on the market. When we hire a contractor we are putting our trust and money into that person that they will design and build their product to the local building codes.

It didn't go, they never called us back!!

Deconstruction and construction went very quickly. His crew were polite and clean, usually picking up any construction materials. The process was painless and quick.

Called him in July and got his visit on Aug. 6. He said that he would give a quote in 2 weeks. There was no quote. I called him twice since that and still no quote.

They said the could help do the work but then never followed through. They became unresponsive.

same as above

We started talking to him in May , it was a small project and we never really got his full attention. It took us four to five months to get it done. The end product is fantastic. I am absolutely satisfied with it, at the same time I don't think I would use them again due to the communication issues we had.

Got a quote from John last August, accepted his proposal in September. He is busy so it took until December for him to be ready to start. I put him off until January due to the holidays. Once he got started things went pretty well. The old deck was down and the debris removed in the first few days. I watched the progress daily. For a bit it seemed like the work was not moving along as fast as we would have liked, but it was not really an inconvenience. The deck was built very solidly from the ground up, then the roof with a finished ceiling with recessed lighting added. Overall this part took about four weeks. The results are stunning! We added a new outside room to our home. It was beautifully done, architecturally consistent with my house, and low maintenance. He used Trex flooring and PVC railings. Only a few trim boards will need painting. The sliding door had to be special ordered because of the size of the opening that he had to fit. It took 14 weeks for the door to come in, a very long wait it seemed to me. Once it did come in he had it in place within 10 days. That job only took a little more than a day. John does not paint, so that remains to be done. But we have been using the deck nearly every day. We could not be happier.

Jon Hodgkiss does quality work and we're very happy with the finished product. Because of his quality, Jon is in demand and we had to wait several months to get on his schedule. Once he started, the work progressed very quickly even though we had about a week of rainy weather. The part I especially liked was how Jon turned my ideas of what I wanted into a well made structure. For instance, I wanted the highest pitch possible on the roof, a bench, skylights, one long set of steps and some lights. Jon built everything perfectly without me having to worry about the details. If you want a quality job done go with Jon.

I had John over for the first quote for the deck, I could tell he was very knowledgeable and energetic, but not big on all of the details, which somewhat turned me off. He was good about getting revised quotes as I needed. After getting a few quotes (and not being able to get quotes from others...), I determined that Hodgkiss was the best option as they are a Trex Platinum installer and the price was very comparable to some wood options. Unfortunately they were the only contractor that would NOT obtain the permit for free which ended up being a major ordeal (in hindsight I should have paid them the extra few hundred dollars). I had some difficultly getting all of the details that the borough needed from John, eventually got the permit, but with detailed additional requirements for the borough to sign off at completion. Unfortunately, this being my first experience with permits for contractors I didn't make the documents available to the crew or John, but they also did not request them. There ended up being additional posts required that somewhat effected the aesthetics of the deck. Had John & I reviewed the deck before construction began it could have been avoided. Also, even after some aspects were discussed between John and myself, he would fail to rely the message to his crew chief, so I would have to keep on top of them. And near the end of the project, as I was going out of town, I just happened to ask about the gate, and the crew chief had no idea he was to install one, even though it is in the contract (which I actually never saw the him reference). In my opinion too much work is done through word of mouth. I also did not appreciate the fact that they kept materials in multiple areas of the lawn killing some of the grass, including putting a large removed window face down in the grass in 90 degree heat...in two different places after I picked it up the first time (common sense). Ultimately John did make everything right with the construction, including some overbearing requirements by the borough and never gave me any grief, which I appreciated. But, I'll be honest, it was definitely frustrating at times, but the work was excellent and I did learn a lot about dealing with contractors. Had either of us been a little bit more proactive, things would have went a lot smoother, but for the cost I expect the majority of that responsibility to fall on the contractor. Finally something that turned me off at the end of the process. The final work was done and I needed to set up the final inspect a few days later. Even before that I received a polite call about the final payment. I explained I would send it on Friday should the inspection go fine and to expect it the following Tuesday. Tuesday came and I received another polite call, I explained I had sent it through my electronic banking and that it should then be there the following day. Wednesday still no check and I said I would stop that check and personally write one and take it to the post office. I was informed that "they needed to pay the bills" and actually came to my house to get the check (obviously the original check came the next day). I understand that someone could attempt to delay payment and they do have expenses, but I figure they know they just built me a deck, they know where it is, so I'm likely not skipping town. And I was doing everything in my power to get them the funds, short of driving to their office. Not a big deal, and it did not come from John personally, but somewhat unprofessional and concerning if they need the funds that badly within just weeks of completing a project. I would definitely recommend Hodgkiss Construction in the future, I would just handle the project, crew and permitting a bit differently.

We meet John at the Pittsburgh Home Show and we scheduled an appointment with him and other contractors. We had a budget and an idea in mind on what we wanted. Many contractors just took our idea and gave us a number and waited to hear from us. John worked with us and actually provided ideas and minor suggestion to our design to help us to get our budget number. John was onsite the 1st day and his crew took over. We had a minor issue with our steps being built in the wrong location, John quickly had the steps completely re-done by the next day from just a simple phone call. Now the yard was trashed during the build process but his crew did a great job cleaning up after they were done.

The quote was for about $100,000. It was an excellent and detailed quote. They are qualified and definitely have the potential to do the work, but I haven't taken a decision on that. I will be comparing bids before I use them. I would recommend them based on the references provided and photos of previous work.

I thought the estimate was fair. He was prompt, friendly and knowledgeable but I have decided to go with someone else.

Jon Hodgkiss was actually the 4th contractor that we received an estimate on. His estimate was within the same range as the other contractors. However, his professionalism and knowledge regarding Trex was unbelievable and he did not try to sell us on items we did not need so we went with him. He showed us examples of his work and was very detailed in the contract that he provided to us. He did inform us that it would be at least 2 months before he could get to us just due to the amount of work he had going on. It was well worth the wait. My husband is very meticulous and he was so impressed by the quality of work and the workmanship provided by Jon and his crew. My deck is absolutely beautiful. The detail he put into the deck design is fantastic. As Jon was installing post, he asked if we considered putting lights on the posts and he wired the posts for lights too. His crew was very professional, on time every day even Saturdays, cleaned everything up, just what one would expect from an excellent company. I can't say enough about this company. I wish i had more work for them to due! I would recommend this company anytime, just book early!

We actually chose a different company to do the work, partly because I had a slightly better feeling about them but mostly because Hodgkiss had such a full order book that they couldn't start for nearly two months. Nevertheless, they deserve a good report for the very professional way they dealt with me during the planning and estimating phase and also because their estimate was actually the lowest of the companies we contacted despite their reputation for high quality work. It is worth noting that the company we eventually used (with whom we are very satisfied) described Hodgkiss as the only decking company they respected.

From day 1 Jon Hodgkiss was the absolute most professional designer/ builder I could have ever dreamed of meeting, the amount of detail and planning that goes into his projects is unbeleivable. The design and finished product delivered by hodgkiss construction is done at such a high level I dont even beleive that they have a legitimate competitor in the area. If you are interested in a project that will make everyone who sees say "wow" I would definately recomend using Jon and his team

It is sad to write a negative report on this company who built us a fantastic deck a couple of years ago. This year we needed to add a gate at the top of the stairs on the deck to prevent my toddler from falling. We contacted the company almost three months ago and asked if they could add the door. The office manager said that could be done and that John would stop by soon to talk to us. After about 2 weeks during which time we did not hear from them, I called again and received the same promise, that someone would stop by to obtain measurements. Again, several weeks went by and nothing happened. At every phone call I was told that John is busy with other "bigger" projects but that he has some appointment near our location soon during which time he would swing by and take measurements. In all this time John himself never returned our calls. Finally about 3/4 weeks ago I called and said that if we did not hear something definite about when the job would be done, we would go with someone else. At the end of that week Johns parents stopped by to take the measurements themselves and apologized for the delay in getting our job done. At least 3 weeks have passed since that date and nothing happened. Every week I called and got the same answer from Johns mother that John was busy and that she would make sure to find out when he would be able to install the deck gate. At last weeks phone call she even offered to call me back and let me know, but that never happened. Finally today, she told me that it was unlikely that John would ever be able to install the gate. It would have saved us time and unnecessary aggravation if we were told that adding a gate at the top of the deck stairs was too small a job for Hodgkiss construction to consider.

Found Hodgkiss at Pittsburgh Home Show and was impressed with his knowledge of the Trex product and by talking to Jon Hodgkiss I felt he would do a good job (huntch). They removed the old lumber on the 20th of May and gave me the weekend to pressure wash the old joists and paint the 12" wide flange steel beams from 1982. They started work on May 24, 2010 and completed the project on June 7, 2010. The crew of two were here everyday except Saturday and Sundays. Travis, the Master Carpenter/Engineer assembled the deck with the quality of a cabinet maker and his helper, John was right by his side following all Travis's instructions. Every concern that was brought up was mutually agreed to by me and Travis or Jon Hodgkiss to my satisfaction. The deck is beautiful and I don't have to do any painting/staining maintenance anymore. I'm retired and I have had enough of deck maintenance. They even installed low voltage lighting (LED) on each banister post with the lights that I provided, and they work. I would highly recommend Hodgkiss Construction for any deck make-overs.

They did an excellent job and we were very pleased with what they did. The owner is very personable, easy to work with and accommodating. They were very neat with their work and their clean up. The crew seemed to be very knowledgeable.

They did a great job and the deck is beautiful.