Barrier Fencing

Run away from this guy(Jim Roberts) as fast as you can. I paid him to build a wood privacy fence and the workmanship is horrible. There are boards that are cut unevenly and too short. There are places where several of the post have been cut into haphazardly. After just the third week or so several of the spindles started to bulge out creating gaps in the fence. I actually was going to hire this guy to build a covered deck after the fence, but now I wouldn't let him back on my property to dig a hole for free!

The fencing went smoothly, the deck took forever for him to complete and was not done properly. He did not set the posts properly so the posts will rot out as I live on a wet lot. He put hardy board on my sheds, looks good. He insulated one of the sheds, that is ok as well. He began to tear down the screened in porch to redo and then stopped showing up. I have called and emailed and texted to no avail. During the cold weather he took it upon himself to destroy my brand new fire pit that had never been used by putting huge wood in it to burn to keep himself warm. He owes me a refund for the work that i"ve paid partial on that he did not complete. Stay away as he'll abscond with your money and stop showing up. That's his MO.

Jim Roberts, BARRIER FENCING AND OUTDOOR ARCHITECTURE, Lugoff SC Mr. Roberts worked approximately 40 hours in re-building our existing deck. He worked sporadically over a two week period. . He worked hard removing old boards and resetting new floor boards, but the overall outcome is unsatisfactory, because of (1) poor finish work and (2) failure to cull out individual boards with missing knots and unsatisfactory for a deck. He promised a wooden bench that never materialized. The day he "finished", was pouring cold rain all day; his helper was soaked and freezing, so we let him come into the basement and gave him a coat to warm up. Mr. Roberts insisted on continuing despite our expressed concern about thunder & lightening and soaking cold. He finished at 7:45 PM (2 hours after dark), saying he would return the following Friday with a promised bench and to "fix anything we thought needed extra work". He insisted he be paid that night despite the fact that we had no way to view the work. He said if we paid cash, he would build the bench at home and bring it here that Friday. He left mud everywhere. He did not return that Friday, nor did he call or email. Sunday we emailed him and he finally responded Monday saying his helper was very ill. We notified Mr. Roberts of our dissatisfaction several times, and with continued coaxing, he did finally come back one time three weeks later and sanded some of the bad spots for approximately 45 minutes before a rain shower stopped him. He did not bring the promised bench. There was plenty of work that did not involve sanding which could have been completed. Several times he has promised to return, but has not--always citing bad weather, but ignoring the bright sunny days, of which there have been many throughout January and February. Since then there have been numerous emails and phone calls, followed by promises by Mr. Roberts that he will fix the problems, but he does not. This report is written approximately 6 weeks after we notified Mr. Roberts of the issues we believe need to be corrected. The poor finish work primarily involves boards that were to have router-smoothed edges. This picture shows how roughly the top rail is finished. The edge is ragged at best, and at many places is much worse--showing deep gouges and chattering. In my opinion, the router blade was probably dull and certainly was too deeply adjusted. There are dozens of examples on the top rail and deck floor. Another source of dissatisfaction is that Mr. Roberts failed to cull boards with missing knots, resulting in a rough spots that are unsuitable for a deck surface. None of the knot holes go completely through the board, but they leave deep declivities that are tough on feet. Some of the boards should probably be replaced. Summary. I realize that a deck is not interior furniture; but nonetheless, it should be much smoother than framing. Mr. Roberts is a hard worker when tasking, but apparently the desire for speed overcomes his attention to detail. Our deck shows the effects of this. The ground below was muddy, and some of the mud was transferred to the deck floor, causing penetrating stains that may have to be sanded away. I am completely dissatisfied with the work, and now will have to spend hours of time redoing his work. The wood is very rough and unsafe for small children and bare feet; the whole reason we hired him was to replace wood that had a similar problem. $3400 later we have gained nothing. I would not hire Mr. Roberts again.