Allied Outdoor Solutions

Up Date-?Allied Outdoor Solutions took it upon themselves to reach out to us and correct the deficiencies. Based on their follow-up, we are happy with the work and are upgrading the overall score to a B?. We were originally contacted by the scheduler, Tara and shortly thereafter the Operations Manager Guy. During the conversation, Guy assured me if anything went wrong it was his job to fix it, just call him (I am cited this for reference later in the comments). A first we were very impressed by Allied Outdoor Solutions proactive e-mails etc. that soon fell apart. January 27, 2016: The crew showed on Wednesday to begin cleaning and prepping the surfaces. The crew consisted of the Foremen, Ben and two non English speaking workers with one translator. Prep work was completed the first day. My wife was asked by the translator what colors we wanted on the patio and pool deck. She showed the translator a picture off of Allied?s website and mentioned the brick on the house. January 28, 2016: The Crew showed up to work without the translator, it was not possible to communicate with them. They applied the carvestone to patio and pool deck. The material they used was a dark color a red/brown. At the end of the day they gave my wife a sample board with colors already on it. Again it was not really possible to communicate. She told them that she would discuss the colors with me and then we would let them know our final choices. Because of the language barrier we did not feel comfortable communicating this important decision with the crew so we emailed Ben and asked him to be here in the morning to help us. January 29, 2016: Ben arrived early on Friday. He was not aware that the translator had disappeared. The crew was not with him. We discussed our color choices with Ben. There was only one color on the entire board that we thought would work. Ben left our house to take care of a few things but assured us that he would be back when the crew showed up. The crew arrived around 12:00. Again, they did not have a translator. Ben was not back yet so we contacted Ben and then asked the workers to wait until Ben arrived before applying any color. They handed us the color form to sign but we told them that we would not sign the form until Ben was with us. Ben arrived a short while later and we all went out back to talk to the crew. Unfortunately, they were already applying the colors NONE of which were what we asked for. There was a pink hue throughout the color scheme because they mixed pink pigment in with the base color. We were not happy and the crew tried to darken the color to make it acceptable color to the deck. We tried to come up with colors that would work but it was never really our choice. We learned that they had purposely tinted the carvestone the dark color. Not sure why this step was done without our knowledge or approval. The foreman left for Houston for another job site. There was supposed to be a translator but we found out the translator was terminated the previous day. We could not communicate with the crew and they continued to put down the wrong colors. The crew applied the sealant and left, it was too dark to tell shades etc. The next morning I attempted to contact the Operations Manager Guy, I called his cell phone three times and left a text asking him to get over to our home to help. In addition to calling Guy, I called Tara two or three times leaving voice message. It has been three weeks and neither of them returned my calls. I asked to speak to the President of the company, to this date, no phone calls etc. from Mr. Drew Williams. January 30, 2016: We sent an e-mail to Ben explaining our concerns. February 1, 2016: Ben called to discuss our concerns. He then came by the house to talk to us about possible solutions. Our statement was short of ?demolition? there is nothing you can do. Ben agreed to remove the carvestone due to the breakdown in communication. February 2, 2016: The crew removed all the existing carvestone. Ben told my wife that the crew would be able to apply the carvestone, color, grout, and seal all on the next day. This made us extremely nervous about the quality of workmanship that we were receiving. February 3, 2016: My wife called Allied to see if there was someone on staff that could better help us with the color board. They assured her that our Project Consultant would be able to help us. Our project consultant, Scott Ahrens, had moved to a different area so they gave Rose Chad Turner?s contact information. I at the same time had contacted Scott to learn the same thing. My wife contacted Chad to discuss our concerns about the potential train wreck that we were watching. Chad assured her that he would be able to help slow down the process but that Allied did not have anyone to help us with the color choices. The crew prepped the surface then applied the carve stone without the pink pigment. Another color board was prepared. The surface of the pool deck was still wet and she could not really take the time needed to make a good decision about the colors. After the crew left for the day and we were finally able to place the color board close to the pool and brick we realized the colors again would not work. We contacted Chad and he decided that it would be best for him to stop by the next morning to discuss our situation. February 4, 2016: Chad and Ben arrived at 6:15 am. We showed Chad the photos of the work they did, he had no comment. In addition, he cited that 95% of the jobs do not include tinting the base carvestone. At this point we all decided to step back from the project. We told them we were hiring a designer to help with the color and we need to stand down a day from this job to get the colors right. They had other work sites they could go to and told us they would be back in a couple days. Shortly thereafter, we were notified it would be the next week before they could continue with our site. We hired a designer, the designer selected a color scheme from one of their completed jobs. My wife had sent Ben a copy of the photo off of the Allied website citing that is our choice for the colors. The lack of English Speaking work crews and not having a translator on site is the biggest issue. In addition, in all of Allied brochures, they cite they go over color boards well in advance of beginning the work, none of that happened. We cited photos of their past work, we could not communicate even by pointing to the photos. At this point, we are GREATLY concerned about the quality and overall appearance of the Carvestone. One of the most disturbing items is the lack of Allied Outdoor Solutions returning phone calls to a customer. February 17, 2016: Ben Allen and the crew arrive at our home to complete the project. There were a couple of areas that we felt needed some prep work before any color was applied. The crew was not happy about this. My wife voiced her concerns to Ben that we were not comfortable with having workers working on our house that were not happy to be there. For the second time she asked if a different crew could complete the project for us. We were not at all confident that this crew would do a quality job for us. There was no attempt made to get us a different crew. We looked over the two prepared color boards and agreed on one. Some of the colors were not the same as what we had sent to them but trying to communicate colors to this crew is impossible. We gave up!! We picked the better of the two choices and moved on. When it came time to decide on the grout colors Ben asked the lead color worker to suggest some choices but he refused to help us. Ben then instructed another worker to apply several grout options for us to look at. The project was completed. The end result is not exactly what we wanted but it will have to be good enough. We realize that we had very high expectations based on the brochure we were given, the samples we were shown and all of the beautiful photos on your website. This experience has been a nightmare for us!! We have owned four different homes in various parts of the country and one even in Texas and we have had many major home improvement projects completed on each of these homes over the years and never have we had an experience like this! In all good faith, I cannot and will not recommend Allied Outdoors Solutions. We submitted a negative comment sheet (the same content in this comment section) and to this date no one from Allied Outdoor Solutions has called to express any concerns. Up Date - Allied Outdoor Solutions took it upon themselves to reach out to us and correct the deficiencies. Based on their follow-up, we are happy with the work and are upgrading the overall score to a B?.

Called Ft. Worth office looking for ~250 sq ft. new concrete pour for porch. Minimum charge for new concrete is $4000... other Angie's list providers less than 1/2 that are available with A ratings too! To Angie's list, I did not want to rate the overall experience, but am forced to rate it an F due to price ONLY

These folks are FANTASTIC!! Totally professional, they missed no points in bidding and delivering an excellent job. The finished product has received rave reviews from family and friends. The bidding process was straightforward with no "salesy" gimmicks, the quote was professionally written with all points covered and no room for misinterpretation on anyone's part. The crew was here for 3 days and were respectful, careful and delivered an outstanding end product as expected. Project ,management & follow-up were prompt courteous and pain-free. I wish I had known how "pungent" the final sealer was going to be or I wouldn't have left windows open. but that was on me :-)

Very responsive, showed up on time and very professional. Slightly more expensive than other quotes but their professionalism was worth it.

Everything went really well and they were a please to work with. The quality of the product is top notch and the installation went really smooth. I would definitely recommend them to my friends.

Requested a bid to replace a section of driveway that was 'raised' by a large tree root. The service technician provided on time and gave me a fair estimate to perform the work. Have not performed the work yet, but will be selecting Allied Outdoor Solutions when we are ready to start the projectx.

I contacted Allied Outdoor Solutions to extend our concrete patio and pour an additional patio for our patio furniture and smoker. They arrived on time and finished the work in one day, the workers were very nice and cleaned up when they were done. I am very happy with their work and would use them again.

I had a competitive estimate for the patio. They came November 13th to give a quote.

Over all the project was done in a timely manner the only problem we had was the people did not cover up and closer garage and dust got everywhere including my brand-new automobile. Also we were promised that the workers would take care in covering screen. That was not done. As far as communication with the workers was difficult because of language barrier. Most workers were young and did not speak English. My patio looks good. But my garage is a mess because workers open door during grinding process.

I was pleased with the responsiveness of the sales representative. He was prompt in visiting my house and providing his estimate. He was also quick to return my phone calls or emails. I appreciated his input and suggestions for the pergola. Many of his ideas were very helpful and ones that I would not have thought of on my own. The construction crew were very punctual and worked very hard. I was impressed with their work ethic. They did a beautiful job on the pergola. I love it.

Arrived on time. Everyone spoke English. They worked very hard to get just the color I wanted. Helped me get the dog back in the yard. Cleaned up upon completion.

Abraham, Jose & Juan, were on time everyday. They only took 15 min for lunch. They are true professionals! Their work is beautiful!

The crew arrived on time and performed the job well! We are very pleased!

This project took place in 2 phases: 1. After designing the patio addition, the concrete guys came to pour the addition patio. We were not home for this part. The patio addition itself was perfect and agreed upon shape and well done. However, in the process of cleaning up, the crew broke a hose pipe. They did fix it the same day, but my husband had to go back and do additional repairs later, as there was another break in the line, further underground. Also, the crew left chunks of concrete in the grass, there was a large smear of concrete residue on the iron gate to the back yard, and concrete was splattered on the windows and siding of the house where the addition was poured. Additionally, the crew's truck knocked a decorative stone off our driveway's culvert. After the entire project was completed, the Carvestone crew took care of much of the clean up. But, there is still some concrete splatter on the house. Allied also had to send someone out twice to fix the stone on the culvert. We did not pay them the final portion of the project balance until this was completed. Given how much trouble it was to get these items addressed, I'm concerned if we hadn't had this leverage, it would have taken much longer. 2. After the concrete addition cured, the Carvestone crew came out to prepare the existing pea gravel deck for the Carvestone application. This crew was courteous and professional and worked extra hard to do a good job. The Carvestone pattern was customized, as was the color selection, to our desires and turned out beautifully. Once completed, we needed a few touch-ups with the mastic used in the joints of the patio. I contacted the project supervisor, but we ended up going back and forth with him for over a week. I finally got in touch with the head of the Carvestone crew, who was unaware that we needed the additional touch-ups. He came out the very next day and took care of it. We have come to expect hiccups in projects of this scope. Overall, these were manageable and didn't negatively affect the end result. We are extremely pleased with the finished product. We would consider using Allied again if we do another outdoor project.

We are extremely happy with our new pool deck and patio. From our first call to Allied Outdoor Solutions for an estimate to the walk around inspection of the finished work we were treated with the utmost professionalism. We cannot over emphasize the skill and artistic abilities of Octavio and his helper. Octavia worked with my wife every step of the way and wanted her to be happy with his work. His ability to carve out a beautiful outline of flagstone and work with the colors we selected was pure art. Octavio and his assistant work very hard in the San Antonio heat and did not stop until the job was finished. My biggest pet peeve is workers not cleaning up after themselves when the work is done. This crew blew me away. The worksite was cleaned and they even cleaned our sliding glass doors leading to our patio. Everyone who has come over to your house and has seen our new patio and pool deck cannot believe how beautiful it is and would swear it's real flagstone if we did not tell them the Carvestone process. I would like to thank Ben Barnes the Project Consultant for his professionalism and ability to work magic with costing and timelines. We would recommend Allied Outdoor Solutions to family and friends. Bottom line, they delivered on their promise to transform our pool deck and patio to our satisfaction. If you live in San Antonio and you decide to use Allied Outdoor Solutions for Carvestone, ask for Octavio to do the work.

They were supposed to start and complete the job on a Monday, but they didn't bother to show up until Tuesday with just a load of sand and they showed up Thursday with some pavers. They didn't start the job until Friday afternoon. They ran out of materials and couldn't complete it. They were supposed to come back and finish it on Saturday, but then they said their truck broke down. It was a disaster. I had to supply a wheelbarrow, shovels, picks. So I had to supply half the tools they needed to do the job. The quality of the work was okay. But the timeline and the inconvenience they caused was the problem. They never called to say they weren't coming that day. I wound up taking a bunch of time off from work. I was satisfied with the quality of work. Getting the crew there and the materials there was just a disaster. I had a $300 coupon from Angie's List and he said he included that in the quote. I felt like I got lied to.

After the inspection, he said we didn't need his service. He said we could fix the problem ourselves and gave us advice on how to do it.

Work was done by polite and profession people We did have some warranty work which was carried out promptly and with out any arguing from Allied Outdoor Solutions

UPDATE After posting this review I received calls from Allied and the came out to inspect the front patio. They promised it would be fixed and needed to determine the best way to do so. 2-3 weeks later they came back and redid the front patio and it now looks great. Based on this new outcome I have revised my rating of Allied Outdoor solutions up from the previous F. However, this has been a painful, long (over 9 month) process and giving them an "A" would not be honest nor reflect what I went through. I will say that the people I dealt with during this last redo were much more professional and were very determined to get the job done correctly. ORIGINAL REVIEW The project started out ok though it was taking a lot longer than expected. The crew was nice and worked very hard but that is the only good thing I can say about this company and the people that work there. When they poured the extension of the front patio they sloped it the wrong way (towards the house and our front door), it was very obvious. I pointed this out to several people immediately and sent pictures to our Project Manager. I was promised over and over that it would be fixed. It was not fixed and the carvestone product was put on top and the sloping was even more obvious. That night it rained lightly and we had a small pond covering our patio and creeping towards our front door. again I was promised it would be fixed. But instead of tearing it our a redoing it they tried patching it. Of course it looked terrible and didn't even fix the flooding problem. They refused to do it right and redo the entire thing, instead they tried patching it again and again and again, so many time I lost track. Now they refuse to do any more work and we have a very ugly 4 feet by 6 feet patch on our front patio by our front door. It is so bad I cannot express it in words.

First day was a little bit rocky. Crew discovered they were short on material. Next day they arrived early and finished in nine hours. Installation completed and an outdoor fan installed.

Extremely satisfied with the finished product. Were flexible enough to revise schedule because another contractor had been delayed by the weather. Carvestone looks great.

They did a great job. We were very happy. The guy was very patient and very helpful. He was very honest. He came down to make sure things worked for us. We were very satisfied with the end results. I would use them again in the future.

I am finishing my review. Drew did his best to clean up most the mess that was left over after the first egregiously sad attempt at a cement patio. Now, after the trauma is over (did I mention it took 6 months?) and I am using the patio; we are enjoying it. I would say it is pretty darn nice. But,I finally dug out all the cement from my back yard that use to be a beautiful lawn when they started and my fence is still trashed. What I want to express to my fellow Angies Lister's is that the journey was treacherous and unpleasant. I am still dealing with the fall out. I cannot in good conscious recommend this establishment. In Houston, who know but in Austin.......NO. Absolutely not. BTW, when I wrote that letter I still wanted you to fix the mess. And I stand by my comments on Octavio's work. He is great and a knows his Craft. And yes you did give me a discount. Thank You but I still need to do to re-sod my lawn and I spent so many hours of my time dealing with all the issues. So fellow members, you decide if you want a quality product after you've been sent thru the ringer. The experience was like being poured a sumptuous glass of wine after being slapped in the face by the bar tender. Yes it is going to taste really good but you're certainly not going to leave a tip or return to that establishment are you?

They are half way through the job and I am pretty impressed with them. I will highly recommend them. They are resurfacing two deck of 1000 sq ft. They are timely and they do fixed estimate so no surprise at end. They staff is professional.

I recently had someone replace my sidewalk, but they botched the stamped concrete pattern. I contacted Allied Outdoor Solutions and a couple of other companies that do concrete overlays to have them come take a look at what they could do to make it look better. Allied Outdoor Solutions was the most expensive proposal, but they had the most impressive portfolio of jobs that they had done. i felt confident that they could make the overlay look more like natural stone than the other companies. They also offered a 7 year warranty, and none of the others would offer any warranty. We were having a party in few weeks and we wanted the work done quickly. Although they were busy and the winter weather was not cooperating they were able to squeeze me in. They were very proactive in letting me know when the crew would be available and were prompt in arriving as scheduled. The project manager took the time to understand exactly what I wanted and he communicated to his crew. The did a sample board of the stone to show us samples of the colors they were planning on doing so that we could see what it would like. They were very patient with us in getting the colors to be exactly what we wanted. They started the job on a Tuesday morning and were finished by Thursday evening. They worked well into the evening to stay on schedule. The were amazingly clean and were very careful not to damage any of the flowers and plants adjacent to the sidewalk. I would highly recommend Allied Outdoor Solutions. i am sure that if we ever decide to move, the look of this walkway will significantly enhance the drive up appeal and make it much easier to attract buyers.