A Deck is Born

Hello all. It's a tale as old as time. People need contractor. People meet contractor. Contractor messes up job. People clean up after contractor. How many times have you seen that plot in Hollywood blockbusters?

We had what we thought was a simple project--to replace the front steps to The Cottage. The previous version had a number of shortcomings, not the least of which were it's small size and the fact that it had settled and created an uncomfortably high gap to the house. The platform at the top was 2x3 which, considering the screen door is wider than 2 feet, meant you couldn't stand on it and open the door.

The job seemed straightforward. After talking to a number of potential contractors and receiving estimates from a few (and getting ghosted by the rest) we thought we had the right person. One afternoon the crew came to set the footers in anticipation of starting on the deck the next day.

We were encouraged. They made good, if slow, progress during the next couple days. One reason for the modest pace was that the "crew" consisted of the experienced contractor and two assistants who had never done this type of work. To compound the problem the contractor used our deck as a teaching tool, often taking a step back from the work which had implications for how much work got done per day and, as we later discovered, for the quality of the work.

It was after the second full day that we stood at the curb to examine the progress and discovered something was amiss. Can you see it? With the two posts up close to the house especially it was clear that the deck wasn't centered on the door, as we'd requested.

When we examined the mark they'd made at the bottom of the door it was obviously off center. They hadn't found the middle of the actual door or the door+frame. Then because the contractor put the stair stringers at the top of the frame the dimensions got out of whack. We'd asked for a 6x10 landing and confirmed that many times, but the measured dimensions were about 7x9. 

The slope of the yard yielded a bad jerry-rig under the front step and made the height uncomfortably high on the right side. That is a random stack of stuff they jammed between the cement paving stone and stringer.

The contractor decided to install lattice that we'd never discussed.

We'd asked them to put the screws in a straight line but despite drawing a pencil line as a guide they couldn't manage that. We have superimposed a blue line over their pencil mark.

And they made an odd, atypical choice on the stairs by making the (vertical) risers longer than the (horizontal) treads.

This was the so-called "completed" deck, replete with its faults. We told the contractor we were most displeased with how he chose to manage the project. 

• He never asked/advised us about using this as a training project, with the obvious implications for how long it would take. We might have agreed but were never consulted. 
• He unilaterally changed aspects of the project such as adding lattice, putting the posts up close to the house for a handrail we didn't want, and using the wrong size deck boards (5/4 x 4 instead of 5/4 x 6 in case you're curious). 
• Finally, several times we thought we had agreement on some facet of the job only to find he'd reneged or ignored the joint resolution.
  

He offered to fix any problems but after having him and his team at the house for six days we decided to cut our losses.

Until next time and the resolution of this story.