0 Stars
My horrid…read morehorrible experience with the a-team who, in my opinion (IMO), does not live up to their name unless a= amateurs.
In summary, I had a porch redone and they:
1. put in tongue and groove porch decking with screws like a patio deck,
2. left up to ¼ inch gaps between the tongue and groove on nearly half the porch,
3. left an inch visible gap next to a column on the porch deck,
4. took three times coming back to put the railing on straight,
5. and, overbilled needed "additional work" and tried to gaslight me into agreeing I got a good deal.
Do you want details? Keep reading.
After talking me up on their quality of work I decided to pay for a porch replacement for my house. I felt good; the price was on the high side but I really wanted a quality job.
After doing the tear out, the project lead told me they needed to do additional structural work under the porch. He gave a tear out and rebuild or repair option. In my opinion (IMO), he was clearly disappointed when I didn't agree to just have them replace the entire structure underneath the porch (for a hefty bid increase).
The additional work needed was setting 3 new joists next to existing joists, adding 8 joist hangers to existing joists, and adding cripples to the center joist. Nothing had to be torn out or separately supported beyond what was already needed to replace the porch rim. The project manager bid that this work was going to take 2 carpenters a half a day's work was completely outrageous.
When I complained that the additional work he was proposing was "Price Gouging" and did not represent the work being proposed, he agreed it might be overbid and said he would have his workers specifically track time on the additional work. I agreed this was an equitable way to track the needed additional work.
When the job was done and final inspection was offered, several problems stood out.
1. the bottom stair was half missing,
2. the railings were several inches out of level and square,
3. the railings were cut off square to the round columns rather than wrapping around as they had been before and
4. the worst... the tongue and groove decking was put down with screws and spaces like patio decking (¼ inch spaces on one end)
I complained and they came back... and complained and they came back... and complained and they came back. After three times back to the house to improve the quality of work, the decking was still fubar'd but the railing was straight. (1/4 inch gaps in the tongue and groove, 1 inch gap between the flooring and a column, tongue and groove not cut off on the ends, and, of course, all the screw heads in the flooring. IMO, very sloppy). They then quit responding to me. Definitely Not the Quality I Hoped For.
When such obvious errors and shortcuts can be seen on a job as simple as a porch column repair and flooring replacement, one wonders what shortcuts and problems are hidden inside bigger jobs...the pics they take don't point out these flaws and IMO, gave me a false sense of knowing what was happening with the repair work since I could not be on site.
On the billing, it was the full amount for the extra work with no explanation. After dodging my calls for a few days, the project lead responded and tried to BS me by saying his team really spent a half day on that part of the job despite not having tracked it as promised. He then highly embellished the work that needed to be done by calling out tasks that were part of the original work and claiming they had to be done for the additional work request. When I knew enough about construction repair to challenge his claims, he backed off.
He then changed tactics and went on to say the overcharge was really due to underestimating how much time it took his team to repair the porch columns from the original bid. He said that everything really balanced out because of that extra work and "I was really getting a good deal".
l told him I thought it was bill charging shenanigans and price gouging.
When the owner was confronted, he claimed it was unreasonable to expect a crew to accurately document time on a task despite his foreman saying they would.
Buyer be warned... If you want a team who will follow through on what they promise and will do the job right, keep looking. IMO steer clear of the a-team when looking to make home repairs and upgrades; I will be for my next home repair and restoration project.
