Mountain View Decks did not follow all requirements in the building permit and the project failed inspection. They did not live up to our expectations of a "premier deck contractor" or our expectations for this price point. MVD demolished our old deck and built a 300 sq ft Trex deck on our home in Missoula in August 2024. A deck such as this within the city of Missoula requires a building permit. We insisted that MVD obtain a permit for ours and work began once the permit was approved. Midway through the project we expressed concerns about the construction techniques, particularly regarding the railing posts, and dissatisfaction with several areas of craftsmanship. JD's response did not alleviate our concerns and the exchange left us feeling very uneasy. At the conclusion of MVD's last day on site, they demanded final payment before the final inspection was even scheduled. The office manager had JD and his partner wait in our driveway while she very rudely insisted that we pay them right then, claiming it was our responsibility to schedule a final inspection. After MVD contacted the city building department, the inspection occurred the very next day; we took time off work to be there for the inspection but no one from MVD came. The railing posts we had previously expressed concern about failed inspection and would need to be completely replaced. The deck also failed for FOUR other points: the structural members were not the permitted lumber type, the stair railing would not withstand 200-pound side load, a stair riser varied by 1" from the remaining stairs (acceptable variation is 3/8"), and there was no blocking between joists over the beam. The city inspector was very helpful in explaining all of this to us. After MVD received the inspection findings and spoke with the inspector over the phone, they offered to return as they had "a simple fix to the posts and a few boards to make the deck compliant with the city." They did not tell us how they would address all five of the inspection findings. We requested a detailed plan of action by MVD to address ALL the issues found during the project inspection, and three months of frustrating and stressful emails ensued. At one point, MVD even blamed their oversight to a "clerical error in the city's [permit] portal" and tried to push repairs on us that we knew would still not pass inspection per our own discussions with the building department. We had phone calls with the city building department on multiple occasions and it is of our opinion that MVD did not fully understand how the permitting process worked and was not familiar with the 2021 international residential building code, which Missoula adopted in 2022. We hope no one else has to go through what we went through with MVD. It wasn't until 105 days after the inspection that MVD explicitly offered to return to address and fix the 5 permit corrections, although they still didn't provide details of how they planned to do so. This was also after they already broached the topic of attorneys, interest payments, and threatened mechanics liens on our property for work that didn't even pass inspection. The fact that they failed inspection for so many issues which we believe a "premier deck contractor" would not have failed is enough for us to not recommend MVD to anyone. Furthermore, aside from building code compliance and overall quality, MVD's extremely unprofessional attitude and handling of the situation did not live up to our expectations. PS: MVD also installed a defective Trex board that we didn't notice until the last day they were on site. JD said it was fine, but we filed a warranty claim for the board anyway, which was promptly approved by Trex. Since then, we have also found another Trex board that was broken prior to installation. read more

May 4 Mountain View Decks recently completed a tear-down and rebuild of our deck. We could not be more pleased with the result. J.D. and his associate are both knowledgeable, expert craftsmen who take great pride in doing quality work. Their attention to detail left us with an absolutely beautiful deck. We recommend them without reservation. Ellen and Jane read more