Overall I would say they weren't bad, but they weren't great either. I had my front steps redone. The project started in June and didn't finish until December. I know some things you can't control - like the weather delays, or the city inspection delays, and I think there were efforts made to move it along. But I get hung up on the details. Ten inches is ten inches, right? I admit I'm a tough customer, but when ten inches on a spec sketch turns into 9.25 inches, that's a problem because numbers matter when you work in carpentry. Upon investigation into why the work did not pass inspection initially, and after weighing the options we had, we decided to keep the work as is. When I explained that I was not enthusiastic about this choice, I was told "thank you, is more appropriate." Take that any way you like, but I felt a little needled. I work in customer service, and I know condescension when I hear it. The truth is all of the back and forth about approval could have been avoided if codes were looked at more carefully and the work kept in strict line with submitted plans. The difficult part to swallow was when I was on the verge of having the contractor redo the work to get it right - to build it the way they said they would - instead of getting the "how can we make this right?" slant of the conversation, I was getting subtle hints that this was not something they were interested in doing (e.g., "if I build the stairs to 10 inches, the treads would stick out and you'd have a tripping hazard" when the reality is it means the stringers would need to be re-cut to accommodate the 10-inch treads, which as a carpenter he should know; or "the 2x10s are chamfered so it's really more like 9.75 inches" when I measured and took a photo of 9.25 inches).
Again, the work came out fairly nice, but a lot of my neighbors have steps that I believe are safer, because the treads are longer. At the end of the day I might be willing to let that go, but there was this feeling that we got, which was that they were so frustrated with the project that they wanted it done, when it's not our fault that the city was difficult to communicate with, that the permits were expensive, and so on. I just wish that the 10 inches promised were actually given. read more