It has been several months now and I realized I said I would post updates when everything was…read moreresolved, which I suppose everything is now no thanks to Colorado Deck and Patio. Over the 2-3 months that followed we spent over $15,000 to have our brand new front porch repaired and brought up to city codes.
So in case you're keeping score - the original estimate was $11K, but Stephen Jackson forgot to include the electrical work for lights and outlets, which we requested from the beginning, in the estimate so the total was over $13K. Then we learned there were no permits, no inspections, they were not licensed in Aurora, they disregarded the engineer's plans by not providing proper support for the structure, and they did not have the roof done according to the city code. That's just off the top of my head. So why did it cost us an additional $15K? Because to do it right we had the extra expenses of paying for the permit, paying to remove brand new materials so the workmanship could be inspected - it failed, btw. We had to pay to have the brand new roof removed so that it could be re-done properly, which required re-roofing the entire front side of the house, so that was a lot more material. We had to pay for brand new engineer drawings. [On a side note, the engineering firm they used told us it was the first time a contractor hired them to have plans drawn, then failed to follow them. As a result they said they would no longer do business with Colorado Deck & Patio.] The list goes on, and also includes paying for an attorney that specializes in construction law.
I also wanted to address some of the things Stephen Jackson stated in his response to my prior review, though most of it is ludicrous. Firstly, they do indeed offer a 5 or 10 year warranty for a price. I have never, outside of Best Buy had to pay for a warranty. We paid for the 5 year, and we did reach out to them as I previously stated when we learned about the problems and they chose not to reply. And they did carry insurance but we confirmed they let it lapse during our project and only reinstated it when they heard from our lawyer.
Stephen seemed perplexed as to why we would not ask him to fix the problems, but these were not honest mistakes, or simple oversights, they were decisions Stephen Jackson made to financially benefit himself and put our home in jeopardy. And the decisions to cut all those corners were solely Stephen Jackson's. The subcontractor that he hired was not a friend of ours, we had never met Jairo Reyes before Stephen introduced us when he arrived to work on the porch. In fact it came as a surprise to us because Eric Johnson said they don't use subcontractors, Stephen does all the work himself. And I hate to point out the obvious hole in that claim, but.. If he was our friend, why would we have paid Colorado Deck and Patio to hire him? Why not save ourselves a ton of money and hire him directly? But Mr. Reyes did the job as he was instructed, by Stephen who was onsite just about every day and is very much "the boss," just ask him (you know the type). Mr. Reyes absolutely was not provided with the engineer's drawings or stamp. We know this because later we did become friends with him after we learned he had also been ripped-off by Colorado Deck and Patio.
I really don't want to get into the other ugly claims but I will say there is a police report that proves we never had any stolen tools at our house, and our own home security cameras prove there was never a gun pointed at anyone. In fact the officer that was involved instructed Stephen Jackson to stay away from us and our property.
As far as posting fake reviews, that may just be the pot calling the kettle black, since before this year their company had a total of about five reviews over ten years - two of which were negative. Now they get a new 5-star review somewhere on average every week. That's impressive since they also told us they only do one project at a time so they can provide attention to detail. Unfortunately for Colorado Deck & Patio all those great reviews are not quite enough to restore their previous 'decent' overall ratings. Because in the meantime there have also been new 1-star reviews. Other people have called them unprofessional, and stated that Stephen did not have a license or get permits and inspections until he was forced to. And now he apparently thinks the customer should change the negative review to a positive one. So maybe he was right about one thing in his response.. maybe a gift card is not enough to make somebody change a negative review to a perfect one. But it's still a shady practice that violates the terms of sites like this one and Angie's list. But that is the least of the shady things that Colorado Deck and Patio has done during our interactions with them.
Our porch is now complete and does look good, but that is no thanks to them either. We unfortunately can't enjoy it at this point, and that is thanks to Colorado Deck and Patio. :(