This was one of the most awful, traumatic experiences working with any contractor I've ever had. Patrick was extremely difficult to work with and a terrible communicator. He hardly answered emails or when he would, he'd ignoring the content. When communicating verbally, it was in one ear and out the other.
It took me a year and a half to get the gate installed. From April 2019 to May 22, 2020, I just had the gate posts there in my driveway, and no gate. When they finally brought over the gate and installed it, it was not made according to the agreed-upon specs, so they carted it off and re-did it. Even in the 2nd install, while now the gate is made according to the specs, there are still unresolved issues that I don't even want to bother with fixing any more
In April 2019, after Patrick knew which of his gate styles I wanted, he came with his guys to install the posts in the cement. I needed the gate to open outwards but he said that wasn't possible. A friend of mine said it would be, and made designs, which I both emailed him and hand-delivered in Nov 2019 when I went to his workshop. I brought my friend to discuss it in person before they even started building the gate.
The gate design I had wanted was based on a photo of a gate in his studio and one installed in Pasadena. I insisted on including a design of the gate with the contract. He provided me an incorrect design, which was missing the central thick post, which is one of the main features I liked about the actual gate- that it looked like two doors. Instead, his design was one panel.
I asked him to re-design it with the measurements but based on the photo of a gate he had done but he refused, saying he had to pay someone $100 to make the first drawing. So I did it myself using this photo he sent me as the basis, and I gave that to him with specs written on it.
Also, because Patrick complained that there weren't specifics on the functionality, I gave him those specs, too. In my Nov. 11, 2019 email to him, I tried to make it crystal clear:
"Hi Patrick Ready to move forward again on the gate. Todd even made a 2-D model to make sure that my car will fit though and i'd have about 10" on each side of my sideview mirrors. I'm attaching his diagrams and measurements here in the PDF and I asked him to write down in text form what he wants to say about the 3rd page. 1. Weld a second 4" by 4" steel post to the existing one so that the gate can swing open to the backyard with its hinge pin centers located 5" away from the house's wall (requires custom block or bracket to weld hinge pin bodies to post).
2. Weld the hinge pin bodies to the BACKSIDE of the gate on 1/4" steel reinforcement plates which are welded onto the gate's 1.5" by 1.5" vertical posts.
3. Mount the Liftmaster LA400 on a custom-made bracket so it's pivot center is 2" left and 8" back from the hinge pin center axis (left means towards the house wall and back means towards the backyard). The Liftmaster LA400 should be installed low and out of view behind the bottom panels on the gate.
4. Attach the actuator arm of the Liftmaster LA400 to the BACKSIDE of the gate 45" away from the gate's hinge pin center axis (will require a 1/4" steel reinforcement plate welded across the gate's 1" by 1.5" horizontal members at the attachment point)."
On Nov. 12, he wrote back: "We can not work with this. It has no guidance at all . Plus I think we can do it without the second post. So I think we need to meet again. We have an other option for the gate which would allow us not to use the second post"
It then took 9 more emails to figure out from him WHEN would be good to meet.
Dec. 5 , 2019 after 2 days of unanswered emails, I called. I thought he needed to come back on site to go over the design but he refused to come back because he claimed I made him stand in the sun for two hours and because of his illness it's not good for him, to which I said I was not familiar with that illness or its dangers, to which he said "you're a teacher, you should look it up."
I wanted everything to be in writing as a record. We met again on Dec. 6 at his workshop. I handed him hard copies of the designs and dimensions of the gate bc. he lost the specs. Long story shot, in May 2020 they installed the gate, but it wasn't to specs at all. They took it back, fixed it, and when the re-installed it, the computer panel wouldn't work and I had to wait another 3+ weeks. Now it works, but there are still issues with it, like when they touched up the black paint on the gate, they also sprayed my house in several places; they added a ball cap instead of the flat cap on a post that we had discussed, etc.
Avoid the drama and choose another contractor. read more