Weston Homes & Development LLC

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Contractor was fine.  City of Scottsdale not so much

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Great job and was done quickly.

They are the only fencing home improvement company that responded, after having called four others that didn't have the courtesy to return calls.
Weston is outstanding!

Three neighbors solicited bids for their backyard walls, two of which were shared walls.  My nearest neighbor contacted Weston and left a message that we wanted to proceed.  There was a call back within a few hours, but my neighbor was not home.  He called back and left a message.  He reported that he did not receive another call for three days.  The third neighbor dealt with Weston separately and reported to us that Robert never returned his call.  Throughout the process, we rarely were able to contact Robert directly.  Sometimes calls were returned promptly, sometimes not at all.  It was this inconsistent quality of communication and the construction process in general that led to considerable dissatisfaction for my neighbor and myself.
There are a number of things I liked about Weston's performance.  They showed up on time and completed the wall construction on time.  The wall looks nice - the seams are even and well pointed and is level in all places except my neighbors seven-foot front section that appears slightly convex on top.   The columns were completely filled with mortar.  I am well pleased with the appearance and the quality of the gates.  Robert kept his word,  and if there was something we didn't like or was not according to our agreement, he fixed it when we pointed it out to him. On the whole, we may have gotten a good wall and gates at a good. price.  Robert told us not worry, that there was a 10 year guarantee on the wall.  Based on his behavior during construction, I would bet that he would honor this guarantee.
There are number of things that I did not like about Weston's performance and my neighbor expressed to me a number of similar things he didn't like.  Perhaps we are excessively picky.  I will detail the things I didn't like and the reader can decide. Weston uses slumped steps instead of square steps in their foundation, a practice that I am told is standard for this type of construction. Nevertheless, I don't like the practice - too much mortar in an excessively long slump, or where the triangular piece is not well cut can result in the wall slumping - this happened to my neighbor, and the wall was redone after a call to Robert (the foreman said it was fine the way it was).  We agreed to double rebar in the gate columns.  This was apparently news to the foreman, and it was only after a call to Robert that the foreman ageed.  Nevertheless, when rebar was put in the gate columns, only one piece was placed.  In the meantime, the cement was setting up.  I asked the foreman about it.  Eventually, another piece was set in all but the gate column up front.  By this time I thought the cement may have set up too much to properly adhere to the rebar - it was like poking a hole in the cement, and I asked the foreman about the front gate columns.  He did not seem pleased with me.  When they set the first course of the columns, I noticed that there were 2 inch holes at the bottom of the two blocks in the gate columns in back.  I asked the foreman about this.  He said it was necessary for the rebar to fit in the column.  He had apparently misset the rebar.  No one made a move to level off the mortar that came slumping through the holes with the block when they filled the columns, so I did it.  The rebar did not extend into the top course of the columns in some cases, and where it did, it was only an inch or so - I don't know if this compromises the stability of the top course or is standard practice, but I do note in diagrams of recommended practices, they show another piece of rebar set well down into the column in order to extend well into the top course.  Weston agreed to spread the dirt from the foundation in the alley.  This was hit and miss, and in some places it had just been spread in place, leaving 3 -4 inches of loose dirt and construction materials.  On the side of the house, I found garbage from food containers and pop cans.
Weston agreed to build a wall that was at least 72 inches above ground.  The wall at my front gate is about 67 inches.  This is because they matched it to the common wall on that side.  I was not asked whether I wanted to keep the wall height the same as the back or match to the front.  To his credit, Robert offered to put on another course when I called him, but I decided to leave it alone.  The smaller gate that was delivered to accommodate the smaller wall, was another matter.  In fact the whole gate installation process was a nightmare.  I refused to allow the vendor to install the smaller gate.  The gate installer lost one set of keys and when I asked them to take my keys and make new set, they took the keys but did not return - I was left unable to get out my back gate to empty the garbage.  When I called Robert to complain about the wall height and the gate size, he agreed to redo the gate and to get the keys from the vendor.  We left on a trip for seven days.  When we came back, the new gate was installed, but there were no keys.  I called Robert.  More than 24 hours passed and I hadn't heard from Robert.  I called the office instead of Robert's cell phone.  The individual said he would handle it immediately.  An hour or so later, he called me and informed me that the keys would be in my mailbox within a day or so.  They were.  However, when I went to open the back gate, the key wouldn't turn.  I finally forced it and it turned.  I noticed that the installers had not properly set the gate adjustments to cause the lock to hit the center of the hole.  It took about 2 minutes for me to make this adjustment - why couldn't they take two minutes to make it right the first time?
Was it worth all this hassle just for the lower price? 

I called Mike and he set up to come give me an estimate. He did so within 2 days. Then he followed up to make sure I received it and schedule the day to install. They came on time and installed in 1 day. They cleaned up everything. They came 5 days later to install the gate after the pillars set. Mike called after to ensure that I was happy with everything.