Stanley Design Systems

Company was phenomenal. Great prices and great attitudes.

They were efficient and was good communicating at the time.

The work has been wonderful so far, the best work I have ever seen, very professional, very respectful, neat and clean. They are very trustworthy. The quality of the work is very high, they are not done yet, but they are doing a great job so far.

They did a great job Very flexible and accomodating. Competitive.Help us choose the best for our kitchen remodeling Highly recommended

It was excellent. I was very impressed with the whole process. They were very fast and professional with the installation. They also have a very good product. They gave me good advice about what windows and doors to pick.

I hired Stanley Construction to install retaining walls on three sides of my property, drainage, and a new driveway and walkways at the home I have lived in and maintained for over 32 years. There were some red flags at the onset:

1) Stanton Stanley, the contractor and owner of Stanley Construction, worked from a proposal and never wrote up a contract; therefore, I insisted on him being very detailed in his proposal

2) He wanted 90% of the money to be dispersed by the halfway point in the project, which I refused to do. I did agree to pay a down payment and three installments: the first payment after the first day of work because he said he needed to purchase supplies; the second payment at the halfway point, which we agreed would be when everything was completed except the driveway and walkways; and the last payment when the walkways and driveway were completed.

3) He wanted to be paid in cash because ?the paperwork for checks and credit is a hassle;? however, I made it clear that I did not pay for services in cash, especially when it amounts to thousands of dollars.

He also misrepresented himself by:

1) stating that he had a crew that worked for him made up of family members and people from his church. I discovered later that the workers were not family, did not go to church together or with him, and for the most part did not even know each other. They were people that he called on to do various parts of the job and day laborers. I didn?t like the way they were treated, like having to drive a mile to the donut shop to use the restroom because no porta potty was provided for them.

2) stating that he worked alongside his crew, supervising all aspects of the project, when in fact he was only on site if I called him, he did not supervise, and he didn?t do any of the work.

One man, with the help of his son and two other men who would come periodically, worked for a week from early morning to early evening pouring the footings, placing the rebar and setting the cement blocks. They were good, polite, hardworking people. However, after the wall was finished, the work stopped. Stuff that I paid for, like a drainage system, hauling away of all the dirt and debris, and cleanup were left undone. Chunks of cement from front to back were left on my neighbor?s property and debris was thrown over the back wall onto another neighbor?s property.

In addition, the damages to the property were unbelievable:

1) A Bobcat had trampled my jasmine garden, pulled up all of the sprinkler systems (pipes and heads) in the backyard, and broke just about everything in sight. The beautiful apple ground cover growing right in front of my doorway was piled so high with rocks and dirt until the garden was no longer visible.

2) tons of concrete blocks were set on my gardens and front lawn, breaking sprinklers and killing the grass and plants.

3) There were holes and breaks in the sprinkler pipes in the front and back yards

4) Cement was splattered all over the back of my recently erected Tuff Shed.

Whenever I contacted Stanton about completion of the first half of the work and about repairing the damages, he would say ?this is very normal,? or ?everything you?ve mentioned is within project tolerances,? or ?It should have been clear to you what your property would look like during construction,? etc.

To make matters worse, he began demanding the second payment. Although we agreed the second payment would be made after everything was completed except the drive and walkways, Stanton insisted that the payment should have been made after the concrete footing were poured and was, therefore, ?past due.? When I reminded him of our agreement, he said that he had revised it and it was reflected on the last receipt he had issued to me. He began texting, emailing and calling me while I was at work. I figured he was short on money to complete the job, so I paid him only ½ of the second payment and clearly stated that the other half would only be paid when all work, including clean up was completed, all damages repaired, all plants and broken items replaced. I could not get him to commit to a finish date for the job, so I gave him a finish date, stating that if it weren?t finished by then, I would hire a ?clean up? crew and deduct it from his final check. He sent one young man out to work for three days on the clean up.

At that same time I informed Stanton that I would be getting another contractor to do the drive and walkways. First, because he refused to get Dig Alert or Underground Service Alert to come out and mark the gas lines before digging, stating, ?we won?t be digging that deep." But most importantly, I would no longer tolerate his unprofessional attitude, behavior and business practices. Stanton issued another invoice, which added additional $1000+ dollars to my balance. At first he said this was the ?discount? he had offered me for my business, which he was now taking back; but his last communique refers to this as a "fee."

Stanton began harassing me via profanity-laced emails and text messages, threatening that if I didn?t pay him all of the extra money he would place a ?mechanics lien? against my property and take me to court. He also threatened that if I wrote any negative reviews or reported him to the BBB, he would sue me for damages. In an effort to intimidate me, he sent me the name and address of his attorney, stating that the attorney was "readily available" to him and that it would "be much cheaper for me to pay the new balance than to fight him," that I should "make it effortless on both our parts" by sending him the extra money, and that he has "done this before." I ended up blocking his emails and refusing to open his text messages.

When the work was finally completed after four weeks, I sent final payment?exactly what I owed him according to his ?Proposal/Contract?-- via certified mail. I  plan to contact the BBB and Contractor?s State Licensing Board. I?ve learned a lot from this experience and advise that no one use this contractor.  I am very happy with my new contractors.

He is a perfectionist and will come when he says he will come. He is reasonable with his prices. He does an excellent job.