
Creative Exteriors Construction
About us
Been in business since 2009. Serving the Bay Area, Sacramento and Foothills of Northern California.
Business highlights
Services we offer
& dry rot repair., Siding, decks, patio covers, pergolas, sun rooms
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
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96% | ||
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4% |
We are so pleased with the work of Chris Haggin (Creative Exteriors) and his team. He replaced our old redwood deck with a beautiful new redwood deck which he fitted around a new spa that we added. We couldn’t be happier with the level of craftsmanship he applied to every detail of the job. This included many additional details he suggested and included without charge. In fact, he was more demanding than me in making sure that everything was done in the best way possible. Chris is a great person to work with…always in a good mood and positive. He definitely puts the customer first: receptive to requests and requirements, willing to consider your ideas or changes, and keeping you informed and never out of the loop throughout the project. His primary objective is to produce a result which satisfies his customer’s requirements and makes them, in his own words, “a customer for life.”
My job started with a front porch remodel and because of the quality of work I saw in the initial stage, I quickly decided that I had a very good contractor here and expanded the scope of work to some much needed deck, staircase and siding replacement.
Chris and team demolished my old porch and overhand and broke down a large concrete planter and revealed the original porch stoop for my house that was built in 1918. This took me in a different design direction and I was able to "refresh" the concrete surfaces of the original steps and add Tuscan columns to make this period stoop usable and beautiful again.
My house has vinyl siding on the outside and after we removed the vinyl for the porch, I did not have the heart to replace it and decided to install Hardie Plank cement siding instead. Combined with new stoop and colums, the porch looks like it belongs with the original 1918 Federal style design.
The best thing about my experience is that with Chris and team, I felt like I had a design partner as well as a contractor throughout the remodeling and renovation project. Chris learned my design sensibilities and aesthetic quickly and I was able to rely on his carefully considered decisions throughout the project and was committed to a high quality job.
Chris also put together a great team of high quality workers who were reliable and could execute quickly with a very high level of quality. When discussing the front staircase, Chris brought in his best concrete contractor who worked his magic to create a beautiful curving staircase for my entry. Each phase of the project, Chris was able to bring in other professionals that knew how to execute high quality work in their respective fields of expertise.
I would highly recommend Creative Exteriors to anyone who is considering deck, front porch or siding work here on Angie's List. I am a thoroughly satisfied customer and will definitely call Chris for any future work on my home.
Our initial meeting with Chris was 2 hours long because he took the time to hear what we wanted and then offered suggestions and new ideas. Once he and the crew began demolition, it was done as quickly as possible and the new construction started immediately. He always had the materials and tools ready for the next stage and made sure we were aware of what was coming up in the phase, so that we could pick stain products ahead of time to prep the wood.
He was always there, working side by side with the crew, and there were never any delays.
As we got closer to the end of the project, we were thrilled with the results but very sad to see them go because they had become friends.
We would highly recommend Creative Exteriors to anyone because Chris is an honest, hard~working man who wants to build a high~quality project that both you and he can be proud of. We are planning more projects in our hillside backyard for Chris to help us with in the future.
We asked a contractor or two to take a look and give us an idea what needed to be done and how much it might cost. They poked around, looked at her underside with a flashlight, and gave us vague descriptions of what they thought she might need. They told us they could not provide a detailed description of what was needed until they pulled up some deck boards and got into our deck's innards. They said "at least" when numbers passed their lips. The numbers were not terribly large for the size of the deck.
I found Chris Haggin here on Angie's list. I liked his reviews. One described a deck rebuild similar to what we wanted to do. Out with the too old and re-use the not-too-old parts. I gave Mr. Haggin a call. He came over and checked things out like the other contractors had done. Then he did something none of the others had done. He chose a deck board that unquestionable needed replacement and pulled it up. He exposed the rotting joists and beams in their dark hiding places. The dry rot was everywhere. He showed us why trying to save a portion of the deck here and replace boards and beams there could end up being more expensive than replacing the entire deck. The labor to do this would be enormous and we would be using old, worn, nail-hole filled boards co-mingled with new lumber. It would be a face lift; OK if you don't look too closely and good for a year or two but it would not reflect the quality we wanted nor the pride we wanted to feel when we had friends over to share a summer evening. A mix and match solution would be a fool's errand.
We agreed about 1500 sq. ft. had to go to the deck graveyard. Mr. Haggin gave us a firm figure to do this and rebuild with the understanding more surprises could be discovered under the remaining 500 sq. ft. He understood the build quality we wanted and he assured us he would provide that quality. We did not want just "standard" construction. We wanted angles to be precise. We wanted all surfaces where a hand might touch to be sanded smooth for the painter. We wanted the rows of screw nail heads on the deck to run in perfectly straight lines. We wanted changes from the old deck since we would be starting anew, but we were not sure what some of those changes should be. This is why I did not fill in a dollar amount in this review. We were not looking for a low price. We wanted a fair price for what we wanted done. Mr Haggin and his band of craftsmen provided us with everything we wanted, and more, for a fair price. The "more" he provided was ideas. A new design for the railings. Built in benches which we had not thought of. When we found a design for benches on the web we liked and showed it to Mr.Haggin. he improved it. He eliminated the engineered look and replaced it with a clean look, almost a Bauhaus look. He changed the design of the bench face to make it artful and more pleasing to the eye and he tied the whole thing in visually with the railing.
His craftsmen began work the first thing on Monday and went to work with their saws-alls. It was sad to see the old lady go but I knew she would like how she was about to evolve. After that first week it was time to build.
Mike was usually the first on on site in the morning. I knew he enjoyed his work because for the first hour of the morning he whistled and sang as he went about his business. Buddy knew everyone in the Sonoma Valley and they all knew him. Jarred was Mr. Haggin's master carpenter and job boss when Mr. Haggin was off-site. The entire four man crew was a band of clean-cut. skilled, professional craftsmen. Whereas I wanted to have pride in my new deck, they had pride in every measurement, every mitered angle, every nail driven. The finished deck shows this. It is perfectly level in its entire expanse. Every cut angle meets its board-mate perfectly. There are no disappointments.
Mr. Haggin had good ideas and I accepted them. I had changes I wanted done and Mr. Haggin's crew built them. In the end the new deck costs several thousands of dollars more than I had thought it would in the beginning. And what my wife and I ended up with is much more than we imagined it would be in the beginning also. Truly skilled craftspeople like these expect to earn a fair wage for their labor, as they should. Did we get fair value for our dollar? You bet.
Mr. Haggin has my permission to refer potential clients to me to see the Higgins crew’s work first hand. I’d be proud to show you around.
Licensing
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