Creative Exteriors Construction

A disaster.

Contractor rescheduled three times, twice on morning of scheduled service. I cancelled request and made other arrangements.

Went very well. Chris and Joshua were very professional, showed up on time and worked steadily. Chris made suggestions for the front of the house and it came out looking great. Chris checked with us before doing any changes and gave us an estimated time and material costs. Would hire them again.

Great! Chris is a builder you can trust. Very happy with the outcome and the experience.

I called them 3 times. they never returned my call

Excellent! Chris was very knowledgeable and professional. Not only did replace the dry rotted wood around my home, but he took the extra steps to prevent further dry rot in the future. Thank you Chris for your professionalism. I will be calling you in the future.

Chris and his crew, Mike and Josh, are outstanding! Chris is very customer service oriented - he will deliver what you want, not what he wants. Chris is very creative and talented - so is my wife - they worked together wonderfully and Chris contributed a lot of good ideas about how to improve what we were asking for. They were on the job every day until the job was done. They did high quality work and were great to work with. Not only would I hire him again, I did - to replace some siding on a rental house. You may have to wait awhile to get on his schedule, but you won't go wrong by hiring him.

Chris and crew of Josh and Mike were great! The ground under our deck sloped several different ways, Chris listened to what we wanted and added some excellent ideas of his own which we are glad we did. Project turned out better than expected. Totally punctual every day until the job was done. Chris, Josh and Mike did quality work and cared about it being done right. Highly recommend them.

We are very happy with the outcome or our project. Chris did a great job of helping plan the new expanded deck. The new deck has reconfigured staircases, elevations and floor plan. It also included under deck enclosures and plumbing. Chris gently steered us away from a few "bad" ideas and gave us solutions that we love. He also recommended a finish that we would otherwise not have considered. We went with his recommendation and have no regrets. Workmanship was excellent. The crew was a pleasure to have on site. Work was done on, or very nearly on schedule (some plans changed on the fly). Job came in on budget. Very happy with the work, would hire again.

I live in very old home that is anything but square when it comes to home improvement. Hiring Chris Haggen with Creative Exteriors has been the best decision so far. Not only did he do an excellent job, he was fluid with us when I changed my mind about things. His eye for detail, attention to quality and patience with my fickle mind are outstanding. He suggesting things and was fine if I rejected them. I went with his suggestions most of the time, because they made sense and were better looking than my ideas. Soffits under the roof eaves, trim around the window and my new wider entry door, my wider back door, beauty boxes for my outside lights....all of the work made my old, run down house look very updated and modern. He generally does not do roofing, but because one of his guys, Michael, has extended experience we had him do that work as well. It looks better than I pictured it would. My dog escapes and he even helped corral her when she slipped out! His crew cleans up well, and it is clear they have an excellent work ethic as well. I feel I have not only hired a construction company worth it's weight in gold, but I have made a lifelong friend as well. I would hire him again in an instant. Even the temporary shelter he put over my front door when it was POURING rain was well built, sturdy and we are working out a plan to make a more permanent but smaller version for my front entryway. This is the second batch of work I am having him do, and already his vision surpasses mine in design. I am excited to see my fence after he is done. I have gates and a septic to work around and I know it will look awesome when he is done with this second job. All this time I have kept him busy, even with all the rain we have had. He started the second job for me before I got back from vacation and as a bonus let out my dog because I was not yet back due to road closures and my daughter could not take care of her that extra day. He went above and beyond, in my opinion, and ensured his work was done, my dog was taken care of, and stayed in contact with me while I struggled with road closures and mudslides on my way home. His phone number is a permanent addition, for my future construction needs! Very pleased!

:When I did not hear from the contractor confirming our first appointment he told me sorry but he was "sick" that day but would call me back in a few days when he felt better. Never heard from him again.

The job went well. Chris and his crew always come through on any project I throw at them. He returns phone calls and will let you know if there are other problems with the job,

Chris and his Crew did a great job building the deck, removing our old sliding door and installing a new set of French doors. Chris is always on time, on budget, and cleaned up after each day of working. We appreciate his skill and talent as a carpenter. Chris has made our home and backyard look great, and helped us ad value to our property. I highly recommend Chris, not only for his expert craftsmanship, but also for his great personality and attitude. We will post some photos after we are done painting. We will hire Chris again next year as we are planning for a Kitchen/Bath remodel and window replacement.

Chris and his crew were methodical, professional, and worked diligently on the project from beginning to end. He gave good input on options, was upfront about costs, communicated regularly, and was great to work with. I wanted project to be done once and done right and Chris really came through. Well worth the investment.

Chris Haggin was a pleasure to work from the beginning of my project.  He is extremely professional and responded to my request through Angie's List immediately to schedule our initial visit.
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.

Chris and his crew were great.  In spite of this being a small job, I felt that it was a priority for Chris and his team.  They arrived on time and kept me updated about issues along the way.  The end product is gorgeous.  Chris came by my house after his crew had finished and made sure they'd done a meticulous job.  He asked me for feedback and clearly wanted me to be happy with the end product, which I am.

Working with Chris and Larry was very enjoyable without all the typical headaches of having contractor work done.  I had a general idea of what I wanted but a lot of the details were still undeveloped.  Not only do Chris and Larry do excellent work, they are very pleasant to be around.  Together, Chris and Larry helped me make decisions by offering ideas, giving advice and helping me visualize the final product.  Chris is a great communicator and wanted everything to be exactly as I wanted.  We modified as we went along and he was always positive when I was unsure.  Chris is creative and takes a lot of pride in his work so he wants it to be perfect.  Once the pergola was complete, we realized that I needed a buffet table to go in the area.  We designed it, decided on a price and Chris built it and delivered it within two days. Also, I had to leave my dogs in the yard while the work was being completed; Chris and Larry were very sweet with them and I trusted them.  I couldn't be happier with the completed job.  I don't know how Chris' rates compare with others because I had seen his work and wanted him to do the job, but I can say that the likelihood that you will be happy with Chris and Larry's work is very high.

Chris and Mike (Chris' main man) were punctual, friendly and easy to work with.  Chris was very responsive to texts and phone calls on timing and material changes.  We have no hesitation about recommending Chris and will very likely to use him on an even more expensive deck repair in a few months.

Chris was wonderful!  He started our job when he said he would and worked very hard until everything was finished.  He was very accommodating when we kept adding on additional things that were not in our original estimate.  Chris was very creative in suggesting that we add benches and he came up with a good plan for putting up the lattice on our fence.  I would hire Chris again in a heartbeat!

The entire experience with Chris went great. He is very personable, professional, pleasant to deal with in every way. He worked with us to get this job done to complete satisfaction, did excellent work, arrived promptly and made great suggestions for how to create the best possible design for the deck. We would definitely use him again and refer him to all of our friends and neighbors. It was a pleasure working with him!

Outstanding, creative, reliable, punctual, and co-operative are just some of the adjectives we would use to describe Chris. He is also a great listener and has a sense of humor. HIs crew, Jared and Mike,  were also amazing guys who were polite and always worked extremely hard during the construction. Jared also did a fabulous job with creating a design in the boards to make it look unique. 
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. 

Chris exceeded our hopes and expectations with his creativity in design and  his pride in providing quality craftsmanship. He did this  at an affordable price for us, understanding the limits of our budget. He's an honest, hardworking contractor and we highly recommend him.

Our 2000 sq. ft. deck was a big reason we bought this house. We loved spending time on our deck. She gave us years of relaxation, great parties, morning and evening meals under the great oaks that the deck surrounded. She didn't complain until old age started getting the best of her. A creak here, a board there that would sag down when stepped upon, and brown stain that needed renewing. We hoped we could replace the beams and joists that had seen better days and re-use the railings and portions of the deck that were OK. We have pride in our home and we wanted our restored deck to show that. We wanted quality work. We did not want her new "make-up" to arrive before she did.
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.

I called Chris right after I saw the Angie's list posting.  He came out that day, looked at our space and e-mailed me an estimate that evening.  He was just finishing up a large job, and had another one starting in about a week, but told us that our deck wouldn't take that long and he would let me know as soon as he could start.  He called back within a week and said he could start the next day.  He was here first thing in the morning and worked all day digging the holes and setting the cement posts into the ground.  My husband said that if there was ever an earthquake, that deck would be the safest place to go....it wasn't moving anywhere.  The deck was completed in 4 days and it's absolutely beautiful.  The step looks like it's floating on our cement deck, all the sides are enclosed and we are so pleased with his work, his work ethic, and his creative ideas.  He even moved our swing and table and chairs up onto the deck when he was done.  ALL of the scraps, wood, etc., was removed from the job site, and it's as clean as we could ever ask for.  We not only would hire him again, but we WILL hire him again to fix another porch that comes off our family room.  His work is beautiful and professional and I would absolutely recommend using Chris to anyone who asks me.