Chesapeake Home Remodeling and Design

My fiance and I used Chesapeake Home Remodeling and it has been and absolute nightmare. We were recently first time home buyers and were "young and dumb" and got taken completely by a dishonest, sub-par company. We began by responding to a flyer handed out in our new community for patios and fences (which we were in the market for). The day we called a sales representative was sent by the company to our home. He came in the evening and stayed until past 10pm (we actually fed him).He, of course, said their product was vastly superior then others as a super high quality product with their work and materials. He then asked if we would be interested in being used in their demo program. We were supposed to have received a better deal but would allow others in the area to come look at the work at our house for a year. After the project was complete, we never heard from the salesman or the company about the program again. I would not want to show off that work either. There was even a "demo program" contract signed. We finally agreed after some salesman sweet talking and feeling comfortable because they were allegedly completely insured, and a Better Business Bureau company (remember this later on). We signed the contract for a fence and stamped concrete patio and sidewalk. We were given a vague start date and the workers showed up during the day while we were at work with no prior notice and began work, patio first. The second day, the concrete truck came to pour the patio and sidewalk. Without permission from myself or my neighbor, the truck was directed through my neighbors driveway and yard to mine. I watched the truck drive over the front concrete step of my new, just moved in, never met neighbor and break it in half. After asking the foreman what he planned to do with the broken step he informed me that he would just cut the rest of the broken half step off and that it would be "better than before". I had to make him understand, with some difficulty, that it would NOT be better and that it needed to look exactly as it did before they destroyed it. He then broke up they step and made a new step. I later found the broken up concrete from the step in a drainage ditch in my development. After completing the patio, the fence crew came, again, with no notification and installed the fence. After completing and reviewing the project we noticed some very glaring issues. We politely and professionally made light on these issues and asked the owner to look for himself. He ignored us. The major Issue: - discolored and off consistency of concrete near wall - misshaped step - poor stamp quality around deck support - drainage pipe placed causing standing water (we were not consulted before the placing of the two drain pipes under the concrete. coming out the side is clearly the wrong choice) - crooked fence and gate placement - after destroying our neighbors patio step, breaking the broken step up, and remaking it, the worker disposed of the replaced concrete in the new construction area of our neighborhood (again, no consultation or without receiving permission) - hand print of coloring on deck support (does not come off with scrubbing and there is at least one other on the house) This is when the real nightmare began. The company would not respond to our emails or calls about the issues for months. Finally we resorted to using the Better Business Bureau to try to resolve the issue. We made a complaint (by this time, without our complaint we noticed a drastic drop in their BBB rating). We were met with a response that stated that we had "hit our fence with a riding mower" (we have a very small townhouse yard that is completely fenced in in the back and a riding mower does not fit through the gate that they put in). It was a complete lie out of no - where. After we responded to this via BBB and it was obvious that they were in the wrong they SHUT THEIR BBB ACCOUNT DOWN. We then had almost no luck in contacting them at all, emailing and calling numerous times. Finally, they sent out the original concrete worker to "fix" the concrete problems. Even to my untrained eye, it was obvious that it was beyond fixing and would have to be replaced. It was horrible workmanship. The workman still tried to make it better with a grinding stone (did absolutely nothing except make it worse).The fence was allegedly fixed, again, we were not there. When we inspected the leaning gate post, we noticed that it was not "dug up up and the post re-set in concrete" as we were told it would be, but the vinyl panel next to it, taken off its brackets so that it appeared to sit straight, just loosening the panel to float. The owner finally came with a project forum to look at the project. The project foreman agreed that it was a very sub-par job, and after consulting with the owner of the company, he didn't say a word to us beyond initial greetings, the owner agreed tothat he would repour concrete on the back patio and re-stamp it.The concrete was repoured and looks 100% better. To this date the fence has not been fixed and we cannot get a hold of the company to complete their project. It was a mistake to use the company, they still have not completed their project. They lied about the demo program, and are not what they say they are. They solidified their dishonesty by removing themselves from the BBB while in a negotiation that they were clearly in the wrong. DO NOT USE THEM. I will gladly show you what they are and the work that they do. If you have any questions, please contact me at [email protected] and I will send you pictures, copies of our BBB dispute and emails back and forth. Thank you

Jaron Rice did not respond to voice messages and took days to respond to emails. When I tried to get someone in the chain of command no one would call me back. In fact I left over 5 messages for the owner but he would not return my calls.

Justin was my salesperson and I had no problems with him. He had a pretty strong sales pitch but that was okay with me I just wanted to get the work done and did not want to mess around with multiple quotes since I was tackling numerous projects all at once with a new home. When I signed a contract with Chesapeake last year I had to wait for HOA approval prior to the job starting. Since I did not get this until the winter holidays I asked to hold off on the job until the new year which they pleasantly agreed to. Chesapeake did all of the work to get the necessary town approvals for me as part of the quote. In March I called to get the job started and they were very responsive in giving me a date to begin working on the deck. At this point everything was running pretty smoothly. I was away when the deck was installed when I returned home the builder was anxious to get paid for the deck portion of the project. Like an idiot I did not read the contract which stated I only owed them payment upon completion of the job which would include the pavers and I paid him. When we did the final inspection of the deck I asked him why he did not put down the white stones underneath the deck. He replied that was the landscapper/paving guys responsibility and that he would be at my site on Monday to finish the job. Also, at this time there were two small bushes under the deck and he stated these two would be replanted anywhere I wanted once the landscappers came. Well Monday came and went as did the next two weeks so I called to see what was happening. At this point my salesman did not call me back and I figured he might be out of town so I contact the company via fax. They responded right away after my fax and agreed to finish the job the following week weather permitting. They came out and placed the stones under the deck which you really had to squat down uncomfortably to do because it was a fairly large deck 14x20 only 3' off of the ground. I took it upon myself to move the bushes because they were already half dead. Again I was away when the pavers were laid but my house sitter told me the Chesapeake team finished the job in a few hours while she was away. At this point I thought everything was okay until I returned home late one evening. I did not even have to get out of the limo to realize that all of my sod was completely destroyed. I was furious. It looked to me that they used heavy machinery to move top soil as quickly as possible to put in the path. To finish the job they seeded and threw bales of hay all over my yard. So what I had was a nice 2' path and 10+ feet of torn up sod from the front to the back of my property line. I immediately called the company to complain. The paving guy told me as part of the sales pitch I should have been told that they were going to need to uproot the sod. I said this never happened. I really did not give the Chesapeake guy much of a chance to talk because I was so angry but I did let him know that they could keep the $10K plus I already paid but if they wanted the rest of what I owed them $5K + my yard was to be resodded. Late the following day he called me back to let me know that the owners decided to resod my yard within the contract price. They did do this but they were short a few pieces which I made up myself. Also, when they came to do the sod they were supposed to have brought two new bushes-azaleas to repace the ones that had practically died being under the deck so long. At this point they wanted final payment and they wanted me to sign a contract stating the job was completed to my satisfaction. Well they forgot the bushes so I agreed to pay the balance less $100 until the bushes were replaced, I also did not sign off on the completion of the job. My check was cashed and that was the last I have heard from them and this was over 3 weeks ago. At this point I don't expect to hear from them again and I really do not care since the job is 99% complete. I have to credit this company with excellent workmanship and for using quality materials. The job looks great. It is the lack of coordination within this company that is so frustrating to the customer (me and I'm sure others). It would take so little effort on their part to GC and coordinate jobs that involved more than one group within the company so things would run smoothly they just don't appear to care since I was told over and over this is the way they do things (putting stones under decks after construction). Overall, I should have shopped around. I believe had I done my homework I would have found quality workers at a better price with less aggravation. Remember the golden rule which I failed to follow. Pay in increments. I truely believe had I followed the contract and had not paid them for the deck in advance this job would have been completed much quicker with less aggravation. .

I received a marketing call offering deck and patio installation. The marketing person arrived on time and provided me a lot of information and a strong sales pitch, quite a bit too strong. By the time the presentation was done, the price was not discounted as much as indicated during the presentation. He forgot to add the stairs in the quote, which I spotted and he corrected. The salesman said he was not concerned about making money off of me; he would make it off the referrals. While I am sure this is true of salespeople, I was shocked he would be so blunt. I don?t want my friends complaining they paid too much for a contractor I recommended. After considering the issues at the time of estimate, I decided to cancel the contract, and do the work later in the year. That is when the real trouble started. I faxed and mailed a cancelation letter. The salesperson called, was rude and wanted to come back to my home. There were several times he told me I had wasted his time, among other comments, in an attempt to pressure me into completing the purchase. I called the main office to express my concern about their salesman. I reached Tim, who said he was the owner. He was as rude as the salesperson, perhaps even more so. He insisted the cancelation had to be on their letterhead. The contract in my hand, does not say that. He said I should have received a cancelation letter the day I signed the contract. I had not. A few minutes into the conversation he began to say things like ?I don?t care? and ?I shouldn?t even be talking to you.? I agree with Tim on this point. I doubt a customer ever wants to hear a business person speak to them that way. They may do terrific patio work, I don?t know. And considering the way the salesperson and office staff treated me, I never will.