Rick's Custom Fencing & Decking - Hillsboro

We know the general manager of this company and he gave us a good price. They do a very good job. We by far have the best fence in the neighborhood. Their price was good. We would use them in the future. They are coming to do other stuff for us.

I took a photo of my back door along with drawings of what I wanted into Rick's and they were very willing to do the work exactly as I wished. Another bidder had insisted on doing more and had a much higher bid. Rick's even gave me a discount on the "small deck fee" because it was so late in the season for this type of work. Although the original installation date had to be delayed a week, due to a scheduling problem with another customer, the work was completed before bad weather set in. On instalation day, the two builders looked at my drawings and went right to work. It only took a couple of hours to finish. It's very sturdy and looks beautiful.

Great! Construction was fast, clean and of high quality. We are still waiting for dry weather for staining - however, I am confident it will go just as well!

He came out to give me an estimate. We walked around the property, he looked at it and we sat down in my dining room. He verbally told me what things were and I was writing down notes, different strategies to go about this and alternatives of materials and tiles and things like that. He told me he was going back to the office and he'd e-mailed me once. I needed the estimate in writing and he never did. I never got it in writing. It's a pretty big company and I think they do it. It wasn't a lot of money, but about $3000. While he was here he was pretty good, but he dropped the ball. His responsiveness was good initially. I would not use him in the future.

Great job! When the installers came out to do the installation, they suggested some modifications that made the screen taller and more effective. We are very pleased with the results.

On the phone & when he arrived Don seemed most interested in whether or not I was going to move forward with my project & if he would be wasting his time providing a bid. He showed up when he said he would looked over what I wanted to do, we discussed options I might have for what I was trying to accomplish & I never heard from him again. All I can figure is he decided he didn't want the work or he didn't want the competition since I told him I was getting 3 bids before I move foward. I was looking for solutions to to gate off / fence my driveway and was dissapointed that Rick's failed to respond with a bid. We had discussed that while I would be considering several bids, when I do a job I want it done right & lowest price isn't necessarily the determining factor. I wanted commercial grade chain link & multiple gates I would think would be attractive with a few $$$ to be made. Anyway the attitude of "am I wasting my time doing a bid for this customer?" & then never hearing back from Rick's Customs Fence with any follow up or bid left a bad taste in my mouth, I'll be using someone else to do my work an won't consider Rick's with additional fence work I plan to do in the future.

We had a very limited budget and called Rick's Custom Fencing to see what they could do for us. The sales person, Dave Gerber, was nice enough and seemed knowledgeable, but tended to minimize the upcharges (the cost to add iron pickets vs wood pickets, the cost of beveled edges on the fence posts vs post caps). He kept saying things like "it's just a smidge more...." or "it's just a twitch more expensive..." At one point I said "those smidges can add up" and he acknowledged that was true. Also, when he provided me the final printed copy of the order and contract, I asked him for a copy of the estimate and notes he had written up while at my house during the visit. He said he didn't keep his notes with the original estimate and was not able to provide them. The installer, Dave Harris, seemed knowledeable. After the job was complete, there was no outreach from anyone from Rick's Custom Fencing to review the work, answer our questions or get our feedback. I was concerned with several deck boards that were split where the nail was inserted. So, my husband and I drove to their store to purchase some stain and to talk about our concerns. Also, the installer (Dave Harris) had not returned our drawings or our permit. Dave Harris said that the splits in the boards happen because the boards expand due to moisture inside and the temperature outside and there isn't anything he can do. I asked for the permit paperwork and he handed to me and said nothing, but I later realized that he had not arranged for final inspection. So I had to do a lot of follow up to get that taken care of (including talking to the store manager, CT Warren). CT, who again, was friendly enough, but after hearing my complaint over the phone, I got the sense he was going through a script of "how to talk to an angry customer"). CT apologized and was able to explain what happened with the permit situation, but he never acknowledged or asked me more about my concern with the split boards. So, he really wasn't listening and, I guess and just wanted to go through his "angry customer script". Although Dave Gerber, Dave Harris and CT Warren were all nice and friendly, I just got an overall sense of condesention and aloofness and they were each somewhat dismissive when we expressed concerns. I think it must be an indication of their company culture.

Scheduling problems on their part resulted finishing the job in time for me to seal the wood last fall. Also, the crew use an air compressor which did not have a working regulator. Thus, every staple punched more than halfway through every board and they are starting to fall off. I'm going to have to nail them all to secure the fence. I would use them again, but with better scrutiny on my part. The patio cover is working well.

They were very helpful in planning the fence and gave a lot of tips in the building of it.Also were fast and on time.

The salesman Ty was very knowledgeable and professional. I had trouble contacting my neighbors (scheduling difficulties), and the salesman called me back a couple times to check in (this was not a pestering: it was a "hey, we talked and you expressed interest and our really good prices are about to expire: do you want to do this?"). Once I was committed, a couple more scheduling problems came up and I had to re-schedule the tear-down and install dates. Rick's was very accommodating and changed dates with no problems. The tear-down and install went very smoothly: the guys showed up right on time both days, and took care of everything with a professionalism that was great to see. I found I needed a couple extra boards (I had changed plans a bit from the original quote), and needed a couple extra items as well. They were very good about letting me return parts I didn't use, and getting new parts. I was impressed with the quality of work and materials, and would recommend Rick's for fencing: quality work!

Rick has good salesmen, but they don't follow through on their sales pitch. They over charged me $1000 and it took almost 3 months for me to get the money back. I would advise others to not pay the whole balance upfront.

The project went pretty well with only a couple of items that needed to be repaired. The patio cover gate had to be re-sized to match the original specifications. There was also a split in a beam that was repaired. Overall we're very happy with the outcome. Rick's fence personnel were very attentive to our concerns.

Our experience with Rick?s Custom Fencing & Decking went really well. They came out several times to give us estimates, as we kept changing the configurations of our deck. Once we demolished the deck by ourselves, we realized that we had a really nice aggregate pad underneath that we weren?t even aware of. They came out thrice in order to redraw the plans and to update their estimates. They also bought samples of different types of woods, for us to look at. We were trying to save money. So, one bid of theirs involved them doing the laying of the boards and building the deck and the other bid pertained to them just doing the framing of the deck and delivering the boards to us. We chose the latter. They were very accommodating and flexible. They even hauled away all the debris from the demolition of the older deck that we had done by ourselves. They did the work very quickly. They built the frame within two day. They even delivered the materials and cleaned everything up. Their price was average, but they did great work.

I remember them because it was not what I expected for quality work. My husband had to go back and point things out to them that they should have done. They were supposed to put posts in according to code, and a couple of them they did not until the second time. The quality was just not what we expected. I felt that it was good that they did get things fixed. The prices were in the same ball park as others. There was a manager that was over- seeing things, and some of the things should not have been done.

It went just great, like all the work they've done for me. My fence was put up in 1996 by some of my family, so posts had just started shifting or rotting, partially because I planted a garden too close to the fence (duh). These guys are always nice to deal with and they worked to accomodate my schedule. They also tried to reuse as much as they could to save me money, e.g. the boards that run along the top of the fence that get nailed to the posts. All work was done as promised, and the jobsite was left looking great. This testimonial is more about all of the work they've done for me since 1996, since they put my deck in as well. These guys are always pleasant and do good work (my deck is very large and has a lattice cover over the siderails and overhead).

Summary: Lousy customer orientation. Full story: I called Rick's based on their rating on this list and a personal recommendation by a colleague. They were responsive on the phone, answered my questions properly and showed up on time. However, while measuring my yard, I asked specific questions about how the fence was going to be installed and if they would do things a little differently. For example: I wanted them to mix the concrete (for the posts) outside and then pour it in. He told me how they have been in business for a long time and they have done it many many times before. I then asked if they put some gravel at the bottom of the hole (for the post) to easily allow ground water to move away from the post. He said that he doesnt do it. When I insisted that he do it for my fence, he said, and I quote, "well if you know how to do it better then why dont you do it yourself". That pretty much did it for me. If you say this to your customer, then I dont care how good of a job you may do or how long you have been in business...I dont want your service.

Job was very good. The estimater Ty did a great job giving me all the options and kicking around different price quotes. He was on time and prompt with his quotes and gave me a discount for the fence demo. Met with the crew in the morning to get all the gate locations figured out and walk them through the job. They did the job fast and all my gates turned out great. They left me a sorted pile of supplies with instructions for me to finnish the job. I had some boards that were way out of wack and they let me return them no problem for replacements. It was a great experiance and I would highly recomend them and do business with them again.

I went in for the estimate and Dan helped me out. We covered everything including wrapping the posts with cedar and putting caps on the posts as well. I put a deposit down a day later and within another day Dan came out to survey the site. He promised some drawing within the week and we schedule a project day in two weeks. The drawing never came, after three emails and one phone call, Dan said they threw them away and I would have to pay for them now. So we went over the design verbally (if you don't know your wood, it doesn't help). David and Justin(?) came on time to build the pergola. They were excellent. David was the one who actually designed our custom scrolls on site. They also cleaned up great. The finished product was not exactly as I expected but I still like it. The wrapped posts are not the ones Dan pointed out in the showroom. They are very coarse, enough to give you a splinter. There are splits in the wood, but they guarantee everything so we will see how that holds up later.

They did this work for us just last week, it was the first time we had used them. A man and his two sons where the ones that came out to do the work. Even though they worked in the rain, they always had smiles on their faces. They were pleasant and accommodating. They cleaned up well when they were done. We were very happy with the work they did and would recommend it to anyone. Their prices might have been a little more expensive, but it was worth it. It was the best contractor experience we've ever had.

They were a little expensive, but their quality was worth their price. They did excellent work. They were very efficient and very reliable. They came when they said they would and had the work completed in the time frame they gave. If needed, we would use them again.

They charged us less than other companies were going to. They were very efficient. They cleaned up well. They kept us informed about everything that was going on. They were pleasant to work with. I would use them again in the future and would recommend them to others.

I had really good customer relations. They sent a very knowledgeable, good crew. I was very pleased.

All in all, we are very pleased with the experience we had using Rick's to do the framing / stairs for our new deck. The crew that came out to the house was fantastic... I asked them if they could put some tar paper / moisture barrier that I had in my garage if there wasn't any when they removed siding for the ledger board, and it was no problem. Very friendly, professional & a top notch job.

At first, it seemed to go fairly smooth. We arrived home with the posts up and the fence removed. They had set one of the gates in the wrong place and were able to rectify this by saying 'sorry, I should have asked.' However, problems began when we asked for instructions on how to put together the fence we had requested they provide us materials for. They began instructing us on how to set rails horizontal between the posts; this was not the fence we had requested. We showed the builder the fence next door and he stated 'I would never build a fence like that.' He gave us an 'alternate' way to construct the fence to which we tried to build and found out that it would not work. We then spent the next two weekends with the company trying to ascertain how to construct the fence we wanted; they have been unable to instruct us and the last conversation we had with them, the builder stated to the manager "It would take two of my guys all day to build this type of fence; we would never recommend this type of fence for a novice fence builder.' Needless to say, we have been so disappointed in this project. We have consulted with another fence builder who stated to us that the posts are not even set correctly and he stated 'I hope you didn't pay for this job.' Now, Ricks is charging us over and above the price for labor (there is an extra, previously undisclosed charge for some of the posts to be set at 2 & 3 ft) and materials used to set the posts and even charging us for the minuscule amount of fencing we used to try and construct the fence per their instructions. They have charged my account for the remaining amount they decided to charge for the materials even though I have told them I am in dispute of the final charge. We have had to redesign our fence project and have had to purchase materials from another company. Even the materials they provided were not of the quality (5/8) which they stated in their invoice; many of the fence boards were less than 5/8, the rails were fir and not cedar; and some of the posts in our yard have split. The distance between every post is not uniform. Completely dissatisfied and am in process of disputing the final charge. We could go on & on about the details which include cutting the chain link instead of removing it, placing the fence 8 inches back from our property line, charges on the original invoice that were never delivered, a whole host of disasters. We are now almost a month without a fence & really unhappy. We would never recommend this company.

It was a small job and they had a small job fee. Their total was less than another company I looked to. I'm not really sure if I would hire them or not, as I did not have work done by them.