Deckmasters Technologies - Pittsburgh Northwest

Mike Davin and his team were top notch. From the quote process through project completion, Mike clearly communicated schedule and made all commits. His team was extremely neat and cleaned up each day upon completion (3 day job). Materials used are fantastic and pricing excellent (we had 3 different contractors quote). I highly recommend!

unknown

I want to start with this--I emailed this review to Deckmaster Technologies for them to review before I submitted anything online.  I wanted to be fair and if there is anything they found inaccurate I would be glad to discuss and or change if needed.  No reply was ever received.  One can ask this question--If they value their business and reputation so little  what can one expect from the level of craftsmanship?
Horrible, horrible, horrible.  This is all objective information--there will be no denying the  unprofessional practices this company employs.  Simply stated---Mike Davin, and by affiliation Deckmasters Technologies incorporated, is/are a liar, was a liar and in my best judgement will be a liar.
 I signed a contract in August 2014 to have a roof with a screened in Porch constructed over my existing deck.  The first problem was that they require 80% down payment before any work is started.  That is ridiculous but I mistakenly put faith in Deckmasters and paid the amount...no questions asked.  All truly reputable contractors either ask for a nominal amount or nothing.  Also, before the ink dried on the check it was deposited--A bad sign.
 
Initially,  they were supposed to start in Sept. but didn't until Oct....fine by me--no complaints.  Started the construction in Oct and at that time I figured  I would replace our entire deck as well.  They worked for around a week or so before I inquired about a building permit which in the contract  clearly stated they will procure all needed permits.  I figured if we were spending over 20K a permit would probably be a good thing.  I was lied to over and over and over again as to the permit--Mike Davin, aka Deckmasters, kept stating all the paperwork was in and  they were just waiting for the land survey--gave him our survey--still no permit.  Unfortunately, no paperwork was ever submitted...how do I know...the building inspector form Marshall Township found out they were working without a permit and put up a big red stop work order.   Furthermore, the building inspector stated this is not the first time these guys have done this and there was no way he would be able to sign off on the current construction methods.  About a week later, still no work being done, the building inspector met with me and stated there would be no way he could approve the plans Mike Davin, aka Deckmasters, submitted as they were very poorly done.  Actually, people in the office were laughing and asking me if I found this contractor in a cracker jack box....16K into the project I was not very amused.
Finally, the plans were approved, about two weeks later, and work resumed which included redoing the support posts for the roof ( I had to call Deckmasters and let them know the permit was approved and ready).  They worked for around a week more replacing and fixing the items that were not up to code--unfortunately, in that process they scratched the new composite deck all up.  November came round and bad weather came in.  They disappeared  without a trace.  After a few weeks went by I called Deckmasters and was told they were waiting for the screen windows to come in and will be back as soon as they are...another lie as they were never ordered.   No big deal...Up until this point I never complained and felt there is no use complaining now as I would rather not have them outside in the middle of Winter.
March came around and unfortunately still no sign of them.  Finally, I called in the middle of March to check the status.  I was told if I could wait a couple of weeks they would return/ finish and that the windows were ordered.  Well, after checking again on the windows and finding out they were not ordered I had enough. At that time, I asked for my money back as I could no longer deal with liars.   Also worth noting the roof leaks and the level of craftsmanship would be as you would expect from people who don't care.
Deckmasters was willing to give me back a portion of what I was asking for but not the complete amount.  They left me with a complete disaster..trash sitting out all winter, cigarette butts everywhere, a leaking roof, a scratched up deck with random board not screwed in and not to mention no reputable company wants to finish work someone else started.  I figured as this was all objective information they would make it right and refund me the money I asked for which would still leave them with more than enough to cover their expenses.  I was wrong.  He wrote me two checks, one of which was post dated and when I went to cash it I was unable...He did bring a correct dated check a few days later.  At this point I am still owed money.
Now, one my ask why I chose Deckmasters.  It wasn't the price as they were not the least expensive estimate. They were chosen as I thought there was some sort of headquarters who employees and franchisees answer too.  From my experience this is not the case at all.  I called the main number mx. times and never received any return call.  Finally, I got a hold of the scheduler/secretary and she informed me that each franchise is independent and there was nothing anyone could do...she did say she would contact this Deckmasters franchise and get back to me....never happened which I am not surprised by at all. 
I waited over a month to write this as time after time I gave Deckmasters thechnologies Inc every available option to make things right.  Please feel free to contact me or Marshall Township to confirm any part of this.  Please, please, for your sake do not use Deckmaster Technologies Inc.
Steve
412-983-5598

I contacted this company for an estimate and was visited by Mike Davin who is this company's franchisee in my part of Pittsburgh. The process went pretty well and we signed a contract on July 30, 2013. Work began on September 20 and ended on Nov. 12, 2013. By this time there was snow on the ground and the site was not cleaned up properly and there was no time to seal the deck. Mike told me that waiting to seal in the spring should not be a problem.
When spring came I inspected the deck and found several issues needing repair plus some site cleanup that the melted snow revealed. I contacted Mike on March 29 about this. He finally completed this not insubstantial amount of work by May 27, 2014. Responsiveness and communication was sorely lacking and inconsistent during this time. And the sealing of the deck was delayed to accommodate the repairs which I believe further exasperated the problems.
By the end of May several more issues, such as severe cracking and checking of the exposed wood, arose mainly due to the wood being unsealed and exposed to the winter weather. On May 27 Mike did agree to replace the hand railings and rebuild a portion of the railing that was obviously constructed incorrectly.  However, at that point Mike and his company and the franchisor went on "radio silence". In spite of my many efforts I have never heard from them again. Many text messages, phone call messages and letters have been ignored with the latest episode of ignoring being a copy of my July 1 letter to Mike Davin which I mailed to Patrick Nicholson on July 15 and my 3 subsequent phone calls on July 22, 24 and 29 to Mr. Nicholson, all of which have been ignored. 
One of the reasons I chose this company was because of their deck design and building experience and methods. Generally I believe they did a good job on the design and construction. However, the carpenters did a poor job of optimizing use of the wood that could  have minimized exposure of knot holes and other imperfections. Perhaps the quality of the wood is an issue here.
They promote the "FOREVER Workmanship Warrantee" on their website and in the contract document but their way of dealing with issues is to just not deal with them which makes this Warrantee an almost fraudulent document.
We feel like we have a deck that is 10 years old. We should be proud of this new deck. Instead we are just disappointed!

09/18/14: This is an update. After filing my review with Angie's list and requesting an opportunity to resolve these issues with Deckmasters through Angie's complaint resolution process, Angie's List reported to me that Deckmasters "did not agree to resolve the issue as you requested". Deckmasters continues to refuse to have any dialogue with me about my complaint. As mentioned above, they have refused to even do the remedial work they agreed to perform. 

 

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