Get matched with top deck and porch pros in Stowell, TX

"Well, what can I say about Colony Builders? Well, this will be kind of long... but they get full marks from us. We were looking for an enclosed patio for our backyard that joins onto the house. Mainly due to the breaker box being outside and the royal pain of going outside in the pouring rain to flip the breakers every time the power goes off. We also wanted a nice place where we could make the area look nice with potted hanging plants and planter beds. We searched online at various sites including Amazon for what we wanted. The pricing of such a patio online was around the $5,000 range and the reviews were just awful due to the bad workmanship and lack of instructions, so it was there I decided to look up local building companies, and that's when Colony Builders popped onto my screen. We made an appointment online, and within a couple of days we were paid a visit by business owner Ali, who politely sat with us and from there we discussed our ideas of our vision of what we wanted. He worked with us and offered suggestions of his own for an enclosed patio. When we were done, he quoted the price, which was 4 times the amount of the shoddy kit patios we were researching earlier. Unfortunately it was out of our price range, so after he left, we thought about it for awhile before deciding we didn't need it enclosed. After contacting them again, Ali's nephew Mahdi came out to meet with us to discuss this different route. Mahdi is a born people-person and was wonderful to talk things through with. He was respectful and treated us like good friends instead of potential clients. He also understood perfectly of the changes we wanted and offered suggestions to help us save more money on the project. For instance, we have a concrete slab outside our back door. It is standard for townhomes in our area. We also wanted a tile floor on the patio which would be expensive. He offered the faux-tile stamping option, which was much cheaper. Basically stamping tile patterns into the freshly-laid concrete with different powdered colors to give the perfect illusion of tiles, which was perfect for us on a budget. From there we were certain we wanted to go ahead with the project. We decided on an open design patio on sturdy posts with a roof to match our existing roof tiles. All this on a new slab of concrete, much longer than the existing slab with a beautiful rustic mosaic tile-stamp pattern. They could even leave the existing slab in place. A deposit was asked upon agreement of a few thousand dollars up front. Our patio would cost $14,380 all up with no more to pay. Still more expensive than I would like but the craftmanship would be much better. They offer finance through Medallion which gave us the lowest interest rates, and we can even set up automatic payments online. We financed for 144 months to reduce the monthly payments but we have the option of paying more without penalties. Next step after our ideas were laid out was having the architect come over and draw up plans several days later. Madhi was also present for this. He literally was with us for every step of the way which was awesome. Plans were submitted to the HOA. Of course, they were rejected (I hate HOA's!). Apparently our HOA won't allow any structure to be built directly on to the house. So, ok. Mahdi came back over and we discussed further options for approval. The architect came out again... We planned it 3 feet from the wall instead, leaving a nice gap for the rain to fall through, but we'll figure something out later to stay dry. Also 4 posts instead of 2, as it was now free-standing. This time our second HOA rejection. We were getting frustrated at this point and were seriously thinking of scrapping the entire idea. The HOA's newest reason? The entire structure had to be at least 3 feet from the wall. Well, we thought it was! What they were talking about was the roof overhang, it would protrude closer than 3 feet to the wall. Once we redid the plans a 3rd time and kept the roof overhand 3 feet away from the wall, the project was finally approved. Within a few days the concrete guys came out to start the project, it was all happening now! They did a great job and had the slab laid within a day with the tile-stamp pattern already embossed into the concrete, it looked great! They also dug out the corners where the posts were to go, to 2 feet deep. They filled them with rebar and completely filled them with cement, these were for structural support to balance the posts. The second day, they power washed the new patio floor and weather-sealed it. Job done, and we were very happy with it. So were they, as they were often caught dancing away on our security cameras while they worked. They love their job also! A couple of days later, the framers arrived to start on the actual patio. Very quickly they put up our patio and roof tiles and did a great job. The posts themselves were fixed in place by hurricane straps, so it would withstand hurricane-force winds in a storm. The posts were sealed with James Hardy seal. Basically, the wood posts were encased in a super-strong material that protects it from the weather and rotting. It kind of resembles drywall, but much stronger. We were also told this in the planning stage, that we couldn't hang hooks or anything on it because it would crack the seal if we did. The builders would hang them for us using James Hardy nails and hardware. which they did with no worries. It turns out there was a slight miscommunication between us there. You can use normal screws in the wood after it has been sealed, it won't crack it, but can only use the James Hardy nails as they are stronger. They gave us some nails for future use if we want to add more hooks or a trellis. The builders did put a hole in our window screen, which we reported. Mahdi came out right away with a screen he had lying around the office to see if it would fit and replace the damaged one, which it didn't. A nice gesture. The next day the framers/builders finished the job and painted it to the colors of the house and it looked amazing! They also replaced our screen with a new one with no problems. Mahdi and Ali came out that day to see the final result and to make sure we were happy with it, which we were. Mahdi in particular was so helpful throughout this entire (ordeal) project, he was always there for questions and suggestions. He even showed us many ideas of designs for the patio and also the tile-stamp patterns. At no stage was there any doubt of where we all stood on the project, we were always on the same page at all times for every step of the way, and that was exactly what we needed, as this was our first real costly project, so many thanks to you Madhi, you made our life much easier! Your pleasant attitude, extreme patience and kind nature was so appreciated by us so much we can't express. Thank you to Ali too for making this project happen and for offering improvement suggestions along the way. To sum up, this was our first project and we are glad we chose Colony Builders, they work with you every step of the way and never once did they make us feel like they were pressuring us into "selling us something". I would highly recommend them for any project, they get top marks from us. By the way, they offer a 5 year warranty on the patio and base, then a 30 year manufacturers warranty on the roof. We can't argue with that, any hopefully will never need it. This patio is sturdy! Now, all we need is to find a good quality rain guard for the back door and breaker box... We will be using them again to build a small kitchen window box in the future, but that's another review for another day. Thanks again guys, you all did a great job! I have included some pictures of the finished patio, the progress with the concrete base, tile pattern and the color brand used."

"I had a deck installed and I am very happy. It looks great and completely transformed my backyard. Julio and his team did a great job! I am very very happy."

"Working with Tom Ruddell was great. He was knowledgeable in his craft, timely, and most importantly, honest about balancing our needs versus wants to maximize our modest budget. I would definitely consult him again about future projects. Thanks, Tom!"

"Fabulously completed the work to beyond satisfaction"

"What a great experience working with Brandon and Brent! From hanging my Christmas lights, mounting 2 TVs and installing a ceiling fan, the final products look perfect! I canâ t say thank you enough! They also made sure they kept my house clean in every room they went into, thatâ s a big deal for me! Highly recommended!!"

"Extremely professional, the job was done very quickly and we were so happy with our results! Definitely will be reaching back out for further work! We love our porch they did, 10/10!!"

"Fast, honest, professional and very polite. Any work I need done these are the guys. Look no further."

"Pros: 1516’s workers and subcontractors did an outstanding job. They were super friendly and always asked us how things looked and even had inside jokes with my husband. We are so pleased with the look of our new patio. I would highly recommend Master Electric who was their electrical subcontractor. Very nice people and got their work done quickly! Cons: In short, we are extremely displeased with the owner, Erik, and how he treated us with disrespect, belittlement, and lack of professionalism. This is where the 1 star rating comes from. If you want more details, please continue reading below. Unfortunately, we did not feel this same way regarding the owner of 1516 (Erik). At our first meeting, everything went over smoothly. It was like the honeymoon phase of remodeling. I told him everything I wanted: new patio cover, privacy wall, and wrought iron fencing around the patio to keep the dogs in, and he said he could do it all! When we received the proposal, we noticed the measurements were off on the patio cover. All our other bids along with the plot survey said 16X20, but 1516’s stated it was a 16X17. Of course we brought this up to both Erik and his wife, Kris, because we didn’t want a short patio, especially since engineers get involved for the building. We begged Erik to come out and re-measure. He assured us his measurements were correct and he told my husband he didn’t trust other people’s measurements. After awhile, he finally agreed to come re-measure but told us that he would cover the cost if it was wrong since it was his mistake. We didn’t even ask him to cover the difference, so we were in shock but he assured us that the measurements were right. Sure enough, a week later he showed up and re-measured and he was wrong. It was 16X20. Sooo sorry for this novel but this is where we started being treated unfairly. Once the material was delivered for the cover, we started asking Erik for pictures of the privacy wall and wrought iron fencing that was going to be put in since no “specific details” were in the proposal regarding these two line items. He started getting very short with my husband, wouldn’t provide details, ignored his phone calls & texts, and would just show up without even letting us know he was here. I even called his wife, Kris, to ask if we had done something wrong and she said he was just stressed but loved working with us. He did ask us to pay extra for part of the privacy wall for materials, even though no details were specified in the proposal on what the wall would look like, what material would be used, height, etc. We were told that he had already estimated the cost of materials and labor and that our extra addition was not part of his plan. I was a little irritated because we were paying for this patio remodel, which I would think we would get to pick out what we want our patio to look like not him. As for the wrought iron fence, we had told him earlier on that it would need some type of dog barrier because we have a 10 lb dog that could easily fit thru. When we started suggesting ordering a custom fence, he threatened us that if we went custom, he would decline the fence portion of the job. The only reason why he accepted it was because we wanted the patio cover. We immediately just went with what was easier for him because we wanted the job done. On the last day of the patio cover remodel, we had asked Erik if he could have his guys come back out because 1) they had put footprints in the concrete parts around the columns and 2) our vinyl siding was missing J channeling on the new addition and didn’t flow well from the original part of the house. We also found out later that day that his workers had cut and capped the wires to our existing floodlight so it was no longer operational (Erik even confirmed this was true). A few hours after sending that text with the mistakes that should be fixed, we received an unpleasant text from Erik. He immediately rejected the fence portion of our proposal saying he was not doing it anymore, wanted the final check, and was done with us. He said we were super ungrateful because he had given us so much from quoting us a 16X17 patio, which was really a 16X20 patio, even though from the beginning, he said he would cover that measurement mistake. We had no idea that weeks down the road, this was going to bite us in the butt. We never once had asked him to cover it. He made that call. And we had no idea that asking his workers to come back to fix a few mistakes/errors was going to end in an uproar. He threatened us saying he was going to turn us in to a collection agency if we didn’t pay him the last check for the patio. We never once said we weren’t going to pay his workers for the outstanding job they did. He told us that our patio slab was already cracked and ugly so why would a few footprints matter. As for the J Channeling, he said the inspector didn’t say anything so we wasn’t going to cover that. And as for the floodlight, he wasn’t going to pay the electrician to come back out. Here is his exact response, “Partner, if you’re willing to pay the my standard rate of $40 a square ft on a 16X20, you can have me back for 1 whole day addressing every obstacle brought forward today: concrete, “c” flashings, & even flood lights not in my contract.” Erik was very disrespectful in every text message, belittled us, and reminded us how unimportant we were by constantly telling us he had bigger and more important jobs in the Seabrook area, like his $76,000 patio cover project plus that he made $4 million in sales last year, so he was pretty sure he knew what he was doing. It hurts my heart knowing that a company whose title is 1516 (after the Acts 1516 verse) could treat other people this way. My husband and I have saved copies of all the emails and text messages of Erik’s awful behavior. He wouldn’t answer his phone or come talk to us in person, but persisted that it be by text to record everything. His tone was scary, his words were hurtful, and there was no reasoning with him. My husband stayed very professional and respectful through the whole conversation and was still disrespected with every text that Erik sent back. We paid Erik for all the work his contractors & subcontractors completed, but were left with an incomplete patio project aka the wrought iron fence and the 3 mistakes we wanted fixed. We have had several projects completed on our home, such as, new plumbing, upgraded kitchen, drainage system, new floors, and much more, and have never dealt with someone like Erik."