Kidwell Fencing and Home Improvements

Joseph Kidwell was just arrested for failure to perform construction work, it is listed in the front royal va newspaper.

Not well. Paperwork needed by Kidwell for my HOA approval was never submitted for both jobs. The HOA manager informed me of this fact two months after the fence was installed, which was already 3 months late. We weren't given a call or heads up on the fence installation. A subcontractor showed up for the job, which we were unprepared. I guess we should be happy they actually showed up. I cancelled the ground level deck because the company was unresponsive. I am a cash paying customer. I requested the deposit back for the ground level deck and given the runaround for 6 months. The owner of the company NEVER returned my calls. I stopped by the office during business hours to inquire about the refund since I had not received a response for months. I was hurled insults from Joe Kidwell in the form of microaggressions, yelling and gaslighting. He is a complete lunatic! He claimed he got me financing and that I was making payments, I interrupted his business and ruined his day, also that I work for the government??? I told him, no I'm disabled. He said, well that's The same thing. The rant went on and on. I could tell his employees were embarrassed. They were scrambling to find my file. Next, I was handed a check for the deposit. I have never been verbally assaulted in this way. Joe Kidwell has character and anger issues who fronts to be a legitimate business man when it's time to take your money. I would not refer him to anyone because he runs a volatile operation and based on how I have been treated and knowing that I have Breast Cancer and working with his team has been very stressful, he absolutely has no regard for people at all. He NEVER apologies or tries to make things better. A raving lunatic and charlatan. I would not wish anyone to go through what I went through. It was awful.

Crappy work, and getting them to fix failed inspection issues is proving impossible. 3 months now and still no resolution. We contracted Kidwell to put a fence and deck. They were quick to get the fence and deck up about 4 days for both projects. They completed the jobs by July 31, 2020. After they left we noticed some nails sticking out and some pieces not nailed down properly on the deck. Took a couple of calls and weeks before they finally came to fix it. Also, the gate latch kept having issues that they’ve tried repairing 2 times now with the issue still there. They completed their job and left my yard a mess and required us making multiple calls before they took care of it. August 19, 2020 the county inspector came and failed the deck. It was missing 2 supporting beams, and the support brackets are all missing the support shear nails. Our gate does not work again (it’s been fixed 2x) the screws are stripped now. There’s some boards now warping on the fence and deck. The railing on the deck is pulling up. They claimed to be coming to fix the issues 2 weeks ago but they didn’t show. They were to come again Friday claiming we were on schedule but again no show. They were quick to take payment, afterwards good luck getting them to correct issues. As of September 27, we still can’t use our deck fully due to safety concerns, or use our fence door. We held off staining the deck until all the repairs are completed.

I am very displeased with Kidwell fencing. They ask for payment immediately upon completion, I was not home and had not seen the completed work. The next day when I was able to see the fence, I noticed in the very middle of the fence that one of the posts was three inches shorter than the others. This is on a flat lot. When I contacted the office I spoke to Thomas who stated he would Write a service order. After a month and half of no shows and texts I spoke to Joe Kidwell who told me to just call him going forward and don’t call Thomas and that he would be out Monday to fix the problem. He never showed never called and now won’t answer when I call. Advice from me would be to get your fence elsewhere.

The deck is absolutely beautiful. Joe Kidwell, Tony Blakey and their crew were courteous and professional. We are so pleased. We highly recommend them. The new roof they put on looks great and doesn't leak. Glad we chose them.

Outstanding!

Kidwell had two separate teams come out one for the fence, and one for the deck job. 
The fence team was punctual and quick. They arrived within the estimated date range, and completed the work in under 3 days.
The deck team was a different story. They initially told me that due to backlog it would be 5-6 weeks before they could get started (end of July or early August at the latest). When they did not arrive within the that time, I called them and was told they would come out the following week. This continued for  4 more weeks. The materials for the project were finally delivered at the end of August. Due to family plans (which had been conveyed to Kidwell much earlier) we were out of town for two weeks which pushed the project back again. Thus the project that was supposed to start and finish in August did not start until mid September.
Once begun the deck was well built, though the inspection and survey processes could have been scheduled more promptly.

From the time we contracted the work, they said they could start in a few weeks. However, they couldn't start on time; all told, it was about 3 weeks from contract to end. It was mostly due to the rainy season that we had. They cleaned up after themselves, however, one section of the fence was missing the wire mesh required to keep my dogs in. When I called them, they were very responsive and came out immediately to rectify the situation.

We hired Kidwell Fence for their reputation and the quality of their work and we made a serious error in doing so.  Being new to the area, we were told by several different neighbors that Kidwell Fence did a lot of the fences in the neighborhood and that they did a good job,  Last summer, Joe Kidwell came out to give me an estimate for a fence and stairs leading to the back yard.  Upon arrival, he received a copy of the plat, and he went out back with me and measured.  When discussing the property lines, he advised that the fence be installed 1 foot from the property lines and I deferred to his judgment since he was the owner of a fence company.  Utilizing the copy of the plat provided to him at the time of the estimate, he calculated the amount of materials needed in order to provide me with an accurate estimate.  A 50% deposit was requested, and pending HOA approval work would begin.  I supplied him with a credit card, and was asked to call with the HOA approval confirmation.

Once I called with the approval confirmation I did not receive a phone call, email, or other notification until materials were delivered one Friday and placed in my back yard.  The following Monday morning 2 people arrived and began work on my stairs.  The quality of the stairs is undeniable and the installers were all very nice.  A few days to a week after the stairs were installed, the fence installers arrived to start installation of the fence posts.  Confused about the location of the fence, they asked me where to place it and I again provided another copy of the plat and directed them to the property markers in the brush out back.  There was still some confusion on their behalf so they informed me of this and stated that they were waiting on the arrival of Joe Kidwell.  When he eventually arrived, I saw markers for the posts out back shortly after he departed and installation commenced.  A day or 2 later, Joe stopped by to let me know that they had issues with digging the fence post holes and it was going to cost me $900 more than the original estimate but he would split the difference with me and only charge me $450.  When then fence was ultimately completed, the workmanship was also unquestionable but I had to chase down the updated receipt down along with gate adjustments for a few months via email.

A few months later we had new neighbors beside us and behind us.  The new neighbors who purchased the lot next door had the surveyor out and the surveyor confirmed that the fencing along their side of the property was exactly on the property line.  He also confirmed that the markers already out back were correct.  Behind us the new neighbor had Kidwell install their fence.  Where we should share a common fence post, the corner or our property is about 10 feet off, and not the 1 foot I agreed to under advisement.  This was when we started to contact Kidwell about the property line issues, and I have SEVERAL emails for appointments Kidwell failed to show up for even though my husband had taken off of work and we had adjusted our schedule to accommodate the appointments.  Wes, from Kidwell did show up once and 5 to 10 minutes after he received a copy of the plat, he immediately saw the problem.  The fence is nowhere near the property lines.  One neighbors property is inside our fence line and a large area of our property is outside of the fence.  He stated that we needed to meet with the elusive Joe Kidwell in order to get the issue corrected/addressed and yet another appointment was made with Joe Kidwell, who again failed to show up or even call.  My husband, who again had taken leave from work in order to arrive on time for the appointment, finally got Joe Kidwell on the phone.  Joe cited that the paperwork shows on the back that they are not responsible for property lines, he accused me, the wife, of telling him exactly where to install the fence (if this was true, the plat copies and advice of staying 1 foot inside the property would actually apply).  Sparing the details of the conversation, please note that my husband is the patient one in the house and he is in sales.  Ultimately, Joe Kidwell  agreed to correct their mistake and said that Wes, the project manager, would be handling everything.

They made a couple of appointments for the following week to start the move of the fence that nobody ever showed up for.  The PM that Joe Kidwell passed the issue off to was very responsive and communicative at first but it became obvious that Joe Kidwell had no real intention of allowing his PM to rectify his companies mistake.  As usual, phone calls to Joe have not been answered, and he in the office until he hears our last name and he suddenly disappears and the 'receptionist' is unable to locate him.  In my opinion, Joe Kidwell is unprofessional and dishonest.  How can you own a company and have the word 'fence' in the name when you are not able to follow a property plat that has clear measurements and is clearly marked?  How can you agree to basically give us what we paid for and then go back on your word without even telling a person about it?  Who would want to do business with someone like that?

I have emails, photos, and proof of the phone calls to corroborate my statements.

It went excellent and we are very pleased !

DECK FIASCO:

I hired Kidwell Fencing to do a small deck project at my main home February 2013 and I was pleased with the quality of the work. Based on this experience I hired Kidwell Fencing again to do a larger job at my vacation home. I met with Kidwell Fencing in March 2013 and clearly told the representative that I wanted to replace my wood deck with a composite floor with vinyl railing. The representative took measurements and I picked out the color and materials. The representative also showed me pictures of finished decks with the colors I chose so I could get a good idea of what my deck would look like once finished. I WAS SO DISAPPOINTED IN THE FINISHED PRODUCT. My deck did not look anything like the pictures. There was no top railing and side railing was only attached to the deck flooring with one bolt. The railing was not secure in any way. I live 2 hours away from my vacation home. I made three separate trips to the home when I was told the work was completed and each time the work was not done and the quality was terrible. The railing caps were not glued down and one was completely missing. Part of the vinyl rail was cracked to the point where there was a hole. When I contacted Kidwell there did not seem to be one person that was completely responsible for the job. I talked to multiple people and each time I was not told the truth. The workers did not show up when scheduled. There was poor coordination and execution. After entirely too many back and forth conversations with Kidwell Fencing they completed the work in July 2013. In the end I was only 80% satisfied because the deck railing is stronger but now I have to look at a make shift top railing that still does not look like the pictures.



FENCE MISTAKES:

In March 2013 I hired Kidwell Fencing to also tear down my wood fence in the backyard and replace it with a 5-6' vinyl fence. It is really dark in the back yard so I paid $100 each for eight lights on top of the fence. I made it clear to the representative that I need lots of light in the backyard and I do not want to see cords. I want to be able to turn on the light switch in the house and the fence lights will come on. The first red flag was when my neighbor complained so the workers completely stopped and left the site. I was told about the incident a while after the fact. The fence looked really good once the workers came to complete the work. The second big problem was the lights. I clearly ordered electric lights and Kidwell installed solar lights. Once we get this cleared up the electric lights are low voltage and do not give out the amount of light I need. There are also cords. Kidwell Fencing tells me that because these are low voltage lights, they can not connect to the house electricity. I ended up spending a lot of money on lights and not getting what I wanted.



At the end of the job the fence and deck looks good. I just really did not appreciate the drama from poor coordination and execution. I really wish Kidwell Fencing was up front and honest with me. In the beginning I would have understood if the shape of the deck prevented them from making a top railing look like the pictures. I would have also understood about the lights and made different choices. Finding out at the end of the job what Kidwell Fencing could not do is not the way I like to do business. I will not hire Kidwell Fencing again and I do not recommend them after this experience.

I requested estimates from several local companies, and Kidwell seemed to be the only one who wanted my business. No one else actually gave me an estimate. They helped me identify/find all four corners/pins in my yard and built a beautiful fence. The workers were friendly and picked up their mess each day. I would hire them again. My only complaint is that they were not too concerned with avoiding underground cable lines. They cut my line in two places. I am very happy with the fence, though, and my neighbors have admired it.

We received quotes from four other vendors for this job and Kidwell was by far the best quote. They were professional and very courteous. Their salesman was very pleasant and will yes ma'am you and say everything you want to hear. But you have to sit on him to get things done. There were a few hiccups with the placement of our stairs and required lighting (plus the bulk of the work was done in December and the weather caused several delays) but overall we are very happy with the work they did and the hiccups were worth the price they gave us.
The fence was a little higher off the ground than we wanted and we were worried that our dog would dig under it (the fence was on a slope), but they reset it for us. It looks really good and is very sturdy.
The deck is exactly what we wanted. We were on a strict budget, so it is a no-frills, all wood deck. They did not try to hard-sell us on upgrades like some of the other companies did and we appreciated that. It feels solid as a rock.
There were inspection issues with required lighting. Originally, the stairs were supposed to go in one location near an existing light, but clearance did not allow that design, so the stairs had to be moved to the other side of the deck where there was no light. The county inspectors would not give us a C.O. until the lights were installed and Kidwell installed them at their own expense without argument.
In short, they satisfied every issue we had without argument (except that our deck stair lights are missing some screws that they promised to replace and we haven't had any luck with their follow-up on that, but it's minor).

It was really good work, the quality was awesome. There were some problems with the quoting. They charged me extra to do a wrap around deck, but when they weren't able to do it they still tried to charge me.
I also have some low spots that puddle, I've called them about it and they haven't responded.

Kidwell contracted another company to do the job.  They did not stain the top of the fence.  The siding on our house has pain spots all over it.  We called Kidwell several times and told them and they said that they would tell the contractor about it and send them back.  It has been over six months and we never saw or heard from them again.  The fence already looks like it needs to be restained again.  The job was poorly done.  The extra services (new back gate and fixing warped posts) we received from Kidwell personnel were performed  well.

Things I liked:
-One of the three installers was professional, friendly, and a good carpenter.
-The overall quality of the installation is good after having them fix a number of poor quality issues
-The Trex material is great, seems high quality and I am happy with the look
Things I didn't like:
-Charged me the second half ($12k) half before the job was completed, without my permission.  Had to call Home Depot corporate to get that resolved.  (Home Depot of Reston recently began using Kidwell as their contract deck installers)
-Charged me an arbitrary $2,735 dollars that wasn't authorized, wasn't in the contract, and was never even discussed with me.  Fighting that with the credit card company now, if they don't refund my attorney said it's blatantly unauthorized so I will have no problem recovering the money, with interest.
-Started a week late (according to the contract)
-Horrible communication between the office and the actual builders - maybe 1 out of 4 requests were actually relayed.  For instance, an entire conversation with the office about how I wanted my railings to not have post caps wasn't relayed.  Same with my double border request, simply ignored.  Then when I asked they actually said that would cost $3k more, complete con.
-They replaced a band board that was rotten, the builder said don't worry I had extra material so I just fixed it.  Then I get a call from the office, they wanted $1500 for the board replacement, IT WAS ONE BOARD! 
-Poured uneven (1/2" off at 6.5 feet) concrete pad for hot tub, rather than repair/replacing they actually jacked the new deck up (throwing it out of level) to make it "look" like it was level.  Unbelievable.  I made them come out again to actually fix this.
-Built crooked, junky looking steps.  When I requested they be fixed, the owner said "this will cost me a thousand dollars"... Like it was my fault they looked like crap.
-The original 3 person crew quickly turned into a 1 man show because Kidwell decided to pull 2 guys for a different job, which slowed down the build significantly.
-They ran weeks past the projected 30 day build time, they actually still haven't finished (no longer respond to any communication)
-They never provided me with the warranty paperwork as promised, and ignored my request for that
-They told me 6 times that a dumpster would arrive to haul the pile of debris from the old deck, 6 times it didn't show up.  On the 7th day, there was a dumpster.
- One of the installers threw literally hundreds of cigarette buts all over my yard, I'm still finding them.
-Used three different color screws, silver, black and painted.  This looks like crap so I'm going to replace the obvious ones that are right next to each other.
-Rather than using proper trex fasteners for an end board (one sided clips) they actually tried to use a saw and cut the two sided clips in half.  When I asked why, I was told "a box of those costs like a hundred bucks".  Apparently their idea didn't work, because there is no clips there now, just drilled holes and a loose board.  Pretty pathetic.-Sloppy screw angles caused multiple bulges in the surface, I'm sure that will breach the pvc coating and I'll be stuck with the bill
-Worst labor warranty out of all 6 companies I received quotes from.  They offered one year, when I laughed they penciled in 2 years on the contract.  The average I received from other companies was 4 years.
-Unhooked the hot tub bud didn't reconnect, they stuck me with that job.
-The owner complained to me on the phone about not making much money on this install.  He should consider another line of business if he can't figure out profit margin is decreased with the cost of repairing shoddy work. 
Things looked good initially and I even gave recommendations to two of my neighbors during the initial first couple of weeks.  They were ready to sign contracts valued well over $100k luckily I warned them before they signed the contracts.  I would have felt horrible if I had let them go through with it having seen what kind of company this actually is.
I strongly suggest looking elsewhere for a more professional company.

The quality of the fences were poor. The fact that the company eluded me for problems makes them one to avoid for all future fencing needs.

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A FENCE CONTRACTOR, LOOK ELSEWHERE, UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO DEAL WITH NUMEROUS DELAYS AND LIES.

After meeting with Randy Kidwell in May, we signed a contract for a six foot privacy fence to surround our patio and paid a deposit which equated to one-half of the contracted amount.  The contract specified the fence we choose, the post caps, the post rings, the gates would be key locked and all posts would be plated to the concrete.  Randy informed us that work would begin within three weeks, or sooner and installation would take approximately one and a half days. 

After two month?s of delay after delay and lie after lie, once again we were on the schedule for installation.  Their crew finally showed up mid-morning, with some material, however did not have the plates to mount the posts to the concrete, or the post rings that cover the mounting hardware, or the hardware for the gates, and had the wrong post caps!  Randy showed up 45 minutes later and informed us that the rest of the material was at their shop in Winchester and the guys would bring it the following day.  Basically, they were only here to drop off the posts and panels.  Needless to say, we were not happy, and informed Randy that if they were not going to begin installation that day, we wanted a refund of our deposit, part ways and we would find another contractor.  While their crew set in the truck for three hours, Randy ended up purchasing the plating hardware at Home Depot. (Why would a person purchase plating hardware if it was at their shop in Winchester??? Oh, did I mention that their shop is only a couple miles away from Home Depot???)  That afternoon the crew was able to install the plates on two sides of the patio; these ended up being removed the following day. 
The following morning, we received a telephone call from Joe Kidwell.  He informed us that in order for the fence to be installed correctly, the concrete would need to be bored with aluminum posts set in the concrete to support the vinyl posts.  (I don?t believe I mentioned that we just happen to be a licensed general contractor that had worked with Joe on a commercial job in the past at which time, a six foot privacy fence was installed with plating hardware and it passed all of the County?s inspections!!!)  However, wanting nothing more than to have the fence installed properly, we agreed to have the concrete bored.  We later found out that the plating hardware Randy purchased from Home Depot and the crew installed was for 4? x 4? post, not the 5? x 6? post that our fence required.  Anyway, five and a half days later, the installation was finally finished. 
You guessed it, we have problems!!  The slug that ran across the patio while they were boring the concrete stained the concrete which will require repainting the entire patio.  We have had to patch the concrete around the aluminum posts. We have drilled holes in some of the posts, beside screws and a couple of the posts were cut a little short which are barely concealed by the post rings.  The one word to describe our experience would have to be NIGHTMARE!

I found Kidwell Fencing and Home Improvements via Angie's List.  I recommended this company to my parents, Jim & Barbara Alligood, to have a six foot privacy fence installed at their new home.  The fence was approximately 350 feet in length.  This company worked long days early morning to dusk to get the job done within the estimated time frame. 

The fence truly is the best looking, best built fence on the block!

Personal note, my father can be somewhat of a perfectionist.  My point being, that my father is very pleased with the craftsmanship, the crew, the job site cleanup and the experience in general.  He would recommend this crew.

NOTE:  I am unsure as to the exact date of the work, only that it was in the first half of February 2012 time frame.

Dear Sirs,  We are so quick to complain when something doesn't suit or done incorrectely.  This time I would like to let you know how much I appreciate the work you did.  Last summer I contacted your company about a privacy fence.  The estimate was reasonable and the work very satisfactory.  Your workers were very professional and polite.  Wes was extremely courtesous and took care of the small problems I had immediately.  I will recomond your company to anyone that admires my cedar fence.  I will give your company top ratings on "Angies' List".  Sincerely, Mary S.