Armor Fence Construction

A reviewer on Yelp - Ron M - totally nailed it on this one - for the jobs Chuck Paxton Jr. completed for me and my neighbors in May/June 2017, he was consistently hours late to arrive, did not clean up after himself at all, and Ron M's assessment is spot on and the exact same one me and my neighbors had with him:

"Little did I know, I would receive a million excuses."

"Quote - He was the lowest, but inaccurate. Ended up almost the same as my trusted contractor, but without the quality of work. He will give you the lowest, but I think it's a bait."

"Commitment - he gave me 5 different finish dates, he didn't meet any of them. He disappeared for a little while and I had to hunt him down to finish my backyard. He asked permission to do other projects, but didn't show up on the return date. A 3 week project ended up 3 months, and he is still not done."

He did what we thought was a good job on the fence work, but we have since realized he cuts corners at every opportunity - unfortunately we didn't notice until last week he and his fencing crew of 3 toenailed in the fence cross bar supports rather than following the better practice of using hangers for those supports.... he snuck in a savings for himself of maybe $20 for that run of fencing but the result is a shorter life for the fence.

He then turned our final 3 jobs into a Ponzi scheme; he required an additional $400 "for materials" for some friends' 2nd story deck redo; two months later he has yet to finish the railings; never told them he decided not to use lag screws to attach the deck to the house as required by code since to code lag screws cost approximately $50 a box (cutting corners yet again); never showed up at all on his own to install any lag screws; and failed to complete key components of his bid (which he suddenly needed to have upfront and not 50% for deposit, 50% after completion.....seriously). The second friend's job is also not completed two months out ... yet Chuck Paxton's hand is out for any payments due him earlier and more often than in his bid.

As for my final job which Charles Paxton Jr. bid and was paid to do: well .... he took a huge deposit then repeatedly failed to deliver any of the materials included in his bid, and only performed *maybe* 10% of the labor to complete the job as bid. He performed just enough demo work to ensure a usable deck with peeling paint became totally unusable - making it very difficult for my dogs and family to access our own back yard. As a result, I logged 2-3 days of my own labor to ensure the deck was stripped and ready for him to bring the framing up to code and reskin enough of the deck by the end of the weekend that we would be able to use at least half of it as he promised three days in a row.

Instead, Chuck Paxton showed up 1 day and 3 hours late to do the rebuild, brought no materials and only after a very difficult conversation did he go and buy less than 5% of the materials included in his bid (which he had already been paid in full for), but failed to buy or install any materials which actually meet current building codes.

Despite several offers by himself to fully refund my deposit and despite repeated requests by me for same, he continues to refuse to refund any of the deposit at all, even after being provided photographic proof the job was completed two weeks ago with better materials included in his bid, and all the workmanship now meets or exceeds code. I know for a fact he would not have used wood preservative on the cut edges of the additional framing boards since he did not use any on the small amount of framing work he did (which was the work the inspector required me to rip out).

Workmanship: The little work he did do on the deck was flagged by an inspector for being not up to code due to materials and workmanship defects. At the inspector's advice I gave him a notice of bid nonconformance (the inspector recommended 24-hour notice to remedy defaults, I actually gave him 48 hours). He ignored that for one full week, then offered a partial repayment plan that he then reneged on; and never did show up to remove/remedy the work defects; I had to put in 3-4 hours to rip out his work and repair damage his work/materials did to the frame.

Two months later I do have a really nice, to-code deck - but only because I went out and (re)bought the materials he was paid to provide; and after I and 2 of his other unhappy customers spent multiple weekends doing the work in his bid.

I overpaid for this deck by $4500 - which is the deposit amount Chuck took, but weeks later finally admitted he had spent for his own use; none of it was spent on the job or for to-code materials.

Today he is doing business as himself - Charles Paxton Jr. aka Chuck Paxton aka Chuck Paxton Jr., - and not as a licensed, bonded, insured contractor. Be very very careful before you hire him for any work or pay him any money at all.