EKT Construction

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• By newsview

  January 29, 2018

  A three-star review may very well be generous in the eyes of those who read this review. EKT Construction is a mixed bag. On one hand, the owner came to our rescue when the mortgage lender forced safety repairs on us as a condition of closing escrow. Erik and his crew got to work and put in some impressive new supports for our balcony-style deck complete with heavy-duty poured concrete footers. The cost to do so wasn't cheap but the initial showing was favorable. Unfortunately, things went downhill shortly thereafter. Ultimately, what should have been possible to complete in a month's time dragged out for over two months, during which time the owner took other jobs and went on vacation (only to blame us for the delays!).

  A significant part of the job was to shore up an upper deck, which was coupled to a lower deck that was slated for demolition. Unfortunately, the "shoring up" did not include making sure the upper deck was level. So after the supports were replaced and the scaffolding came down, we walk out on the deck only to find it has a noticeable downward slant.

  Part of the bid involved hauling off debris but quite a bit of the heavy debris from the original footers remained in our yard even though an oversized dumpster was brought in for the demolition of the lower deck. Over a month after the dumpster was removed, we found rusty metal brackets protruding from the ground, which in turn were linked to the original footers. Some of of the concrete footers were busted up to resemble crushed stone; however, much of it was buried instead of hauled off our property.

  Another aspect of the bid involved repainting and staining the upper deck, which was in need of a serious sanding given that the original structure was extremely weathered. The surface wasn't sanded down with a belt sander, apparently, and so upon walking out on the deck for the first time after it was stained my spouse tripped on a protrusion.

  The wood and wrought-iron railing were painted. An alternative to sanding would have been to power wash the deck to ensure that the surface would accept new paint. But the deck wasn't power washed, either. The primer went down and the paint went down on top of what remained of decades-old paint. Not only did the new paint laying atop the flaking paint appear unsightly but two months after the job was complete, paint had already begun to split and crack due to poor adhesion. (Even your most ignorant DIYer appreciates that when it comes to exterior paint, prep is everything!)

  Now you might think at this point my spouse and I, as first-time homeowners who ultimately sunk nearly $14K into a partial deck refurb, were ready to implode. But we tried to give Erik/EKT the benefit of the doubt on account of the fact that we were not yet moved in. In other words, we made excuses — i.e. perhaps there had been "miscommunication". However, after multiple attempts to text, email and even leave notes for Erik, we did not land on the same page. (The job dragged out so long it ended up delaying our move-in date!)

  Part of the original bid included unrelated but very critical structural work. Additionally, we asked Erik for quotes to reinforce the railing around our upper deck (on top of what had already been expended). Despite the incentive to "play ball" for the sake of continuing work (revenue), Erik threw in the towel. Rather than invest in an ongoing customer — or appreciate, even, that word-of-mouth could make it into a web review — he instead saw fit to submit a faulty final bill to our lender, which in turn was holding our escrow funds. As a result, our lender cut him an incorrect check. At first, Erik admitted that he knew the final installment for the work was over-billed. We tried not to assume the worst about Erik's business ethics and offered the suggestion that he apply the over-payment toward our structural repair. But Erik decided rather than to work with us to do a disappearing act.

  How many contractors that collect over $12K not to build a deck from the ground up but to only partially refurbish one still have a customer willing to work with them despite wild swings in the quality of the work? Not many.

  Erik was told that a review was riding on the outcome. Some 90 days later, however, we have no choice now but to post a lukewarm review.

  Does Erik, owner of EKT Construction, have the skills to do good work? Yes. Does EKT Construction provide the consistency one might expect? No. Why there are so many contractors who make honest mistakes and don't cop to them — or who stereotypically "cut corners"despite earning "real money" for quality work — makes no sense in this Internet- and social-media connected age.

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