Mountainside Builders

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• By Colleen G.

  January 2, 2022

  fence, deck, shed

  My husband and I hired Mountainside Builders in August 2021 to replace our deck boards, replace 2/3 of our townhome's fence, and build a shed. Upon first meeting Kevin, he was a bit stand-offish, but he and his crew completed the deck boards with seemingly good work. However, they stopped working on the fence midday after a random person in our community (not the head of HOA) told Kevin that we needed HOA approval (we were already approved). Instead of calling my husband (the homeowner), or knocking on our door to inform us (I told him that I was home if they needed anything) they packed up and left. I would not recommend hiring anyone who will stop work after speaking to a community member, and not the homeowner directly.

  We found it strange that Kevin never spoke with us directly about anything. Even simple things like when I offered them water and a fan on a hot day, I was met with a blank stare from him. At least one of his workers responded with a polite decline. Every communication had to go through his secretary/sister, Deborah. But, as long as the work gets done right we could deal with going through her.

  Anyways, they finally did the fence after we proved that it was HOA approved. Fine work. But…
  When it came time to build the shed is when we had our most major problem with them. In our contract agreement, it clearly states that we wanted a concrete pad put down as the base of the shed, and that this concrete pad will be done as most concrete is, with stone on the bottom, a vapor barrier, and then the concrete. This is important in order to prevent the concrete pad from cracking in the future. Instead of referring to our contract (which included these materials in our quoted price), Kevin decided to:
  1. Not dig the hole required to do such work, and
  2. Just pour the concrete straight onto the ground (no gravel, no vapor barrier), without even consulting with us.
  When my husband addressed this issue, Kevin replied that he spoke to a county inspector who said such work was not necessary for a shed like ours that "will not be used for living space." Him speaking to a county inspector is irrelevant, as this was not in our contract and we wanted it done the right way, per: our contract, price, the shed's instruction manual, my husband's experience as an inspector himself, advice from my husband's father who is an engineer, and simple google search that will say this is an important step. So, he had to redo it. They finally completed the work on November 23rd, 2021, but of course now we are finding that he, yet again, skipped an important step that was asked of him: the vapor barrier! We have condensation all over the concrete floor of our shed. He also did not come back to screw the shed down, per the instruction manual, as his assistant Deborah said he would do. I’m guessing that because we already paid him, he doesn’t care anymore.
  If we could hire someone else, we could easily have this project done months earlier (total time of small project was 3 months), and done properly. We have tried to be understanding and patient but the concrete "mistakes" were the last straw and we cannot recommend this business to anyone. I hope in the future they don't actively cut corners like they did for us. I hope they do a better job for the next client at owning up to their mistakes and abiding by the contract to begin with. I hope that if they don't agree with the previously agreed upon plan for the next person, they will at least communicate with them about it before making an executive decision about the work,

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