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• By Sharlene J.

  March 6, 2021

  Replace deck.

  March, 2021. Tru Decks, LLC did an amazing job. They replaced our rickety old wooden deck and it is gorgeous! It really improves the look of the house, and the quality is absolutely outstanding. The guys are very personable and respectful. So happy we hired them! Highly recommended!

• By Mpf

  May 11, 2013

  We hired Tru Decks in August 2012 to build us a beautiful deck using top of the line composite materials. The only problem was the company was not up to the task. The problems were varied, but most centered on board spacing, a lack of quality control, and an inability to lay the deck out properly. After countless errors (which they fail to acknowledge to this day) and with the deck incomplete, Tru Decks walked away from our job. Ultimately, the deck failed inspection due to a couple of elementary mistakes. We ended up going to court with Tru Decks over the value of the work they did. There are numerous other contractors to choose from; my advice is to look elsewhere.

• By Paul

  April 24, 2013

  RUN, DON'T WALK, FROM THIS CONTRACTOR!!
  

  SUMMARY
  We hired Tru Decks in late summer 2012 to build a 16' x 18' deck (with stairs and lights) utilizing TimberTech’s high-quality XLM composite boards. The timeline we were given by Tru Decks was between a week (5-business days) and 7-business days.
  
  Throughout construction we encountered numerous instances of careless and shoddy workmanship, including but not limited to the following:
  
  1. massive and unequal gaps between the deck boards and the house;
  2. irregular spacing between deck boards;
  3. abnormal angular cuts of less than 45°, which created an unusual “outside-in” spacing pattern;
  4. stair treads that sloped 1 to 2-inches (left-to-right) over a 4-foot span;
  5. uneven board placement, which caused high points and low points on the deck surface;
  6. deck posts that were misaligned;
  7. stair treads that were cut to unequal lengths;
  8. stair treads that exhibited severe bowing; and
  9. three code violations – two of which resulted in the deck failing final inspection.
  

  After addressing several of the aforementioned issues via a phone call, Tru Decks argued that the concerns we raised were ones that they did not believe warranted changes. After that, Tru Decks WALKED OFF THE JOB!! This was in sharp contrast to the assertion they made in an email to us prior to the commencement of the project:
  
  “My decks are guaranteed with a structural guarantee of ten years and a craftsmanship of five years. This does not mean if there is an issue ten years from now that I will not be there to take care of it. I stand behind every deck that I build because I am the one building it and not relying on hourly employees or sub-contractor.”
  
  Five years? Ten years? Tru Decks did not even stand by the product through the building process, let alone five years! Incidentally, Tru Decks WALKED OFF THE JOB roughly 3 WEEKS after the start of the project – so much for the 5 to 7-business day timeline we were provided at the outset.
  
  Just as troubling was the fact that Tru Decks blamed expansion and contraction of the TimberTech building materials for the poor
  craftsmanship. Our experience with TimberTech XLM composite boards is that they are as level and true as they come. Importantly, a 20-foot board expands/contracts lengthwise 3/16 of an inch over a 145 degree temperature spectrum, and they do not expand or contract in terms of width or thickness – real tough stuff!

  PEER REVIEW & ANALYSIS
  It is often said that "a picture is worth a thousand words." Perhaps as important is an assessment by industry peers. To that end, we had four experienced deck builders analyze the work that had been completed thus far. They validated all the aforementioned problems, as well as provided some keen insight into the causes of some of the problems.

  Without knowing who had worked on the original deck, three of these builders conjectured that the person or persons who had built the deck to that point must have less than a year’s worth of experience – such was the quality of the work. EACH BUILDER WAS ABSOLUTELY MYSTIFIED BY THE 1-INCH AND 3/4-INCH GAPS THAT WERE LEFT NEXT TO THE HOUSE. Not only did these gaps look awful, but they captured a considerable amount of debris, which made them look even worse.

  All four builders were confounded by the massive spacing between the deck boards and the house, assuring us that not only was it NOT the “industry standard,” but none of them could understand why it was built that way. All four builders were confused by the angular cuts of the deck boards as they appeared to all be done at between 42° and 43° (not 45°), leaving a visibly awkward gap where the cuts go “outside-in” along the deck lines. They all surmised that it was the result of sloppy work and a miter saw that was probably out of alignment and/or a contractor that was not paying attention.
  
  Three of the four deck builders we spoke with noticed that the deck had high points and low points where the boards appeared to be bowing. They theorized that the hangers, blocking, and support structures underneath were not level – this was later confirmed with additional inspection.

  The owner of the company that fixed the deck, a top-rated builder on Angie’s List, mentioned that his company is called upon a handful of times each year to correct problems left by other contractors, but OUR DECK WAS THE WORST HE HAD SEEN TO DATE – a powerful statement from someone who has built hundreds of decks in the Twin Cities area. Moreover, he noted that he could see why Tru Decks did not want to fix it as they would have to redo the whole thing with all new materials.

  Separately, we performed a study of more than 25 decks around the Twin Cities area since our experience with Tru Decks, and we have yet to find any deck with the unusual spacing and cuts encountered with our project.
  

  SLOPING STAIRS
  While outside one evening, we noticed that the deck stairs appeared to be tilting significantly from left to right. We took out a 2-foot construction level and proceeded to lay it across several treads. We observed the top steps leaning roughly 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch over a 2-foot run, while the steps at the bottom leaned more than 1-inch. Given that the stairs are 4-foot wide, this translated into a deviation of roughly 1 & 1/2-inches near the top and 2-inches or greater at the bottom.
  
  We called Jon Truax to voice our concern over the sloping stairs, as well as other aspects of the deck such as inconsistent gaps and spacing, and irregular cuts. Tru Decks did attempt to fix the sloping deck stairs. However, in the process of raising the one side of the stairs, five of the tread boards bowed severely on the left hand side of the deck when facing the stairs. Despite Tru Decks’ attempt to fix the stairs, they are still sloping more than an inch and we expect that we will have to remove and repair the stairs at some point this spring/summer – more expenses due to Tru Decks’ poor craftsmanship.

  We incurred three code violations thanks to Tru Decks, one of which was caught by the repairing contractor during their overview. As a result of this violation, we had to remove and replace 3 deck posts. The labor to do so was approximately $250. In addition, Tru Decks improperly placed the deck posts on the stairs. They placed them in the middle of the two stair treads and left NO CLEARANCE for the bottom of the deck railing. As a result, we paid to have four deck posts repositioned towards the front of the stair treads so they would clear.
  
  Finally, Tru Decks failed to anchor the deck to the supporting structure underneath. In our opinion, this borders on negligence. Poor, awkward spacing of the deck boards and improperly positioning deck posts is one thing, but failing to anchor the deck to its structure is something completely different.
  
  At the time Tru Decks WALKED OFF THE JOB, they had yet to install the railing and lighting system. In terms of materials and labor we paid in excess of $2,700 just to finish the deck. This does not include the $2,500 we had to pay to have the deck repaired and fix the three code violations. Nor does it include the $1,200 we expect to pay to fix the stairs this year. Tru Decks insisted that they did all but $1,000 of the work, but REFUSED to provide a breakdown of material and labor costs – in our opinion, this is a telltale sign of a bad contractor. We are always suspicious when a contractor cannot properly account for their labor and material costs separately, or break down costs by function; most top-rated contractors we have worked with can do this.

  We hired a local competitor to fix the problems with our deck. This work encompassed the following activities:
  
  1. tearing out and replacing deck boards;
  2. reconfiguring certain aesthetic elements (such as three sizeable gaps);
  3. incorporating additional structure support and blocking;
  4. shimming existing lateral support joists to level the deck surface;
  5. repositioning several rail posts; and
  6. installing the railing and lighting system.
  

  We ended up going to court with Tru Decks because of the shoddy and careless workmanship, and an inability to come to terms with the final payment amount due. In the end, we ended up paying for the materials, permit, and a very small nominal fee for labor, which seemed appropriate given that, in our opinion, very few elements were done satisfactorily. Further, we incurred significant costs totaling roughly one-third of the cost to repair all the problems created by Tru Decks.
  
  AGAIN - RUN, DON'T WALK, FROM THIS CONTRACTOR!!

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