Isabelle

We hired Serenity Construction to replace our very old cedar deck. 8'6 x16 ft with one set of stairs and wood and metal spindle railing. We provided the spindles. We chose this style of railing because it suited the house better than an aluminum railing. We live in an older community and we didn't want to invest a lot into a deck that might get torn down with the house when we are finished with it - about 10 years. We asked for MicroPro Sienna preserved wood. More comments on that later. We met with the contractor and explained what we wanted. The quote we received did not have a lot of detail but the price was fair. He did not make any suggestions to upgrade the railing material. The crew arrived on site literally at dawn - 8 am in late October. They worked fast and efficiently and were finished before 4 pm. While the overall build was very good and solid, there were some issues with material placement. Saw cuts toward the end of the day were very rough and splintered indicating a dull saw blade. Exposed cut ends were not sealed. Because the deck was more than 2 ft above grade, we asked for a building permit. The contractor applied for the permit for just the cost of the permit. There were no problems with the inspection. Notes on Material: MicroPro Sienna preserved wood decking is widely available in the city but it is not premium wood. We had bought several fence posts in the past few years and thought we knew what to expect. The 4x4 fence posts that we received were some of the worst we had ever seen. They were clearly intended to be used in the ground and it is the only option that MicroPro offers for this size. Had we known they were so bad, we would have asked for a different option for the railing posts. Two of the posts have huge gouges out of the side and were very splintered. They faced the deck side, not the outside. When we pointed this out to the contractor, he said he ordered extra for circumstances like these and he didn't have time to hand pick materials at the suppliers which is understandable. He may not have a choice of material, but he did have a choice for placement. He offered to come with his sander. He wasn't very happy about it so we decided to trim them ourselves. We will build up the corners with epoxy next spring. If you have a straight forward deck with an aluminum railing, I think this contractor will do a good job. For anything beyond that, make sure you get a detailed estimate and read it thoroughly. Don't assume anything.