The Rowe Family Blog

Even before we moved into our house Mary and I knew we were going to put a deck on it.  About four years ago we did just that.  Little did we know what we were in for.We shopped around and got quotes from a few different contractors.  We settled on a contractor not based soley on price but also our impressions of them.  We chose to have Ron Gousman of Rolaine Homes and Custom Decks by Rolaine design and build our deck for us.  He seemed to be honest and know what he was doing.  He also spent time with us on the design of the deck.  Based on his recommendations we chose to have composite decking material installed but use wood for the railings.  Composite rail systems were just too expensive.  Ron recommended Monarch’s composite decking and so we went with it.

Fast forward two or three years.  I started to notice that some of the decking was cracking.  Composite materials are supposed to last pretty much forever with almost no maintenance.  I was surprised and unhappy to see the cracking.  I contacted Ron who promptly reminded me that he warranties his work and materials for 1 year.  We were outside the warranty window so I was on my own.  He did mention the 20 year warranty from Monarch but said that we likely couldn’t collect on the warranty since he didn’t install the decking according to manufacturer’s recommendations!  Later I learned from Ron that he “folded” his deck business.

I contacted Monarch and they had me submit photos of the damage to the deck.  By this time more than half of the boards had cracked.  It was evident to me that there were two problems.  First the boards weren’t installed correctly.  I knew this because the contractor responsible for the work told me so.  Second most of the decking was defective.  The defective boards aged with a light pink color and swelled.  The boards that had held up were a darker color and not swollen.

Monarch’s warranty process went fairly well…or at least it would have if my contact at Monarch hadn’t left the company!  I waited and waited for a response and got nothing so I contacted them again.  They were able to find my information and completed the warranty process.  They decided to replace all of the decking material.   Monarch then shipped a full set of replacement boards at no charge to a local building supply store.  They also supplied enough of their “Crown Clip” installation system to install the new boards.  The new boards are pre-grooved from the factory for the clip system.

I am not at all skilled with home improvement tasks so once again we went shopping for contractors to repair our deck.  We decided to use the old defective decking to build a vertical side skirt around the deck.  Prices from various contractors varied wildly but we settled on Aaron Roberts Home Improvement.  Aaron was professional, courteous, seemed knowledgeable, and his references checked out.  In comparison to the other contractors his estimate was much more appealing.

Aaron and his team completed the work in two days.  I am very pleased with the work that he did.  We had some minor miscommunications but for the most part everything was great and he exceeded expectations.  Our “new” deck looks fantastic.  My only real complaint is that he “spliced” in a board instead of using a full 20ft board.  When I questioned him on this he said it was because they didn’t have enough 20 foot boards because two were damaged in shipment.  I wish he had given us the option to purchase extra 20 foot boards to avoid the seam.

To Ron Gousman’s credit he was helpful.  He worked up a bill of materials for me years after the work was done.  He could have ignored my phone calls.  I really have no idea why he didn’t follow the installation guidelines for the decking.  The lesson I learned is to make sure that it is stated in contracts that installation is according to manufacturer’s guidelines.  I very nearly had a very expensive deck that crumbled only years after installation.

Hopefully this is the end of the deck saga!