PTL Contracting

General Contractors
Ottawa ON K2J
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HomeStars  >  Decks in Dunrobin  >  PTL Contracting  >  2 decks and a patio
Theresa and Roger Trudel in Ottawa
Theresa and Roger Trudel in Ottawa
2 reviews Ottawa, ON
2/10

2 decks and a patio

Amended review

We hired PTL Contracting to build us two decks (one deck off the back patio door and the second was a pool deck) and a patio in June 2020 which was quite a bit of money (over $32,000). Once Tim completed all the work, we had a pool inspection and the inspector informed us that the railings surrounding both decks were not installed according to the building code and the baluster manufacturer’s specification. We worked with Tim and agreed that we would pay another $1,500 for bringing the decks to meet the building code. He took the original 4x4’s posts which we paid for that were notched and they should not have been notched. He should have left us the ones that we already paid for. It was obvious that he ran out of wood and had to shorten our stair rail, but he charged us more money and we never asked nor discussed changing the handrail. We were so elated after Tim and his business partner Chuck finally completed the corrections that we hadn’t noticed that they changed the stair rail (patio deck) and the length of the panel, and it looks awful and is totally unacceptable. There was a finishing board that was also removed from the stairs and now we have nails popping out making it very dangerous. We brought all these issues to their attention in March of 2021 and Tim said “OK” to come and fix it. After four months of waiting and no word (until July 2021), we asked when are you coming to do the work and he didn’t acknowledge our emails. We sent another email a week later and gave both Chuck and Tim 15 business days (until August 4th 2021) to come and correct the deficiency and he has to this day (August 29th 2021) not shown up nor replied, leaving us no choice to bring PTL to court. We posted a review on Homestars where we actually hired him from, and he disputed and denied our existence as one of his paying clients!!! See attached email. We had to produce evidence that he actually did the job. Until we produced the documentation our review was taken down….he lost and our review was put back up and this is the amended version. This company has a five-year warranty, and they can’t even honour that as Tim had also missed putting a stair backing on our pool deck which was brought to his attention in March 2021.
During his time here, we found him to be impatient and rude to his workers. He came and went whenever he wanted without letting us know if or when he would return. He does not purchase all the wood required for the job…he goes and picks up the wood he thinks he will use in a day…if he runs out he leaves and has to drive to a lumber yard to buy more wood…..what a waste of time.
It is very unfortunate that it has come to this to get the job completed…..they will probably never show up. We had a good relationship at the beginning (we bought them lunch, we did a BBQ and beers at the end of the day a few times). While Tim was here, he helped us with a flat tire on our ride-on lawn mower, he built us a screening tool to sift rocks from the earth and gave us pointers on growing grass from seed which we truly appreciated; but that does not give him the right to not finish our job or not honour his guarantees and to and disrespect a paying customer by ignore us.
Tim will charm you and is extremely pleasant until he was asked to come back and fix the job or make good on his guarantee. Unfortunately, he is unreliable, and his ethics are seriously questionable. He removed our old deck which we kept but he actually took the old stairs without even asking us. He was the only contractor within a block radius of our home and we live on 1.78 acres lot and he denied leaving his Tim Horton’s cups wherever and he or one of his workers popped a hole in our siding. He and his worker were the only ones on our property and once confronted he denied but offered to pay for half ??????.
We would not recommend this company to anyone.

Approximate cost of services:
$33,500.00
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Company Response

- A permit was drawn for this project by the client/homeowner via OBC (Ontario Building Code)
- Upon final inspection the project was passed by the local inspector as conforming to the OBC and the permit closed
- After which time it is in violation of the OBC to make any alterations to the project with a closed permit
- Heavy fine to both homeowner and contractor are penalty
- Client was informed by both inspector and PTL
- Client requests changes be made to the deck after final inspection and closed permit
- Client threatens legal action via email if changes are not made, despite the consequences
- PTL seeks legal counsel and is told to cease contact
- No further contact was made with PTL or its counsel by the client

We sincerely regret that we were unable to completely satisfy this situation. However, we feel that we made the responsible choice, taking into consideration the fines possible to both homeowner and contractor, which are substantial. The fact is our hands were tied, and with threat of legal action, so was communication. We would ask the reader to take this into account when considering PTL for any projects.