Our experience is that Coy Construction and its owner Mike McCoy are completely unprofessional and untrustworthy. Mike:
- knowingly used 20+ year old and/or untreated wood on the understructure of our deck, which I can only assume was an attempt to to save a few dollars in material costs
- insisted there were not, and could not possibly be, any problems with our deck until we showed him pictures of the completely rotten wood
- played all kinds of games with us as we tried to get him to fix the problem, and
- ultimately refused to take responsibility for or stand behind his shoddy work.
Coy Construction built a Trex deck for us in 2010. There were a few hiccups during construction but we basically thought everything was OK at that time.
Between 2014/2015 we noticed that the steps onto the deck were beginning to weaken and sag a little bit. We didn't think much of it and thought we could just tighten some of the screws to take care of it. That didn't work because the screws didn't seem to be able to catch anything to tighten the decking into.
The steps got progressively weaker over time until they were starting cave in. We could see through the cracks of the decking that the wood underneath seemed to be rotting away. It got to the point in summer 2015 where we essentially had to stop using the deck because it became a safety issue.
On Sept 9, 2015 we contacted Mike McCoy and said we understood the warranty had expired but wanted to have him come look at it. We just wanted it fixed and even offered to pay for the repair if he wouldn't cover it. He said he would send someone out within a week or so and "The wood framework is Treated Pine......will never rot......just looks like the Trex needs a couple screws."
No one had come out by Oct 7 so we told him we just wanted it fixed and if he wouldn't or couldn't do it we would need to have someone else come see what was going on and fix it. The next day he said he would come out "in the next 3 or 4 days."
By Oct 25 the step had almost completely fallen apart so we pulled the decking off and all of the wood underneath was completely rotten and disintegrated. Based on what was under the steps we said we were concerned about what might be under the rest of the deck. He said that "your deck is fine" and "there is no need to worry about the substructure of your deck....it will pretty much last forever. " He said again he would come out and I said I wanted to be there to look at it with him. He kept saying we didn't need to meet and said he would come out at some point in the next couple of days. I insisted on being there when he came out.
When we met on Oct 29 he acknowledged that the step needed to be fixed. He told me they used cedar under the step but assured me they used treated pine under the rest of the deck. Of course at the beginning of this whole thing he insisted that they used treated pine everywhere. I wasn't sure why they would use cedar on the framework as my understanding is that it would more typically be used for the actual decking. Mike didn't offer an explanation or an apology for the state of the steps. I told him I was worried about the rest of the deck and wanted him to take up a couple of boards so we can see what it looked like under there. He said again several times that there is no need to do that because they always use treated pine and our deck would basically last forever. He said someone would come out and fix it in the next few days.
At 8:30 am on Fri Nov 20 someone emailed us (no phone call) and said someone was coming at noon that day. I emailed back and said that wouldn't work for us and asked if they could reschedule for the following week. I never received a response and that is the last I heard from Mike or anyone in his office.
Winter was coming, we needed to get the steps fixed, and I was tired of playing games with Mike. And more importantly I no longer had any trust in him or faith that he would do the right thing, or anything at all. So we hired someone else to do the job. The contractor that ultimately fixed it said that in order to avoid digging out the old footings with the old wood, Coy used the existing footings to save time and money. They new contractor had to dig out the old footings -- a difficult task -- and then pour new footings with new, treated lumber.
On Jan 8, 2016, I sent the $500 invoice from the guy who fixed our deck to Mike and asked if he would reimburse us in light of the facts that the deck had not been built correctly and his inability or refusal to schedule the repair over the almost three months we had been asking him do it. I was again disappointed, but not at all surprised, that we did not get a response of any kind to this request.
At this point we are not sure if there are other parts of the deck that used old or untreated wood for the understructure. For now we are crossing our fingers.
The bottom line is that I would never recommend that anyone hire Coy Construction. read more