Creative Outdoor Living

We UNFORTUNATELY hired Creative Outdoor Living/Brate Aluminum and Construction to undertake our multi-project home expansion. We hired this company to paver our driveway, sidewalk, front porch, and back porch. Also, we hired them to create our back patio and paver it, enclose the back porch into a sunroom, and add a fire pit and outdoor kitchen with appliances. Even though the driveway, sidewalk, and front porch could have started without a permit, this company decided not to do anything until after the back-patio permit was completed. STAY AWAY!!! We received feedback from the owner stating financial and staffing issues. They are in a restructuring mode as they pick up the pieces. BE SURE to read the other Google and Yelp reviews regarding Brate businesses Creative Outdoor Living/Brate Aluminum and Construction. A complaint has been filed with the Better Business Bureau. We are now pursuing legal action against Creative Outdoor Living/Brate Aluminum and Construction. We signed our contract on March 24. We were told when we signed the contract it would take about 8 weeks to pull the permit and then about 4 weeks to complete the entire project. It has now been 7 weeks from when the permit was approved and we only have the driveway and front porch completed and the footer poured of our project. We have the back-porch pavers, the sun room enclosure, the patio pavers, the screen porch, the fire pit, the lights, the gas lines, the electrical, and the outdoor kitchen remaining. Nothing has been done in over two weeks (no notification as to why) and there is a big pile of dirt in our backyard that is an eyesore to us and our neighbors. Out of 28 work days since June 12, someone has worked on the project only 8 days and we signed the contract 4 months ago. According to the Brate Built Construction website, this company has been in business for three generations and the service pledge states the following: - We will treat you with respect throughout your contact with our company. (Not returning phone calls does not show respect) - We will call you back if you leave a message. (Numerous phone calls and texts have gone unanswered) - We will send you a courtesy reminder or call you before we come for our appointment. (Never received any phone calls or notifications) - We will follow up with you after you receive your estimate. (After we signed the contract, we had to contact someone after 9 weeks to get a status update) - We will keep you informed of the project schedule. (This has not happened and you cannot give us a project schedule) - We will provide you with copies of our insurance and licensing at your request. - We will employ crew members who are properly trained and behave in a professional manner. (The excavation crew demolished the community sidewalk in which Creative Outdoor Living/Brate Aluminum and Construction had to replace.) - We will have our team leaders introduce themselves to you before they begin work. (We were only introduced to the Project Manager Maurice. None of the other team members working on our site introduced themselves.) - We will have our team members review the work with you at the end of the day. (This never happened until the project was deemed completed by the project manager and we communicated many issues that still needed to be resolved before that phase of the project could be considered completed. These issues are still outstanding.) - We will clean up the job site before we leave. (Fill dirt was left in our neighbor’s yard and not cleaned up properly. There is base material and stacked pavers on our back porch so we cannot use it. The irrigation that was ripped out of the ground was not capped off. Some footer boards are still up, and there are empty soda bottles and extra wood pieces in the middle of the footer area. There is a pile of dirt and plywood behind the footer that is killing our grass. A column the back side of the house was damaged during footer construction. The cement at the curb/base of the driveway has been chipped and not repaired in numerous places.) - We will ask you for feedback on our products and workmanship. (This writeup addresses this statement.) - We will provide you with a two-year warranty on workmanship and honor it steadfastly. - We will always thank you for your trust and confidence! As the owner of the company, we expected Creative Outdoor Living/Brate Aluminum and Construction to be working almost non-stop to make sure all the projects are being completed as soon as possible and to the client’s satisfaction. We expected to have someone work on our project almost every day until it was completed, but that was not the case. In the owner’s email, there is not even an indication of when someone will even be out to work on the project. We are beyond frustrated and have given Creative Outdoor Living/Brate Aluminum and Construction plenty of time to finish our project.