Their Contractor Underquoted the Deck by $5,000, Now the Homeowner is Questioning the Work
If you’ve ever hired someone to do work around your house, you know that there can sometimes be a bit of an internal struggle when it comes to whether you can trust them to do what they’ve been hired to do. Usually that’s because there are so many horror stories about contractors who cut and run, taking all the money people have paid them without ever finishing the job.
Then there are those instances when your contractor does something that leaves you scratching your head and wondering if they actually know what they are doing at all. That sounds like the situation that a Redditor recently found themselves in when they had some questions about their new deck.
“Is there a reason a contractor would leave these gaps while also simultaneously having pushed some boards together,” Reddit user Ambiguous_Karma8 captioned a series of photos of the work in progress. “I sent the project manager a text but am not likely to get a response.”
To make matters worse, the Redditor described the project as a “nightmare” so far. Reddit was quick to offer some assumptions—both good and bad—about what was going on with the deck, giving the OP a lot to mull over while they waited to hear back from the pros.
The Deck Features a Lot of Unsightly Gaps
Reasons a contractor would do this?
by
u/Ambiguous_Karma8 in
Decks
It seems like the main concern for the OP was all the different levels of spacing between the boards. “This project had been a nightmare thus far,” the caption continued. “These boards are screwed down already.”
Redditors quickly jumped into the comments to share their thoughts and expertise, with most people giving the OP the same reassuring answer, saying that the spacing was likely intentional and left for “breaker” boards.
“He’s going to install a breaker board. That’s why the blocking is there to screw down the breaker perpendicular to the rest of the deck boards,” one person claiming to be a carpenter explained. “As for the lack of gaps between the boards, usually 5/4 PT decking boards like this are very wet, and they shrink as they dry, opening up a proper gap between each board.”
There Were a Few Rude Responses
Unsurprisingly, not everyone on Reddit was kind with their responses, and several people gave the OP a hard time about asking the internet instead of just talking to the people at the job site first. The OP updated the original post with a few edits, explaining that part of the “nightmare” situation they had been dealing with was an incorrect quote.
“They underquoted at $22,000 and tried to get me to pay an additional $5,000. I told them no, and they have agreed to absorb their misquote; however, this made me concerned that they might be trying to cut corners,” part of the update explained.
As to why the OP wasn’t expecting to have breaker boards added to the deck, well, it could be because this design seems to be one that is particularly popular with composite wood, according to the Decked Out Builders blog. The website says that this can be a safer and more aesthetically appealing way to install this kind of wood, which can require hidden fasteners.
Hopefully the Redditors were right, and the OP will be in for a pleasant surprise once their deck is done, since this style does tend to look very nice once it’s completed.
