Altus Building Solutions

Write a Review423-718-9046

Things started out well with Phil Graham and his company. Despite crazy costs for installing a Trex deck and all of the custom work required, I decided to move forward with his company versus the more widely known Chattanooga Exteriors. I felt he would be able to add the personal touch needed for me to feel comfortable with the project while I worked.

The project ended up taking longer than expected. According to my wife, his crew normally was late arriving, had numerous breaks, and left early almost every day. I figured it wasn't a big deal since it fell on Phil's shoulders and his nickel to pay them for the extra days. But the lack of urgency did annoy us a bit.

Overall, though, the deck itself appeared to be a wonderful replacement for our wood deck that was failing. But the little details at the end seemed to trip up Phil and his crew. Communication became limited, and excuses became plentiful. However, after $72,000 spent and several months of time, we had a completed deck.

In less than a year in March of this year, I reached out to Phil again. The sideboards throughout the construction were failing. Several of the boards have bowed out enough to pull the screws out. This seems to be a problem with Trex and not necessarily Phil and his crew. However, as the face of the project, I reached out to him in March with numerous pictures. As bad as his response timing was at the end of the project last summer and fall, his response this time around has been awful. There seems to be no interest at all in fixing a deck project we spent $72,000 on.

Since Phil likes to compare his industry to mine (the auto industry), imagine buying a brand new Stingray Corvette with numerous dents. The dents in our deck are the bowing sideboards. Would anyone reading this accept a new Stingray Corvette with dents all over it? I think not. As the customer, you would expect the dents to be repaired (though you would likely not accept a previously dented Stingray). That's all I have been asking since March.

We are basically spending our second summer unable to entertain at our house and in our pool area because last year the deck wasn't completed in the promised time frame and now because the repairs cannot be completed. Instead, we have a $72,000 deck project with eyesores. I am embarrassed to even talk to my coworkers about this because they thought I was crazy to spend this kind of money on a deck in the first place. Now the situation is laughable because I can't even get the deck repaired.

Understand, too, that I wasn't even 100% happy with the project. The underdeck has never functioned exactly as it was supposed to. The previous deck had a cheaper system that worked much better. But I let that slide initially.

I'm convinced now that the whole situation has become heated that I likely will be left with a $72,000 deck with a lot of issues. So, I cannot recommend Altus Building Solutions to anyone!