Poly Fence

On May 18, 2020 (Victoria Day), Calvin, the part owner of Poly Decoration Co. (aka Poly Fence) arrived on time for the estimate. A pleasant personality. He was the lowest of two estimates. Therefore, I recommended Calvin's quote to my two neighbours who had agreed to pay half the cost of the fence repairs.

On May 30, 2020, the work commenced. Two of Calvin's employees were assigned to the project. I spent upwards of nine hours watching the work from inside my house. The work was progressing smoothly until it came to the last quick set concrete pour. Shockingly, one of the employees was throwing a few of my dirty landscape rocks and a couple of filthy broken fragments of my neighbours concrete slab into the sonotube as his colleague was emptying the third and last bag of concrete mix into the excavation. This was cutting corners in the worst way. You do not randomly throw rubble into a sonotube during the concrete pour where it will be buried and hidden forever. The cement paste will not bond with dirty rubble thereby seriously reducing the concrete strength. I envisioned the concrete to crack over time. I was watching a beautiful dream of a job turn into a nightmare.

I texted Calvin who within 30 minutes arrived. It was almost 6 pm and the closest building supply store would be closing soon. He appeared to be genuinely upset and asked what I wanted to do. Bewildered as to why he would ask, I told him to remove the concrete before it sets and he will see the rubble. Calvin's employees immediately had to remove the fence panels, wood post and wet concrete containing the rubble. Calvin then asked me to inspect the emptied sonotube before repouring several new bags of concrete mix. I approved the excavation and Calvin's employees were allowed to continue.

My neighbours were happy that I caught the employee in the wrong. Earlier, I was planning on tipping the employees upon completion. Of course, that never happened.

Regardless of who the fence company is, a homeowner who may know a bit about fence construction should stay home and watch each step of the work. Hopefully, Calvin and his partner will terminate the employee and learn from this horrible incident.

UPDATE (JUNE 4, 2020)

On May 31, 2020, I removed the excess dirt around the sonotube detailed above and discovered the worker had buried a piece of the old concrete foundation (rubble) under the dirt. Below the rubble was approximately a 600mm deep void which was not proper frost protection to the new 10" in diameter poured sonotube. I texted Calvin with a photo of the rubble and advised of the lack of proper backfill. Within 45 minutes, his partner Leslie showed up, removed the rubble and backfilled with soil.

The after sales customer service was fast and excellent. Therefore, my rating changes positively. I am confident that both Calvin and Leslie has learned from this mistake with the original terminated employees and have revised their procedures, because Calvin with whom I have communicated with the most is especially remorseful and has stated that changes have been made. This will ensure that future customers will hire Calvin with a better understanding that Poly Fence is a progressive company who stands behind their work.