512 Pergolas

Our experience with 512 Pergolas started well, but is turning out to be a very bad experience. Their price was the highest for my pergola project, but they did discount slightly to earn the business. It was still higher pricing than the competition, but I felt comfortable moving forward considering their positive reviews. Our pergola was seemingly on track and most of it went up without a hitch, but a few pieces were not completed. While we waited for this missing pieces to be installed including two cross beams and 12 large lag bolts and some hardware randomly left undone, I figured it would be a good time to stain the pergola. I asked John Sells for a recommendation and he referred his own sub-contractor. I got pricing and agreed to pay the price quoted. Huge mistake! The sub ruined the stain job, dropped stain all over our concrete decking around are pool and the ruined portions of the decking and pergola by applying too much pressure with a pressure washer when he tried to correct the issue. Of course John took no responsibility in spite of being on site at times advising his sub on how to rectify the issues. The cosmetically damaged decking and pergola have yet to be fixed after a few months of waiting. It also took months to get the special order lag bolts in. 12 total bolts of which only half have been installed. John Sells tried installing them himself, and was only partially successful as several of the bolts broke. He informed us that more bolts were going to have to be ordered. The wait for completion continues to date. To make matters worse, John caused the entire pergola to shift during his last work session and is now rocking back and forth. This is a very large pergola structure that could be deadly. John casually scheduled a meeting with me and was completely unapologetic for the issues. He did not make the meeting we scheduled, but instead texted a solution for the issue which made no sense. I am now about 7 months into this $17K pergola project and am looking at a total loss considering the structure's instability and 512 Pergola's refusal to cooperate. To add insult to injury, my ongoing pool project has to be halted because of the dangerous structure impeding work on the site. There are several other contractors in Austin that can provide a better product and better pricing and also follow through with their contractual obligations. There are much better options out there. Don't get burned.