Texas Outdoor Escapes

"I was very disappointed with Tony with his final product. I had a deck built on the back of my house little over 3 years ago, 2016. Within the first year and the first seasonal rains the roof leaked terribly from areas of the deck. After the 2nd rainy season I got tired of it and had to have a new roof put on the deck. According the roofing company the wrong type of roof was put on the deck due to the pitch it had and water could not drain properly. Today I find out that the electrical work down was done out of code and will now need to be redone and brought to code. It has been a very frustrating ordeal and very costly.."

"Since my initial review I have been informed by the city of San Antonio department of services that Texas outdoor escapes insurance expired 4/18 and their license as a contractor expired 4/2019. They are not a viable contractor and I would strongly recommend researching further. The fire brick that was used to build the fireplace was laid on the 2” side vs 4” side. This is just gross incompetence."

"Our first fire in the outdoor fireplace that was built by Texas outdoor Escapes (#tonygodsey) caught fire and required the fire department to put the structure out. When we contacted Texas Outdoor Escapes / Tony Godsey he claimed all warranty was void due to lack of final payment. This was not a warranty issue, it is a insurance liability issue. They have yet to provide that certificate for coverage. The gross negligence around building the fireplace structure could have resulted in serious injury or death. The fire bricks were not stacked properly, there were gaps in the interior roof of the fireplace, and the fireplace was not made with fire mortar as necessary and required. Additionally during the course of the project Tony Godsey was unresponsive, negligent in his building practices, argumentative when discussing issues, and unprofessional. When researching a contractor prior to hiring Texas Outdoor escapes there was 1 bad review on line which Tony Godsey talked his way around. I implore you to research further before doing any business with this man or business. He claims to be a master carpenter, he is not. He gladly took our initial deposit in Dec 2017 which was months prior to his access to our project (due to pool excavation and decking). He ADMITTED to misappropriation of these funds (which is a felony), ran out of our project money and was unable to complete major milestones (i.e. roof, counter tops, railing for stairs, etc). We were willing to work with him and directly purchase items and deduct balance from final invoicing. That didn't even work, he failed to show up to the job site timely which ended in us parting ways. This business should not continue and Tony Godsey should go into a different line of work."

"Our backyard had a deck when we moved in, but I hated the backyard. It was so exposed, no cozy feeling and it just wasn't nice to look at, very plain and boring. We saved for a couple of years and then started looking for someone to build us an oasis in our backyard that we would enjoy more. We had a few ideas, but didn't really have a total design. We contacted several outdoor companies, and most of them just asked what we wanted, but did not input their own design concepts. The night we met Tony from Texas Outdoor Escapes, he sat down with us for two hours, took a ton of notes and measurements and then got back to us the week after with a mock up drawing of what he thought of doing. We liked his design and the estimate was fair and we went forward. During the project we made some changes based upon our thoughts and some of his recommendations. Step by step we were included in the process and introduced to each team that came out to work on our home. The project was estimate to be completed in three weeks, but due to a bunch of rain delays it took about a month. The final project turned out better than all the photos I had saved from pinterest and everywhere else on the internet. We love spending time outdoors and every time we have guests they compliment how amazing our backyard is. We had a small leak in the roof about 7 months after the completion of the project. We called Tony and he had someone out to identify the issue and it was fixed by the end of the week. With projects this large and when you invest this much money, it is important that once the project is complete, they back their work. Tony stands by his work completely."

"DO NOT Recommend! Everything went wrong with this project from day 1. The project (totaling $21,423) also included building a patio cover (11x40) to be connected to the house roof. We experienced water leaks since the day the roof was installed. After 5 attempts, the leak was reduced, but it was still leaking under heavy rains. The company was no longer making attempts to narrow down the source and fix the leak. We had no prior issues until they worked on the roof. Fire stack was refurbished after the company blamed it as the source of the leak. It took from July 2016 until January 2017 to get the issue fixed and only because a complaint was placed with the Better Business Bureau. BTW, their BBB rating is C+ and a 2.4 score out of a maximum of 5 points. We paid premium, $9,825, for stamped (seamless Italian Slate), colored, and sealed concrete looking forward to adding value to our patio; instead, we have been very disappointed with the results and need to find a resolution. There are several signs that point out to low quality of workmanship such as honeycombing due to poor consolidation and craze cracking due to poor curing practices or excessive water in the mix. There are also signs of shrinkage cracks which are caused by pushing imprinting tools into the concrete after the surface has become too hard. Little or no texture with the stamps is another sign of poor stamping technique. Not waiting for the right stage of plasticity or not using a powdered release caused the caused the stamping mats/skins to stick to the concrete disturbing the imprint texture. Concrete person tried fix the pulled concrete by grinding it down; unfortunately, he grinded it down to the aggregate. After more than 12 complains, no other efforts have been made to correct this terrible concrete job. Another issue is the improper slopping of concrete to ensure proper drainage. Water drains toward the house and under the covered patio instead of draining away. We are also still experiencing issues with the electrical work that included wiring for fans and lights in addition to outlets and a fan/light dimmer switch that has not work properly since day one. It sometimes works and sometimes it doesn't. Got very concern when it jolted people just by touching the switch. This is a dangerous safety issues that the company has decided to ignore. Rubber and grounding was added, but reported it over a week ago, because it working intermittently. Tony will find any way to increase the cost of the project while cutting corners to save him money such as with the cover patio. The covered patio included a cedar ceiling made with 1x6 Tongue & Groove which Tony also wanted to use as decking. I checked with the experts at Braundera Lumber and strongly advice against this because the recommended nails for the shingles would be very small and under driven to prevent perforating the 1x6 Tongue & Groove. The small nails would not have sufficient strength to resist a small wind uplift load making the roof very prone to wind damage. The use of such small nails would have also voided the manufacturer's warranty against wind damage. But there were also other issues with the wood. The wood used in this project had cracks, stains from metal banding...somehow Tony decided to use the damaged wood instead of rejecting and replacing. He blamed his supplier, Braundera Lumber, for the defective wood. Now, if I get new tires for my car and the company has a tire with a hole, should they install it on my car just because that's how they received it, or does the tire store return the defective tire and provide me with one that meets standards? Texas Escapes seems to concentrate on mass production and not on quality work. Seems that Texas Outdoor Escapes only cares about quantity and making money…. not quality or customer satisfaction."