Dex by Terra

I am very happy to take the time to write this review.
I just finished a pool area project with Dex By Terra, and wanted to share some feedback. It was an overall great experience.
They were able to provide us up-​front with a 3D design concept, which they presented to us in their office. This gave us the opportunity to really understand the look & feel of our pool area, before we even broke ground. They worked very well with the pool company to time out the project and share concerns, so that the end product matched the original design. We worked directly with Ed Terra, one of the owners. Ed was very hands on throughout the project, and kept an open dialog with us until the work was complete and he was sure that we were 100% pleased. He respected our budget and was happy to make recommendations to us that allowed us to get the look that we wanted at the price we needed. This work ethic and customer service also carries through to their foreman and crew — everyone was pleasant and kept careful attention to detail. The finished product is of a very high quality and we are consistently complemented on the design.
I do not hand out good or bad reviews lightly, so rest assured that the team at Dex By Terra earned this.

Overall good experience. The design process was great and I was hooked by their terrific-​looking draw-​up of the final plan. The concrete crew did a great job pouring the pool deck. Looks nice and I’m quite happy with it. I think the add-​ons however aren’t as much their area of excellence. One issue: The crew building a water feature didn’t speak English, and didn’t seem to understand the desired finished look. Without a supervisor present, it wasn’t possible to communicate the problems. The result was that the execution on the design wasn’t perfect because of communication problems between higher-​ups to the work crew.
After the fact, a lot of calls back and forth have eventually resulted in considerable improvement, and the owner was very understanding and listened well on the phone. Although I feel the process took too long, they were able to fix the problems. So the final outcome is very good, but it was a bit of a struggle along the way.
If you work with them, try to insist that there is a supervisor on the job at all times. That should help with the communication problem, which is our biggest concern.

One of the owners called me to apologize, understand what went wrong and gave me some useful advise. I appreciate that a lot so I am giving them a neutral 3 star rating. If I use them I will be back with further update…

Our condo hired them 2 years ago to replace old falling apart sidewalks with exposed aggregate sidewalks with lots of steps, curves and several high porches. They even installed hand rails (sub-​contracted, but included it in their bid) and reseeded the lawn.
The porches are a joy, wider and nicer than what we had. Their price was the best, and so shoot us but we got quotes from 11 sidewalk firms in suburban Boston. There is never perfection in construction, but they rolled with the punches (bad weather, pregnant lady changing the work sequence so she could get out easily). Every other bidder wanted to charge us way more for the porches, even the 1-​step ones,
Two years later, 40 houses and not a single report of a crack yet. In fact, exposed aggregate gets a little prettier as time goes on and the pebble look becomes more pronounced. They also do stamped concrete – same price – and it was a hard call but we went with the pebbled-​walk look.
Two things I love the most are:
1) step reduction. They sloped 6″ per 10 feet (code is 10″ per 10 ft. max.) to eliminate 5 steps in my walkway. The slope is unnoticeable, but the fewer steps are great.
2) they made 6″ high steps with 18″ treads. Pure luxury! One can walk up the steps with a natural stride. If I could do it again I’d go for 5″ high and 20″ treads, but even 6″ and 20″ would be great.
They also offered glow rocks, which we had 6 to 10 placed within a few inches of the edge of every step. Almost invisible during the day, they define the steps at night and we all love them. Two years later they are still working great, although they said that after 6 – 9 years they would lose their glow.
Their showroom samples were the best we saw.
Seeing the other comments, you should know that I provided the sketches of what we wanted, and I’m a real write-​it-​down kind of person. I’m a project manager with long experience, and these are construction guys so I had no expectation they would be big on writing. You, the customer, will need to do all the writing you want to see. The other side is that Dex was perfectly happy with that. I didn’t get any attitude or pushback, and I used an AIA contract, gave them lists and pictures.
I know too much about how badly these messy projects can go, so little things don’t register on my Richter scale. If you want a good beautiful sidewalk and porch to the specifications you clearly describe, with a hard-​working crew that accommodates your schedule as well as weather and timing permit, Dex is a winner.

I called them last June to reseal my patio. I got an estimate, all was good, on their calendar and they charged my credit card immediately before they even did the work! I kept getting put off and no shows until August of the same year and then finally said forget it an had to chase them for a refund. Because I had a friend who swore by them I gave them a call again this year and reiterated my dissatisfaction with being put off completely last year. My patio was not in good shape and they knew that. They assured me it would get done as scheduled. I was put off once but they did end up coming when they said the second time. I did the oil base versus water base that I was sold on because it «will look like new» I was told. Well… few problems here. First, it poured the very afternoon they did it but it isn’t supposed to get wet for 24 hours I am told. Second, it looks like HELL. blotchy, every flaw it had that it was supposed to hide is so prominent now. Looks worse than when it was unsealed, I am SO bummed! I did call, sent 10 pictures, spoke to a very nice woman who assured me they would come out and look at it, never showed, I followed up, no return calls or emails. I now have a $ 10,000 patio that looks like shit (pardon my language). I do not have the time to chase them but sure as hell will not pay them either!!! Buyer beware bad service, customer service and workmanship. Just not cool to do that to people!

Thanks to Ruben Rodriguez following up on our review AND Chantelle who TRIED to get back to us as a follow up, I will up my stars. HOWEVER, Mark, the nice gentelman who never provided a WRITTEN estimate, claims that he gave us a verbal that took us back… I WISH we would have had SOME baseline to work from. So friends, IF you choose to work with this vendor, make sure you get everything in writing (which I have yet to have to include at a minimum a sketch of what they would propose with a cost — I cant fathom how a verbal estimate assuming we had one, can make any sense without a sketch and to visualize from…) so that if you are not 100% satisfied with how you were treated, it doesnt wind up being your word vs the companies. Bottom line — We NEVER got an estimate nor a sketch. YES, I did make it clear, I did not want to break the bank on the project but that I wanted to know what the labor would be like and what it would entail and cost, before I could decide whether or not to to move forward with the project. Now, maybe our tiny project may not have been worth it to Dex, but they should have at least gotten back with us or told us they didn’t want our business. Their pictures of previous work are impressive. But so are the ones of the company we have decided to go with. I will Unilocal that company with pictures when the job is done. I wish Dex by Terra the best. I am just giving my fellow Unilocalers a heads up on how to get the best service possible by setting expectations accordingly. I wish they at least wouldve given us a sketch!!! ;-(