Lone Star Patio

I put a 12' x 33' concrete slab at the back of my house in preparation for a sunroom and then got visits and bids from several installers in the Austin area. In a previous house some years ago I had had a moderately unpleasant experience with a nationally known sunroom installer because of leaks and maintenance and, this time, made careful plans in advance. I considered a wood framed structure but the cost would have been 1.5 - 2.5 time more. I chose Lone Star Patio. They installed a beautiful aluminum sunroom over the slab (11 windows + a cabana door) with electrical outlets/fan/light. Peter Garcia, the owner, had a personal hand in almost everything that got done. He is easy to communicate with and responds promptly to texts, emails and phone calls. The person who manually did the installation, Sean, is a perfectionist (and also a really nice fellow). The electricians - subcontractors - were so good that I will call them myself if I need electrical work. Peter knows how to choose good workers. There were some significant delays but these were due to weather and matters beyond Lone Star Patio's control. There is a 5 year labor warranty from Lone Star Patio + longer materials warranties from Norandex (for the windows) and PGT (for the door). Overall, we are very happy with results and I trust the company to provide maintenance, if it's needed during the warranty periods.

This has been a very difficult  project.  All required project documentation was not submitted so I lost 2 weeks with HOA review   Once design was approved, demolition went well of the original patio cover.  
The new cover was installed at the wrong tie-in point on the house so the whole first day of work had to be taken down and redone. 
New rain gutter was installed with a small 1" hole connection to a 4" down spout.  The rain gutter was immediately plugged by a single Oak Leaf, and the rain gutters overflowed.  LSP took several weeks to try and correct the down spout problem by adding 2 more  1" holes.   Again, this did not work and the gutters overflowed at first rain.   Added more small holes to rain gutter and the down spout.  Not sure if this is going to work.  It still catches leaves easily.
The installed sky lights have been leaking for 5 months now.  Lone Star Patio (LSP) has made 3 - 4 attempts to fix the leaks. Latest repairs still need to be tested.  The sky light warranties LSP sent to me after installation were for the wrong manufacturer and sky light. I notified LSP but have yet to receive the correct warranty paperwork for the sky lights that were installed. 
I have called LSP many,many times  and left messages with  LSP employees and Owner "Pete" but would not hear from them for weeks.
To date, I am not sure if the sky lights/ patio cover is leak free and I do not have the promised warranty paperwork.

I WOULD NOT recommend LSP for any work based on their performance, communication or professionalism.

Excellent, overall.  They built it slowly! But I thought the work was carefrul and superb.  I'd rather have slow and well done.

It went extremely well. They were on time, very efficient, once of the owners were there the entire time. It was quick and easy. They did an excellent job cleaning up.

Excellent representation and workmanship.

Provider was quick and efficient, completing the patio in just a few days.

iWe have a very large courtyard approx 22 x 22 feet and wanted to have a pergola that made the space much more usable, but at the same time did not make the space feel enclosed.    We also did not want the maintenance of wood (i.e.: staining/painting/etc).    We searched for a provider for months and finally found Lone Star Patio.    They use a product called alumawood that in my opinion is far superior to wood.   It comes in custom colors, can be shaped to the patio, withstands 80mph winds (although Austin is unlikely to ever have this), and has a lifetime guarantee.   Michael Baird headed the project and drew up the perfect design for our courtyard.   Our courtyard is not symmetric, but he designed it so it still covered the entire courtyard but still looked geometric and custom fit it perfectly.   The Pergola matched our bricks and paint so well it looks like the house was built around the pergola!   Casey (KC) was the builder and he did everything exactly right.    His attention to detail was amazing, and he did the project in 3 days.   
Lone Star asked for no money up front, and did not ask for the check until we were completely satisfied with their work.    The communication, work, and final project was absolutely perfect.  I highly recommend Lone Star for any projects.

This did not go well.  The only reason I gave them a C overall was because of the quality of the end product.  Back in March of this year, we met with a salesperson for Lone Star Patio.  We explained that we wanted a pool cage built and that it had to be completed when the pool was ready for swimming because it was our security fence  Without it, we would be liable for anyone who was injured/died in the pool even though they were not invited.  We told the salesman that we would be out of the country and state from March 30 - May 13 and would call when we returned.  The salesman said he understood about having the cage done when the pool was.  The salesman either failed to write down we would be out of the country for six weeks or didn't remember.  They called and called while we were gone leaving message after message.  We called them the morning of May 14 as we arrived back to Elgin late on May 13.  We talked about the status of the pool as the pool contractor was able to do some work while we were gone but waited until we returned before starting those things that can't be changed until we were home and present. This was our agreement before we left on March 30.  Lone Star Patio called frequently checking on the status which we were fine with.  The salesman told us that we needed to have the forms in for the deck before they could come out and take measurements for the pool cage.  When the forms were installed, we called and let them know.  We then found out that we had to actually have the concrete poured and that it had to be in place before the upcoming Tuesday or we would have to wait another week for the guy from Dallas to come down and take the measurements. The salesman apologize for the error and told us that he was not familiar with the product and did not know that they needed the concrete poured. This is when the whole project fell apart.  We told the pool contractor that we needed the concrete poured before Tuesday.  He scurried around and got a crew out to pour on Friday even though it was raining first thing in the morning and we had thunder and lightening as the crew was getting ready to pour.  The owner of Lone Star Patio called to confirm that the concrete was being poured which I confirmed that they were pouring at as we spoke.  He told me they would be out on Tuesday to measure.  Tuesday came and it was getting late so we called the guy who was supposed to be coming out to be told he was not coming and he had told the owner that.  No one was even going to call us to let us know that no one was showing up.  In the meantime, we had a discussion with the salesman on the completion date and he told us June 20th which the owner told us was  not going to happen.  When we told him that was the agreement, he told us that we were supposed to be totally completed by Memorial Day so since we held them up, they weren't concerned about holding us up.  We asked who said we would be completed by Memorial Day which was impossible since we were out of the country/state for six weeks.  I contacted the salesman and asked him who agreed to that date and he never replied.  The owner of Lone Star Patio and the two guys building and measuring for the cage came out the tollowing Tuesday, which was June 17.  After looking at the job, they agreed to be completed in three weeks which would have been July 7.  We said fine but that the pool would be completed by July 2 so we would have liability for a week.  We were willing to put up some kind of construction site netting for that short of a time but needed the cage done (the netting would only keep out a toddler at best) .  We gave the owner of Lone Star Patio the invitation we had sent out for our house warming party that was going to be on July 19 and we set that date and had the invitations printed after the salesman told us it would be completed by June 20th.  The owner of Lone Star told us that we would not hear anything from them the first two weeks as one week would be to design the cage and develop the cut list and the second week would be dedicated to building 90% of the cage in a warehouse.  They would be out starting July 1 to start construction.  On July 1, no one showed up. On July 3rd we called and were told by the guy responsible for constructing the cage that he would not be out until after the fourth but would be done on schedule.  July 7th came, which was supposed to be the completion date and no one showed up.  We were told that there was a material delivery problem but he would be out on July 10 and be done July 11. We called the night of July 9 to confirm he was coming out and what time so we would be here.  We were then told he was not coming nor did he think he would have the cage completed before our party (which was two weeks later than the date they told us of July 7)..  We then told him that we thought we might need to get some legal advice as it did not appear they were going to complete the contract.  We then discussed this with the owner.  He called us back on Saturday, July 13 and told us that the guy who was supposed to do the construction now was nervous about doing the job.  After a long discussion with the owner, it was agreed that they would do their best to have the cage up but not totally sealed by July 18 and that he would give us daily updates.  On Sunday, we were told that the guy was working on it.  Monday, same story and that that a truck would be delivering the top and sides on Tuesday, July 15.  Some materials and panels were delivered (not all of it was we were told on Monday) on July 15 but the stuff was delivered and the company was gone by 2:30 in the afternoon.  On Wednesday, two guys showed up and put screen on four of the 6-7 panels.  They left them laying out in our front lawn and a storm was supposed to come late the next day so we thought they were going to be out in the morning.  On Thursday, no one had shown up by 10:30 in the morning so I called the company and said I wasn't sure anyone was coming out but I had three problems with leaving the panels out in the front yard.  1) anyone could come by and steal them, 2) they could be damaged if the storm came with any kind of wind because they were under the trees, and 3) I was having our party on Saturday and I did not consider those to be lawn art and not the first impression I wanted people to form of our new house.  The office person was very polite, said she was very sorry and that the owner was called out of town for an family emergency and she would get someone to come out.  I told her my husband made room in our shop to store the panels.  A person came out in the afternoon but was not aware of how large the panels were and was not going to be able to move them by himself so my husband helped him.  Monday - no one came, no one called.  At 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 22, the owner called with all kinds of reasons why no one showed up like they were supposed to the week before and the bottom line was that the guy who was responsible for the construction was a contractor to him and had overextended himself with other customer jobs and had not been working on our cage like he was supposed to have.  He asked for another week to complete the other jobs he started and had not completed and promised up and down that the guy would be at our house on Monday, July 28.  The morning of July 28, the owner called and said the guy was not coming.  He claimed that his wife had a car accident on Friday, July 25.  She was fine but had a migraine that day (Monday, July 28) so he was not coming.  He finally did show up on Tuesday, July 29 at 9:45 a.m. and left by 4:00 p.m.  He came on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. and left by 6:00.  On Friday, August 1, he was supposed to arrive by noon with the lifts he needed and showed up at 2:00.  He was gone by 3:00-3:30 telling my husband that he now realized that he needed anot

We had a back patio cover put in.  The work they did was awesome and I would highly recommend them to any of my friends in the future.  We never had a problem with them showing up on time, completing everything they said they would do and then some.  I'm amazed at the work they did and the outcome of the whole job.  These men are exceptional in every way...

It was great. They were very professional, did outstanding work, and I'd happily recommend them to anyone!

Lone Star Patio screened in our back patio in June 2012. At that time they assured us the materials and workmanship was guaranteed.
 In May 2013 we noticed some holes had appeared up high in the screen, so we contacted Pete Garcia, the manager. He assured us that the damage (probably caused by birds or insects) was covered by the warranty, and that they would replace it. When the work hadn't been done, we emailed again in September 2013, called again in November 2013, and emailed again in May 2014. On each occasion Pete or one of his workers assured us that they would repair our screen at no charge. 
As of May 31, 2014, nothing has been done.  They are always very nice and tell us they will fix it, but they never show up and do the work. We have been waiting for a year for them to fix this problem.



UPDATE ON THIS REVIEW: A few days after this comment was posted, a worker from Lone Star Patio showed up at our house ready to work. He did the requested repair of replacing the insect damaged screen in about 15 minutes.  He was very polite and apologized for the delay. A few days later the manager of the company, Pete Garcia called to apologize for the one year delay in completing the warranty work. He said they have had scheduling problems.

The building of the enclosure went very well with a knowledgeable man completing the work in a timely and professional manner.  This was done in 2012 as agreed.  The setup and pouring of the concrete for the extended patio was OK, but nothing outstanding.  After they prepared for the pouring of the concrete, an inspector (county) came and said they were not allowing for the weight of a seat wall and would have to dig the ground deeper.  I feel this was definitely needed as I do not think the concrete would have sAttood the weight of the seat wall (without cracking) if it were not required to be dug to a deeper depth.
The seat wall was again OK but nothing great.  A weep hole at the lowest point on the seat wall should have been drilled so as not to have some standing water after rain storms.  Twice I called Lone Star Patio to try and get this done, but nobody ever responded.  I gave up and will do it myself.
Work overall ranged from very good to just OK.  Getting Lone Star to respond to my calls was the hardest part.  At this time I'm not sure if I would use them again.

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Great.  Matched material and color and new patio cover looks great.

They were there when they agreed to be,  They worked around my plants and shrubs and patio furniture which they put back in place when complete and cleaned the area. Everyone that has seen it has been very impressed and several have said they were going to contact them to do work for them.

Other than the delays in receiving materials from the manufactures, the project went very smoothly and the owner Pete Garcia, did an excellent job helping us decide on what type of patio covers would work best in our back yard and compliment our home.  We are very happy with our patio covered area.  Lone Star Patio did a very good job and I would certainly recommend them.

After going back and forth between a pergola and covered patio and soliciting several quotes, we called Pete Garcia with Lone Star Patio for an estimate. He arrived on time the next day and had everything he needed to provide an estimate on the spot, which was very refreshing since the other contractors had taken at least a week each to respond with their quotes. Pete had two albums of photos from previous projects they had done and had a three page list of references. He also provided us a list of several addresses in our area where we could drive by and look at their patios. Pete talked us through the pro's and con's of a pergola -vs- covered patio and left us with an estimate for both. He was very knowledgeable about his product and was able to answer all of our questions. We decided without hesitation to hire Lone Star Patio for a solid covered patio. We were in a time crunch to get the project done and Lone Star Patio delivered. They had the project complete by the end of the following week which was a week before the due date we had given them. The project took 4 1/2 days to complete and each day the crew arrived before 8am and worked in the VERY hot sun until at least 4pm each day. Robert, the lead on the project, was very professional and always greeted us with a smile, answering any questions we had with enthusiasm. As an after thought we asked if we could install plugs in the poles and they were happy to modify the project accordingly. They also ran speaker wire for us during installation free of charge. I am very surprised at the reviews I read for Lone Star Patio here on Angie's List because I experienced nothing but professionalism and quality from this company. Our patio cover is beautiful and exceeds every expectation we could have imagined! I would definitely hire them again and would recommend them to my friends without hesitation. Brandi Johnson Hutto, Texas

Lonestar Patio was very professional, on time and did a good job. The carport is attached to my house so it is very convenient for me to use. I didn't feel the price was unreasonable and I would recommend them to other people.

I looked at a few companies and chose the company based on their reputation and the price. We wanted the porch so we could sit out there, without getting bitten by mosquitoes. The porch looks great and serves its purpose. I would recommend this company to friends. They were here when I expected them and it was completed in one afternoon.