I wouldn't recommend this company.
We paid Argus to remove a colour bond fence in July 2020, replace it with an automatic opening gate, and replace wooden verandah railings with metal ones. They booked us in for 2 days to complete both the fence and railings, but it stretched out to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Monday.
I had to contact them to find out why people weren’t turning up or turning up then leaving after a few hours without any communication, had to chase them up to do things that shouldn’t have been left, for example, cement splattered on window, a post they removed from ground left behind when they took the others away, for the soil they dug up to be taken away (which they placed on top of a garden bed, and on top of crushed brick on the driveway which became sludge in the rain). Later on the owner told me they’re not responsible for taking the soil away, the soil “belongs to the house”. I can’t think of any tradesman who has done work for us and not cleaned up after themselves. This wasn’t stated in their quote either. Paint flecks were left on the verandah railings which we had to clean up. The gate was left splattered with dirt on the inside which we cleaned.
On the second day I was told that the verandah would be finished on Wednesday, and that the fellow who automates the gate would come on Wednesday. On Wednesday the fellow came to work on the verandah for a few hours (but not the gate tradesperson), then left the job unfinished without saying anything. The next day no one showed up, and I rang to find out what’s happening. I was told by one of their employees that they kept pulling people off jobs to go to another job as they had staffing issues. When I called I was told they’d get the tradesman on Saturday to complete the verandah, and that the fellow who automates the gates would be there on Friday. To automate the gates they dig a channel in the concrete for the power cable. I was told by the owner during the quote that the channel would then be filled in. After asking for it to be done only part of the channel was filled in, and it looks unprofessional, with part of the conduit exposed. The owner came and looked at it and said that the fellow obviously had a hard time filling it in, and that’s all he had to say on the subject, no suggestions offered. There were scorch marks on one stair railing, and I said I didn’t know how that happened. The owner said he didn’t either, and that the guys were very busy, and that the verandah railing was harder than they thought (he was the one who came out to do the quote). Then he was silent, not offering any suggestions. My husband suggested they switch the top railing to a lower spot instead of providing a new piece. (When his employee came to switch the railings around he said the scorch marks were clearly caused by the use of a grinder on the railing.) In one spot on the driveway where they ground down the old colour bond fence post, they didn’t remove all of it, so you can easily see part of the metal post sticking above the concrete, and the gap between the last railing and ground was high enough to see the mess. My husband had to come up with a solution to conceal the unsightly gap, to put an extra metal strip down the bottom. The owner said that they wouldn’t be able to grind it down any further. (However when his employee returned to conceal the gap I asked him if he could grind it down, and he did grind it down a bit more.) Some of the soil they dug up they placed on top of crushed brick, which after being rained on turned to heavy sludge. I pointed out that it wasn’t fair that we had to pay someone to remove the sludge from the crushed brick because they dumped it there. The owner said that they don’t take away soil, that the soil “belongs to the house”. He said he’d think about it when I pointed out that it’s not fair that we have to pay to get it fixed. After a few weeks and several attempts to find out what he was going to do about the soil, an email response was sent via an office person, saying that they don’t remove dirt. Soil removal is not mentioned either way in the quote he sent, although it was clearly stated that they wouldn’t dispose of the old fence. Screws were removed from another section of colour bond fence and left on the ground.
My husband asked the owner to come out and discuss these concerns. He came an hour late with no reason why. His responses to the issues raised were that the job was more difficult than expected (he had completed the quotation himself), his employees were very busy, one of them couldn’t handle the job and that caused everything to fall behind.
We also had difficulties with the gate operation, it opens randomly without the remote being operated. We’d go to bed with the gate shut and wake up to it being open. When we were leaving home we saw the gate opening again. I rang to mention this and I was told that they would speak to the fellow who installs the gate mechanism and that no one else had this trouble. That was about a week ago and no response. When the owner came it was mentioned again, and his response was that the fellow who installs the gate is very good at his job, end of discussion, no offer of a solution. I rang their office and spoke to someone else who was helpful, and they sent the person who installed the gate motor to come and look at it. When he came he said that he couldn’t do anything unless he sees the fault. It happened again, he came again and couldn’t find anything wrong. He ended up coming another time when I noticed that the gate kept opening randomly overnight and through the day. He reset it, but an hour later it opened again. He returned the next day and installed a new power board, it appears that the one installed was faulty. It took just over a month to get the power board replaced. 2 weeks later the gate opened twice again by itself. As a side note, the remotes do not have a shield, so can be triggered accidentally in your pocket. We kept the remotes inside the car and in the house, as carrying them could accidentally open the gates.
I’m providing this review for potential clients to know what to watch out for, especially in gate and verandah installations, as this is an expensive purchase. I am very disappointed that we picked Argus to do this job, and would encourage people who are considering using them to consider other companies. For photos check Product Review or Google sites.