American Home Renewal Inc

From beginning to end I received total professional service. Never before have I been 100% sastified but this time I was, totally! Coy the salesman helped me identify the windows I would be happy with as far as price, quality and payment method. The presentation was very detailed and professional. Michael re-measured the windows for accuracy and kept in touch with changes, permits and installation. Andrew the installer was exceptional, not a speck of dust left behind and the finish product incredibly beautiful. I already have noticed how the house stays cool much longer and the noise level has considerably disminished. I love the windows and would recomment this company to everyone I know!

AHR is very well organized. Micah came to the house as scheduled to walk us through their proposal, and gave us an estimate at that meeting. We didn't have a firm start date, but we knew roughly when the project would begin. This gave me time to do some homework about fiber cement siding, and the James Hardie company that makes it (we'd had a problem with James Hardie roofing, and wanted to be sure the siding would not be problematic). About 2 weeks before the start of the project, we received an email from Nataly, outlining the details and letting us know what we needed to do in preparation for work to begin. We did get a second estimate, but it was about 25% higher than AHR. A third contractor we contacted was too busy to give us an estimate. The crew of about 6 showed up promptly as scheduled on the first day, and went right to work removing the old siding and doing all the preparation for the new siding. By the end of the first day, they had removed all of the old, replaced the wood needed, installed the Tyvek, and begun to install the new siding. They were very neat; when they left, they had cleaned up after themselves. On the second day, they finished installing the new siding, installed the new lights near the garage, installed all the new vents, and all the window trim. There was one place where we couldn't use fiber cement trim, so wood was used, and then painted. The team was done by the end of the second day; however, there were a few things that needed to be fixed. There were some spots that needed to be touched up once the installation was complete. We had purchased a pre-painted siding, so the paint needed to be something that matched. Unfortunately, while the color was a match, the paint was glossy rather than matte, so the touch up spots needed to be touched up with the correct paint. We had motion sensors on the old garage lights; those were not installed with the new garage lights. And they had initially not noted where the front door light needed to go, so they had to find the wiring after the fact to be able to reinstall the light. In my rating, I gave AHR a B for Quality for these reasons, but I'd rate it between B+ and A-. Once the problems were identified, AHR immediately sent someone out to fix them. There was no argument, and no issue about it at all. It's not unusual to have something go wrong on a project like this, and these were all small issues. AHR handled everything very professionally and I am very satisfied with the overall work done; my house looks great! I would absolutely use them again, and they will be the first place I go for my next project (already being planned).

I did not go for the cheapest option, but boy did I make the perfect decision! I could not be happier. I first got a visit by a representative, Micah. He showed me all the options and how the company worked. It was a pleasant experience, very professional and polite and not pushy at all. Which I much appreciate. The crews were busy at that time and I got a discount for the fact that I was willing to wait a couple of weeks for the work to be done. That discount was, by the way, more than one would get through Angie's list referral. Eventually the crew got an open slot earlier than anticipated. On the first day a crew of 6 descended upon my little house, took off all the wood siding, put up plywood all around and already "dressed it up" in "Hardie Fabric" (Tyvek). They work unbelievably well as a team. They really know what they are doing and do so with high efficiency. For me the big plus was also that they played fun music to go with the work. All in all it took them 3 days to do the work. I'm impressed with the high quality. My painter already came by, and he is impressed as well. If I ever again need work done like that, THIS is the company I want to work with. A big shout-out to Alex and his crew! You are the best, ever!

I got three bids. There's was $6,000 (the permit brought it up), another company was $5k plus, but I wasn't confident they knew what they were doing and the third bid came in at $12,500! They were punctual, responded quickly and the office person was in constant contact with me and answered questions after hours.

Great from start to finish...On time, finished and cleaned up after themselves, came back for a couple of things with no complaints. Love this company.

I have an 8' x 12' atrium in the middle of my home. Three of the exterior walls are 10' tall with either a window or sliding door installed. The fourth wall is shared with the kitchen as has a vaulted height of 16' with a sliding door. The exterior of the house is stucco except for the atrium which had wood siding. The siding was in bad shape and needed to have several boards replaced, a good sanding and fresh coat of paint. Instead of keeping the wood siding we decided to look into a low maintenance replacement option. We found American Home Renewal on Angie's List and scheduled an appointment for 5/29/10. Micah showed up on time for the appointment. We showed him the atrium area and what we had in mind for the project. He gave us his sales pitch and showed us the different styles & colors of James Hardie siding they offered. We liked the product and color selections so we proceeded. Micah's quote for the siding, trim, permit filing, demo, fascia board replacement & install came out to $5,791.00. This included everything but the permit fee from the city since at that time it was unknown. It was more than we were hoping to spend on the project but well like liked the product and how it was going to dress up the atrium. We accepted the bid and signed up for the 18-month, 0% deferred financing option. The project started about 6 weeks later in the middle of July. The entire project took 3 workers & spanned over 3-days. The first day was demo, plywood, vapor barrier. This was a full days work. Once the vapor barrier was up they had to stop and wait for the permit inspector to come review the job. The inspector came on day two around 10am. He was pleased with the quality of the work and signed off on the permits. The workers returned around noon to start putting the siding up and worked 'till around 6pm. The third day 2 workers returned in the morning to finish up a small section of siding, install the trim around the window & doors, caulk the edges and clean up. At the end of the day I was presented with a change order form for the city permit fees, which I was expecting. I had the option to pay the fee directly or add it to the financed total. I chose to just add it to the total and signed the change form, +$477. We started our final walk through and everything was as expected until we came to the fascia board that was to be replaced. The original fascia board at the top of the vaulted wall was still there. I mentioned this to the installer and he mentioned that they were unable to replace it from the way the roof was installed and attached to the fascia board. I said that was fine, but I won't be able to sign the final work order paperwork until the price was adjusted for that scope of work not being completed, -$250. At this point the installer got a little frustrated and told me he had to get a signature before he could leave the job site. I told him I would not sign until the correction was made. He pulled his cell phone out and call Micah for assistance. At this time I pulled my phone and call the main office of AHR to speak with a manger about the situation. I spoke to both Micah & the manger at the AHR office and they decided to mail me a new set of work order forms to sign since the installer was not authorized to make any changes to the paperwork. It wasn't a big deal, but the situation did get a little weird for about 5 to 10 minutes. All in all it has been about a year and a half since the product was installed. There have been no install/warranty issues to deal with and everything looks great.

The windows were $16,000 and the siding was $5,000 so it was a big job. They were really good in explaining the different options. There was no pressure. Steve Smith came and talked to us and brought a lot of samples. It was a pleasure dealing with them.

I asked a ton of questions. They came and did it when I was not in town. My son was there. When I came back, everything was done fine. One thing, however, is that the inspector would not sign off on the patio door. The inspector said that the step behind the door was not big enough. American Home Renewal set up a meeting with the inspector, and it finally got signed off on by another inspector.

Our windows and siding look amazing. We are very happy with the work, the products used, and the warranties. OUR STORY: We met one of the owners, Marc, when he bid another job for us. Even though he didn't go with him at the time, we knew that we would need his services for another project soon. Months later, we found significant termite and water damage on the backside of the house. We called Marc and this time, we had both owners --Marc and Chris--out to the house. They gave us exceptional serivce and we knew immediately that they would do the work. The hard part of the entire process was the design piece--the type of windows, the color of siding, etc. But it is a no brainer to work with these guys and their crews. They are extremely knowledgeable, professional, punctual, clean and responsive. I always knew when they were coming and always had an update as to what happened that day. ALSO they were also very patient with another contractor who was a meddler. But their crews are polite and made sure to keep me in the loop if lots of work was going on at once. MOST IMPORTANTLY: they are always committed to making you happy. They will make it right and you will love it.

I'm delighted with the final product. The doors and windows look great in my late 1890's San Francisco Victorian!

The workers arrived on time, replaced windows, cleaned up, and completed all the tasks. They did a wonderful job in 1 1/2 hour by himself.

The American Home Renewal team did a fantastic job. The windows and doors are beautiful and suit the house; and the trim matches perfectly. The quality of their work is outstanding. The installation team was so wonderful. They have meticulous attention to detail and are very professional. We will definitely use them in the future for any additional projects and highly recommend them.

We wanted to replace all 11 old aluminum horizontal sliding windows in our 1918 San Francisco home with new fiberglass casement style windows. We spoke to several contractors before AHR and learned that 8 of the windows could be treated as "replacement" windows (fitting the new windows into the existing frames), and 3 of them need to be treated as "new construction" becase we wanted to add new exterior trim between windows and the stucco wall where there was none before. This would involve window installation as well as carpentry and stucco work. All contractors before AHR quoted total job costs in excess of $18,000 using comparable brand windows, and none of them were even willing to do the building permit work since they were all skeptical that the San Francisco building department would let us use the style and material windows we wanted in what is technically considered a historic (1918) house. We then got an estimate from Micah at AHR who was extremely friendly and easy to talk to. The estimate included a flat fee of $100 for them to deal with getting a permit from the city for the job (including as many visits to the permit office as it would take). He was also very confident that they would be able to have a permit approved for the type of window installation we wanted. They obtained a permit quickly, ordered the windows immediately thereafter, and had the windows available a week earlier than estimated. After the job started we decided we also wanted them to build in new interior trim around three of the windows which Micah estimated would add $600. The job was completed on time, and with no extra costs. The installer (Andrew) was a master craftsman who did an amazing job on all of the new woodwork trim inside and out. He also managed all of the coordination with the stucco company who completed the stucco re-patching after the window install. I would not hesitate to use this company again for any type of window job. We were very very pleased.

See previous note. The installer was a delight to have on site and an education in "doing it right". Three of the windows went in easily. One window and the door, when removed, revealed a good deal of rot and fungus which led to extra work. Again mostly handled by the installer.

I am very pleased with the work. I met with the consultant, Micah, as part of my evaluation of a few contractors. I had time constraints as to when the work could be done. Micah was the most accommodating of all the contractors. Plus their estimate was the most reasonable for what was being provided. We looked at available materials because I had to match as closely as possible the original siding since I was replacing only about 50% of the side of the house. They had a prepainted and primed siding that was an almost perfect color match to the present siding. We also agreed to the proper trim colors, etc. and were ready to begin by them placing the order. This is where the only glitch in the process came as they thought they didn't have my approval for the trim color so didn't order materials until I called them after a few weeks to ask for an update on when they would receive the materials. Once we cleared that up, things proceeded but we lost 3-4 weeks which could have been crucial as we were entering the rainy season. To their credit, they were very apologetic and did everything they could to expedite thereafter. Once the materials were ordered we settled on the installation date which was met. The work took two days which was less then planned. The workers were very capable and the foreman was easy to talk to and get answers to my questions during the work. They completely cleaned up after each day. I received follow-up call immediately after the work was done to assure I was happy. Also, they reached out about 3-4 months after the work was completed to schedule another inspection to assure the work was holding up according to plan.

My experience was excellent. They did a great job.

We signed a contract for 7 new windows in November 2009. No payment was due until the job was finished, fortunately! They came to install the windows first in Jan. 2010 and made at least six visits over the next 9 months to complete the job. While most of the errors were made by the manufacturer (Milgard) American Home Renewal NEVER properly inspected the windows before they delivered and attempted to install them. I never knew so many things could be wrong with windows, but they all happened to ours. Screens, too. I was SO GLAD THAT WE HADN'T PAID THEM A DIME. It got to be pretty humorous, and when my husband finally called me and said, "Sit Down, I have window news," I wasn't sure which would be more startling--that they had finally satisfactorily completed the job or screwed up yet again (it was the latter). My husband said he might use them again because in the end we seem to have a good result, installer seemed competent and didn't try to talk us into accepting the problem windows--and we weren't out any money until it was finished. But I wouldn't call them again. It was just too much of a comedy of errors.

We had an excellent experience with this contractor - completely different from some of the more negative comments here. The initial estimator was prompt and talked with us about various options (including payment options). The precise measurements were taken about a week after we decided to move forward, and then it was ~5 weeks until the windows came in. The two installers were professional, prompt, and courteous, and their finish work (everything but painting was done by the contractor) was very good. They cleaned thoroughly after work was completed each day. I have no complaints about the quality of the product and the installation experience. The initial job took 2.5 days to complete - though one of the picture windows cracked on the way to our home because it was the windiest day of the year. They immediately ordered a new one and it arrived a few weeks later. Replacing the cracked window was also quick and painless from our side. No money was due until the job was compete (including that last window). The warrantee offered is also great - though I hope we never need it!

Well, this was the ultimate dog-and-pony show for windows installation lasting two hours despite every indication on our part that we wanted him to leave so we could start dinner! Initially, the sales rep made occasional humorous remarks seeming to acknowledge the showmanship part of his pitch, which appeared to be a refreshing approach. But it turned out to be a very hard sell, including all the pitfalls that might befall the unwary homeowner related to lien releases, liability insurance, subcontractors and on and on. Plus an emphasis on this company's diamond certification and that they don't take any money until the job is completely finished. This last seems like a good selling point. But we also realized that only a large company could afford to do this. So it's a way to compete against smaller operators. Given the fact that this was the 4th in a series of estimates, and so we had already heard a lot of information about windows, a one hour sales pitch would have been excessive. But two hours?!! And as to pricing, the pitch had all the marks of a stereotypical car salesman making us a "rock bottom" offer, giving us such a great price, one that they usually don't offer, etc. They may do fine work, but you may need the patience of a saint to get through the sales pitch.

I stopped with the bid. The estimator seemed pretty good. He was quite polished and convincing as estimators tend to be. The bid was absolutely out of sight. It was quite high. I would actually seriously consider hiring them in the future.

The previous review regarding a slow start is bang on. It's been 4 weeks since the visit for a (2) window install. Perhaps not the biggest job but a job none the less. Upon leaving, the estimator said the quote will be in my email in 3 business days (5 at the most). 2 weeks later, I sent an email asking how things are going adding up the numbers. I was told a specific manufacturer was taking a long time giving a quote, but would send the fiberglass quote that day. 4 weeks later ... nothing in sight. I called the head office and they aren't tracking this at all. The head does not know that the feet aren't walking to work. In this economy, one would think estimates for new work would be the highest priority. Depending on how one looks at it, you could say I lost money on this deal as the inefficient windows have remained for 4 weeks leaking my heating dollars out. UPDATE: Shortly after my report was published, American Home Renewal contacted me to discuss. It seems I fell between the cracks and they were committed to "make it right". I understand their view is my report reflects poorly on their entire company/sales staff when my experience was possibly isolated with just one representative. I think this is a fair assessment of what happened. They get great reviews from other customers and I feel my experience could have been with just one person in their company and may not reflect the professionalism of others. In the end, I received a quote (not for two window manufacturers, but just one) and an offer to compensate me for my time. I've upgraded my score to reflect their efforts making it right in the best possible way they seem able. A kind gesture on their part, but I'm not likely going to take them up it.

Slow to start (tho well within contract parameters), but once underway, they were just wonderful. Brilliant work crews who know their business, and work very, very hard to do a very good job (Europeans). Added elements were handled very professionally and priced fairly. When they encountered a problem with window installation on two levels, they ate the costs in materials and labor without complaining; so paying top dollar has its advantages. As with all physical workers, communication can be an issue, both with their own office as well as with the client. But afterall, these guys are doers, not talkers. The office is very professional, and billing is deftly and reasonably handled. Having some insight now as to how tough these jobs are, this company gets my heartfelt applause!

I liked that they didn't ask for any money until the job was done. It took a little bit longer than they thought, but it was still good. They were accomodating.

My experience with them has been very good so far. They were referred to me by some friends, who had used them several years ago. So, I didn?t shop around and decided to use them. The work has been progressing well. There is a person who is doing all the work. He is very nice and is doing a very good job.

They did a good job and we were happy with them. They were pretty efficient and they knew what they were doing. They were nice to have at our house. We would use them again if need be.