Exterior Designers Inc

Siding color was matched by the factory. Perfectly blended into the remaining siding on the home. Quick and responsive communications, extremely competent trade craft, competitive pricing and overall high quality experience with John and EDI have made me a very happy homeowner! Would recommend to friends and neighbors and anyone who needs work on anything "exterior" on their homes.

Update to the below narrative: 1) I increased the initial rating I had. The original ratings were much too harsh. 2) Yes, the roof was installed in 2005. That is absolutely correct. 2007 was incorrect. 3) Price: No complaints on price. Just saying that it was middle of the road based on the estimates we had at the time. 4) With regard to the leak, I have no idea how long it has been present. It probably took awhile for the water damage to start to show. It is a fairly slow leak. Additionally, the water had to travel through a layer of attic insulation before it would damage the drywall. My point of all this being that the leak has probably been around for awhile. Maybe since 2005. Maybe sometime later. To be perfectly honest, I don't really know how long it has been there. 5) Mr. Gallagher has a point that maybe the flashing problem arose when the siding was done two years later. That is entirely possible. However, I cannot be sure one way or another, and frankly, it doesn't matter now. What mattered now was that I had a leak and just wanted it fixed. 6) I think this story came across more as a witch-hunt than anything else. That was not my intent. Mr. Gallagher made valid points when explaining the problem. Other contractors made similarly valid points that seemed to contradict his. In the end, there was probably always going to be a mix of opinions. In my case, though, everybody I talked to had said the roof installation was the problem and not the siding. So, that's why my personal frustration was directed at the roof installation. With all that being said, again, I have modified my ratings accordingly. Price: The price was reasonable based on our estimates. I feel a 'B' is fair. Quality: For obvious reasons, I hesitate to go above a 'C', but do not feel right going any lower. Responsiveness: Yes, Mr. Gallagher has come out to our house whenever needed. It can at times be difficult to reach him, but in the end, he is fairly responsive. I believe a 'B' is fair in this respect. Punctuality: This is based on a very small sample size. The last time we met, Mr. Gallagher was very prompt and this was greatly appreciated. The time prior, I was under the impression he was to come out to our house in the morning yet didn't show up until 5pm. This might have been a simple mis-understanding. I do not know. However, I do not recall any issues with punctuality when we had our roof done. Professionalism: I don't feel comfortable rating higher / lower than a 'C'. I have to believe that our overall experience is not typical. Additionally, there seems to have been miscommunication along the way that perhaps made this seem worse than it was. In the end, I had wanted somebody to come out and say that yes, this roof / house was messed up and here was what it was going to take to fix it. I would have loved to have known when the issue arose, but that does not appear possible at this point. I never expected anybody to repair anything without some cost to me. I just wanted somebody to fix my leak and fix it correctly. From what I had been told, that person should have been a roofing contractor. I understand Mr. Gallagher disagrees and that is perfectly reasonable. It seems simpler in this case to agree to disagree and move on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original narrative: We used Exterior Design to get a roof replaced in 2007. Price: Middle of the road based on 5 estimates. Quality: The roof looks nice. Other: The roof started leaking in 2011. We called John Gallagher out to look at the leak. After playing phone tag, he came out to the house within a week. Once at the house, I don't think he could have been any quicker to point out that he thought the problem was a result of the siding we had redone a year after the roof. In his estimation, the problem was not the roof as we had suspected. Ok. While I was not entirely pleased with how quickly my concerns were dismissed, his explanation did seem reasonable. As a result, we had two other independent contractors come out to the house to look at the leak. Both were experienced and qualified to make an independent assessment. Both, independently, pointed out that the area of the roof that was leaking was near the siding and did not have any flashing / counter-flashing. Therefore, there was simply a gap where water could leak between the siding and the roof. Both of them also pointed out that this is something the roofer and not the siding folks should have addressed at the time the roof was replaced. Although there was already siding on the house when the roof was replaced, John's crew should have simply pulled off a small section of siding and put the flashing / counter-flashing in. In their judgement, this is where our problem was and we should again contact Exterior Designs. So, that's what we did. We asked John to come back out. This time, we intended to have a siding person here at the same time. Unfortunately, that isn't the way it worked out. John showed up on time (was very prompt) while the siding guy didn't show up until a few hours later. John spent roughly a half hour up on the roof with a hose trying to reproduce the leak. We were able to reproduce the leak when water was sprayed right at the joint between the siding and the roof (the spot without the flashing / counterflashing). Without a doubt, that is where the leak was. This is where I had a problem. He explained that there was nothing he would have done differently when he had done the roof. He claimed that since there was already siding on the house when he did the roof, there was no way for him to put flashing / counter-flashing in when doing the roof. He would have had to remove siding to do this correctly. In his estimation, he didn't do anything incorrectly and in fact would do the very same today. There are two follow-ups to this story. First, the siding guy showed up 2 hours after John left. He could not have been more reasonable. He pointed to the same basic flaws and said that while the flashing issue really belonged to whomever did the roof, he would do what he could to resolve it for us. I will be writing another review for that company since I was so pleased with their service. Secondly, while I was outside finishing up with the siding guy, my wife talked to John on the phone. She attempted to explain what the contractors had told us. John effectively said that his workmanship was not at fault, our independent contractors were unqualified to make any assessment on our situation, and that at worst case, this was a case of human error. Furthermore, he would not be fixing anything and we should have somebody else look into resolving this. Now, to be fair, my wife was getting very agitated while talking to John. So, anything said during that conversation should be viewed through that lens. I will offer this up as my opinion on this saga. First, I think we were fair with John and the other contractors that came out to the house to take a look. I was never looking to get this leak fixed without paying at least something out of pocket. In my opinion, both the siding and the roofing people had a chance to resolve this independently. They both failed by not pointing out the deficiency to us, the homeowners, in the first place. Both of them could have resolved this separately with very little pain (and little money out of pocket for me). So, there is blame to go around. However, the reason I will rate Exterior Designs so low is that the impression I have gotten from John on every occasion is Exterior Designs was unwilling to take any responsibility for this leak. Accidents happen. Mistakes happen. Humans are error-prone. I am ok with all of that. However, I feel Exterior Designs did not stand behind their workmanship and own up when a mistake was made. I hope others have had better overall experiences. However, I will not recommend Exterior Designs nor do any business with them in the future.

They were a good company. We had no problems with the work they did. However on the window side of it, we were kind of disappointed. The windows performed fine. They opened and shut and everything was easy but the noise wasn’t dampened like we thought it would be with the windows we had. Other than that the crew performed well and everything went well. We had no problem with the workmanship or the work. The roof was good. We weren't satisfied in total with the windows. It was not their fault; it was just a manufacturing defect. I thought it was a decent price for the amount of work we had. There were a couple of times when I had a slow response but nothing terrible. Everything was done according to the schedule they laid out for us. Because of the sound dampening on the windows, we searched out another company but it had nothing to do with personality and I would still consider them again.

I consulted Angies List to find contractors who had multiple reports with excellent ratings and a high quality of work. I called the top three in my area. EDI returned my call and scheduled a meeting for a estimate. They arrived as promised and I gave them a overview of what we were looking for. They explained all the options and provided feedback on the various options. Once we the estimate I took few days to do some additional homework on the materials and the company before calling them and hiring them for the job. They gave a estimated date for the start and estimated length of the job. They started and finished the job as promised. The crew performing the work was professional, punctual, and enjoyed their work. The job was completed including a good cleanup job. We wanted a high quality job without the seams you see in a lot of siding jobs and we got what we asked for.

They did the work in about a day which means they probably put in more than an 8 hours day which is good. I think they did a pretty thorough job.We had to wait a little bit for them to get back to us after the estimate. They came early on the day they were scheduled. It was paid for by insurance.

I did not use him, but he was excellent and he was one of my first and second choices. The price he quoted me for that work was about $14000. He was excellent in every way. The only bad thing was that initially, he was hard to get a hold of. Once I did get a hold of him, he was prompt and responsive each and every time I called. He was very easy to work with and was very knowledgeable. His prices were a little high and that was probably one of the reasons I did not go with him, but it was not way out of line. I have recommended him to others. There was no bad stuff that I could say about him.

Professional and knowledgeable about services being quoted.

The roof basically deteriorated. They used cheap shingles. They came out and took off a couple of shingles so that they could send in a claim. Roofs should not last 9 years, they should last atleast 20 years. We had to re-do our whole roof again. They take a while to get back to you, but they send you things in the mail constantly. I would not have them come again, and I would not recommend them. They were willing to come back and put new shingles on the house that were made from the same company that made the original shingles. I don't understand why they would continue to use the same company that provided the shingles that deteriorated before.

They were difficult to get a hold of. After the sale, Dale did not communicate well. The work was ok, but communicatiomn difficult.

Workers showed up timely and put in full days' work. Cleaned up the area. John kept in contact through the job.

John showed up on time and provided a thoughtful estimate.

They were professional and they cleaned up after themselves. It's a family owned business so I talked directly with the owner. He was very personable and knowledgeable.

It went well overall. The owner is very professional and reiterates that he and his company are focused on customer satisfaction. They walk the walk. He came out and did the estimate, recommending a different style window for one of them. I was told it would take a few weeks to get the finished windows, which are well-crafted. This was true, but I had been told to expect this. One needed a follow up adjustment. The manufacturer came out promptly at the owner's request and made the needed adjustment. The windows look and feel well-insulated and open and close easily. I agree the new style window is a better replacement.

They were on time and very precise with their work. They were clean and did a good job. I would use them again.

Great experience! John was professional and very knowledgable, as well as being a real nice guy.

The job went beautifully. EDI's installer, "Steve the Door Man", was friendly, responsive, and an expert. The entire job took less than three hours, but it wasn't cut and dried. The house is 100 years old and nothing is plumb or level, except now the new door is. Steve cleaned up the job site and took away all detritus, including the old door.

It was good. They came to my home and gave us an estimate, which is what we payed. They did quality work, were in and out, and cleaned up after themselves.

The service went very well. I liked him because he allowed the man that was working with him to do extra things for me which saved me money and time.

The experience was great. The job was messy, but they kept everything protected with tarps and took other safety measures. They cleaned up very well and the work they did was great!

The experience overall was great! The owner is wonderful and his workers are polite and they clean up well. They are very nice people. The work they did was excellent.

Dale Meador, the owner, has many years of experience. He has good ideas and information. The installer, Witek, was extremely professional and provided exceptional results. I was very satisified with the complete project.

I had actually contemplated doing this job myself, but I'm glad I didn't. It took the professional installer about six hours to complete this project because the existing rough opening had to be modified to fit new door, this also caused the need for wider interior trim and new exterior fascia. The installation looks perfect. The door's frame is vinyl clad over a wood sub-frame (which makes for a well-constructed door). This door has a raised bottom track which causes it to glide very smoothly and keeps it from collecting dirt. Not only does it look good, but the door has considerably improved the warmth of the adjacent breakfast nook (prior to installing this door on a cold day everyone avoided sitting in the chair next to the patio door, not any more!). It has also noticeably reduced the amount of exterior noise that makes its way into the house. The next lowest quote for this job from another contractor was $1300 for an ''economy model'' (that looked it!).

The work was very good. We also have them some other minor repairs as well. Salesman gave great ideas.

John Gallagher is a rarity in the home improvement business; he delivers what he promises and backs his work if something isn't quite right. After the new roof was installed, I discovered that the attic ventilator wasn't centered properly over the opening in the roof deck. I called John, and he promptly dispatched a crew to reposition the ventilator. Both the roof and siding were installed on-time. Site clean-up was a bit lacking; I found roof nails and vinyl siding pieces in my yard for several weeks after the install.

They offered a very good product at a reasonable price. John, one of the owners, gave me a lot of information about different types of windows and what would work best in my situation. The installer was very courteous and left the work-site clean. The whole process went without any major problems and I'm very happy with the result. The only issue is the communication, but calling John or his foreman directly is always a sure way to get your questions answered.