Elbert Construction Inc

We had an appointment scheduled but his office called prior to cancel the appointment as the technician's father had died. He was supposed to follow up with me at a later time to reschedule, which he did. He came out within a week or two to look at the work to be performed. He said he would get back to me with an estimate for replacing the patio door but had not heard back from him. On September 14th, I left a voicemail complaining that I had still never received any follow up in regards to my estimate. A few days later, Lee had left a voicemail apologizing but I was done with the company at that point.

When we moved into our house, we knew that the first major job we wanted to complete was replacing the windows. They were very old and leaked, some were painted shut, locks didn't work, and there were old aluminum storm windows on the outside. After looking at several types of windows and installers, we went with Exterior Home Improvement (EHIMP) and the fiberglass Infinity windows, made by Marvin. These are restoration-type windows which fit into the old openings. The total came out to 21 normal double-hung, one slider, and one awning style, along with three storm windows for some of the old windows we decided to keep. We went with white wrapping around the windows. The Infinity windows are excellent - they have a clean, classic look which went with our house both inside and out. We hated the thick mitered corners on most vinyl windows. The Infinitys are much stronger than vinyl as well. We went with the oil-rubbed bronze hardware and Hi-transparency screens, which was money well spent. Another advantage is that the frames are more narrow than a typical wood or vinyl window, so when you're installing into existing openings, you lose less light. So far we have had zero issues with the windows and are planning to replace one final old window with another one. The one awning window works well without binding, and the slider is still perfectly smooth. The one thing we would change on them is adding a second handle at the top of the double hungs to make it easier to open the top sash only. Without any handles or edges to grip onto, it's difficult to open and close them. Now, onto EHIMP. I will preface this by saying this install was a decent experience, and we ended up going with EHIMP again. However, the second experience was very poor, and we will never use them again. Our second experience was with basement windows and door, and I have a review posted for it as well. One problem is that it's hard to separate reviewing an entire job without being able to separate installers from the windows from the project manager. Back to the current job - we ended up with Dan Vogel as our Project Manager. He is easy to get ahold of, responds promptly to phone or email, and shows up on time. He was always willing to stop by to look at something or bring some more samples to look at. However, Dan is pushy and unprofessional, especially when constantly asking for reviews on Angie's List. Be careful what you wish for, Dan. This install went pretty well. EHIMP uses subcontractors and we had a fellow named Matt for the job, with a couple other guys were on the job as well. They were friendly, reasonably quick (while working), cleaned up pretty well, and did good work. They worked magic with the new slider, which is in a crooked breakfast nook which was added on to the house at some point. Some cove trim really hid the gaps required from making the window fit into a non-square opening. We didn't have any damaged trim, they fit well and the caulk job was perfect, and they open, close, and lock perfectly. That's saying a lot in our 85-year-old house. The only issues were some paint which flaked off the trim around the windows (more the fault of the paint than the installers, the old windows weren't easy to get out), and one of the screen doors which was re-wrapped and would not close. Dan came out later and fixed this problem, as well as installing a handle which was missing from one of the new windows. One problem with scheduling dealt with Matt also running a snow removal service, and our install was in December. They showed up late some days and ended up cancelling once, which extended the install by another day and a half, if I recall correctly. This resulted in my wife and I having to adjust our schedules around so we could be at home, and kept us home one Saturday while they finished. Remember these scheduling issues if you take a look at my other review for EHIMP. Please take a look at my second review for basement windows and a door to see why we'll never use them again.

After having Exterior Home Improvement replace the upstairs windows in our house, we decided to have them do our basement windows as well. Our first experience went fairly well, especially with the installers. This time we chose cheaper vinyl windows because they were simple fixed-pane units. As for the door, we went with a fiberglass Masonite door with composite frame. Our basement entry is damp and I wanted it to be as water resistant as possible. At least the products themselves are good. The door is solid and still works very well, and the windows are fine. Dan Vogel was our project manager again. As mentioned in the other review, EHIMP uses subcontractors, and we had Hillary this time. Dan recommended him highly, saying he was even better than Matt, the guy who did the work the first time. This could not be further from the truth. It did not take long for things to go downhill. Dan sent an email saying that the guys would be showing up that very week to install....sorry Dan, we won't be home, and we're not letting people in our house while we're not there. So we rescheduled for a future date, which Dan whined about. This was fine until a very close friend of the family was dying and the need arose for us to travel out of state for the inevitable funeral. I immediately emailed Dan about this before the funeral had been announced, and said we would need to reschedule again. The next day I called him upon his request - as it turned out, he wanted to express his unhappiness with having to reschedule! I was quite taken aback. He again ask us to allow the work to be completed while we were not in the house. I was upset at this point due to the circumstances and let him know as much. Dan was completely unsympathetic the entire time. After I spoke to my wife about the conversation, she called Dan to let him know exactly how angry and upset we were with how things were being handled. She reminded him of extra time we had been required to take off of work for the previous job due to his subcontractors rescheduling on the fly without notice. He also failed to apologize for his earlier conversation with me. To make matters worse, towards the end of the call Dan attempted to sell us life insurance, which he apparently started doing on the side - this is not a joke. Yes, Dan tried to sell life insurance while we were dealing with the impending death of a close family friend, while he was dealing with business for EHIMP. We were amazed. Dan called me again on the way home to ask for more money. He had apparently forgotten that the reason the job was taking so long was because his incompetent subcontractor broke one of the new windows. Alas, the contract specifies payment terms, so I furiously informed Dan that he was out of luck. He did finally expressed a halfhearted apology, presumably hoping that I would decide everything was fine at this point and I would have no problem handing him a check. Once the newly scheduled date arrived, Hillary and another guy showed up to begin the install, which was supposed to take two days. They showed up late and broke the second window while trying to install it. He was going to board up the opening until I suggested using another one of the new windows of the same size, so they installed this window and went home for the day. During this whole process I was treated to hearing Hillary insult and berate the other installer. Their cleanup job was horrid, causing me to spent a couple of hours of my own time cleaning up the rest of the glass and debris. We have cats and and did not want them getting into broken glass. The second day, they showed up earlier (after I pressed for this) and began doing the other windows. However, after lunch Hillary apparently remembered something he needed to do, and so they left. At this point, we were becoming more and more angry. The job was half done and it had been two days, which now would require my wife and I to take more time off. Once the replacement window was ready, Dan emailed to let me know they would pick it up on the way to our house. Again, I had to push for the window to be picked up the day before, so the next day they could arrive early enough to actually finish the job. Showing up at 10:00 AM doesn't leave much time to work. My wife was there on the third day while they installed the door and final window. When I came home I took a look and found multiple issues with the door: - broken weatherstripping - damaged casing around one of the hinges - obvious rubbing on one side - misaligned strike plate - door latch would not even click into place, it was 1/4" off vertically - a hard shove on the door required to get the deadbolt in, which did not go all the way into the casing - it bottomed out and therefore did not fully lock - chunks of concrete knocked out in three places around the new door, one of which was open to the outside with an obvious draft coming through - remnants of a standard pine shim found near the new door, when only composite shims should have been used. This was a shim I had down there for another project and was untouched before the door install. - huge amounts of caulk used where concrete, backer rod, anything else should have been used as well. Caulk isn't designed for 3/4" gaps. - another window in the basement was not wrapped as had been promised More importantly, they had damaged a drain pipe we had coming into the house underneath the door. I had emailed Dan and reminded him and Hillary multiple times to be VERY careful around this, and even put up a small guard. They still managed to damage the drain pipe as well as the drain cover. Hillary and Dan came out to look and spent most of the time making up excuses, which was very tiring. Just fix it, please. Hillary stayed to fix all of the problems once I convinced he and Dan that a new door should still look new once it was installed. In the afternoon they ran off once they "completed" everything, without asking me to go over it to see if anything else needed to be taken care of. They had neglected to fix the door latching issues, which I fixed later on my own. At this point we wanted to see no more of either Hillary or Dan. I'm not a professional, but I can and have done plenty of my own work - I did not want to tackle this job, which is why I hired someone I hoped could do a better job than I. This was obviously not the case. A few weeks after the job was complete, some vent covers on the windows disappeared. Dan came by later to put in some replacements - again he tried to sell life insurance to me, again while performing work for EHIMP. Unfortunately we did not report either this problem or any others with the owners of EHIMP, mostly because we wanted everyone and everything out of our hair. This review will speak for itself. Since this time, Dan has come by to sell us financial services as well. We continue to be amazed at his lack of professionalism. Dan, here is the review you continually bothered us for. Please do not contact us again. We will never again use you, EHIMP, or Hillary for any work on our house.

Great. JR walked me around my property and pointed out the damage on the siding, gutters, and roofing. He explained the differences between the findings given by the first contractor and the insurance company. Ultimately, he agreed with the insurance company; however, the roof will need to be replaced in the near future. Working with JR on finalizing options, shingles, and gutters for the replacement.

Lee Phillips came out to look at a repair job on my vinyl siding. He left a card in my door and never responded to my phone calls.

We have engaged the services of Exterior Home Improvement several times now. Steve Smalley is OUR guy! He takes a personal interest in all work done and ensures prompt communication and timely service. We continue to have great confindence in this company's work.

After waiting for a couple of no-show contractors, I made contact with Elbert since I had noticed their well marked trucks in the area. Kris did a great job documenting the hail-damaged roof and gutters and gave my wife and me a very descriptive and informative lap-top presentation, as to how they perform their work and what sets them apart from the others. Kris even helped as we contacted the insurance company to start the claim and helped throughout the process. The entire process went well and as promised. I would highly recommend their work to anyone. Chris C.

From beginning to end I was pleased with the work done by Elbert Construction. Their work crew arrived promptly, tore off the old roof and put on the new roof. The crew was conscientious, seemed to work very well together, and had the roof job all done in one day, including the cleanup. The gutters were replaced and the gutter mesh installed a few days later, as planned. I would not hesitate to use this company again.

Everything went very well. We were really happy with the carpenter especially.

Rick Kunzer provided us with an estimate to remove and replace our 2 back doors. After my husband & I compared all the quotes we received for this project, we chose Exterior Home Improvement for several reasons. The cost was $2,500 to $5,000 below the other companies. The reviews on Angie's List were positive so that reassured us about the significant difference in cost. Plus, Rick added in the caulking around the windows and doors for very little extra cost. The project was completed over a total of 3 days. The doors were removed and replaced in the same day. The crew was very professional. The doors were then stained and sealed a few days later. The caulking around the windows was completed during the first day of staining and sealing. We contacted Rick about questions we had regarding the look of the sealant once it had dried. He was very understanding and sent the crew back out to put a second coat on the doors. The doors look great now. We would recommend Exterior Home Improvement to our family and friends.

The company's representatives and workers were very professional and we always felt we could call if we had a question or concerns. When we did, they responded quickly. The final result was wonderful and one cannot distinguish the new siding from other areas of siding. The new exterior siding was painted to match the addition and looks like it has always been there. The windows are energy efficient and with cold weather, we could not be happier. We also asked them for a separate bid to also put on concrete siding around our 1920's era garage, but have delayed this until the next building season.

I am the property manager of the clubhouse and I use them all the time. They gave us some ideas of how well we could do with a fairly large deck. They came out and gave us an estimate of what it would be and a little bit of the design because we changed it in one of the areas. They did an excellent job for us. They were very good at cleaning up. They were timely. They were respectful and very professional. They did wonderful. It was a fair price. We had three estimates and theirs was definitely not the cheapest or the highest, it was in the middle.

Before calling Elbert Construction, I had phoned two other companies but they either didn't return my call or they required that I purchased a minimum amount before they would help. I went to two big box home improvement stores and they didn't carry the exact match or I had to purchase an entire box when I only needed one piece of siding. Elbert Construction inspected the damage, found the exact siding match and installed it and it looks great--I couldn't be more happier with them. They charged a very reasonable price with no minimums, no requirements. Elbert even provided an extra piece of siding for us to keep on hand for any future damage to our home. Elbert Construction will be my, and should be your, first call with home improvement needs. They were great to work with and very helpful. Call and ask for J.R. and he will make sure all your needs are taken care of.

It was great from start to finish!

Exterior was the third company on Angie's list that I contacted for an estimate. Mark Boggs was sales rep gave us a detailed explanation on types of vinyl siding to use on our house. The siding that his company uses has a thickness of .44. Mark told us that the thicker siding helps to keep down damage due to hail. The other two companies that gave me estimates told me that thickness on their siding was .40. Cost on siding job ranged from 17,500 to 19,800. Exterior's estimate was 19,800. Mark said that he could give us a 10% discount on siding. The company that made siding was having a sale. Mark told us that if we paid cash he could give us an additional discount of 5%. Exterior started job the third week of September. The crew did an outstanding job on installing the siding. They worked very carefully around flowers and shrubs. They even installed new lights for porch, garage, and patio doors at no additional charge. When selecting new gutters Mark gave us two prices. First choice gutters with a leaf guard on gutters. The second choice gutters with leaf guard that has screen guard. This type or guard was more expensive and it does best job of keeping leaves out of gutter. We selected the second choice because we live in a wooded area. A different crew did this job and they did a very professional job. Roofing estimate dealt with solving a problem related to sagging roof. Exterior looked at roof and told me that the roof was fine. I was concerned with sagging problem and asked is their something that they could do to give roof additional support? They stated that they could place additional supports in the rafters. They didn't use any sales pressure to have us do this job. Since we live in wooded area, we decided to have roof job done. Mark stated that we would have a 10 year warranty on the roof repair. Mark was in constant contact with us until the project was completed. We would hire Exterior again to work on our house.

Lee from Exterior Home Improvement came out multiple times to discuss what we wanted, give us options and make sure we agreed on what would be done. He then stayed in touch through the process, letting us know when our door was in, when it would be installed and the final steps of the process. He was professional and the workers were too. Overall we are very happy with the work done and the quality of the finished product

We had been wanting new doors for a long time and atfer having all of our windows replaced by Exterior Home Improvement decided to go with them for the doors as well. They offered us lots of options and we finally landed on the front and back door that looked like wood but were completely fiberglass. In addition we had a very old sliding door that needed to be updated and got the same brand for the windows so everything matched. The only issue we had was the supplier said we could get the exact same doors for the front and back but then said they did not make that size door at all. Our salesman Rick worked with us to get a very similar door from another vendor and had it shipped to the original vendor for the finish work so they had the same color and texture. This did add a delay but the finished product was definitely worth the wait. We love our new doors and aside from a few scheduling issues to get our screen doors reinstalled it was great to work with them and their crew.

We were extremely impressed with the communication, installers, workmanship, cleanliness and courtesy of each professional involved in this product. Our windows are beautiful and energy efficient. I highly recommend Exterior Home Improvement Inc!

The service turned out just fine. Their communication was good. They kept me informed throughout the process. We had the estimates done in the fall and they had to do the project in early spring. I was very pleased with them.

The service turned out wonderful. They came in and set everything up with the insurance company. Everything went very smoothly.

The service was fine. It took them a while to finish the job but the roof turned out fine.

The service was wonderful. They got it done quick and did a great job. He also gave me a name of an electrician to do some other work for me. His recommendation was great as well. I had a really good experience with them.

The service turned out fine. They were on time, cleaned up, and did everything right.

The owner of EHI, Steve Smalley, was very involved in our entire experience and was extremely helpful in assisting us with the decision process as well as providing his thoughts on an exterior siding issue, which, happily, we followed. The work crew was very thoughtful, neat, and considerate. The whole project took about a week. As with any project of this size, we did come across issues as the project progressed but Steve was very quick to address them and followup to make sure we were satisfied with the outcomes. Overall, we found Steve and the EHI crew to be very anxious to please and meet our expectations. We are very happy with the quality and appearance of the Marvin and Pella windows. We don't have any specific energy saving cost figures but, in the past we would supplement the air conditioning in our upstairs area with a portable a/c unit. However, even with the extremely high temperatures of this past summer (several days of 100+) we did not need this unit to be comfortable in that space. We would definitely recommend Steve and his EHI team for home improvement and window replacement projects. In fact we will also be considering EHI again when we replace our roof next year.

Mark Boggs arrived when expected and spent a considerable amount of time going over the features of exterior doors. The door arrived within the promised time and was installed on 11/28/2012. Hilary Ying, the installer, was proficient and did a great job installing the door. When it was discovered that a new door know and dead bolt was needed, Hilary went with me to be sure I got the correct kind. Many thanks to Dave who helped with the installation. Thanks Mark and Hilary for a great job!