Builders & Remodelers Inc

Quick summary: It took 10 weeks to get this company to install the windows. Expect the normal aggressive sales tactics. The crew was top notch. The company itself, I cannot recommend and would never do business with again. Watch out for the contract. It is very, very, very skewed in their favor. Pretty much, if you sign, no matter what kind of a job they do or how long they take to do it, you can't bring them to court without paying their fees, there are no refunds, etc. It is possible to ask companies to change parts of contracts that you find to be excessively in their favor. Make them put time limits and refunds accordingly when they are missed. Also, make sure that you can withhold a portion of the payment if they do a bad job. The salesperson brings around papers saying that they have an A Angie rating. When I looked, they hadn't an A rating for at least 4 months by the time they were showing us this document. The salesperson will do anything they can to not leave without a signature. This was fine for us because we knew that we were going with them anyway. There was also something else that they were showing as a good thing that was actually expired. I'll see if I can dig up the paperwork to see what that was. In early August 2013, we were quoted a price that was about 10% higher than the competition. The salesperson, Bob, sat down and explained the process and materials for us, which was far more than the others did, so we decided to go with Builders. Bob said it would take 5 weeks after the measurements before the windows would be installed. I thought this was a little excessive, but it would leave us time to do siding before the cold and snow, so I went with it. They measured the house once they cleared a check for half the amount. We did not hear one word from them after 5 weeks from the measurement. We had to call them. They said they would check the shipment that just came in and get back to us that day. They came back with an excuse that their product ordering guy was unexpectedly out, so they didn't order our windows until a couple of weeks ago. They said it would be a couple of more weeks. My guess is that they didn't put in the order until we called. There was no phone call when the order was supposedly put in 3 weeks late. They even tried to tug on our heartstrings by saying that the product guy had to get unexpected surgery. I can't believe that only one person knows the status of orders as they go through the process. That is seriously negligent of a company with so much money from hard working families going through there. The fact that no one noticed that they missed an order for so long says: 1. There is no backup for such a critical job. 2. The salesperson does not care about the order once signed. 3. There is no mechanism for tracking orders received other than one person. 4. They do not have the professionalism to call if something goes wrong (or really at all). 5. They don?t know the status of an order at their manufacturer or what to expect on their shipments. Trying to call these people was a joke. They answer and then try to send you to someone else's voice mail as fast as possible. At this point, 6 weeks after the sale, I didn't know if this was a fly by night company or what. I was absolutely livid and fearful that we had a large sum of money stolen. The scheduled install was 9 weeks after payment. Again, we had to call them after the two weeks. They couldn't get anyone out until the next Tuesday, and that was after doing us the favor of moving things around. Since they were already two weeks late, they should have known that the shipment was coming and been out that day or the next. The next Tuesday, crew came out and worked through the drizzle and then came out the next day to finish. They did a very good job. No one told me that they needed garage space for cutting. That is my only issue with the crew. I had to quickly make room when they got there. While they did a good job cleaning, there was still plenty of sawdust to clean up afterward. Not to mention that I do not like random people parading around in my garage, or having it open all day long. After the installation, there has been no further contact except the bill. No one seems to be interested in how the windows are performing or how the crew did. The crew had me fill out their rating sheet, but they could easily forge that. We really didn't have time to get siding after that, not to mention that we wouldn't go with Builders.

1. Brad, our salesman, did a convincing job of closing the sale by telling us that Builders & Remodelers had, hands down, the best crews in the industry with the most experience. We signed a contract with them based on this proclamation even though they were the highest of our three bids. We signed on for a "quality" job. 2. The project was begun approx. 2 months after we signed the contract and put 1/2 of the payment down. 3. We were VERY happy with the majority of the work. 4. We were unhappy with the original work that the crew did around our attic vents and around our 4 season porch and called to express our concerns. Specifically, the siding on the 4 season porch did not extend down as far as the adjacent walls on the house and we thought it looked as though they ran out of siding. More importantly, the vent work looked unfinished and jerry-rigged. 5. All procedures needed to be cleared with Noah before the crew could do anything. Therefore, when my husband attempted to discuss our concerns with the crew he was told he had to call Noah. 100% of our calls to Noah rolled over to voicemail. Responsiveness was slow; and, without coming out to view our concerns, Noah's initial response was to defend the crew and discount our concerns. 6. At another call, Noah did tell my husband that he had driven to home, viewed the work and again defended his crew. However, he had not come when we were home so that we could discuss our concerns first-hand. 7. I then phoned Noah myself, got his voicemail, and left a message letting Noah that we were still unhappy and that we were going to be writing our Angie's List review and would like to give them an opportunity to respond to our concerns prior to writing our review. 8. Noah promptly returned our call, came to the house, and I had a chance to have an "in person" discussion with him and a couple of the crew members. Noah explained, in a very professional and responsive way, that the four-season porch had a higher cement level to its foundation than the adjacent house and that is why they didn't extend the siding down as far as the house. He explained the reasons why it is not advisable to attach vinyl siding to cement. We decided we could live with the way the 4-season porch looked. Noah then agreed that the vents could look more finished. I showed Noah the photos of the homes whose vents we liked and he readily agreed to have the crew come back and re-work the vents and to install the much more esthetic framed vents. Noah did say that our salesman had written on the contract to simply side over the attic vents and not vent them at all. This had not been discussed with us and is not something that we would have ever agreed to. Who would have ever guessed that the vent work wouldn't be part of a $9,000 project? (We have a fairly standard one-story rambler in Roseville). 9. The crew returned about 2 weeks after our in person meeting and completed the work to our 100% satisfaction. 10. We are very happy with the final product that Builders & Remodelers provided. I would recommend them with the caveat that you are very explicit in your contract about all finishing work. Also, I would hire an electrician (as we did) to take care of all exterior light fixtures. In fact, according to our electrician, it is "code" that to pass inspection on a remodel, a certified electrician needs to perform all electrical work. The Builders & Remodelers contract stated that they would take care of taking down and reinstalling the exterior lights. There was some minor discord over this but our electrician handled this part of the interaction and it was amicably resolved. 11. We are very happy with the final product.

They were very timely and gave me excellent service. The price was reasonable because I scouted out other bids. It was an excellent experience. They were professional. They got the job done in about 2 days. I would highly recommend them.

A person at this company named Al, or Allan cold called my mother, and my mom asked them to come out and bid replacing her gutters. They made an appointment to meet the following Thursday at 11:30 to get an estimate. My mom asked me to come over because she wasn't comfortable meeting them alone. I took time off of work to go to her house and be with her while this person came out to quote the job. We called when Al was 15 minutes late, and He claimed he had no record of making the appointment. He transferred my mom back to someone else, and they had the nerve to ask if she would like to have someone come out. We told them we will find someone else. So I missed 1 1/2 hours of work along with plenty of frustration. I would think twice before calling this company.

They did an excellent job for a reasonable price for quality windows. I was pleased. - There was an issue with the door. The salesman said there would be no problem adapting my security system sensor to the new door, but the installer said he could not do it. After trading a few phones calls, B&R agreed to pay for the installation of the new sensor. Problem solved. - If I could, I'd give them an A- because they make sales calls from an unlisted number. I don't understand why they choose to do this. Their service and products stand on their own.

The sales process was great which is made us excited in our decision to go with Builders and Remodelers. After handing over our down payment (half of the total payment), this is where the excitement ended. We were in the process of prepping our house to be sold and wanted to be sure our windows were going to be finished in the timeline promised to us. We found our emails unanswered or answered nearly a full week later and calls to our salesman (Bryan) were not returned by our salesman, but instead always returned by someone else we hadn't worked with. In every instance, it was us who had to reach out to them for communication including status updates, scheduling installation, rescheduling installations, etc. This was extremely frustrating for us. We were told that our installation was going to be a one day job. Once our windows were available for installation, we scheduled an installation date which had to be rescheduled due to bad weather (completely understandable). Our reschedule date was on a Saturday and we were not informed in any way, shape, or form that completing the job in one day was not going to be possible until AFTER they arrived. In fact, only one window was installed that day out of three (and there was no weather related issues). They left our house by noon and the only explanation we were given is that one of the installers couldn't work the full day. As you can imagine, we were extremely unhappy about this and had to reschedule AGAIN. Our installer did not handle this for us and instead made us figure it out ourselves. This time, we had to work from home during a weekday to get our last two windows installed which was a complete day's work. We choose a weekday over waiting until the weekend because 1) we wanted this prject to end and 2) they stored these large, expensive windows in our garage and we didn't want them being damaged as we drove our cars in and out. The windows themselves were great quality however the patio door is warped. We have to forcefully pull the handle in towards us every time we open and close the door. We put this on their quality inspection sheet and we never heard back from them. We even commented during the time the door was installed and were told from the installer that "this is how vinyl doors are." For the money we paid, this is simply inexcusable. We were told we would have trim placed on our windows that would be large enough to cover the removal of the existing windows. This however was not the case in our bedroom and we had to mud and paint the entire area surrounding this large window. We also had a large gouge put in our kitchen wall when the patio door was being replaced which we had to be mud and paint. Overall, this company put on a very good front in the beginning to gain our business, but we were very dissatisfied with almost the entire remainder of the process. We assumed that noting some of this stuff on their quality inspection sheet would prompt some sort of action, but it did not. The work was completed nearly 2 ½ weeks ago and we received our final invoice from them which leads us to believe nothing will be done about these issues.

They worked quickly and efficiently. The patio door was 8' and that was a large open space when door was taken out. Obviously we had some time with the open space and it was a really really really cold day! But no complaints from them about cold it was, were always pleasant, and did not waste any time working on the door. When they were finished, they removed the old patio door, removed the drop cloths, cleaned the dust from the floor, rehung the drapes and rod and helped return the plants to the plant stand. Nice people to have working in your home.

A portion of the soffit siding had come off in a high wind. Builders and Remodelers were putting new siding on our neighbors house, so we called them and asked for an estimate. He was able to look at what needed to be fixed and give us an estimate within a few days of our call. They even squeezed us into the schedule so that the same crew that did our neighbors house did our repair when they had finished the siding job. The color matched well and it looks great! Although the price seemed high to me, we really wanted to get it done and I knew it would be hard to find someone to do such a small job.

We received a call from a telemarketer from B & R. We had some hail damage on a very small portion of our siding on just one side of the garage. The telemarketer assured us that they could match the siding, and made an appointment for the estimator to come out on a Friday evening. They were insistent that both the husband and wife would have to be home. When they confirmed the appointment, they again insisted that "the wife" be home. The estimator arrived 2 hours late for the appointment because he underestimated his travel time and got lost. By the time he arrived, it was dusk. He saw that it it was a very small job, he seemed frustrated, and said, "I came all this way for this!?!" He said they can't match siding that is that old and we'd have to replace all the siding plus he could get us a new roof, but he was willing to work with our insurance company only if we gave him the bid. Years ago we tried to get them to come out and do an estimate on windows, and they cancelled 4 different times shortly before the scheduled appointment time. There was the usual array of phony excuses: truck broke down, flat tire, the guy had to help his buddy out, etc.

The sales rep was wonderful! The installers were great, they put in the windows in the middle of a snow storm and they were great!

The research and selection:I used Angie's List to do the research and had a few outfits come out to show us their products and give us estimates. I hade 5 or 6 different estimates. We had considered replacing the windows a year earlier and had a few sales reps come out, some with horrific sales pressure techniques. I had to ask one sales rep team to leave (can't remember the company). We also went to a home expo at the Minneapolis convention center. We made most of the appointments through that visit. This time around I made it clear on the phone to every sales rep that I wouldn't tolerate pressure techniques. Most were courteous and obliged. Bruce Johnson was the sales rep that came out (alone) for B&R. I could tell he was a very seasoned sales rep. He was extremely courteous and very pleasant. His pitch was very brief and we spent most of the time on him answering my questions. By then I knew what questions to ask and Bruce was extremely accommodating and honest-sounding. I'm by no means gullible and I felt very comfortable with Bruce's pitch and answers. He did the measuring and estimate. We went back and forth in negotiations and at that point I told him I was still evaluating different outfits and that I would be in touch. He politely expressed appreciation for the opportunity and left. By the time I ended my research I had seen a lot of windows, some were comparable to B&R's but I decided I liked the Softlites best. B&R's was not the cheapest bid I got for comparable windows, but the Softlites appealed to me more and I wanted a company that's been around. B&R I believe also had the best warranty around. I really liked the lifetime no-hassle warranty with glass-breakage included. B&R was also not the best rated of all the companies I looked at and some reviews weren't all positive. I was able to conclude though that they did a good job and they addressed customer issues. I negotiated the price a little more with Bruce and went with B&R. The Job:Kitt or Lee (sorry, can't remember) came out on schedule for the exact measurement and the lead test which turned out negative. It would be about 8 or 9 weeks later before the crew could came out. I asked for their best installers, but wasn't sure (understandably) if B&R would actually send their best. I was told the job would take two to three days.The crew of four (Mike , Mike, Nate & Lee) came out bright and early and went to work. My first impression was that the first Mike seemed to be the lead on the job and really knew what he was doing. They all seemed pretty experience with the second Mike being more junior. They also gelled well together and were having fun on the job.I had read on one of the reviews that some of the installers smoked which bothered the reviewer. I wasn't really that concerned having been a former smoker myself. A couple of the guys did smoke but they did it in the driveway and only on their lunch break and a couple other breaks. They were discrete and didn't leave the butts laying around. I just didn't mind at all. These guys were pros and amazingly fast. For all I cared they could take all the breaks they wanted (which they didn't) because to my great surprise, half way through the job they told me they may be able to wrap it up that day. I didn't mind at all. I couldn't believe it when at around 3pm they said they were done with all 15 windows and had started on the doors. To my satisfaction, they we also able to put the front door in the existing slot covering a flaw in the entryway tiles. They did the same with the garage access door. I really have to hand it to Mike (the lead) though, he really was in charge and kept those guys going. Mike was also a very courteous and gracious guy, a real pro. I seriously strongly suggest B&R keep this guy around. The rest of the crew were also really great but Mike was exceptional. They also installed a screen door that I had bought. I gave them a little something extra for that. The garage access door needed spring adjustment but for some reason the tool that should have been included was missing. Mike asked me to call the office and have Kitt bring out the tool and do the adjustment.By 4pm they were all done and cleaned up and gone. I did have to do a little more cleaning up but I expected that. There were a few minor dings and scrapes on the aluminum that I could notice right away. They had also thrown away the front door manual which I would have liked to keep. The Follow-up:I did call the office about the garage access door adjustment. Kitt, an older really nice guy came out about a week later and adjusted the door and left the hex key with me. The windows and doors had an associated energy tax credit ($500 max for 2011), so I wanted the related paperwork sent to me in case I needed it. I called the office about that and spoke to Ken the owner. Ken was also a pleasant and courteous business man. I could tell he had a good sense of customer service. He called me back promptly on two different occasions and did email the exact information I asked for. So far:I really am not sure I got the best deal I could have gotten, but I believe it was a fair price.My wife and I absolutely love our new windows! So much improvement. We also love our new front door, the stained glass is really pretty and the entry way is much brighter now with just the natural light.It's a delight now to open and close the windows and doors and no more 3M plastic.The windows look really nice and are good quality and seem very sturdy.There are a few very minor issues that I have yet to call about. One of the windows is tough to move and another I can't get to lock (though it shuts just fine). Last winter, I noticed a little draft coming through the bottom of (under) one of the window. I put an about 5 inch clear piece of 3M tape there which seemed to do the trick temporarily.My wife loves the mechanism on the windows to get them tilted for cleaning.Last winter (2011-2012) was not a true Minnesota winter being so balmy with the lowest temps being in the teens to low 20s, so we didn't get a true test for the windows. That's still cold and the windows seemed to hold-up real well.I guess over all, I was really happy with both product and service from Builders & Remodelers. They seem to have a well seasoned staff and I have no complaints so far. BTW, the B rating I gave for some of the categories is really a B+ JamalEden Prairie, Minnesota

The rep came out and gave me an estimate. He was knowledgable, explained my options in a professional manner, then wrote me up an estimate. However, when I decided to go with another company, B&R matched their offer and attempted to win my business. While I love the idea of a competitive market (their bid was solid and I almost went with them) I feel it is less than professional to offer an initial price with a higher profit margin and then lower it until they win your business. Pros: work seems to be top-notch, employees are informed and helpful, sales pitch is efficient and not too high pressure. Cons: I'd like to see the initial estimate be the best price, though if you like to have competing bidders, then this could be a 'Pro'.

They declined to provide an estimate, stating that the job is too small. This is surprising, the other estimates I have gotten are $2,000-$3,000. Do not contact this company for small jobs.

We signed the contract in May, 2011 and installation began in August, 2011. The work crew were on site on time every morning. They were professional and courteous. August, 2011 was a record breaking heat and humidity month in Minnesota. We supplied the crew with three chests of ice cold drinks every morning and they thanked us numerous times which we appreciated. The work crew were careful not to track dirt when coming inside our home. They were careful working around our landscaping. The crew cleaned up their work areas every night. When the window installation was completed, they also cleaned the windows inside and out which made me very happy! Shortly after completing the project, we called the Company to tell them there were a few things we wished to address with them. They came out right away and our concerns were resolved quickly and to our satisfaction. Our experience with Builders and Remolders, Inc., was a positive one. Their products are very high quality with a lifetime warranty and we would not hesitate to contact them again.

They took care of two major windows at my house. It was a goofy set up so they had to do work on the wall as well. They took out a sliding glass window, insulated, did the sheet rock and had to work on the siding. The work was done beautifully. The sales person, Fred, was great and Barry installed the windows. I am so happy, the windows are wonderful. Can't to get the rest done. They were prompt and did great cleaning up.

They are absolutely the best contractor that I have ever had. They are an A++. It is the only contractor I have had where everything went right. I highly recommend them.

Builder's and Remodelers contacted us to offer us a discount on a new project. The rear door was wood and leaking. The salesman came at the appointed time and showed us what was available and made recommendations. The door opened onto a three season porch that was added after the house was originally built and had a storm door. He suggested that it was not necessary but could put one on if we wanted. We decided not to. It took about a month to get the double doors. The installers were very friendly and did a quick professional job and cleaned up when they were done.

The salesman came to the house and measured the windows. I was impressed that he made suggestions on how we could save money and didn't try to sell us the most expensive window he had. He took initial measurements. A few days later, the official measurements were made and the windows were ordered. When the windows came in, I was called to set up an installation date. I was really impressed with professionalism of the installers. The were here on time. They put down tarps to protect our carpeting. When they were replacing the windows in a room that had a door, they made sure the door was closed to keep as little cold air coming into the house as necessary. My only complaint was the amount of time between the ordering of the windows and their delivery. I finally called and asked about the status and was told that the supplier had sent the wrong kind of window for one of the rooms. But, the gentleman I talked with said they would give us the windows that were sent at the price quoted, even though they were more expensive.

It was great. They arrived promptly and did excellent work. We have used them on other occasions, and they did good work then as well.

Everything went well. The company was easy to deal with and explained the project before starting. Ultimately, we are very happy with the product and the work.

B&R cold-called me in April, offering to give me a free estimate on replacing my windows and door. I had replaced other windows in 2010 using Renewal by Anderson, and was very happy with that experience. At any rate, I thought I would get an estimate from another company. After an overly-long presentation, I said "Thank you, I'll get back to you." Apparently this is unacceptable in the window business because I have had several experiences with saying NO to window salesmen and they just don't want to take NO for an answer. Eventually, I signed a contract and gave a down payment. Bob assured me that the windows would be similar enough to Anderson's that the difference would not be noticeable. Three weeks later, a measurement guy came to measure the windows and door. He was wearing baggy sweat pants and sweat shirt, and needed a haircut. He left me with the impression that the job was going to be a challenge. After he left, I called my salesman, Bob, and told him I wanted to hold up on the ordering because of what had just happened. Part of the problem is that I did not have much confidence in a company that would send such a sloppy guy to represent their business, plus he was not reassuring about the windows being very similar. Bob heard my complaint and the next morning I got a call from the owner, Ken, asking what the problem was. I explained, and after 30 minutes of back and forth, and a threat by Ken to resort to legal methods, I caved in and said go ahead. There is no way to fully express the difference between the professionalism of Anderson's vs. B&R. I was very disappointed that the windows did not match very well, and the whole experience was below par. Guess I got spoiled using the best the first time around. BASIC RULE: Use the same company to install all your windows!!

They were very knowledgeable about their products. I purchased triple paned windows, which was recommended by them. They did an excellent quality job and were reasonably priced. I was very satisfied with the installation and will continue to use them in future.

Michael came out to take some measurements and give us an estimate. He was punctual and polite. He explained that all their windows were custom-made. For the smaller window, he said they could patch the siding on the outside but that they would only frame it up inside, no insulation or drywall. He mentioned, several times, that all the siding would need to be re-done eventually. I'm not sure if that was a sales pitch for later down the road. He assured us this was a half-day's work at best. So we sat down and Michael began flipping through a catalog of windows and jotting down numbers on a legal pad. After a few minutes, he presented me with an estimate of $2971 for the replacement of the two windows. So why the C grade? Because I'm not sure why they bothered. It was clear that this was a small job when I set up the appointment. The price seems exorbitant to me; it is certainly well outside our budget. I was also confused by the insistence that these windows were "custom made" but that he was clearly using a catalog (featuring drawings of windows) to create the estimate. To me, custom made does not mean ordering from a catalog. Finally, I wasn't sure how much was labor, materials, etc., because numbers were jotted down on a piece of legal pad paper. To me, this all seems to be very mediocre professionalism and the estimate seemed very high. The upshot is, I don't think this company is one to use for small jobs such as this one. I will admit to being a novice at home remodeling; if the job was too small for them, I would appreciate hearing that over the phone, rather than taking time out of my day (and the salesman's day) to get a steep estimate.

We had a problem arise when they started on the kitchen. When removing the existing window trim, their tools slipped and they cracked the sink backsplash in two spots, and chipped the drywall in another. We were upset. They said that they didn’t do kitchen work and we’d have to talk about it to someone back at the office. This particular window was actually a rebuild of the frame rather than just popping in a replacement. The other concern I had is that with the new trim they were putting on, it was too wide. We have horizontal shelving above the sink surrounding the window. Rather than getting out a table saw and cutting trim the long way to make it thinner and fit correctly, they just took a handsaw and notched out 4 little gaps in the trim to allow the shelving to run into the trim and make it all fit. Personally I think it looks terribly tacky but the better half was indifferent to it, so we let it slide. Two of the kitchen windows had broken latches. They couldn’t be unlocked to slide up and open. They were able to repair these. In the process though, on one of them, they broke the latch further. So now it would open and close but it wouldn’t move to the cleaning position to allow it to tip in to the room. They were not able to repair this and just left it as is, directing us to call the office to setup another visit. They picked up their tools and did a quick indoor and outdoor vacuum. They were in a hurry to head home and didn’t stick around to give us the time to look over their work. Our final inspection: We found that the sill of one of the windows had writing on it in grease pencil that said "do not cut". This was only visible when the window was open since it was written on the base of the interior part of the window. Not sure if this is from the factory or the install crew, but at any rate it took 10 minutes of scrubbing with Windex to get it off. I should have photographed it right away, but I didn't think to. I did stop cleaning halfway through a snapped a picture of it to document it. In our inspection around the house we also found a bare razorblade from a utility knife on the nightstand just sitting there waiting for someone to cut themselves on it. We also found what amounted to a small handful (7-8) of old nails, staples, and screws after examining the carpet under each one of the windows they worked on. We also found that the air duct vents had been sealed shut with plastic in a few locations (but not all), presumably to prevent dirt, lead, and dust from entering the system, but they had not been removed. We had to go and take these off ourselves before turning the a/c back on. Also, the dirty handprints on the walls and smudges on the windows remained. Delivering a finished product that contains this level of dirt is not professional. We both spent about 30 minutes with soap, water, and Windex cleaning up after them. Finally, the carpet was still dirty after they had vacuumed. We were also considered about the dust that had accumulated and were worried about the potential for lead to be present in the house. We went and rented a rug doctor and also bought more Windex and paper towels so we could thoroughly clean the walls and all other surfaces. We also reviewed the paperwork they had left us, including the warranty paperwork. The warranty from the manufacturer stated that the construction company had to provide the invoice number they used to order the Soft-Lite windows from the factory and write it down on the warranty card or the warranty would be void. They needed this information to prove that new, factory-built windows were used for this installation. The paperwork was not filled out at all by Builders and Remodelers! We had to place a phone call to B&R to get all the information needed to put on the warranty card to make sure we would be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. EPA / Lead Concerns: We were charged an add-on fee of $600 because the house paint contained lead. Our salesman explained that this fee was needed because of the extra steps they had to take to contain the lead. Our experience was very mixed. They started off in the morning making a big deal of putting down plastic and wear gloves and stuff but that only lasted for an hour or two. The crew worked both inside and outside the house. None of the entrances or window wells was sealed off while they were working. The only furniture that was covered was the bed. They only placed small strips of plastic directly in front of the windows they were working on. They did not wear special gear and they did not use boot covers. We didn’t see them do any wet-sanding or vacuuming up of paint chips and particles as they were working. Finally at the end they, did do an all around vacuum but that was after that material had been tracked in and blown in all over the house. Now I’m not any kind of an expert of following EPA lead handling guidelines, but based on the homeowners guide I really felt like they were doing things wrong. Working out the issues: We had several conversations with both Steve (the manager) and Ken (the owner). Their styles and approaches were very different. Steve continued to try to minimize our concerns, telling us that meeting every single EPA regulation wasn't realistic due to the multitude of laws. He also downplayed our cracked backsplash saying that because it was an older house, things like that would happen. This made us upset. We hired professionals to do a professional job. After spending thousands of dollars we shouldn't be forced to just accept damaged property as part of doing business and having to hire a second contractor to fix up after the first one! I called and asked for the owner. Ken was very nice and understanding while he was on the phone. He was primarily interested in gathering all the facts rather than offering a resolution of any issues right away. He explained that he had also interviewed the work crew and they had a completely different side of the story than ours. He promised to take all of our information and follow-up. He stated that he had some pictures from the morning the job started showing the crew followed proper EPA procedures. I also explained that I had taken photos of my own. I agreed that at the beginning of the day, the crew followed procedures. However as the day progressed and when their camera was put away they did not continue to do so (B&R only had pictures from first thing in the morning on the first day before work began). I also explained that I took pictures of my own, documenting that in the living room, for example, they had not covered any furniture nor had they put any plastic down to cover the carpet walkway to and from the door. I also explained that I had pictures of the property damage, to which he had no response, other than that he was making a note of it. He explained he would need to review everything I told him and follow-up with his own people before he made any decisions. I agreed that this was prudent. I did request an immediate fix though for the broken window latch. Kit returned a week after the installation to repair the broken window latch. I had to take a day off work to be present for the repair. He was able to fix it in an hour or so. I told Steve, and later Ken, that I was trying to be reasonable here. All I really wanted was for them to cover the costs we had incurred during their project. I had to rent a rug doctor and buy shampoo for it so I could clean all our carpets and furniture that they didn’t cover with plastic and get all the dust and lead out of it. I also had to buy paper towels and extra Windex to clean all the windows and smudges, I had to replace the garden statue, and finally I had to get the backsplash taken care of. I didn’t even include the price of a contractor to fix the backsplash, just the cost of replacement materials. Finally, I felt that we really didn’t get any special lead related treatment and that it wasn’t handled to my satisfaction. I wanted the add-on fee for lead handling cut in half. I thought splitting the charge would be reasonable. They did make some effort regarding the lead rules, but it was very half hearted. Splitting it 50-50 seemed fair. All told, the dollar cost I totaled up in incurred costs was equal to about 2% of the total price we paid to them. A 2% discount for all this trouble and damage and time taken off of work, I felt it was a very, very modest and reasonable request. After some back and forth with Ken, and a follow-up email, he agreed with me. We successfully concluded our project with B&R and paid the final bill. Final Conclusion: I penned the above review during and immediately following our window installation. I have waited through the summer, fall, and winter before posting this report to see how the windows have held up and to see how the quality of the installation turned out. I also wanted to be sure I posted a fair and factual review of what happened that wasn’t clouded by emotion and edited out most of the frustration. So far, the windows are performing really well. No problems at all and we are very pleased with them. It was great to be able to skip the 3M plastic on the windows this winter and still have a nice and warm house. We’ve noticed our heating and cooling costs go down too. They seem to be really effective. I’m hoping we’ll get many trouble free years out of them. Now that we’ve had many months with the windows and to reflect on our experience with this company we felt it was time to post this review. We now look back on this as a successful project that had a few road bumps. In the end, everything worked out. For that we are thankful. Although we were very, very upset initially; we are happy that the owner, Ken, is a reasonable gentleman who is willing to satisfy his customers. He was a good partner in working through the issues and bringing this to a satisfactory conclusion.

My neighbor uses this company & has been very satisfied so they were included in the companies I got bids from. I was very impressed with the sales rep and their years of experience, as well as the fact that he did not run down other companies (as one bidder did) but simply shared why they are proud of their product. The only drawback was that I ordered the windows in early October and was told they would be ready by mid-December. I still hadn't heard from them as of mid-January so called & was then told the windows were ready for installation. The installers (2) were the most delightful service people I've ever dealt with - cheerful, warm, sense of humor. They were efficient, cleaned up after themselves, and had the windows installed in 2 hrs. & 15 min. (I had originally been told it would take 3-4 hrs.). I will definitely go with this company again and highly recommend them.