Brunsell Lumber and Millwork

I’m doing a massive remodel of my house with a friend’s help, and we needed windows for the whole place (>$20K), My friend gave the Brunsell representative, Mark P, a written work order for the windows, the rep produced a quote with the wrong number of windows and the interior color wrong for most of them. (Yes, this is when we should have shut the whole process down and gone elsewhere.) The friend gave the rep two written corrections to the errors, the rep repeatedly verbally assured my friend that the order had been corrected. Placed the order and when the windows were delivered they were, of course, wrong. The rep offered to have them repainted if we paid ~$2K, and the same day the store manager offered to have them repainted for free. Concerned about the quality of that remedy and the errors already documented, I requested the windows be returned for a refund; the store manager, Dylan P, agreed. Then Brian R. the VP of Finance stepped in and stated that Brunsell would not honor the agreement with the store manager. The next 7 months (!!!) were a nightmare of the VP insulting us, bullying us, calling us names, making hollow threats to sue, and lying about the situation to the Better Business Bureau and the state Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection. Every time we would consider compromising just to be done and shut with the mess, he would pour gasoline on the fire with more insults and threats. He finally relented and agreed to accept them for a refund—the same arrangement his store manager made over half a year before. As a testament to his professionalism, towards the end he sent separate emails to me calling me “the crazy window woman” and to my friend calling him a “weaselly piece of sh*t”. Both from his company email and both with his signature line as VP of the company. Summary: (1) Quadruple check the representatives’ work and make sure you get everything in writing from them. (2) Don’t believe any agreement the store manager makes because he has no authority. (3) If the VP of Finance gets involved, be prepared for him to be incredibly insulting and abusive to you.

As far as window salesman go, the person who came to measure was among the least noxious, even if he did mis-measure one of my windows. Given how far off the bid was he may as well not have wasted the gas to come here though. If you don't want to get gouged, you could use just about anyone else and receive a better bid. As for their showroom, I've been there three times and the only time someone ever bothered to talk to me was on my way out the last time. I did not use them for this project, and I have no intention of receiving bids from them for future ones.

The staff went out of their way to discourage and make the process as difficult as possible. After finally getting them to agree to get a quote for us they commented as we were leaving "We'll get around to it when we have time". As two pleasant 70 year olds we would recommend finding another lumber yard and avoid their attitude.

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I've sat on this review for several reasons. I wanted to rate them fairly when I spent considerable time upset with them. I would not recommend them to provide you kitchen planning. Why they got a C not an F. In general, the people I worked with were nice. They actually delivered the products and didn't go out of business while I was working with them. The planner did bring up some space saving ideas other planners didn't.I will say, they did try to ameliorate my anger with replacing a few things they didn't have to for me. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to share what I know with someone out there who is debating who to go with on a remodel. Why they aren't getting an A. I expected there would be issues with planning a kitchen. My contractor at one point confirmed for me that there are usually one or two issues, not as many as there were with this. Even if I take away the few things that I don't remember clearly from my list of complaints, it was still a very long list. The interactions I don't remember clearly, I put in the category of, maybe I got it wrong. If you plan with them, they will give you a plan that means nothing to the lay person. And I'm a layperson who is pretty handy. Yes, there are cabinet measurements, but nothing that indicates what the interior measurement is and nothing indicating how much of a change that may or may not be from what you have in that place already. An example is the plan had my oven in what looked like in the same place. I told the planner on two occasions to NOT move the oven at all, she had moved it in an inch and given me an 9 inch cabinet next to my stove. I couldn't even fit my potholders in the drawer like before. So, I had the pleasure of buying a 10 inch cabinet on my dime because I approved the plan. Yes the inch made the difference between it being completely non-functional for me and functional. I also told her to move the island out two inches to preserve the interior space of the kitchen. Again, this I remember telling her twice. The telling her twice didn't register (although I realize now it should have) because there are so many details to go over in planning that I didn't think much of needing to review a few details on her third visit here to finalize measurements. We ended up with a much smaller bank of drawers that were our silverware drawers due to the island not being moved. Sure the plan says 14 inch drawers, but what does that mean inside? Our previous cabinets used less of a lip than the new ones and 14 inches exterior was different on the inside than with the new ones. I feel like this was their job to make sure we understood the changes. This is our first remodel and I didn't think to ask. I assumed what I told her to do was being done. I was told it could be changed but I had to decide within the next few hours since the countertop guys were coming to measure and it would set our timeline back a month. Just what you want to be doing, making decisions about the most used room in the house and the $30,000 I'm spending to improve it in an hour. We kept the smaller drawers because we wanted to move forward. It's working fine. There were several details left to the last minute that did not need to be. Cabinets came in the wrong size, half the number of knobs and handles were ordered. All these details made what could have been a 4-6 week project last four months. This is just a partial list of the issues we had. I knew our planner was having some family health issues and I took that into consideration, but these planning errors occurred before the health issues. I called and complained to a manager. She said all the correct things, but in retrospect, I think she should have come out to the house and seen for herself what I was talking about. We ended up needing more things ordered and I asked to work with someone else, the manager never got back to me. Instead I guess they all decided to use the contractor as the middle man. Fine, but call me when you say you will and tell me that.

The worst experience we had during our building process. This is a very late review, but I would not recommend Brunsell Lumber and Millwork to anyone!!! The finish came off within a year. They took no responsibility for there bad product and said it was because we mopped to much. That does not explain the casing and doors???? long story short it caused us a huge amount of time and labor to correct the problem. I would truly stay away from them!!! Where was the customer service? Where was the quality? What happened to standing behind the products you sell? DO NOT USE THEM

We visited with them at the shop and received a very rough estimate for the work, which we thought was acceptable (approximately $3500 for the selected doors, plus the estimated cost of installation). We set up an appointment for an in-person review and the Brunsell employee arrived promptly. He was extremely professional, took his measurements, asked the right questions, and left with a promise that they'd send an estimate. About a week went by with no response or estimate from Brunsell. I called Brunsell and the estimate came that afternoon via email. The estimate was for approximately $5,000 (a little more) and was not itemized in any way. I am familiar enough with the construction industry to know that this isn't typical, so I emailed Brunsell back and requested an itemized estimate, with itemization not only of the installation costs but also the materials. I never received a reply. I emailed again about a week later and they never got back to me. I find it very strange that Brunsell would not provide an itemized estimate and failed to respond to two emails. Based on this alone, I would not use Brunsell in the future.

Brunsell did a first class professional job in repairing my soffit. The work was done by Brian, who went the extra mile and then some to fashion some flashing to try and prevent this recurring problem caused by water rushing down a roof valley and soaking the soffit under the gutter. The price was more than fair and the quality of work excellent. Definitely will use again. We invited bids from Brunsell on replacing some of our windows. They were courteous enough to suggest that job might be better done by a glass company. The soffit job occurred to me then and I'm very glad it did.

The doors were supplied and installed on time and in a professional manner.

Recently we purchased supplies for deck upkeep fro this company. However, about 4 years ago, we purchased complete supplies for building a new deck onto our house. All the transactions went well and we were very satisfied with our dealings with Brunsell Lumber.

Kerry and Brain were fantastic from start to finish. Brian installed the doors beautifully and Kerry was beyond helpful when it came to the estimate and answering all of our questions. Can't say enough good things about these guys and Brunsell in general.

Brunsell Lumber and Millwork I would say the most knowledgeable on any of them. They're a lumber yard and they do windows. I have purchased things from them. They have a retail store. I've done business with them for years. They are very trustworthy, very straightforward and honest. They are known for their reputation.

Brunsell had the best prices and they were very responsive with both doing an in-home estimate and having knowledgeable staff at their showroom. Their price estimates were right-on and they did high quality work. They even had the windows installed a week prior to their estimate. We are very satisfied and will use them again in the future for our remodeling work.

They are good and they carry good quality wood. They have good craftsmen. They are a little pricey but they are good. if you really need quality that's where you go.

The job itself took a little over two days. The installers were Kerri and Dave and they were fantastic! Very nice and very skilled- Terri's been doing this for at least 35 years and does not miss a detail. I have to admit that I am picky and the job they did was even better than I had imagined. Our basement door and widows,frames and boxes were a disaster before they replaced them. Kerri rebuilt the window boxes and framed them out and they are beautiful-masterful workmanshipl. Our basement space has been transformed. He just measured and created with out drawing plans. Our entry door is also better than I thought it could be. AND our home is warmer. They were also very neat and cleaned up perfectly.They even helped us build a wood chute/window. We plan to use them for all of our building needs. We already have another job that they are quoting us on. What a joy to work with such capable people. They folowed the quote- nothing was a surprise.

We went over to Brunsell and talked to a sales person who gave us prices for both Pella and Anderson storm doors. They helped us look at all the options for both doors and we ultimately chose the Pella. Once the door arrived at the company, Brunsell set up an appointment for installation. The installer arrived on time, was personable and very knowledgeable. Once he was finished with the installation, he showed us how the door worked (the screen is attached to the storm window and rolls up into a small casing at the top of the door). He also made some suggestions to help make our front door fit into the opening better by installing a 3 inch screw into one of the hinges which made the door alignment fit perfectly, even going ahead and doing the task himself. He made some other suggestions to help with winter energy savings. About a month later, we noticed that the storm door was catching on something, and figured it needed adjusting. When we called, they immediately arranged to have someone come out and fix the problem, at no additional charge. We have been very impressed with their service and absolutely love the storm door.

The experience went well. It took some discission to get them to prefinish the windows, but they did it. They did eveything that they said they were going to do. Window fit and look great! It is amazing how much the new windows have made the room warmer in the winter and decreased outside noise.