Genesis Exteriors

Replaced 100-year-old casement windows on second floor of house. The project went smoothly, installers were professional and friendly, and the new windows seem to be excellent. There was virtually no mess. We were a bit nervous because the house is so old and there can always be unexpected problems. But we were assigned a very experienced installer and all went well.

It took a total of five attempts for Genesis to finish the project. I gave up on them and did the final punch-list of detail work myself. Here's my list of complaints: They missed the first two install appointments. No calls in advance, I had to follow-up with them and ask where their people were. One of the installers showed up, decided he didn't have a long enough ladder and left. An installer showed up on the third appointment and performed the work, though with issues: There was a "paint gap" as the new windows were smaller which left unfinished drywall exposed and a raised paint bead. The installer didn't bother to spackle his nail holes. The casing is somewhat banged up. The caulk nozzle couldn't reach around the handles when sealing the window so two approaches were taken: 1) skip it and 2) just run the bead along the side of the window. There's a bunch of debris below the window My shades don't fit anymore. They're too big for my new, smaller windows. (I was later told that this is common and that it had been explained to me, though I don't recall it.) The outside j-channel was banged up and may not be watertight. A screen was missing for one of the windows. I wasted a lot of time yelling at Genesis to finish the job correctly. I eventually gave up and did the finish work myself. Very unhappy. I wish I had had someone else's review experience.

The replaced the wood molding with brick mold, making it maintenance free. The door was replace, but they were able to use our existing knob and lock. They were very quick.

Good Work! Genesis was very professional, punctual and reasonably priced. They were able to answer all of my concerns and was always just a phone call away. There were some small details I noticed after the job was done that I asked the to have them take a second look at and the crew was back at my house within days to fix my concerns. Both Matt and Joe were very easy to work with and truly cared that I was happy with the finished product. Thanks Guys!

Short Story:Horrible experience! Genesis' inability to pay attention to even the most basic details is staggering, which caused a simple project to take more than 10 months to complete. My first contact with Genesis was late April, 2014. Their last visit to my house was January 23, 2015. I had another contractor complete the work on March 11, 2015.Genesis has clearly received some good reviews from others. But I would recommend looking closely at the negative reviews to get a good understanding of what could happen if your project is not one of the lucky ones.Selection Process:On July 1, 2014 I received an extremely generic work estimate with almost no details of the project. I spent the next 4 weeks trying to get answers to numerous questions -- as well as usable product samples -- so that I could make my final selections. How/where could I see an accurate sample of the storm door colors? What about accurate samples of the entry door stain colors? What door hardware finishes were available? Can/should I re-use my existing entry door locksets? Can I get the shutter sample colors? Etc. Etc. The selection process consisted of a mangled weave of emails and phone calls. And they weren't paying attention to any of it. Yet their production manager contacted me on July 31 insisting on placing the product orders. I attempted to go over the unresolved questions, but he clearly was interested only in quickly placing the orders -- regardless of what I would be getting. He was extremely rude and bullying. I agreed to speak with him again the next morning, and emailed him a 3-page document detailing all the remaining unanswered questions. He again tried to bully me into making selections without addressing the issues, and I eventually became extremely frustrated with him. The original sales person ultimately agreed to get answers to the remaining questions, and obtain the missing product samples. That took until late August 2014 because they didn't have any product samples, and had to order them from suppliers. After finally getting the remaining color samples, I sent back a summary of my selections. But yet again I had to mark a lot of items with question-marks. After more back-and-forth emails over the course of another week, they placed the order for the doors and shutters.Shutters:I indicated numerous times that I wanted shutters in some variation of "brown" to either match the new storm doors, or to match the existing porch light fixtures. But I couldn?t make the final decision until I knew what the true color was going to be on the storm doors. When I finally received the shutter color samples, they were not marked with any color names. I did find tiny code numbers embedded in the plastic. I provided multiple potential codes to Genesis, and questioned whether or not the codes were even relevant. But I never got a response, and they ordered the shutters anyway. Prior to the on-site installer?s first visit to my home, I was contacted by the production manager. He noticed that the shutters they received were red. I told him that was of course wrong. He said he would have to talk to the sales person about it, which seemed suspicious to me. Why not simply re-order the shutters? When the on-site installer showed up at my house, he brought the red shutters with him, which I explained was wrong. When the installer called the production manager, I could overhear him on the phone insisting that he had already told me that I was going to get red shutters, which was not true. My understanding in the end was that the shutter manufacturer was switched mid-stream, resulting in the wrong color code being used. But at first no one at Genesis would look into it. They just made vague references to what I had specified in the "contract". It became clear that they were attempting to force me into accepting the wrong color shutters on my house. After a LOT of hostile emails and phone calls, they finally agreed to obtain the shutters in the color I wanted. But when the installers arrived the 2nd time with the new brown shutters, there were no screws included in the boxes. Sure, this could be written off as a supplier issue. But when the installer informed the production manager that the shutters screws were missing, he told him to simply use any old screws he could find and then paint them! Is that what Genesis considers quality work?! The shutters are now finally installed, but the new ones are a few inches shorter than the originals. So there?s approximately 1 inch of gap at the tops and bottoms. The new shutters look "ok", but the appearance is not as professional as the originals. Why wasn?t I told prior to installation that the shutter sizes would be different? What if the siding under the original shutters had been less faded than everywhere else? The final result would have appeared even less professional!Entry Doors:During the selection process, one of the ongoing contentions was the stain color for the entry doors. There was a major conflict between the factory colors shown in the catalog versus the separate color chips that Genesis provided. At first Genesis was not responding to my concerns about that, nor were they responsive to my request to see actual doors displayed in a showroom, nor did they look into my suggestion to have the doors specially stained to match my existing interior doors/trim. Eventually they agreed to have the doors stained to match my existing doors. But when they showed up with the entry doors at my house, they weren?t stained at all. There was nothing but gray primer on them. The outside temperature was already sub-freezing at that point, so there was no way to stain them on site. The doors had to be taken back to Genesis to be stained. Genesis blamed the "supplier", but I'm fairly certain that it was Genesis' mistake. Just prior to the doors being ordered, my own understanding was that the doors would be stained by Genesis, rather than by the manufacturer, since Genesis was already having to stain replacement door casing. And why was the mistake not caught before scheduling the installation date?Deadbolts/Handlesets:I asked Genesis multiple times about whether the deadbolts/handlesets could -- or should -- be reused from my existing doors. I had assumed they would be more than happy to sell me new hardware. But, like most other issues, the question was initially ignored. And then I was hectically told to "just reuse what you have". But when the installers arrived with the doors, I was told that my existing door knobs, deadbolts and handlesets would not fit the new doors. The installer suggested that I simply purchase new hardware myself from a local lumber store, which I did. Luckily I had time to obtain the new locksets -- which had to be special ordered -- since the doors had to go back to Genesis to be stained. I?m quite happy with the new locksets, but that should have been handled at the time the new doors were selected.Storm Doors: The color selection process for the storm doors was ridiculously painful and drawn out. There were major differences in how the colors appeared on different pages within the same catalog. Once again, Genesis initially didn't respond to the problem. It took over a month to obtain legitimate door samples from which I could reliably pick a color. During one installation visit to my house, they installed one of the storm doors, but I discovered after they left that the door couldn?t be latched closed. Hardware was missing from the box for the other storm door, so it couldn?t be installed. When they brought a new storm door during a follow-up visit, it was dented in numerous places, making it unusable. I had them adjust the other storm door so that it would latch. But that resulted in multiple visible unsightly holes in the storm door framing, which meant that door too had to be replaced. Upon the FOURTH visit to my house -- January 23, 2015 -- the crew discovered that the storm doors were being ordered from the beginning with the wrong "swing". So the one door which was actually installed at this point was upside down, which is why it wasn?t latching properly. And there was now the possibility that the aluminum clad framing of the newly installed ENTRY door had been destroyed and had to be replaced along with the storm doors.Summary:I had finally endured enough. (There are actually many more bad experiences I could have included here.) I paid Genesis for the work that they had completed (2 entry doors and the shutters), and hired another contractor to finish the job. Slightly more than a month later -- the time required to special-order yet another set of storm doors -- the job was finished. Not only did the new contractor handle every aspect of the job perfectly, but the final cost was less than what I would have paid to Genesis.In response to this review, the Genesis folks will likely focus on "supplier" issues that were out of their control. But it was not the suppliers that made this project such a miserable experience. It was Genesis that failed to pay any attention to the project. It was Genesis that repeatedly ordered the wrong storm doors. It was Genesis that repeatedly tried to force-feed red shutters down my throat.To be fair, I will say that some of the folks at Genesis did try to pay more attention to the project towards the end. And they were very good about accepting my terms for terminating the job with them. But it was too little, and certainly way too late for me to have any more trust in them.

I spoke with and met Matt multiple times since August about new windows in our house. The quote was quick and easy and very low pressure. We had him change it a few times to different window types but each time I was surprised by the price and the low pressure, unlike other companies. We are doing many home projects so i appreciate the help and understanding even though we haven't purchased yet. We plan to use them when we do spring for our new windows.

Hired someone else who was less expensive

We contacted them in August to get an estimate. The first estimate was for a window that they later found they could not get, but then substituted a different window at the same price. The new window is supposedly more expensive, so I was OK with that, but it shows they don't know their own products that they are selling. They came on October 10th to install the windows. Rather than career craftsman that they advertise, it was one career craftsman and two young kids not older than 22. They used green treated wood around the frame to install the windows. Some of the green treated wood was in very poor condition. Not the highest quality materials they claim on their web site. They failed to put the proper window trim or cladding around the windows leaving the green treated wood exposed both inside and outside. They also failed to caulk the outside of the window properly with leaves getting in behind the green treated wood on the first day. If leaves can get in, so can water!!! The also failed to attach a piece of trim work to one of the windows making it different than the other three windows they installed. In addition, one of the screens they installed had a broken fastener, but their crew ignored it, and left the screen in place anyway, failing to fix a defective part, and apparently hoping we wouldn't notice. We contacted the manager Chris LaPlant about our concerns. It took until November 10th to get him and the installer Muns, back out to the place to look at our concerns, a full month after the initial installation. LaPlant agreed with ALL of our concerns. He stated the green treated wood is typical, but was supposed to be covered by the cladding and shouldn't been seen. LaPlant promised to have the exterior cladding put on, caulked, and the proper trim for the inside installed. He also promised to order a replacement screen for the defective one, and install the missing piece of trim on the outside 4th window. I asked LaPlant why these issues weren't completely properly on the first date, and he replied that he thought Muns must have been having a bad day. On Nov 18th, the career craftsman, Dan Muns came and finished the exterior, installing the cladding and properly caulking. It does appear to be properly installed on the second attempt. He didn't have the correct trim for the inside and stated he would have to order it, and come back again a third time at a later date. We didn't hear anything for a week and on Nov 25th, we checked in asking when they were coming back to finish the job. LaPlant replied stating Muns would be out next week and would contact us with an exact date. By Dec 3rd we again had not heard anything and contacted LaPlant again. LaPlant stated that Muns would be out Dec 4th between 4-4:30p. Muns never showed up. Initially it appeared as a no show/no call, but two days later the spouse discovered Muns had left a voicemail at 4:50pm stating he couldn't make it and wanting to re-schedule. Their web site claims they use only the best materials. I wish we could upload the pictures here of the "quality materials" they used. Their web site claims they have a 29 point inspection with you and the quality control supervisor after the job is finished. Apparently that is just the guy who performed the work looking around the job site and congratulating himself on a job well done. It certainly never happened here. I will say that the windows themselves are of good quality, and if they ever bother to come and finish the job, I may be satisfied with the final product, but the customer service aspect of this company has been horrible thus far. What kind of company takes weeks to respond to customers concerns and makes appointments with clients, but then doesn't show up? If I had known this was the type of quality customer service I should expect, I never would have hired them to start with. **UPDATE** The day after posting this review, they did come out to finish up the interior windows. We are still waiting on the replacement screen and a couple of minor issue fixes, but Muns did an excellent job on the interior of the windows. They look great. Bases on the quality and look of the windows, I have raised their overall grade.

Excellent service - prompt, reliable, professional. very happy with results.

We are most likely going forth with the project in the spring and will highly consider Genesis to do the work.

Fantastic!!! We are very satisfied with the quality of the windows and doors! The installers were very experienced and got the job done in great time. They quoted us three days for the work and they got it all done in two. They did a great job at cleaning up after themselves. I would definitely do more business with Genesis Exteriors.

No services were performed.

work done by another painter

showed-up on time got the work done quickly looked great There was a problem with the caulking, but Genesis repaired it quickly The only negative was the crew supervisor wanted me to sign the work order before the work had been completed.

I received several estimates for replacement windows and conducted a lot of my own research on the quality and workmanship of not only the companies from whom I received estimates but also on the windows that each company provides. The replacement windows provided by Genesis were competitive in quality, Genesis' price for the windows and the labor far exceeded its competitors. The work crew who performed the work were friendly, knowledgeable, experienced and sensitive to my needs. They performed the work quickly yet with high quality. I was very impressed with their overall work. I am very pleased with the quality of the windows (Grandura) and the workmanship from the installation. Additionally, Kevin, the salesman who provided my estimate was patient with all of my questions, always responding promptly and was not a high pressure sales person. I have already referred Genesis Exteriors to one friend and will continue to refer additional friends and family to Genesis for their exterior and painting needs.

Overall a good experience. But there was a delay and little communication about it. Will update this review when the work is done.

The installer showed up on time, just before 8:30. However, i's a good thing he was thorough, as his dispatch papers had the wrong house for his morning install (he actually showed up there first with our windows). They also had written down white aluminum for the exterior, when it was supposed to be tan. He was very good at verifying everything that was written down was what we actually wanted/needed, which it wasn't, and then drove over to get the correct materials. It's a bit concerning that he was given the wrong information, twice in one day, but also very good that he verified everything before doing any work. The end result are 2 very nice windows that look excellent. Since it's only day 1 of having the windows I cannot speak very extensively to the quality, but so far they seem very nice. Winter will tell the tale of how good these triple pane windows, and their install job, truly are.

sales person was nice but was very tactless when suggesting the other companies i was getting proposals from were not quality companies, had employee issues among other comments. This was a complete turn off for me. as was the selling process.

They were clean and polite. Soffits and fascia are excellent quality. Painted trim is good but not excellent.

Everything about this experience from beginning to end was wonderful. The sales person was very patient and knowledgeable. The installation crew was efficient and professional. I would recommend this company to my friends.

Negotions were very professional. Work was performed as expected. Skilled workers completed the job and cleaned up afterwards. Minor details were corrected. Overall, a pleasant experience to work with Genesis. Note. Batzner Pest Control Company, Milwaukee , WI praised the siding Job that Genesis completed. They told me that the job was done very well, and there were no gaps or voids left where bats or animals could access the interior of our house. They said the siding job was very high quality work.

absolute perfection. the installers worked like machines with no wasted motion.

He was very quick to respond to may selected dates, and I appreciate that. He was very prompt, and courteous. I have to say though, that the ad stated a fireplace and foundation inspection would be provided. The gentleman just checked out the fireplace, and some of our outside brickwork. I was not home at the time, and my husband didn't question it. He found him helpful, and offering some good information.

The meeting was informative as Jeremy was very knowledgeable. He was prompt, well spoken, and provided us with a great deal of information and options. He also followed up with a quote for us in less than 24 hours. While Genesis Exteriors offers a wide range of sliding glass door options, the door that we wanted (with blinds between the glass) was too expensive for our budget at this time, so at this point we decided not to replace the door. However, when we do decide to get it replaced, we will call Genesis Exteriors back to get a quote.

After literally months of shopping around and getting bids from other reputable companies, we choose Genesis Exteriors. Based on their great reputation, our budget, and we loved the fact that they provided a color/design consultation as part of the package. Since we had decided to bite the bullet and replace everything, this was the time to have input/help in transforming our home. Laurie's consultation was fantastic. Taking her ideas, we were able to keep the house true to it's 1950's design, while modernizing it at the same time. Jeremy was our sales person and we did have some communication issues regarding what was verbally promised and what actually was carried through to the contract and then to the workers on our home. It was, at times, very disorganized. I believe they modified the process of sales and writing the contract to have much better communication with the project manager. Considering the several communication problems and the additional stress that they caused, Genesis was very prompt in fixing the issues and cares very much about customer service and making things right. Thanks Troy, Chris and Charles. Our home turned out beautifully! We absolutely love pulling up to our transformed home. Whether people are walking or driving by, we notice them admiring our house! Thank you, Genesis Exteriors!