New window installation woes

[Chris]

I recently had 15 new windows and a sliding door installed in my house by Window World of Portland. From the time I paid, it took about 12 weeks to get all the windows custom made and installed in my home. As one would expect, Window World has contractors who install the windows, so the quality of installation falls into the hands of the installers.

While I am 100% happy with the windows themselves, the quality of the window install is absolutely appalling. I am currently in the process of reaching out to Window World to see if they want to resolve this issue. I've paid in full, so my hope is that they will fix the mistakes made by Elk Construction, LLC., which is the contractor who installed the windows.

The install was completed in one day. I was stupid, because I should have done a walk around before they had left, but with the kids constantly pulling me and the rain outside, I figured they had to have done a good job because it looked good from the inside. Boy was I wrong.

Here's a little taste of what they did:











































































Take a close look and you'll see a number of things including:

• Obscene amounts of caulking. I can't stress this enough. I've never seen someone use so much caulking on anything in my entire life. There are just gobs of it everywhere, and no one made any attempt whatsoever to even smooth it out. That being said, if I painted over this, you'd still be able to see the caulking loud and clear.
• Broken siding in a number of places that they attempted to repair with caulking.
• Header trim pieces that are completely out of alignment.
• A piece of trim that someone was too lazy to re-cut in a bigger size, so they decided to cut a piece of trim in a 1/2" size, put in next to the other trim board, and then caulk over!
• Trim boards that were installed backwards, so the textured side is facing the wrong way!
• On all the windows, the gap between the siding and the trim boards is between 3/8" and 1/2". Can you guess how they filled those huge gaps? CAULKING!
• The screw holes for the trim boards have been caulked over. This is normal of course. However, no one made any effort to blend the caulking in, so there is literally huge gobs of caulking over the screw holes that will not be hidden at all once painted.
• They notched into the existing trim pieces on the house to fit larger trim boards for the new windows.
• Nails and screws all over my yard and my driveway (I'm lucky they didn't end up in my tires, or my kids falling on them).

I've had a number of people I know who are in the construction business come look at my window install in person, and every single one of them so far has said this is the WORST window install they've ever seen. The install job is so sloppy it's going to require new siding in a number of places, new trim boards, and basically all the windows being taken out and installed again.

I'm livid... absolutely fucking livid. Before I go off on some tirade and leave Window World the most scathing online reviews possible, I'm in the process of reaching out to them to hope we can solve this amicably. If not, you can damn well bet that I will be filing a chargeback with my credit card company.

I hope it doesn't come to that, but the hispanic crew who installed these must have never installed windows before, because this is just sloppy as hell.

The purpose of this post is not to denounce Window World (not yet at least). It's to get an opinion from others who might be involved in the construction industry as to what your thoughts are on the opinion of the install work here. In addition, I'm going to direct my email to Window World to this thread, that way I don't have to type out another email and try to attach countless numbers of large pictures to an email.

 

[Flib]

I'm not in the construction industry but I think I could have done a better job!

Very sloppy work!

 

[Chris]

As mentioned above, I've never seen so much caulking in my life. They even attempted to "patch" the chunks of siding they broke off with caulking. There's countless areas where literal "chunks" of siding are missing and caulking has been used to try to cover it up.

 

[xxdabroxx]

That's a pretty shit job right there. I'd hope they do something to fix this for you.

 

[Mikester86]

Holy Hacks Batman! That is some very sloppy finish work. I would be afraid of the work you cannot see, if they left what you can see looking like a bird shit all over it! Sorry to see that!

 

[derekmac]

Oh yeah, I would not be happy being left with a sloppy mess like that! I know you don't like Facebook, but it's a good place to rant and show others their work. Companies don't like bad publicity like that and seem to be quick to fix it.

 

[Mike_H]

Does your local news channel have a "Problem Solver" type segment? That can be VERY effective at getting a favorable response.

 

[Chris]

The owner of Window World called me and said he is coming by on Friday. He was very apologetic, and said whatever it takes to make right, they will take care of it.

I can say with certainty that they'll be replacing a large portion of the siding on the house, painting it, and redoing all the trim boards around the windows.

I'm just shocked that these contractors considered this "acceptable" work.

 

[Chris]

Looks like the owner resolved this quickly. He called me back (again) and said he's having a new crew come out on Thursday and Friday to re-do the entire window install with new trim, new siding, and painting the house.

It speaks volumes when a company is willing to protect their reputation by doing anything it takes to make it right.

 

[Mike_H]

Looks like the owner resolved this quickly. He called me back (again) and said he's having a new crew come out on Thursday and Friday to re-do the entire window install with new trim, new siding, and painting the house.

It speaks volumes when a company is willing to protect their reputation by doing anything it takes to make it right.

That's great news, Chris!

 

[glwood]

I don't suppose the hack company who installed those even has an online listing you could rate with the facts...people need to know who to definitely avoid, if possible.

 

[glwood]

This ad is now at the bottom of this page :

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000CBJI6/?tag=wranglerorg-20

Like you ever need to see more caulk!

 

[Chris]

I don't suppose the hack company who installed those even has an online listing you could rate with the facts...people need to know who to definitely avoid, if possible.

The owner called me yet again telling me he fired the contractors who did this job. I looked their name up online and can't find a single thing, otherwise I had fully intended to leave a review (with photos) of their work.

They were 6 hispanic guys, and barely spoke any English from what I could tell. Still, they were driving decent trucks that said, "Elk Construction, LLC." on the side.

Anyways, I'm happy to hear he fired them. He told me "the devil is in the details", and he tells all his contractors that you can install the nicest window, but if the install job is crappy, it's going to make the window look bad, and reflect poorly on the company.

I appreciate the fact he's been lighting fast about responding and he's bending over backwards to fix this. He said he's going to get new siding for all the damaged siding on the house, all new trim, paint it all, etc.

He's losing a lot of money no doubt, but ultimately I'll leave them a glowing review.

My mind is still blown about the piss poor quality of this work. Someone clearly doesn't even have the slightest idea how to use caulking.

 

[xxdabroxx]

I'm super impressed that they are getting on it that quick. Says a lot about the company that is selling the windows.

 

[B252]

It's obvious the owner has no one that knows what's going on. It may be okay for where the workers came from, but not here. Hopefully they'll get a good foreman to show them how to finish a job. That's great the window co. is standing behind it. It may cost them now, but it will pay off soon. Word of mouth is big.

 

[Fixer6]

The old adage “caulk and paint make a carpenter something he ain’t” comes to mind. Glad they are going to correct it all. That’s some horrible work.

 

[Chris]

Well, the new crew (who actually speaks English) made it out here today and got to taking off all the damaged siding and the window trim.

Here's some photos of just one of the pieces of caulking they removed from the last guys:

That caulking is literally 1" thick all around. You can take it and hang it around your neck, swing it like a lasso, etc. It's that thick! This is what these guys had done around every one of the windows they installed. Talk about half ass!

Here's some shots of just part of the siding they have been removing. The entire house looks like this from front to back, and on the sides!

They are coming back tomorrow, and my guess is they'll be back Monday as well.

The good thing is that the job these guys are doing looks top notch and I'm very happy with it so far.

So as it turns out, maybe this is a blessing in disguise? I'd say I'm getting around 70% of all the siding on my house replaced, and they are going to paint it to match as well.

It's probably costing the owner well over 10k (more than I paid for the windows), but I'm very happy that I didn't even have to argue with them. He agreed to this without any hesitation at all, and has been very adamant that he will do whatever it takes to make it right.

I heard from these guys doing the new work that he fired the crew that messed this up, and he sent them a bill for over 10k! Looks like those guys are fucked.

Needless to say, I will be leaving a glowing review for Window World once this is all said and done.

 

[Powdermonkey]

Although it’s not funny (for you)I’m laughing my ass off! We had windows put in recently and I would of lost my mind had I come home to that. But I NEVER pay a contractor in full until after the work is deemed to be acceptable. I realize you went through a window company.
There’s no way my wife would of missed that kind of piss poor work.
I’m still laughing just thinking about all that caulk

 

[Chris]

Oh, laugh all you want! I'm getting new siding out of this, so I'm not complaining one bit

I'm also finding out that the company I purchased these windows from is such a good company that I'll genuinely never have to worry about my windows ever again. He explained to me that for as long as I live in this house, if I EVER break a window (even if my kid throws a rock through it), they'll replace the window free of charge, including the labor as well.

Hard to beat that I guess!

Anyways, yes, this is a horribly shitty job they did. I didn't pay them all upfront though. I paid them half upfront, and the other half I'm still waiting to pay them. However, they are losing money on this no doubt.

I still can't believe those asshats thought that caulking was acceptable. These were 5 grown ass Mexican men. I would say they had to be 30-40 years of age each, and they were driving nice trucks that said "Elk Construction, LLC." on the side. Clearly they've never done any sort of construction before it would seem.

 

[mrblaine]

The old adage “caulk and paint make a carpenter something he ain’t” comes to mind. Glad they are going to correct it all. That’s some horrible work.

My words to live by when I strap on my nail bags. A little putty, a little paint, we'll make it what it ain't. And if that don't work, "what the eye don't see, the heart don't grieve".