Storm Door Installation in San Francisco

Without a hitch. The team got straight to work once on the scene. Completely satisfied with their professionalism, and detail. I would recommend Victor and his team to anyone looking to have work done

Excellent. John is super professional. Was very flexible working around the season's first storm. Would highly recommend him. Fair price for great work.

It was a great experience. He was nice and very, very professional. He took as much time it took to door to hang properly. I will use him in future for more work for my house.

When we moved in to the house, Bob from Northwest Exteriors popped in while canvassing the neighborhood. He noticed we'd replaced one window upstairs and gave us an incredible price for replacing the rest. He worked real closely with a local program which finances work to improve the energy efficiency of your home. They came out and did 16 windows on the house and we had high-efficiency windows for around $5000. So when we wanted the front door and the storm door on the back door replaced we called Northwest Exteriors. He came out the next day, looked at it and said yeah ok. He showed us a book of options. This is the date of installation. The quoting was done in September, he showed us a bunch of options and helped us pick out a new front door and a new storm door for the back. We replaced the entryway door with a high-efficiency, high insulated, high sealed, energy-efficient door. With the windows and the door, I have a spot thermometer which detects where the heat is coming from and where the heat is going and I was measuring the windows, the walls, the doors... Before the door went in the temperature was 85 degrees. Now it is the same temperature as the walls. They were very responsive, came out the next day. They had to have the doors made so it took them almost a month before they did the installation. Their prices are a little high, but there's a warranty included in that. Which is really nice, if you have kids in the neighborhood being able to replace the window at no charge is REALLY nice.

Jeff arrived at 0800 per appointment and was ready to start. He took a quick look at the old storm door and the new storm door. He was able to remove the old storm door in about five minutes. We discussed installation of the new door and he verified I wanted the door handle on the opposite side of the previous door. That entailed some extra work for him but he seemed pleased to do it. After installation was complete he asked if I wanted the pneumatic closer attached and mentioned some people like to skip it. That was a good call on his part because I really like it better without the auto-closer. Then it was on to the hinges. He assessed the problem quickly, but didn't call me a doofus for installing part of the hinge upside down. All things said, it was a pleasure doing business with this company and would hire them again.

It was very good. They found a problem with rot on one of our windows and found someone to fix it and bring it up to code.

Joe was a pleasure to work with. Extremely dedicated to thinking creatively about the projects and talking through his ideas in a way that engaged my layman understanding of both design and construction work. His attention to detail was excellent, and he clearly takes great pride in his work. He drove around the bay area looking for cabinets that would match our existing set. Upon opening the box he discovered that one of the drawers was flawed, and he drove all the way back to South SF to replace it. All of this while staying within our agreed upon budget. The cabinet removal was a delicate job due to the granite counter above, but he and his crew handled it perfectly without a crack or chip to the granite. Joe is also very responsive to feedback - his initial design for our storm door left a small crack where the hinges attached to the wall. I asked him to figure out a way to cover the crack (imagine a 1.5 year old and a 4.5 year old finding all kinds of fun things to shove down there) and he took care of it without missing a beat. Overall, he was very responsive and easy to get in touch with over the phone. His work crew as professional and courteous, and I hope to work with him again soon.

They were awesome!. It was like watching a symphony. I had 14 windows and 2 patio doors replaced on my 2 story house. They showed up right on time at 9am with 5 workers and systematically took all of the old windows and doors out. Then the real craftsmanship began. They custom cut and fit every door and window to the exact size of the opening, install it, leveled it, and did all the necessary trim and caulking. The truly amazing part is that they were completely done that same day! Is was amazing to watch. The new windows and doors are great. Even with the "biggest storm in over 5 years" beating down, with the new windows closed I can't even hear the rain pounding down outside. I highly recommend this company

Last year I had my slider replaced. I was unsure how I wanted the interior trim finished out, so Save Energy said that when I decided they would come back. I decided on the trim and also needed them to inspect a loose board on the slider installation (Save Energy gives a year warranty on their work ). I called and got John Gorman the owner! He said "No problem" on doing the trim or on replacing/fixing the loose board. Based on this and my good experience with them last year, I decided to replace the remaining 4 single pane, 30 year old windows in my condo. They were a retrofit with Milgard windows. Tina did my estimate (she's very responsive and answers any questions) and John came out to inspect the loose board, finalize the measurements and talk about the trim on the slider. John and Tina are great. I ordered the windows, they came in 3 days ahead of time and my windows were installed in one day, just in time for the first rain storm. From start to finish it took two weeks. The Save Energy installers, Miguel (?) and Oscar, arrived on time and didn't waste any time getting unloaded and to work. They were neat, cleaned up after themselves (even swept up saw dust in the parking lot where Miguel had to cut trim boards!). Miguel did a wonderful job trimming out the sliding glass door, which was difficult due to the shutters. I recommend Save Energy Co. and if I had more windows to replace, would use them again.

Fantastic! Raul the painter was a perfectionist (in the good way) every surface he painted- even the badly damaged dining room ceiling, is now as perfectly smooth as silk and as if brand new (these are plaster surfaces in a home built in 1916). I can't praise Steve the handyman highly enough! He worked amazingly fast finding the massive real problem that had caused a recurring ceiling leak, when he removed the siding and the remains of the wall fell to the ground and I looked at the corrupt beams I assumed I'd have to get a team in at high cost and perhaps a long wait to get this rebuilt- Steve did ALL of the work mentioned above (electrical, plumbing, carpentry, lock-smithing as well as rebuilding the wall) in a total of 21 hours (2.5 days). I am amazed and thankful! Mrs. Helper was also very nice and easy to communicate with. Good company, good people, FAST. Mrs. Helper originally booked one to two days of work for Raul and Steve starting Friday and as I elected to expand the jobs (especially due to the discovery of the collapsed wall) they were able to arrange to complete everything by Monday! I am VERY happy with the amazing work done and their ability to do it so quickly! Also, just plain nice people to work with with a straight up hourly rate!

Let me preface this by saying that USA Contractors Group is not on Angie's List. They are, however, listed with Diamond Certified. This is a warning to Angie's List users to avoid this contractor. This renovation was a nightmare. For starters, it took about a year and a quarter for a job that was originally supposed to take 6 to 8 weeks. For a large part of that time, the contractor and his subs and their workers were completely out of touch and would not return calls. They became more attentive when I suggested that they had abandoned the job and that I would seek legal remedies. Unfortunately, I had to use that approach multiple times. Now to the actual work. The old bathroom was completely gutted, because there was significant water damage to the flooring due to leakage and to the walls and ceiling due to storm damage. The floor and wall water damage extended into the dining room, necessitating floor and wall repair there as well. The rebuilding seemed to be going pretty well initially, but then we ran into complications. We wanted some improvements: tile flooring, floor heating beneath the tile, built-in vanity and full-width mirrored medicine chest, new recessed light in the ceiling, lighting over the vanity and mirrored medicine chest, lighting in the closet, bi-fold doors on the closet, new pocket door in place of a hinged door for the "water closet" (the separate room containing the shower and toilet) and hinged glass door on the shower in place of the existing sliding doors. The biggest set of blunders came about with the tile work. Because it was improperly installed (tiles not level and misaligned) the entire floor tile work had to be ripped out and replaced, and of course when it came out the custom under-tile floor heating pad was destroyed, necessitating another new floor heating pad to replace the ruined one. The shower tile had to be replaced along with the wallboard underneath because the door opening was not plumb, and the glass door installer would not hang a door until it was plumb. In addition to the walls being out of plumb, the tiles were not installed correctly, and two actually fell off when they were bumped. We also had a strip of expensive decorative tile that was so misaligned that it turned out not to be decorative, but a serious visual detraction. We complained and withheld payment, and the contractor sent in a different set of people to re-do the tile work, to plumb the walls, etc. (The last sub-contractor they sent in to finish up our list of requirements was very good, reliable, and actually communicated with us.) In addition to the problems we had with USA Contractors Group management, Lou's Doors, whom they used to supply our new doors, managed to mess up as well. We wanted a glass insert in the new sliding door between the vanity room and the "water closet," and Lou's Doors said they could do that. Well, we had to send back the sliding door because it was the wrong width, and also had to send back the bi-folds for the closet because they were the wrong height. In addition to the bathroom renovation, we made a side contract for some work in the adjoining dining room and kitchen, mostly for ceiling repair and new recessed lighting with additional switches. As part of the work on the kitchen ceiling, we wanted to have an exhaust fan removed. After removing the ceiling fan, the subcontractor attempted to patch the ceiling with what he called a "California patch" which consisted of nothing more than placing a circle of wallboard in the hole remaining when the fan was removed, then taping around the circle. The result was an uneven ceiling with a circle of wallboard that was held in place only by tape. We would not accept that, and they had to do what they should have initially and replace part of the ceiling with a larger piece of wallboard that spanned across the rafters and was screwed into place. Then they had to make multiple attempts to level the ceiling there. I have to say that we are happy overall with the new lighting and the ceiling repairs. We also learned that we had to monitor everything the workers were doing. Left to their own devices, the bi-fold doors would have been hung wrong, baseboard molding would have been installed wrong around the closet, etc. We wound up paying separately for a licensed plumber to re-install the toilet because the contractor's workers didn't know how to install the new toilet with the increased depth below it due to the new floor tile. The same licensed plumber stabilized the new shower head and re-set the shower controller, which had not been installed properly. In addition we had to contract separately for the glass shower door and the custom vanity/medicine chest. The only reason I did not fire these guys was because I had already paid too much to them for the work they wound up redoing and I could not afford to bring in a new contractor without losing several thousand dollars. So I wound up essentially bullying the contractor into completing the job to the satisfaction of my wife and myself. We learned a lot, at our expense, and I feel sorry for the next contractor we hire, because we will be breathing down his neck the whole time.

*Service:* • SOD Builders promised access to their online database giving us full access to their to-do list, upcoming events, and current schedule, but never entered any data regarding our project into that system, despite several requests from us. Sometimes weeks or even months would go by with no one showing up to work. Rarely did we know who was coming, when, or to do what and people often came when we did not expect them, or did not come when SOD said they would. • We had to generate our project’s to-do list --Shouldn’t that have been the job of the foreman, who stopped coming about halfway through the project? *Workmen:* • The workmen were hard working men who were certainly used to working cooperatively with each other and following the instructions of their foreman. • The foreman was really nice and at first he was here much of the time, but as time went on, fewer men came each day and the foreman came by less and less often. We never saw him again after Christmas (2014). • The men were polite and diligent and we liked them all, however with the foreman no longer coming, there was no one to keep the standards high or to realize that some things required more time or expertise than the men on site had. • In the days immediately before Christmas, there was a big push to “finish the job” and a few more men came. All the workmen hustled to complete what they could and did nice things like cleaning up remaining piles of trash, etc. so the place would look better for the holidays. • After the holidays, however, SOD seemed to think the project had been completed, and no one showed for over 3 weeks. Finally SOD called for a final inspection, which fortunately did not pass because the job was in no way complete. • Someone was immediately sent out and hastily tried to complete the unfinished work. The work done that day was unbelievably subpar! We did not appreciate needing to be gatekeepers for workmanship. • Working more closely with a recently hired office staff person named Allen and the site supervisor Efren, we were able to get SOD workmen back to work on our project. They were both extremely helpful. Daniel, a general manager, stopped by at one point and got some more things going and later Mario, Efren’s boss got some SOD workmen with needed expertise in specific areas to deal with some other problems as well. We would ask these members of the oversight staff if they thought something was SOD quality work. They agreed that it was not and they would get someone to fix it. *Major problems that had to be addressed:* Roof • The designer indicated that the roof of the sun room would be tucked under that of the existing house, but because the new roof wouldn’t fit under the existing roof, they cut off the house roof overhang. They also opened up large areas of the existing attic so that metal straps could be put in place to anchor the new room. This damaged our new roof and most likely its warranty as well. • The roof repairs were sloppy, and in places patches were sealed over patches with lots of caulking and rubber cement, but a leak occurred during the next rainstorm. Eventually roofing over the entire disturbed area had to be removed, a new a waterproof barrier had to be installed and the shingles had to be more properly aligned. SOD hired out some of this work. These workmen even extended the water barrier along the edges where the main roof adjoins the new roof because they felt that the water barrier in that area was too narrow and might not withstand the abuse of heavy rainstorms. The roof repairs are now leak proof, and the shingles are more properly aligned. • At the time of the first “final inspection”, an overhang of the original roof still had a gaping hole in it that was about 4x8 inches! We had to ask several times to get that repaired, and the first 2 times it looked like someone with no building skills had simply filled it with old dirty chunks of wood full of old nail holes. Finally it was professionally repaired. Gutters • Gutters cut off during construction needed to be extended and capped on their ends afterward. To fix the problem, chunks of old removed gutter sections were then overlapped and attached by one screw to the remaining gutters to close the gaps. Not only were the junctions left unsealed, but the outside ends were wide open. Again the SOD had to hire an outside company to come in and deal with these issues and installation of gutters, downspouts, etc. for the new room. They did a splendid job. *Floor* • We got none of the promised advice regarding tile selection. • Tiled floor was neither level nor flat, being over and inch higher in the middle than in the corners. SOD had to remove all the tiles, level the concrete slab, install new tiles and touched up the newly painted walls that were damaged in the process. *Doors and windows* • Because SOD waited until completion of the interior and exterior (stucco) walls before addressing the issue that the French doors would not close properly, they had to tear into the wall above the doors when the door company was called into “fix the doors”. That company said not enough head room had been allowed above the doors. Not only that, but the hinges were bent by the workmen who had forced the doors shut during a storm. • SOD forgot to order the family room window even though we mentioned it several times. It came and was installed, but it is slightly smaller in height than the window on the adjacent wall and was not given a window sill. When I asked about it having a window sill, the foreman said he didn’t know where to get one. We never were able to get a window sill, so one window has one and the one nearby does not! It only needed a board with a rounded off edge. *Workmanship* • Where was the SOD oversight needed to prevent the countless problems that became evident before completion of our project? • Why were we expected to provide all the oversight? Only the things that we noticed were “bad” were addressed. • Despite the problems we ran into, the company did want to maintain decent standards and did not try to take advantage of us financially. • There were major problems with communication at all levels above the workmen and between all levels of the company. We would be told that someone was coming out to do something and no one would come, or that no one could come on a certain day and then someone would show up on that day. Even Oren, the owner, would schedule to come out and not show up sometimes without even a “heads up” • Allen and Efren persisted and work commenced. At one point, after realizing that the floor was going to have to be redone, the original work crew and foreman were taken off this job. Mario, Efren’s boss, was then given the task of selecting key SOD workers to repair or fix mistakes that had been made. Praise • SOD did live up to its word regarding most of what was to be built even when it was not in writing but had been discussed and agreed upon before the contract was written. • SOD never asked for more money other than for upgrades that we initiated. • SOD also did for us without charge, a number of extra minor things. We were very grateful for these little extras. • SOD also repaired anything that was damaged as a result of the project. • Whenever we pointed out that work seemed to be of lower quality than we would have expected from SOD, that problem was appropriately fixed without excuses. • Oren and Allen each came out to discuss with us all the problems that had occurred with our project, supposedly so that they could improve their business. They acted like they cared and wanted to improve their service, but……………………… Remaining Problems as of May 2017 • Many cracks have developed in the interior walls. Oren had told us to wait until Spring to give the room time to finish settling and cracking and that he would send one of his most talented people out to fix them. He also said that, at that time, he would have someone remove the tar drippings (which had resulted from the botched roof job) off the new patio. In the meantime the surface of the patio has cracked down the middle. We called in the Spring (2016) and Adi was sent out to inspect the problems, but said it would not be possible to get them repaired before we left for the summer. She took pictures and said we would be given top priority for getting the repairs made when we returned in the fall. It is now May 2017 and even after more than a dozen email contacts with SOD, no one has been scheduled to come out to fix these issues, even though we have given them our availability schedule several times at their request. We would not hire SOD Builders again or recommend them to anyone.