Michael in Toronto

Our plan was to hire Fieldstone for full replacement of my homes windows and doors (9 windows, 2 sliding patio doors & 1 entry door) but seeing as we had never previously hired the company for any work my wife and I thought we would start off with the simple installation of 2 windows and a sliding patio door to see how it all went. The only positive from the whole experience was Rose the sales consultant who was very knowledgeable and helpful throughout all of our dealings with her. Installation was scheduled for 1 day on the 3rd of September 2020....all seemed to go well, the 2 installers arrived before 8am and left at 6pm, but issues started that night when it began to rain. Water started to gather in the interior tracks of the patio door that had been installed (the original door frame size reduced on advice it was a simple job) which didn’t really seem right so we kept an eye on this and after the rain stopped it took 2.5 days for the water to disappear. By this time I had noticed that the my original aluminum capping had been badly dented on one side and scratched up on the other with caulking being used to try and cover it. Along with this, the new aluminum that had been installed had large gouges out of the paint by the installers using screws to wedge open the strips to hold the aluminum in place. Also by this time I had noticed that one of the windows that had been installed was cracked...so far out of the 3 units we had issues with 2 of them, not great. The owner Ken agreed to come to the house on the 9th of September to have a look at the issues and upon inspecting the install he seemed very keen to have all the issues dealt with and rectified. I informed Ken that on the 22nd of September the room with the sliding door was being painted and the deposit paid so could he let me know ASAP what the plan was to tackle the door water issue. I heard nothing from Ken until the day the painters were carrying out the work and they had already proceeded to begin painting the room with the door. When Ken got back in contact he said he would return with a rep from Strassburger to look at the door to see how to proceed. The day came and only Ken appeared as the Strassburger rep had asked if the door had been installed plumb, Ken checked and it had not been installed plumb and it was actually leaning inward. This seemed to be the answer to the issue of why the water would not drain away, but not really how it entered inside in the first place though. Ken advised me that they would have to remove and reinstall the door plumb but that they shouldn’t damage any of the paint work as the could remove outward so as to not remove the finished trim. Scheduled a date of the 14th of October to reinstall the door to work in with a contractor and roofer I had coming. Ken & Luka arrived to complete the work and once they showed me the reinstalled door....wow, they had removed the finished trim and in doing so damaged all the caulking and finished paint work around the door. They had now also moved the door outward from the door frame opening meaning the had to nail a piece of wood under the external sill to give support. You would expect that to be pressure treated or wrapped in Tyvek so it wouldn’t rot....no, they installed a standard piece of untreated and unwrapped wood. I was informed that someone would have to come back to install the exterior aluminum capping as they did not have the tools required. With the exterior exposed I noticed that they had not installed plywood all the way down to the floor of the wall or any Tyvek leaving the entire area around the door completely exposed to the elements. In removing the interior trim and moving the door outward of they had now installed this hideous white edging trim and reinstalled the original trim but in doing so had nailed through all the detailed mouldings of the trim. To top it off they then used white silicone instead of wood filler to fill the holes and fill round the trim work...the entire thing looked like a mess. Prior to viewing the completed work Ken informed me I had “a little bit of touching up to do” when I expressed that I didn’t consider it my responsibility but fieldstones it didn't seem to go down to well. At this point my wife is 7 months pregnant and when she saw the state of the door and room she was devastated and broke down in tears. She called Ken and told him it was unacceptable to be left in this state. Ken agreed that when the guys came to install the capping they would redo the interior trim. The 23rd of October is the 3rd install/repair date....interior trim is redone but with what appears to be different trim than was previously paid for and agreed upon. They installed Tyvek on the exterior, removed and wrapped the untreated exterior wood and installed all the aluminum capping. They cut the capping short so it doesn’t meet the floor of the balcony which seemed strange as at the first install they had it flush with the floor, and they tidied up the interior as best they could. Throughout all this, not once has an offer of repainting the wall or providing a refund to cover the cost of painting been forth coming. The finish is not as it should be but by this point it is better than it was and we didn’t want to deal with fieldstone again. The cracked window was finally replaced on the 18th of November, 6.5 weeks after the initial installation date and was done perfectly by Strassburger themselves. At the end of all this, the sliding door still lets water in when it rains, we have drafts come in the bottom of the door along with some strange looking marks on the interior trim there, the damaged paint is still not repaired and the exterior finish of the door and windows doesn’t look great. We decided to go ahead with Fieldstone even though they quoted more than the majority due to the fact we wanted Strassburger products and they sold us on the fact they had their own installers and not sub-contractors and this would ensure quality workmanship. Needless to say I think we will be looking elsewhere when it comes to completing the remainder of the house and the likely hood is that at some point in the future I will have the patio door they installed removed completely to have a new one installed from scratch.