Eco Choice Windows & Doors

I had two sets of French doors and two vinyl windows installed in a bedroom and study in October 2019. I waited nearly a year to review these doors and windows just to be sure they are really as bad as I thought they were. Sadly, they are. Just awful. I have never left a scathing review on HomeStars before, but I feel I must warn people. The installation was fine. But the doors and windows they choose to sell and install are extremely poor quality. I desperately want my old doors back but they are of course gone forever, so now I’m saving money for new doors to replace these. First: the windows: They REEK of new vinyl smell. I have had other vinyl windows (different brand, different company) before and they were fine within a few days. But these still reeked of vinyl 9 months after installation. I left a window cracked and a fan blowing out all winter (and couldn’t use the rooms!) hoping they would air out, but they never did. After 9 months I found a product (from AFM Safecoat) that sealed in the vinyl smell so that I’m not hit in the face by that smell every time I walk into the room. Sadly, when the vinyl smell was gone, I could smell the (probably formaldehyde?) smell from whatever the “metal” doors are made of. I stupidly assumed that metal doors were made of metal. Nope. They are made of some sort of composite wood or foam or something smelly/toxic sandwiched between a sheet of metal on each side. And whatever that inner material is, it still smells strongly like unfinished plywood a year after installation. I air out the room every day (I have an industrial fan for that purpose) but each morning when you walk in it smells like plywood in there. Even my smell-impaired friend (who isn’t bothered by his cat’s litter box in his bedroom closet!) recently commented that it smelled “like a wood shop” in that room when he walked in. I tried putting many coats of the same sealant I used on the windows on the doors, but the toxic stuff is inside where I can’t get to it, and the chemical smell persists. I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and cannot use the study at all. My wife is not chemically sensitive, but she notices the smell every time she enters the room and wonders what she is breathing all day in there. One set of doors is in the bedroom, and I slept in the basement for 2 months after installation (leaving the windows open and fan on to air out) but the smells never went away. Finally, in desperation (tired of sleeping in the laundry room!), I built a wall down the middle of the bedroom, and installed a ventilation fan (essentially a dryer vent with an outgoing fan constantly blowing) in the part of the room where the toxic doors are, and now I can sleep in my bed again. But 1/3 of the bedroom is now walled off and useless. The company was not able to offer any resolution, and refused to even discount me the profit they made on the project. I wasn’t asking for a full refund of my $8,000. I just wanted them to give me back whatever profit (mark-up) they made so that I would have a small discount on the next doors I have to buy to replace these. Nope. They just kept saying they were “very happy” with the quality of the doors and windows they sell. Oh, speaking of the windows: the bar that links the crank to the casement window fell off one window the very first time I opened it. The screws had been stripped at the factory. To their credit, the installer came out the next day and fixed that. Then the crank on that same window broke off a few months later. They fixed that too. But I’m telling you, these windows and doors are garbage. The door threshold is made of flimsy vinyl and bends whenever I step on it. I assume that will crack soon. The doors have a weird vinyl insert (holding the glass portions of the door) that sticks out a full inch from the surface of the door. This design meant that the lever handle I had chosen could not be used without skinning my knuckles. I had to pay extra to buy a different handle that could accommodate the weird protruding trim. The installers are fine. But the products they sell are terrible. If you use air fresheners you won’t notice the lingering smell (though you’ll still be breathing those toxic fumes!), but if you live in a scent-free home, you will still smell the vinyl and/or plywood-like smell a year after installation.