US Home Center

Design & Process flaws: Enclosing 2 furnaces in a sealed room without proper ventilation major fire hazard; design error restricted heat flow to only one room. The elimination of one of two heat sources for the room without adequate compensation elsewhere in the design, and inquired about this and they said only one heating vent was specified by Owens Corning Project Management. Two vents were previously required to make the room comfortable. I had to request a Quality Assurance inspection by Owens Corning Project Management (Where Owens Corning confirmed the problems). I was previously told that the same staff who performed the also does the Q/A!! The staff was not adequately experienced in heating and air conditioning. Note errors as follows: 1st-staff connects basement heat to wrong furnace. No heat flows to remodeled room, or elsewhere. When I inquired, staff response was I did not think it made any difference . Any professional with sufficient experience in HVAC would have known this. 2nd staff leaves site as finished, with basement heater unvented blowing into a closed closet. This condition, detrimental to the equipment and an obvious fire hazard, caused my alarm company to call me several times because the alarm was activated. 3rd staff returns to jobsite to correct the previously noted condition and leaves cool air return connected to the wrong furnace. 4th staff routes heat for laundry room immediately adjacent to smoke detector. More hazard condition notices from ADT. 5th-my HVAC specialists identified several other problems during inspection on 24-Jan-07. Following the second problem I was convinced that HVAC was not an area of specialty for this crew. At my own expense, I arranged an inspection of the final work on the HVAC with local specialists, and a) the work done by Owens Corning is still not right, b) I still do not have adequate heat in that room as a result of item a). I now have no confidence in Owens Corning s knowledge of HVAC systems and prefer to have my specialist address my heating issues. The Owens Corning method of trial and error has already jeopardized my home. I proposed that they pay my specialist to have the HVAC issues addressed properly. Given the aforementioned circumstances and Owens Corning has already had 3 opportunities to and to fix the problems, I will no longer accept their work.

On 3/8/08 I set up an appointment for OC at an expo / flower and garden show. Tom Colman came that Wednesday and educated us about the product. He made a pressure sale from 6:00 until 11:00 PM that evening, and succeeded in getting me to sign on the dotted line and I wrote him a check for 10% of the cost. Part of me agreeing to do this was contingent on a 3 day back out period for 100% of investment. After the three days and until construction walk through I could back out for 75% to 100% of cost. During the 3 days I hit my design friend and came back at Tom with as many questions as I could think of. At the time I write this, to my knowledge all were answered truthfully except for needing a permit to increase electric service. I had the walk through in June (I could have had it right away, I purposely postponed to help save $$$). Once construction started, discrepancies were uncovered and dealt with professionally. When I was informed I wouldn't get an increase in electric service, Ken Kaiser called and deducted $1000 dollars from the original price. A bathroom that was supposed to be removed was not and I received a $450 credit for that as well. I am impressed with the work, the basement looks 300% better and is better suited for future work since OC product is easily removable. The reason for "good" responsiveness was due to being misinformed about phone hookup. Apparently it is not their policy to hook up the phones to the trunk, but both Ken Kaiser and the construction worker (John DeWarrd) said that they (OC) would do it. This kept me from moving my computer and hence a lot of other furniture downstairs for three weeks in anticipation of the completed work. Once OC Corporate set me straight, I ended up doing it myself as it's fairly easy to do, but three weeks were lost. I'd recommend OC for anyone wanting to do extensive work on their basement. I am very satisfied.