Northern Exposure Remodeling

Constant fight to get the work done, sob stories about all of the subs and work was sub par.

If honesty, quality, integrity, customer service and communication are important to you, look elsewhere.

It?s been 10 months since my nightmare began.  I met with Bruce Conway, the owner of Northern Exposure Remodeling (NER) and he seemed genuinely interested in my job.  I got bids from some great knowledgeable contractors and in the end hired Bruce because he told me that he had a long standing relationship with his crews that could take care of all of my remodeling needs, and he seemed sincere.   I required a variance for the garage, which I presumed was going to be my most difficult hurdle; little did I know what was to come.

I hired a general contractor for a turn key/stress free experience and it?s been the exact opposite.   The process was supposed to take two to three weeks to complete, and it?s still not done.  Bruce approached me on demolition day and requested a large payment up front so that ?he wouldn?t have to bother me for a while? and could get things ordered and paid for; Big mistake on my part to not stick with the payment arrangement on the contract!   From that day forward, the problems began, and it was one delay after the next.  I hired a land surveyor to plot the location of the garage and submitted the plan with my variance.  When the forms for the concrete slab were setup, they were not setup per the plan and when I asked that they move them per our agreement/approved plan, I was told that it would cost an additional $1000 to move them for the added work.  That should have been my wake up call, but I figured we?d work it out.  The process was halted until Bruce and the concrete installer (Bruce?s subcontractor) came to an agreement a month later to move the slab to the indicated location. 

When the forms were setup, I told the concrete guy that the forms were not to city code and his response was ?I pour concrete for a living, it?ll be fine?.  The inspection failed 3 times before it was finally approved for the pour.  I tried to reach out to Bruce on numerous occasions in between the inspections and he stopped answering my calls and would text me and tell me to work it out with his subcontractor.  I would e-mail Bruce and ask him questions about the project or the timeline and on the off chance that I?d get a response it was to defer me to his concrete guy. 

Once the concrete was poured, Bruce e-mailed me to tell me that his concrete guy was now going to be my Builder as he had a crew that built garages in the past.  I expressed my dissatisfaction and told him that was not the agreement when I signed the contract but he moved forward with that decision anyway.  As they started building the structure it quickly became apparent that they were learning on my dime.  I texted Bruce my concerns again and he told me to put together a ?fix-it? list and to give it to his concrete guys for resolution.  When they were done with the framing they continued with the roof and siding all before calling in for the framing inspection.  No surprise when the inspection failed again, and were told to rebuild an entire wall or hire a structural engineer to come up with an alternate solution.

Rather than go into all of the details I?ll summarize by saying that I produced multiple fix-it lists, and the fixes were in many cases worse than the original build.  Bruce finally brought in a different contractor to address the major issues and attempted to strong arm me into signing a change order that relieves him of any and all issues with the garage.

Some of the issues I faced along the way are:

1. Flooded Basement

2. Incorrectly installed windows (Double hung installed as horizontal sliders)

3. Lego Construction on overhangs

4. Improperly installed Fascia and Soffit (Removed and replaced 3 times)

5. Improperly installed siding (Removed and installed multiple times)

6. Improperly installed Service door (Still an Issue)

7. Garage door openings not plumb

8. Roof sheathing incorrectly installed

9. Framing not to code

10. Dimpling all over

11. Crooked slab ? Garage door doesn?t seal allowing water to enter structure

12. Debris never picked up

13. Garage never painted

I tried being accommodating and working things out with Bruce and told him that I was waiting for the final product so that I could give him a complete honest review.  His response was simply,  ?I don?t give a Sh** about Angie?.

NER advertises on Craigslist all the time with the following excerpt:

Bringing your home to the next level.



At Northern Exposure Remodeling, Inc., we understand how difficult it can be to choose a contractor. We know your home is important and we go to great lengths to ensure your satisfaction throughout the entire process. You can count on us to take your project from an idea, to a digital rendering all the way to completed construction. Whether you are replacing a few windows, transforming an existing room, building an addition, or remodeling your entire home, we look forward to meeting with you.

 

If honesty, quality, integrity, customer service and communication are important to you, look elsewhere.

It?s been 10 months since my nightmare began.  I met with Bruce Conway, the owner of Northern Exposure Remodeling (NER) and he seemed genuinely interested in my job.  I got bids from some great knowledgeable contractors and in the end hired Bruce because he told me that he had a long standing relationship with his crews that could take care of all of my remodeling needs, and he seemed sincere.   I required a variance for the garage, which I presumed was going to be my most difficult hurdle; little did I know what was to come.

I hired a general contractor for a turn key/stress free experience and it?s been the exact opposite.   The process was supposed to take two to three weeks to complete, and it?s still not done.  Bruce approached me on demolition day and requested a large payment up front so that ?he wouldn?t have to bother me for a while? and could get things ordered and paid for; Big mistake on my part to not stick with the payment arrangement on the contract!   From that day forward, the problems began, and it was one delay after the next.  I hired a land surveyor to plot the location of the garage and submitted the plan with my variance.  When the forms for the concrete slab were setup, they were not setup per the plan and when I asked that they move them per our agreement/approved plan, I was told that it would cost an additional $1000 to move them for the added work.  That should have been my wake up call, but I figured we?d work it out.  The process was halted until Bruce and the concrete installer (Bruce?s subcontractor) came to an agreement a month later to move the slab to the indicated location. 

When the forms were setup, I told the concrete guy that the forms were not to city code and his response was ?I pour concrete for a living, it?ll be fine?.  The inspection failed 3 times before it was finally approved for the pour.  I tried to reach out to Bruce on numerous occasions in between the inspections and he stopped answering my calls and would text me and tell me to work it out with his subcontractor.  I would e-mail Bruce and ask him questions about the project or the timeline and on the off chance that I?d get a response it was to defer me to his concrete guy. 

Once the concrete was poured, Bruce e-mailed me to tell me that his concrete guy was now going to be my Builder as he had a crew that built garages in the past.  I expressed my dissatisfaction and told him that was not the agreement when I signed the contract but he moved forward with that decision anyway.  As they started building the structure it quickly became apparent that they were learning on my dime.  I texted Bruce my concerns again and he told me to put together a ?fix-it? list and to give it to his concrete guys for resolution.  When they were done with the framing they continued with the roof and siding all before calling in for the framing inspection.  No surprise when the inspection failed again, and were told to rebuild an entire wall or hire a structural engineer to come up with an alternate solution.

Rather than go into all of the details I?ll summarize by saying that I produced multiple fix-it lists, and the fixes were in many cases worse than the original build.  Bruce finally brought in a different contractor to address the major issues and attempted to strong arm me into signing a change order that relieves him of any and all issues with the garage.

Some of the issues I faced along the way are:

1. Flooded Basement

2. Incorrectly installed windows (Double hung installed as horizontal sliders)

3. Lego Construction on overhangs

4. Improperly installed Fascia and Soffit (Removed and replaced 3 times)

5. Improperly installed siding (Removed and installed multiple times)

6. Improperly installed Service door (Still an Issue)

7. Garage door openings not plumb

8. Roof sheathing incorrectly installed

9. Framing not to code

10. Dimpling all over

11. Crooked slab ? Garage door doesn?t seal allowing water to enter structure

12. Debris never picked up

13. Garage never painted

I tried being accommodating and working things out with Bruce and told him that I was waiting for the final product so that I could give him a complete honest review.  His response was simply,  ?I don?t give a Sh** about Angie?.

NER advertises on Craigslist all the time with the following excerpt:

Bringing your home to the next level.







At Northern Exposure Remodeling, Inc., we understand how difficult it can be to choose a contractor. We know your home is important and we go to great lengths to ensure your satisfaction throughout the entire process. You can count on us to take your project from an idea, to a digital rendering all the way to completed construction. Whether you are replacing a few windows, transforming an existing room, building an addition, or remodeling your entire home, we look forward to meeting with you.

 

It was the worst experience I've ever had with a professional company. After agreeing on a start date with Bruce (the owner), he did not communicate with me when the start date changed. When I called him on the day he had told me he would be starting, he said it would be at least another day because they were behind on another project. Supposed bad weather then delayed the start for another few days. Then Bruce was out of town and unable to be reached by phone. Before he left he told that his crew would either show up or not, and that's how I would know when they were starting. The start and completion date were especially important to us because we had other work scheduled to happen in our backyard, and there would not be enough room for two work crews if the projects overlapped. Bruce was not willing to communicate the most basic information with me.
As far as I know, Bruce was never on site for the project. His "crew" (really, he subcontracted with Gonzalez Roofing) finally showed up on a Saturday and we were home all day for the removal of the roof and the first half of installing new shingles. The crew was completely unprofessional: they did not put down tarps to protect our landscaping/yard until I asked them, and then they did not bother to keep all the debris on the tarps. I had plant supports around a few plants, and asked them to avoid walking on those plants. They completely ignored that and not only trampled those plants but also mangles my plant supports in the process. They shouted for most of the day, and in addition to the necessary noise of re-roofing. One member of the crew picked up a small fire pit in our backyard that was in the way and threw it across the yard. The guy in charge bartered with one of my neighbors for some scrap wood he had - which was then used to replace some roof decking. I was paying for new materials, not wood that my neighbor salvaged from a dumpster. One person who was working appeared to be someone's child, and certainly wasn't older than 16. No one on the crew spoke English, and again, Bruce was out of town and unreachable by phone, so I had no way to express my concerns with the professionalism of the crew, or ask questions about the additional materials they were purchasing. They left that day without finishing and without a word to us about when they would be back. Our roof decking was left open to the elements, and they didn't return on Sunday to finish.
When I finally got a hold of Bruce on Monday, he said they would be back to finish "as soon as they could". We came home from work to find they had been back, but but weren't finished. Shingles weren't trimmed, there was garbage (roofing, as well as take out containers, water bottles) all over the yard, and the flashing they installed on one side was inches away from the soffit. Multiple calls to Bruce finally resulted in a halfhearted clean up of the yard and trimming of the shingles, but they never fixed the flashing. When I shared all of these concerns with Bruce, he did not apologize and told me the flashing was "as good as it was going to get". Bruce also told me that there were some material costs in addition to the cost we had already paid. When I asked for receipts or an inventory of the materials before writing another check, he sent me a scan of the receipts - most were not itemized, one did not even indicate what business it was for, and one included two candy bars.
Overall, it was a horrible experience, and I would not recommend Northern Exposure Remodeling to anyone.

Everything seemed to start out ok...then it turned sour.  After getting a couple quotes from various places, we went with Northern Exposure due to their price and a reference from our neighbors.  Bruce came and measured everything, seemed like a pretty nice guy.  He came over one night so we could sign the contract and "forgot" that the wrap on the windows was not included, that would be an extra 300-something dollars.  This was a bit unsettling, he knew we were on a budget and weren't going to budge.  My husband got home and was not thrilled about it and gave Bruce a call.  It got a bit heated and Bruce made a comment that he has a $100,000 project he is working on as well and ours is just $2000.  So we got the feeling that he could have done without our money.  We really should have ended the contract right there.  Our mistake.  He also said the windows would be in 2 weeks after we signed the contract at the end of April.

Fast forward to middle of June.  He never emailed or called saying what the hold up was, we always had to initiate.  He said the windows came in broken and he had to return them.  We finally received an email that the windows were in and that we should set up an installation time.  It took a couple tries but we finally picked a date.  The guys showed up 2 1/2 hours late, the misery continued.  They worked all day and it seemed as though the one guy was skilled in the area but the other was just a buddy who was there to help.  Over the next few days, it was "completed".  The front window, the most seen one of course, looks very sloppy.  Part of the wrap was installed backwards and the caulking is very poor.  All of the windows were not caulked on the bottom part of the wrap which allows water to pool under the window.  There is spray foam on our landscaping and screens and a chip in one of our windows.  On the bright side, our door looks great!

Bruce ordered us a new sache for the chipped one and we requested that he come out to look at the work of his guys.  He has not been responding to emails.  The project is still not completed and will feel much better once this is all over.  This has been nothing short of a nightmare, I would not recommend them to anyone.

*Update:
Bruce brought out the new sache the first week of August, it was the wrong side of the window so he has to get a new one...who knows how long that will take. He inspected the windows and agreed it wasn't the greatest work and said he would send the guys back out to fix it. Nearly a month later and nobody has been out here. More to come...

*3/15/14 Update:
Still no new sache. Bruce is not responding to our emails and this year of frustration is about to be the end of us. I'm changing the grade to F because there is NO REASON this should be taking this long with such poor communication.

They were great.  We had no problems with them.  We will use them in the future.

This is a great company. They are very reliable, accommodating, and incredibly easy to work with. I really appreciated how open they were to our ideas. I always found that they were more than willing to be helpful and answer any and all questions. I would certainly give them my recommendation.

I think Bruce did a great job answering all my questions and helping us decide what roof options to go with to prevent ice dams in the future. Subs were used for the roofing but so far it looks like they did a great job installing the shingles. Follow up was good and I feel like they will stand behind the job if I have questions or have any problems.

I think they were reasonable. They did a really nice job. Everything was done on time and they cleaned up well. I rate him high overall. I have recommended them to my neighbors and they are happy with them as well.

The quote and measuring process was great. I really got the feeling that the installer knew what he was doing. He was described to me as being a perfectionist. The windows took longer to arrive from the factory than we expected. They installed the windows but had to come back to do all the trim work because one of the windows required a speciality curved piece of trim. I was not at home when they did the trim work and we were not happy with the quality (gaps, rough trim boards, chunks of drywall in our baby's crib). They ended up coming back and fixing everything so that we were happy with the quality.

It went excellent. They did a wonderful job and we are really happy with it. It has held up really well and there are no problems. Everything was on time and they came in under the estimate they made. There were no problems.

The work was performed without delay. Thirteen windows were installed in one day and my wife was unable to tell that the workers were even in the house, except, of course for the beautiful new windows. The other jobs were completed in the same fashion and we never had to call Northern Exposure for anything. It was an excellent experience and I would recommend them to anyone. Steve

OVERALL WE WERE HAPPY WITH THE WORK THEY PERFORMED. I WOULD HIRE THIS COMPANY AGAIN, BUT WOULD REQUIRE MORE UPFRONT WORK AS IN DESIGN. BRUCE WAS GREAT TO WORK WITH, VERY HANDS ON. TOM AND CREW WERE PROFESSIONAL AND QUICK. TWO DAYS FROM TEAR OFF TO TRUSSES WITH SHEETING AND IT RAINED EACH MORNING DURING THE PROJECT. THEY TOOK APPROPRIATE MEASURES AT THE END OF EACH DAY TO KEEP THE RAIN OUT AND IT WORKED. DESIGN WORK UP FRONT WAS LACKING. THEY SUPPLIED THE CITY WITH A BLUE PRINT AND WHEN THEY DROPPED OFF THE PERMIT AND THE BLUE PRINTS, IT WAS THE FIRST TIME WE HAD SEEN THEM. ASKED FOR TWO WINDOWS IN THE FRONT, THEY INSTALLED ONE, SAYING TWO WOULDN'T FIT. WE MOVED THE WINDOW AND ADDED THE SECOND OURSELVES. THEY KEPT THE WORK AREA CLEAN DURING THE ENTIRE PROCESS. THE CREW WAS AS CLOSE TO BEING ON TIME EACH DAY AS CAN BE EXPECTED. THEY ARE COMING FROM LEXINGTON, MN AREA AND THE PROJECT WAS IN ST. PAUL, MN.

THEY WERE VERY COMPETITIVELY PRICED. THEIR WORK WAS DONE EXTREMELY WELL, AND I REALLY APPRECIATED THEIR PERSONALIZED SERVICE. I LOVE THE JAMES HARDIE SIDING; AND THEY PUT IN SOFT-LITE WINDOWS. I DID THE RESEARCH ON THE WINDOWS, AND THEY ARE SOME OF THE MOST ENERGY EFFICIENT WINDOWS I HAVE COME ACROSS.

THEIR CREW WAS ON TIME AND VERY POLITE. WORKED QUICKLY AND CAREFULLY COMPLETED WHAT BECAME A VERY NICE LOOKING GARAGE. CLEANED UP WORK AREA WHEN FINISHED AND COMMUNICATED VERY WELL ON ANY DECISIONS THAT NEEDED TO BE MADE. I WOULD DEFINITELY USE THIS COMPANY AGAIN AND RECOMMEND THEIR WORK TO ANYONE. VERY HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS.

THE INSTALLER ALWAYS HAD SOME EXCUSE FOR FAILING TO BE THERE. TRUCK BROKE DOWN, SICK IN THE HOSPITAL ETC. BUT WOULD NOT TALK FACE TO FACE AND SAY WHAT HE DID OR DIDN'T DO.

CONTACTED THE COMPANY SEVERAL TIMES, AND I ALWAYS SPEAK WITH THE RECEPTIONIST AND NEVER WITH SOMEONE IN CHARGE. HAVE HAD APPOINTMENTS, AND THEY COME TO WORK FOR A WHILE AND LEAVE WITHOUT COMPLETING ANYTHING. ON 11/13/03, I CALLED THE COMPANY AND SPOKE WITH BRUCE, BECAUSE THE INSTALLER WAS SUPPOSED TO COMPLETE THE WORK AND DID NOT SHOW. BRUCE THEN INFORMED ME THAT BY LAW, THE COMPANY HAS A YEAR TO COMPLETE THE JOB. IN MY CONTRACT, THERE IS NO INDICATION OF WHEN THE JOB IS TO BE COMPLETED. I DID, HOWEVER, RECEIVE THE BILL AND THE WORK IS STILL NOT COMPLETED.