DAVENPORT INSULATION

Be cautious or warned about custom shower doors by Davenport Insulation. I was so excited about my shower doors that now I would be better off with a $5.00 curtain. They were installed wrong and backwards. They came out several times “trying to make it work”. The doors are off by .75” from the top to bottom. The doors are not laid in the same dimensions. Which both I could tolerate. But the water that runs out of the shower is now eating away the brand new woodwork. Because my contractor hired them, and I paid the bill, this is considered a done job.

I have reached out to them numerous times for the improper installation of a shower door that cost $1,200. Because of this, water goes all over the floor. They have made constant excuses and don’t return calls (been trying to resolve this since January). If they decide to do the right thing and make this right, I will change my review. Otherwise I do not recommend them!

This is by far the longest review I have ever written, and I even shortened it. I do NOT recommend Davenport Insulation in Winchester, VA. Davenport Insulation was recommended by 2 friends (electrician and contractor) to insulate our late 1800’s home that we were renovating. Our goal was to keep costs down with quality work. We had managed to do that with electricity, plumbing, flooring and drywall. It was another story with the insulation. In the beginning, everything sounded good when we talked to the Davenport rep. I will call him B. He seemed very professional, and explained what Davenport could do for us. The price seemed pretty high ($12,700), but we naively thought it was to be expected with such a large, old home with no prior insulation. We elected for the insulation to be blown in from the outside. Wooden plugs were to be put into the holes after the insulation was blown in. That was a naive mistake. We had no idea how many unsightly holes would be drilled, and there were A LOT. B explained that the balloon framing of the house caused them to go above and below the blocking in order to fill the wall cavities. Although B appeared to be very professional, the work crew was not. We were told they were coming several different days, and they did not show. At one point B told us that according to the work schedule the crew was at our house; however, they were not there. There was at least one other day when B did not know if they were coming to finish the work or not. When the crew did show up they drilled multiple holes around the laundry room, which DID NOT NEED insulation blown in because batting had been installed. B explained that there was miscommunication about the laundry room and apologized for the unnecessary holes. Another issue was that the crew did not have enough wooden plugs to fill the holes, so they used duct tape to cover many of them. I was told that they would bring more plugs the next day to cover the holes. They did not bring the wooden plugs when they returned, so the duct tape was there for multiple days (some were rainy days). In addition, the crew hammered many of the wooden plugs so hard that the plugs went too far into the weatherboard siding. Several plugs broke in the holes, and there were at least 7 noticeable, large cracks in the weatherboard around the house. At one point they also drilled a hole that cut into new wiring. The electrician had to come and repair it. B offered to pay for that repair and to reduce the cost of the insulation to $11,700 “because of the issues.” When the work crew said they were finished, we inspected their work. There was a broken plug in a hole, duct tape on two holes, large uncaulked cracks around the house, and inside there were several gaps around the attic windows. We had already mentioned multiple times that there were obvious gaps around a window in the attic where you could see daylight. B came back and painted over all of the wooden corks and caulked all of the cracks. He sprayed foam in the attic around the windows, and filled in cavities with foam around all of the windows throughout the house. It appeared that Davenport was finished. I expressed to B that this was the most expensive part of the renovation and the least professional. He asked me what would make me happy since he agreed there had been so many issues. I said I wanted him to reduce the price of the work. He said that he could reduce it to $10,000. I agreed to pay that amount. Two weeks later, a panel of batting fell down in the attic. I texted B to let him know that it did not appear that any of the batting was secured. He asked me to send pictures, and I did. He called me back and said that he would bring someone to come look at the batting in the attic and that the batting had tabs that kept it in place. He added that he was still working with his superiors on getting the price for the work lowered. That surprised me because he had already told us that the bill would be $10,000. A week or so later, B said he was sending someone to secure the batting in the attic and that he was still working with his superior to reduce the cost of the job. He said that he could only reduce it to $11,200. I reminded him that he had told us it would be $10,000. He said that he had told us that he would TRY to get it to that price, but he could not get it there. When I shared that I was writing this review, he said that he was not sure it would matter, but he would let his supervisor know. Later B said that his manager agreed to lower the price to $10,850. I agreed to pay that amount when work was finished. B eventually came and secured the batting with netting after telling me that he was told that it was not necessary. It took him three visits to complete the work due to lack of materials and not having a ladder. We found out later, that the electrician and contractor friends had used Davenport from Harrisonburg, VA. I wish we knew that earlier.

I had two jobs scheduled with Davenport Insulation. The first was to get insulation blown into my uninsulated garage walls. Two men and a truck showed up to do the work. They were polite and fine, but kept telling me how it was a new truck and that they had to keep turning the pressure down. One of them was frequently on the inside of my garage pushing against the drywall. Not having this done before I didn't know if this was standard procedure. After they left I discovered that about 40% of my dry wall was blown off the studs. I have had to go back and screw the drywall back in place. My salesman, a guy named Mark, quoted me a price on seamless gutters. We scheduled a date. I called the day before to confirm I was on the schedule. He said I was. The next day no one showed. I called the office and they said I was never on the schedule. I tried to contact Mark several more times to no avail and was then told he had been replaced by Levi. I have been told 4 times by both office staff, a supervisor, and Levi, different dates where my work would be done. They have no showed on every single one. I started this process in February, it is now August and I still don't have gutters. Amendment to my review written on 24Aug2018: Even though I had asked to speak to a supervisor on my last contact with Davenport Insulation in Winchester, I was never contacted by them until I wrote this review. Mike E. contacted me within a week of this review being posted and I now have gutters. He assured me that this was an oversight brought on by my salesperson leaving and that this is not how they normally treat their customers. While that doesn't explain all the previous contacts I had, I will take them at their word. Gutters are installed.

We recently purchased all glass shower doors from TruTeam. We had some issues at first but Joe and Patty went above and beyond to make us happy. At the end of the day we were delighted.

Went wonderfully.

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