THE WORST EXPERIENCE I'VE HAD FROM ANY CONTRACTOR THAT HAS EVER WORKED ON MY HOME
I saw the other reviews here and thought I had made a good choice in moving ahead with GNI for a hybrid attic installation on my home. Nope--it turned out to be the worst experience I've personally had from any contractor that has worked on my home over the last 13 years of home ownership. Below is my honest account of some (not all) of the low-lights of this experience.
[TL;DR]
1.) the install was scheduled to take only 3 days to complete but ultimately spanned over approximately 11 calendar days, causing significant and unnecessary disruption to my family
2.) disorganization and poor internal communication led to incorrect foam type being installed in the corners of my attic. I had to spend considerable effort to advocate for this to be addressed and resolved. GNI needed to return to remediate to prevent future mold issues.
3.) GNI labourers needed to borrow basic tools from me because they either didn't have them, or theirs were broken.
4.) there was poor preparation work done to properly protect my refinished hardwood flooring. Had to purchase and setup my own flooring protection
[DETAILS]
Disorganization and poor internal communication led to GNI not installing "froth kit" foam in the corners of my attic before installing the blown in cellulose. This "froth kit" style of foam was determined to be necessary by the GNI spray-foamer due to the shallow slope of my roof line. Resolving this matter required me to spend significant time and effort to advocate for a resolution. GNI's Production Operations Manager emailed and acknowledged that their oversight could potentially cause mold and mildew to my home in the future if not remedied. Remediation was eventually completed.
After the first day of removing existing attic insulation it became very clear to me that I would need to hastily take time off from my work to be present while the remainder of the install was being conducted. I felt this was needed so that I would be able to properly advocate for things to be done correctly, and also ensure that my property was treated with a reasonable amount of care and respect.
I feel that GNI performed very minimal prep-work to protect my refinished hardwood floors, and after the 1st day of work I felt it was necessary to go purchase and setup my own flooring protection. I also feel that GNI completely missed the mark on reasonable cleanup of materials and debris removed from my attic. Some garbage bags of debris didn't properly make it into the driveway dumpster and instead blew around in the wind requiring me to have to spend my time cleaning up my and my neighbors' front yards, driveways, and walkways.
Some GNI labourers were not equipped properly for the job, and borrowed MY tools (with permission) on several occasions as they didn't have them in their truck, or theirs were broken. These basic items included: screwdrivers, tape measures, vacuums, and extension cords.
Also, GNI installers were not equipped with a sufficient amount of rafter venting product to meet the scope of the contract, and used material that I personally procured on a previous occasion, rather than simply going to a nearby retailer to purchase.
This relatively simple installation was an awful experience from the very start and right through until the very end. GNI acknowledged these issues by offering a discount of approximately 7.7% in an attempt to make up for the experience and to cover the additional materials I needed to purchase. While the items in the scope of work were eventually delivered, I feel this discount is not sufficient given the amount of unexpected disruption and chaos that my family needlessly experienced.
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UPDATE BASED ON REPLY FROM GNI:
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Please know that I did not change the scope of work for this project. The scope of work was always very straight forward, and included the following items:
1. removal of existing insulation
2. installation of rafter air baffles and fiberglass batts for soffit area
3. installation of approximately 2" of spray foam for air sealing
4. installation of blown-in cellulose insulation
This was for an approximately 900sqft attic space aiming to achieve R60+
The "change of scope" GNI is referring to in their reply may be related to the issue that was caused when GNI installed the incorrect foam type in the corners of my attic. This seems to have been due to major disorganization and poor internal communication within GNI. I had to spend considerable effort to advocate for this to be addressed and resolved properly. GNI eventually returned to remediate their error in order to try to prevent possible future mold issues.
GNI's error caused considerable delay to the work being completed, and was extremely disruptive to my household.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $6,000.00
- Company Response
Hi Josh. Providing reliable and professional service is important to us so we thank you for your review. This gives us an opportunity to provide our teams with customer feedback and help improve our processes. Unfortunately, the scheduling delays you mentioned did result from a change in the scope of work mid-project. This ultimately meant reconfiguring your project to meet the new requirements. We can appreciate that living in a home with ongoing renovations is a challenge and we do apologize again for the home disruption you experienced.
We appreciate you choosing Great Northern Insulation and are pleased that our crews were able to complete the work as scoped. We’re confident that you made your home more energy efficient and will experience the positive effects for years to come.