BSS exteriors has a very professional looking online job approval/submission system and they say a lot of the correct stuff which shows they are knowledgeable, however, they fall very short in actual execution, do put a lot of emphasis on fixing their mistakes and as a result I would never recommend them to anyone.
I had initially hired another company to replace my vinyl soffits with hardie board and when it became obvious that they had no idea what they were doing (pushed back on my for wanting certain things like stainless steel fasteners at the beach and a few other things) I fired them and eventually found BSS Exteriors. They were friendly and professional and like I said earlier, their system for setting up the job is impressive. They agreed with the need for stainless steel fasteners given proximity to the ocean and I began working with them to order needed materials (since I already had some). I got specific fastener requirements from Scott Weaver and when I found the nails he wanted, ordered them after checking with him that they were the ones he was talking about.
After a long delay (likely due to COVID decreasing product supply), they were finally able to come out and do my soffits but I had already deployed overseas. The day they showed up I called my brother, who was at my house to manage any issues, and told him to instruct the workers that the stainless steel fasteners were in my garage and to ensure they use those. I was on the phone as the conversation occurred and the worker said 'I already have stainless nails in my nailgun' to which my brother emphasized that if they needed anymore that they were in the garage for their use. After the job was completed, I found out that they were not caulking all the seems and gaps in hardie and their response was 'we let the painters handle that as they are particular about it' (BSS was not doing the painting of my house). Learning point on my side is to make sure you specify everything in the contract but I'll take the hit on that one. As a result, I returned a few weeks later and began caulking the soffits only to find that the nail heads were all rusty. It turned out that they had put in galvanized nails instead, as all the heads were attracted to the magnet my brother used to check it. I also noticed that they were missing firring strips in 2 sections on one side of my house.
I called BSS and informed them of their mistake and they came out, took a look and admitted their error. I understand no one is perfect although this was frustrating given how I'd tried to manage it very closely and it still was messed up. After a little discussion I agreed to having them come back, drive stainless nails in, then overdrive the galvanized nails all the way through the hardie and cover it up with a plastic filler compound to seal it inside the overhang in addition to adding the firring strips. After that agreement it took forever to get them to come back out and fix the issue. When they did come, over a month later, I was getting stucco on my house and they were unable to fix half of the house that day. I kept calling and texting Al Booth (the overall foreman) professionally about coming back out and finishing the soffits so that I could paint my house. Every now and then he would reply with an excuse and I took it in stride trying to just get the job done. I also kept reiterating what needed to be done which was the last half of the stainless nails getting replaced and the firring strips that were needed in two areas. A month (and many texts/calls) later he showed up, again while I was gone doing training for the Air Force and finished the nails but 'forgot the tools to do the firring strips'.
I have messaged and called him numerous times, as has my mom who has been helping me while I'm overseas for work. There have been no answers to these texts. I finally sent a message to Scott Weaver and Al Booth together being very blunt about my experience and telling them to finish the job. So far Scott (the only one who has responded) has given me some excuses that sound very reasonable yet, I'm not getting any updates on a plan for action.
I would never recommend this company to anyone. This has been the most overcomplicated and messed up job I have been a part of. From what I can tell from talking to their work men, they are really tasked out to a lot of jobs and the volume they are dealing with is a lot. It's very clear they are focused on production and have no afterthoughts about setting things right. That's been the way it was after the initial evaluation; instead of fixing it right away it's been whenever they could squeeze it in between other projects, weeks down the road. It's also been really frustrating because I've been very involved the whole time and things still have gone awry. Save yourself the frustration and time and go with someone else that is more committed to doing a job done right. read more
