Jake Burwell, of Superior RV Repair
It has been a heart…read morewrenching struggle to write this review, but we think it important that potential future customers know what to expect. And, in case you don't want to read a long review, let me just suggest you think twice about having Jake do any structural work that includes finish work, inside or out.
Before we hired Jake, in the early spring of 2023, we read his reviews and they were mostly really good. However, in retrospect, we have to assume all those jobs were mechanical, unlike our job, which was structural and involved a lot of refinishing, both exterior and interior.
Jake is a nice fellow, and we liked him from the start. He came out quickly when we first contacted him, for a bid, and we were impressed with him. However, in time, we painfully learned that he is not a DETAIL person. After months of trying to get things done right, we were left with our interior in shambles and our exterior seriously coming apart. His original bid grew to a near double amount, partially due to a major error he made. Jake admitted that he had bid on something he had never done before, and that it was a learning curve for him. The result was a mistake that cost us both substantially, and leaving us overwhelmed with frustration, and dismayed with his work.
The job, as he bid it, was to take the exterior fiberglass siding off, replace some rotted framing, and replace the siding. Sounded simple because he assumed the fiberglass would come off and be easy to replace. Not so. He did not realize it was glued on, as is the case with all fiberglass RV siding. This required the purchase of all new aluminum siding, at our added expense and additional shop time for Jake, and for us.
When we arrived for the first inspection and to pick up our fifth wheel, I remarked to him that I thought the new siding was installed upside down. His response convinced me that he knew something I did not, so I initially let it go. Later, still not totally convinced, I did some internet research on the installation of aluminum siding and learned that I was right. I called the company, from where I knew he bought it, and, again, was reassured that I was right. When we confronted Jake, he admitted he had installed it incorrectly, and he had to order all new siding, at his expense. This also cost him additional time, while we lost the use of our rig for weeks while other subsequent jobs took precedent over finishing ours.
Problems: From the start, we had a large, inoperable window that needed to be installed in a manner that allowed us to slide it open and closed. It took Jake several ins and outs to get it installed properly, eventually including tearing it out a third time, and re-framing the opening. This was another added time loss for him and additional hours that kept our rig in the shop. All of this required the interior removal of the mini blinds and window treatments, more than once, and the final time, window treatments were re-installed upside down, and the mini blinds, backwards! (We assume it was an inexperienced employee who did this, and Jake never checked it.) Because we were on our way out of town to a long-anticipated family gathering, we had to let it go, and fix these things ourselves. Subsequently, while traveling, several mini blinds have fallen off, damaging them permanently, because they were not re-installed correctly. Throughout the job, screws were replaced indiscriminately, or not at all. All of the interior finish work was horrible. Additionally, the exterior caulking was unbelievably sloppy, and trim seams and joints were cut to fit poorly, with gaps, and look unsightly. The screen door has never fit since then, and a latch simply disappeared in the process. In the end, while the second new siding was installed right side up, it was not installed well and horizontal seams started coming apart almost immediately, and have continued to do so, as we have travelled. I simply cannot go into all the finish work problems; it was just terrible.
Virtually all of this can be attributed to lack of attention to detail and a work ethic that is governed by rush, rush, rush, understandably because Jake's main concern is to get it done quickly. In this case, it cost him substantially and it cost us dearly, both financially, (to the tune of $8K over his bid,) and emotionally. This whole process took place over five months, as our rig was in and out of Jake's shop. In the end, we asked for a $5K refund and settled for $2,000, rather than taking him to court.
It is certainly not our intent to hurt Jake, but after many months of enduring the consequences of our having hired him for our particular job, we hope to keep someone else from having a similar experience.
Steve and Merrily Lowry Questions? (509-703-8368)
