FHIA Remodeling Reviews

After several calls which I always had to make, never returned calls when they said they would, the lady I spoke to said she was sorry but there was nothing they could but never asked a sales Manager to call me and never would give me his number. I told her we had been mislead by FHIA's sales person and wanted someone in a managerial position to call me, but of course no such call was ever made.

I called again and the same lady told me she had spoken with someone and they would replace the the cracked glass for a discount price of $1000. I told her that's what the original guy (Steven) had texted to me 6 weeks before so how was that a discount?. I even offered $500 to have it replaced and she said she would have someone call but here we are another 4 weeks down the road and no call and there was never a form given to us with warranty information and no information or technical specs for the front door (hmmm).

Lillian from FHIA sent that form on Set 18th and I asked her to please also send the front door specs which was missing from the permit pack and to have Contract she sent filled out with our name and address and relevant info but to date -nothing!. No one in their right mind would ever have a hurricane installation done with a life warranty except the front door and hand over $50,000! I offered $500 not because I had to but wanted to get the job done and that door was not cheap!. I guess customer service is not something FHIA care about as long as they get their money.

If anyone else touches that window, the warranty will be compromised. It’s not good Customer Service, when you’re willing to pay for the work from the company that installed your windows to tell you they can’t do the work and if anyone touches it - it’ll compromise the window warranty. I want to warn all future customers that if you’re considering having windows installed by FHIA you must consider that if one day you need a hurricane impact window removed and replaced for whatever reason your sh*t out of luck. Make sure you ask this question before signing any contract with FHIA. I am extremely disappointed with this company after doing business with them that they would not honor this request. Shame on them!

The company now claims that she signed the contract and the price of $26,915 is valid. My aunt is being scammed as the company deliberately changed the price and terms of the contract and did not give her the contract to review. In addition, the manager took her phone and did the survey himself. Please stay away from this company.

Issues with the Oct. 18 installation are as follows:

• I brought it to the installer’s attention when they returned from their lunch break. They then worked to correct the windows, but after they left, I checked the measurement and found that one of the windows now ended up being crooked the other way and still needed to be corrected a third time. (one side of the window was 3” from the windowsill and 3 1/2” inches from the other side) This third correction was done just minutes before the city inspector came.

• Poor job of cleanup inside and out. Outside on our patio they just used a blower to move the debris to one end of the patio and left it that way.

On Oct. 23 I sent the FHIA installer supervisor pictures I took of the crooked windows. I also sent him a photo on Oct 28, showing the sticker on the inside of the sliding door pillar. On Nov 8 FHIA sent a troubleshoot guy out to our house to look at these issues and he recommended that all the caulking needed to be redone, and the windows straightened. He also noticed a bubble in one of the picture windows and said they will need to order a replacement which would take 2 months.

On Nov 13 an FHIA person came out to measure for potential new windows (which we decided to cancel) and he noted how terrible these issues were. He said he would bring this up in his staff meeting that afternoon. On Nov 21 a senior FHIA representative came out and told us everything will get corrected. We decided to wait to fix the issues until the replacement glass came in and then do all the work on one day. On Dec 18 I was told that the replacement glass was in, and we scheduled the work to be done on Jan 14. On Jan 14 the installation was scheduled for 9-10 AM. No one showed up or called so I called the FHIA dispatcher. She checked and said the installer had car trouble and they would be here between 12-1 PM. They ended up coming at 1:20 PM.

This new installer crew said they were here just to replace the glass in the one picture window and replace the caulking where needed. Before they came, I decided to measure four of the windows to make sure they were OK. It turned out as I suspected that they were all tilted somewhat. This crew then measured the windows themselves and noted that they were indeed all crooked. All of them measured 3.5” on one side to the edge of the windowsill and 3” on the other side. They called their supervisor to report this. The supervisor then called me saying he instructed them to correct the windows.

The crew replaced the glass in the window, straitened 3 of the other windows and replaced some of the caulking in the other windows and sliding door. They neglected to replace the caulking in two other windows. They said it was getting late and had to quit. I asked when they will be back and they said they weren’t sure, that it depends on what crew the supervisor will send next. When I asked the supervisor about it he said that the crew told him they completed all of the work, which they didn’t.

In addition, the work on the replacement glass was terrible and sloppy. I called the supervisor, and he came out to look for himself. He agreed that the work on the replacement glass was sloppy and totally unacceptable and then ordered a whole replacement window which required another 2 months to get. On March 3, another new installer crew came out and installed the replacement window and cleaned up all the other issues with new caulking. One remaining issue is a cracked window frame on the one window that was corrected 3 times from the pounding. At this point I just don’t feel comfortable having this window replaced a 4th time.

In summary 4 of 6 windows were installed crooked, one window had to be corrected 3 times. Three different installation crews did the work. The caulking done on all windows and door was extremely sloppy and amateurish. They replaced the glass in one of the windows, which was so badly done, the whole window then had to be replaced. One window frame is still cracked from where it was pounded on to straighten it in the window frame. In addition after all of their work was done I spent 2 or 3 days scraping excess caulking from the window frames, applying a wood strip at the bottom of the sliding patio door to hide the caulking and a chip on the tile, sand areas in the window frame where they had repaired the drywall, and then tape and paint around all of the windows and door to make it all look finished.

Note that the contract I signed for this work says in the scope of work “Factory Certified Installers”. As I understand it, a factory certified installer means you would expect quality installation and for the work to be performed correctly. I very much doubt that the crews FHIA contracts for these installations are “factory certified”.

We paid $20,000 for these impact windows. I requested a significant refund from FHIA for the poor quality of installation work that was performed and the headache and frustration this all caused my wife and me for 4 ½ months. I had several phone calls with FHIA customer support, and they eventually sent me a $450 check for “customer accommodation” which frankly felt like a slap in the face. If you are planning on ordering hurricane impact windows for your house, DO NOT use FHIA Remodeling and save yourself the headaches.