Betterliving Sunrooms built by Craft-Bilt
We had a four season sunroom built by Betterliving Sunrooms / Craft-Bilt installed on our home in February. Betterliving Sunrooms / Craft-Bilt sent their Lead installer out to oversee the construction and installation (performed by a local authorized dealer / contractor that uses the Betterliving Sunroom name).
Immediately after the installation, the homes roof started leaking where the sunroom roof joins the homes roof, causing extensive damage inside the home (drywall damage, insulation damage, flooring damage). There were a lot of other more cosmetic issues with the materials that were to be fixed, but the installer has drug their feet on everything! Remembering that this was to be a FOUR SEASON sunroom, and an extension of the living room, (a big selling point was that it was insulated and had energy star windows) it was NOT possible to keep the sunroom temperature more than 10 degrees warmer than the outside WINTER temperature during the winter of 2009. Not only was the sunroom FREEZING COLD, but so was the house! The heat ran full blast all winter to work to keep the sunroom and living room 10-15 degrees warmer than the below freezing outdoor temperatures! This meant the only rooms that were warm and livable were the bedrooms that had to be closed off from the rest of the house. Heat bills more than doubled! Not only did the cold winter wind and temperatures create problems, but the way the sunroom was attached to the home left spaces where not only wind entered, but also allowed for the home to become infested with mice, ruining flooring, furniture, and hundreds of dollars in yarn used for weaving (the sunroom was going to be used as a weaving room and yarn was stored there.
After 18 months of complaining, the contractor came out to fix the roof, by replacing the shingles in the valleys (damaging more shingles on the sunroom and house), however, they didnt do the job right and the results have been even more leaks. Not only is water coming in via the roof, but also water is coming in under the sunroom walls because flashing was not installed! So now the floor we had installed has to be all pulled up. We have contacted Betterliving / Craft-Built, and they refuse to do anything to correct the problems. The sunroom was inspected by an independent home inspector, a builder, and the city building inspector. It FAILED every inspection. The roof needs replaced, the sunroom needs to be attached to the home (not butted up to the lap siding, but mounted flush to a flat surface), and there needs to be flashing under the walls to direct water away (the concrete pad was also not sealed). All of the people who have inspected the sunroom agree it must be torn down and rebuilt the right way to correct the problems, but again, Betterliving / Craft-Bilt refuses to aid in fixing anything, and they have not told their contractor / dealer to fix things. On top of all of these things, trim pieces are falling off, pulling away from the windows, and panels are warping and so on.
The product is terribly over priced and everyone who has looked at it has commented on what a sloppy job was done and commented on the sunroom as being a piece of junk (especially as a result of how it was installed. We have given Betterliving Sunrooms / Craft Bilt multiple opportunities to come out and fix the problem the right way but so far they have been non-responsive. My sister (the owner of the house) has been so stressed out that she is on the verge of a mental breakdown. We have had to remove everything from the room and have had to seal the room completely off with plastic and duct tape (inside and out). It is useless in the state it is in. Already this fall she has trapped / poisoned half a dozen mice that have come in, and she has had to tape screen wire over the floor heat vents to keep them out of the duct work. She has had to create her cat to keep it from eating poisoned mice.
Betterliving Sunrooms / Craft-Bilt needs to fix / rebuild the sunroom the correct wayand they need to use a contractor that knows what they are doing!
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