Be aware before signing any papers with this company.
Business model is middle men between a door factory and installers. Nothing wrong so far, many small, honest businesses operate like that, but for this particular case worth saying the story behind it.
The salesman (Mohsen) was pretty knowledgeable and very friendly. Presented various doors with enthusiasm, and my wife and I got convinced. So far so good. We shook hands, paid the deposit and waited for new door. Nothing out-of-the ordinary.
Three weeks later:
First impression: early morning (good sign for me) the installers arrived at my house and, despite the COVID-19 pandemic regulations, were not wearing any PPE. “No problem” I told myself, “they don’t seem to cough, sneeze, have runny nose or to be feverish), the job is "semi-outdoor", and I’ll try to stay 6-7 feet away from them”.
Work started, obviously, by demolishing old door. So far so good.
Now the things become very interesting
After old door removal, they just tried to fit the new door without taking any measurements. Strange, for some reasons ;-) it (the door) didn’t fit properly, so they started to bang on it. Literally bang on door’s jambs. All DYI videos from HomeDepot, Rona, HomeHardware, DYI network etc., were showing approximative an inch gap between rough opening and the door’s jamb making the new door fitting fairly easy! However, maybe this is an “uniquewindoors” installation way ...
Once in place, they discovered that the door is not plumb. Tried to adjust it in place, pushing, banging (again), using metal pry bars on the door jamb directly (no even a shim or something to avoid direct contact) etc. result chipping the upper jamb. Finally, they gave up and removed the door.
Next , I think after they remembered all those DYI videos out there :), and the so needed gap between door frame and rough opening, they started to shave the entrance’s base (concrete) making a lot of dust. Didn't even bothered to use an air-blower or vacuum to control the dust, my whole house was full of fine dust in matter of minutes. Same concrete dust, that you can see sometimes when the curbs are repaired. Inside my house. Trying to mention to them the issue (dust) they laughed and told me to open all windows. And patio door. Worth noting that was the only moment when they bothered to wear face masks. Finally they managed to find an air blower for the last part of the work.
The concrete job being pretty hard, and the dust too thick, the decision was to move up instead of digging the (concrete) base. They managed to get some space going upwards by removing a 2x4 stud. No issues. No damage! 15 minute tops. No dust this. Finally, the professionals nailed it! It seems the 10 years of experience installing doors, windows, shower doors, finally paid off.
Second try, the door fits-in! Nice. Wait, wait, don’t get too excited. The installer started to drill temporary screws, bending the door jambs, left and right. When figured out that it went too deep, unscrewed them. Added some wood shims here and there where the bending was too obvious.
Anyways, door is finally installed, chipped on upper side, not plumb, not level, not even close to flush to the drywall (the upper jamb of door was more than 1/4 of inch offset), and I forgot to mention not plumb, not level :).
Caulking applied with some spit and with a lot of bumps. Offered the installer a glass water for caulking, I got refused with "no need my friend!". It seems his own saliva was doing the trick. For him anyways. Foam was applied scarcely with gaps, between the door and rough opening, I felt the drifts on my hand, but to get rid of all doubts I used a lighter. Noticed to my own amusement, the little flame going crazy :).
The aluminium coping above door was poorly cut, “no worries my friend, we cover with caulk”.
Not mentioning the smoking with all the cigarette butts thrown all over the lawn. And spitting all over the lawn while smoking and making that noise when hawk up phlegm. One guy hurt his hand, used band aid, of course the band-aid packing ended up on garage floor, 1 feet away from the garbage can.
Three hours later, Job ended, garbage left on porch, on lawn, on driveway. “The professionals” left, after got paid by Mohsen, while saying “Nice dool, nice dool!”
Couple hours later shown to Mohsen all the issues; he was VERY OK with everything (less the hawk, dust and dirt). Even mentioned that that’s the way a door needs to be installed given the circumstances.
To sum up
However, despite of professional way of handling and closing the sale, Unique Windoors Inc. uses (based on quality of installation) the cheapest, one of lowest qualified workforce out-there. If you are an occasional DIY-er and have a fairly handy friend, you can do the job in maximum one day. Save the extremely overpriced installation costs. Or go with cheaper offer, for the same result you’ll save some money (~500 dollars)
Ratings:
Sale’s pitch: 10 out of 10: be aware of that!
Quality of the door: 5 out of 10 – to address the initial gaps in weather stripping on bottom of the door, the handle and lock have to be installed tighter than normal, you’ll need to push the door forced when closed (to get an idea my little 8 years old boy who able to cary a 10 pounds bag) not able to firmly close the door! After few weeks the gaps son weather stripping started to show up on hinges side bottom of the door.
Quality of installation: 0 out of 10 – throwing a door in a rough opening, not plumb and not level (at any dimension), and masking all that lousy work with poorly applied calking is not close to a professional job.
Note: go to their site gallery and carefully watch their work - pay attention to calking jobs :)
