Four Seasons Sunroom review: Bad service 2

Please find a copy of a letter that was mailed to Four Seasons on March 10, 2006. To date, we have not had a response. I also wrote to them in 2001 twice and they still haven't helped us with repairing our sunroom. Thank you for posting this on your website. March 10, 2006
Dear Four Seasons: We purchased a sunroom from Four Seasons and had it built by Advanced Builders. We signed the final papers and made the last payment on October 1, 1996 and we have been completely dissatisfied with the room ever since. In February of 2001 I wrote a letter to Advanced Builders because I wanted them to reimburse us $960.00 which was the amount we had paid Lake Orion Roofing to have the section of the roof replaced where the roof of the house and sunroom meet, plus I explained all the leakage problems we had experienced in our sunroom. They replied to my letter and indicated that we needed a new roof and it really wasn’t their problem. I really think it was their problem and still is. When we had the roof replaced one of the roof installers from Lake Orion Roofing clearly stated that there was a leak in the sunroom flashing which they repaired. I sent a copy of this note to Advanced Builders in Utica, MI but they didn’t offer any money for replacing the roof. Unfortunately, even after we replaced our roof in that section we have still had leakage problems on and off since the winter of 2000. I explained in the first letter I wrote that the sunroom doesn’t leak every time it rains, it depends on the direction of the wind. Regardless, the room doesn’t look very appealing because the drywall shows water damage which has been replaced more than once. However, we finally gave up on fixing the drywall because the room still leaks and as soon as you get it fixed, the drywall gets wet and starts to buckle all over again. I know in 2001 after hearing back from Advanced Builders we should have fought harder and made them make our sunroom right but we didn’t. At the time we had our sunroom built, our roof was only 5 years old but Advanced Builders blamed the leakage problem on a bad shingle job, improperly installed roof vents and vent pipe flashing. If Advanced Builders knew of this problem then why did they install the sunroom in the first place if they thought the structure of our roof would allow leakage in the sunroom? We should have been told before installation even began that because of the condition of our roof, we could have leakage problems but this was never even mentioned until after we started experiencing leakage problems and the room was already built. However, we do not think it is our roof that is the problem, most likely it is from poor installation of the sunroom. I guess after putting up with the leakage problem for 4 years at that time, plus recaulking, tarring, and resealing the unit on our own (and a couple of times by Advanced Builders) we were tired of fighting to make the sunroom right so we more or less gave up on the leakage problem and decided to make it right someday on our own. Besides leakage problems, the sunroom has never been what was expected. When the room was built we were told it was for “four seasons.” However, listed below are other problems with the room and it is far from ever being a four season room. 1. Even though energy efficient and heat mirror glass in the windows was installed, and there is an exhaust fan that comes on when the temperature reaches 80 degrees, the sunroom is on most days way too hot to even sit in during the summer months. 2. When ice sickles build up on the eaves of the sunroom, water comes in the front windows. To correct this problem, a heat cable is used in the winter time to melt the ice sickles before they form which in turn raises our electric bill. Basically, we are paying added costs to keep the room from not leaking for something we can’t even use. 3. The sunroom is a little cool in the winter time to spend any length of time in even though we have a separate heater in the sunroom but I don’t think the windows installed live up to their “energy efficient” expectations (to keep the warmth in during the winter months and to keep the heat out in the summer months). 4. The drywall looks atrocious on most of the walls plus there is an area in the Northwest corner in the sunroom where the drywall has bubbled – not sure if there is a water problem there also or if it caused from expansion and contraction. Now the fifth problem which warrants a longer explanation are the windows that were installed in the sunroom are crap. A few years ago we had to replace one of the roof windows which fortunately we were never charged for. I’m sure we weren’t charged because of all the problems we’ve had. Then, a couple of years ago we noticed the seals were broken on 3 of our windows in the front of our unit so my husband called to check on having them replaced. Our cost was going to be over $800.00. At the time we didn’t have the money to replace the windows plus its very hard to justify putting money into that room because it still leaks on and off. So, we decided when the time was right we would just redo everything in the sunroom. Now it is almost the spring of 2006 and we have noticed that 4 of our roof windows need to be replaced because the seals are bad. I’m sure to replace those 4 windows will cost over $1, 600 so now we are talking about spending over $2, 400 on a room that still leaks and is ugly inside, is way too hot to use in the summer, and uses extra electricity in the winter just so the front windows don’t leak and looks atrocious because the drywall is damaged. This sunroom is warranted for 20 years but what part is warranted if it is already going to cost over $2, 400 just to fix the windows and that won’t take care of the leaking problem which most likely involves putting on a different roof. We have already paid over $22, 000 for this room and it’s barely been used in 9 years because of all the problems listed above. Even though I like the looks, I would be more than willing to give up the glass roof to make it more energy efficient and to hopefully correct the leakage problem. However, I don’t think that it is right to make us pay for something twice that has never been correct since day one and did not ever live up to its name (four season sunroom). Several times I have contemplated tearing this room down but we have a very expensive ceramic-tiled floor that I would hate to just throw away. It’s a good thing we never installed carpeting because it would have been ruined by now. We are asking for assistance in making this room an enjoyable room (four season room) to spend time in which is what we were told it would be when built. We were also told that adding a sunroom would add value to our home, however, in our case it has devalued our home. We believe the problems we have experienced with this room were never right from day one – it was never designed correctly, built properly, and the windows installed were not quality-energy efficient windows. We would appreciate hearing from you soon regarding this matter.