Buzz Home Pros

We hired John a couple years ago to install Hardie siding and some Versetta stone. Cost was significant! John's a good guy and salesperson, but his workers were not very experienced and made many costly mistakes that I am still dealing with 2 years later (detailed below). I'm not exaggerating when I say that most work was completed when there was 12-15" of snow on the ground. I suspect that John wanted some sort of "spiff" or "bonus" from Hardie siding hence his rushing to do this job before 12/31 while it's snowing. First issue that arose is that a worker wanted to use a ladder and scaffolding on a day with wind gusts of up to 65 mph. The ladder fell into the neighbors house before the worker could secure it. The ladder damaged the siding and punched a hole through the wall. John put a "patch" on the siding that day. With the high winds, ladders shouldn't have been used unless they were securely fastened to the house. It was unwise to try to put up ladders/scaffolding in 65mph winds. 2 years later John still has not repaired the neighbors house. The mis-matched siding patch is still on the neighbors house (See pic). I am speechless why he still hasn't done anything about it! Second problem is that an 18 year-old with no masonry experience was installing new stone. He used the incorrect type of cement/mortar for the job and used so much that the mortar oozed around the face of the stone so that you could hardly see the stone. The install was wavy (not plumb or straight lines) and multiple colors of mortar were used. Ultimately we demanded that the stone be removed and installed correctly. John hired a another man that jack-hammered and sledge-hammered off the stones. It took a week and was a mess. This demolition damaged interior walls due to the jack hammers and sledge hammering. The stones were eventually replaced and the job looks okay (not great, but okay). The first attempt at the stone work was a joke and we felt like we'd been duped! Third problem was with Hardie siding on one side of the house that didn't line up and wasn't installed parallel to the ground. It had to be removed and reinstalled. It's now okay. Fourth, When installing the siding, the installers used nail guns that punctured the lines to our a/c lines. The lines could not be repaired unless the entire wall was removed plus the old refrigerant is extremely rare and expensive. A new a/c system had to be installed because new lines had to be run. John paid a portion of the replacement cost, but had his installers more careful and not nailed through the lines, we wouldn't have had to replace the whole system. Fifth, on the north side of the house, the siding has had odd "discoloration." It is as if GRSW used James Hardie reject siding! All over this side of the house there were patches of white. If you know about Hardie siding, the coloring should last 25-50 years, not 6 months. There were probably a two dozen spots, each the size of a quarter, that were white or rust. John sent a worker to paint over them while I was gone one day. John informed me that he would give me touch up paint to do myself in the future, but he's never given me any touch-up paint. He also told me that he was going to have a James Hardie rep come to our house to explain that the discoloration was normal. This meeting with Hardie has never happened... my guess is that Hardie isn't going to tell me it is normal! Sixth, it wasn't noticed until recently when a water sensor alarm was installed in my crawl space. I believe moisture/snow gathered behind the siding, melting, and then making its way to the inside of the house. It appears to be coming in above the foundation wall, so about the only way this could happen is that if it is coming from behind the siding. Until this siding, our crawl had been bone dry. (See pic of water actively dropping). Seventh, it is minor, but 5 of the shutters they installed next to the windows have fallen. I've had to get an extension ladder to re-attach. I'll update if anything changes. Proceed with caution!

We can't say enough good things about this company. I did my due diligence and reached out to about 5 different companies for quotes and to find out how they recommended to redo our stucco home into siding. Buzz Pro Homes was by far the cheapest of all the companies that I checked AND they offered the most! By "the most" I mean that they insisted on going above and beyond as far as best practices while charging even less for it. They recommended removing the stucco (not just siding over it) to double check for rot and damage underneath, they insisted on replacing rotting wood that they found and they were very thorough with checking on which vents and hanging cables were superfluous and which ones were needed. They did NOT charge extra for replacing rotting wood which every other company informed me would be an added expense. Again, their quote was the cheapest and they offered more. The contract we signed was simple, one-paged and straight forward. There were no hidden fees. They went above and beyond their contract and didn't charge a penny extra for it. For example, asked them if they would paint a few hideous utility boxes attached to the house and they went out and bought the paint and did it for no extra charge. They installed all new light fixtures that I had purchased and had ready for them, at no added charge. They installed our new doorbell as well. At the end of the project I noticed that I forgot to mention to the work crew that one of the hose bibs was no longer in use and needed to be removed. So I approached Juan, the team leader, and told him. He had the team remove the siding they had JUST put up and remove the hose bib, no guilt trip or drama at all. Juan recommended several small adjustments to the original plan that would help the condition of the siding and trim last longer with less noticeable wear. Those adjustments didn't cost anything extra I found out. He wasn't worry about selling me more, he was truly worried about my long-term happiness with their work and with our home. The work team was on time, kind, hard working and I felt safe having them around. We have a big family of little kids and my husband was on a work trip so this meant a lot to me. Also, Henry who schedules the projects was professional and worked hard to fit us in. Their office staff was helpful and informative. It was very easy to get a hold of them. Their gutter guys came in and finished within hours! They were also professional, kind and hardworking. Glenn, who is one of their sales guys, did a GREAT job answering all of my questions and was very patient. We took months before we were ready to sign on and he was NEVER pushy, answered all of my technical questions with ease and made several renderings for me with different color options so that I could see what we liked best. Best of all, the house looks great now! I know hands down that they offered us the best work AND the lowest price. I don't usually write reviews like this, and I'm not receiving anything at all for writing this. I just really had such a great experience that I felt they truly deserved this praise. I'm so grateful that I found them!

John, who claims to be the owner, did a classic, illegal bait and switch on us. He got my wife and me to provide our social security numbers for a loan quote. He quoted us after he said he secured financing for our nearly $35,000 siding project. We agreed to the ten year financed project, with 120 monthly payments of $399.16 per month. He finished the work and got paid 100% by some finance company who is being sued by attorneys general and class action lawsuits. They came after us night and day, with demands to pay at LEAST $100 more per month than John quoted and we agreed to. This finance company (they are actually just intermediary middlemen), named GreenSky, called us multiple times per day, day and night, blowing up our phones which we use to conduct business in our 15 year old, award winning agency. They lied, threatened, and harassed us non-stop. John strung us out just long enough to secure 100% payment for Buzz Home Pros, then stopped even taking our calls or replying to emails while the wolves at GreenSky continued day and night to try to extort us. Since we had no agreement with GreenSky, stipulating terms (amount financed, monthly payment amounts, number of payments, interest rate), REQUIRED BY LAW, Greensky eventually reported us to all three major credit reporting bureaus as deadbeats. Our credit is pretty much destroyed. The constant, incessant harassment, interruptions, and time taken away from running our business in the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic cost our business far, far more than the amount we agreed to and any of the extortion demand amounts GreenSky was threatening us with. Disputing the inaccurate, damaging lies on our credit reports with the reporting agencies resulted in simply adding insults to injuries. All attempts to have the bureaus remove these lie-filled accusations from our reports ultimately met with nonsensical replies from the bureaus stating things like "the merchant verified the charges". As such, these lies remain on our credit reports. The damage is done, but not over of course. My credit score before this was over 700, and I was too busy earning a living to pay much attention. Now, it is under 550 and I was recently refused two auto loans back to back for an automobile similar to the one we lease for our business. Before Buzz Home Pros stopped even pretending to help make things right, John pushed this down to an office worker. I explained how costly this extortion attempt was to our business. I explained that having our phones beeping mid sentences while on critical business calls, and that the sheer amount of time this was taking away from our agency was crippling. The response from John's assistant was not to do more to finally right the wrongs, mitigate the damage, and (dream) apologize. No, she instead decided to send an email laying claim to how hard she had worked to "help" us out. She even reviewed phone records to proudly stipulate the relatively little time Buzz Home Pros had spent on the phones with me and/or my wife. Somehow, she and Buzz Home Pros were then suddenly eager to prove how little time they spent on the phone with us, immediately after I clearly explained how debilitating all the phone calls over this matter had become for our business. She made no mention of or even reference to the constant calls from GreenSky representatives, each with wildly differing claims to amounts owed, past due, "penalties", "fees", monthly payment amount demands, all ending in refusals to tell us their first and last names, employee ID, or willingness to provide paperwork substantiating their claims. If I could rate Buzz Home Pros with zero stars, I would. If I could rate them with negative stars, I would choose that over the former. Run, don't walk from this business. Tell everyone you care about to take care to steer clear of Buzz Home Pros.

From start to finish, Buzz was wonderful to work with. Highly recommend them! Quote process - I filled out their webform to have someone contact me about roof replacement, siding, gutters, facia, and soffit. Being a Saturday when I submitted it, I didn't expect anyone to call me until Monday. But I was completely surprised when someone called me less than ten minutes later to schedule an appointment for them to come out. Glenn came out, we talked about what I was looking for, he made some recommendations, and provided a quote within a week. Since I was getting others to quote it as well, which resulted in more questions to try and get a fair comparison, Glenn was patient and quick to respond back to questions. My interactions with Glenn made it feel like Buzz would be the right company to go with. Between contract signing and installation - after signing the contract with Buzz, it took several weeks, I think 6-8, before they were able to get out to start the job. Henry and Cindy made sure I was informed with how things were going on their end, kept me up to date, and let me know an estimated start date. I'm going to stress ESTIMATED start date. When it comes to work of this type, WEATHER plays a large role of when they can start and if things get delayed. Heavy rains and/or a thunderstorm, expect things to get pushed back a little bit. Henry was great with conveying that information and great with providing an update of if things were going to get delayed because of this. Installation - The crews that came out to do the work were AWESOME. All the crews that came out are Buzz Home Pro guys, i.e. it's their crew. Each crew did an excellent job. The roofing crew came out and was able to knock out the roof replacement in a day. The torn off the old roof (shingles and underlayment) in no time. Checked for bad boards and then started the installation process. After they were done, they made sure the area was cleaned up really well. Having tall grass doesn't help with the clean up, but I was really impressed they caught 98-99% of things that fell down from the roof. Siding, fascia, and soffit crew definitely showed the same professionalism and skill as the roofing guys. They came out, took care of ripping out the old and rewrapping the house before install Hardie Board lap siding. Within three days, they were able to knock out the whole job. Just like the roofing crew, when it came time to clean up, they got about 98-99% of things. That's something to be really greatful for. Gutters was the last of the items and guys were in and out before I even knew it. All said and done, it looked great! Final walk through - our project manager, Joe, came for a final walk through when the job was done. We found NOTHING that was left undone. Summary - If you go with Buzz Home Pros, you won't be disappointed. Professional all the way around when it comes to their guys.

We had a cedar-sided house that suffered extensive woodpecker damage over the years, so rather than repair the wooden siding, we decided to replace the cedar with cedar-looking Hardie board fiber-cement plank. At the same time, we were looking to get a metal roof. We started by requesting contractor recommendations directly from the James Hardie company. We received three recommendations of trusted contractors, of which Buzz Home Pros was one. Of the three contractors, two were able to bid for both the siding and the roof. Both seemed competent to me, and the bids were only a few percent apart, but I was more confident in John Garelli, the Buzz Home Pro contractor, and went with his bid, which was also the lower of the two. Surprisingly, unlike many contractors, John takes no money until the job is complete. Another notable thing about John was the promptness with which he replied to emails, phone calls, or texts. He answered any questions quickly and thoroughly, which reinforced my confidence in his company and its capabilities. Because we wanted an 8-inch reveal, and a good color match to our existing cedar, the planking was custom manufactured and took several weeks to be delivered. John's crews showed up in early September, and over three weeks installed the siding and the roof. The workmanship was impeccable, the installers absolutely professional. They cleaned the worksite thoroughly every evening, including a magnetic brooming for nails on the driveway. The roof was technically challenging, since it is a mansard, but they did an excellent job working out the details. The final siding and roof installation is very attractive and robust, and exceeds our expectations on workmanship and quality. And the final cost was exactly what was bid. Overall, this was the best contracting experience we've had on a home project. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend John Garelli and Buzz Home Pros to anyone looking for installation of the Hardie board product and quality metal roofing.