
Serving Fellsmere, FL and surrounding areas
In business since 1979
Free estimates
Credit card accepted
"Installers arrived on the designated day, seemed experienced and went right to work. I had to be away for a few days, so I missed the completion. When I returned my wife said the installers had put everything up, cleaned up, showed her how to operate the accordions, the inspector had inspected, the inspection report had been received and filed. I wanted to see the report so I got it out and it said we had failed; my wife hadn't read it. I called Gulfstream and they didn't know we had failed. The report said fasteners for the panel tracks on the arched windows had to be "6 inches oc maximum spacing." I was disappointed because I believed Gulfstream should have known this. The installers came back a day later and concluded that all they could do was put another fastener between each existing fastener, which would, unfortunately, double the number of fasteners. A few days later another inspector came. By the time I saw him he had completed the entire inspection again; he had been unaware we had been inspected before and failed. He pointed to all the fasteners on the arched window tracks and said he had never seen anything like that before, it was silly, unnecessary and probably weakened the structure as much as it secured the panel tracks. Apparently the rules are subject to individual interpretation.
Later, because we planned to be away for a few weeks, I believed it a good idea to close all shutters, just in case a storm arose. I got out all the instructions Gulfstream had given me and went to work. I noticed what I thought were a lot of nicks and scratches on the accordions, so I called Gulfstream. The woman who answered assured me that was normal because their weight and unwieldiness made them awkward for installers to handle. She offered to send someone over, but I accepted her explanation: they're all aluminum, so not a big deal. While installing the removable base tracks for the doors' accordions, I noticed that some of the anchors were so deep in the concrete that only a few groves of the bolts engaged. The installers and inspectors must not have been concerned, so at some point I'll buy some longer bolts, if I can find them, just to ease my mind.
All the accordions closed nicely, but installing the panels was hard work. If I had this to do over, I would try harder to overcome my wife's objections to accordions on the bay windows on the back of the house, because schlepping the panels back there is more work than it seems. All the panels were numbered and fit nicely until the last four: they were too long, and no way would they fit. I called Gulfstream and they sent a man over that afternoon. He said the panels should fit because they were all the same length, but he couldn't get them in either: the track dipped a fraction. He cut an eighth of an inch off each panel, and they slid right in. So, closing everything up took me the better part of two days and a fair amount of sweat. I'll need help if I ever have to do this in a hurry, but at least I know now that everything fits..
I'd say Gulfstream did as good a job as anyone could expect. They certainly responded promptly each time I called. They did everything they promised.
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