robot
New member
I don't recommend buying a Lester Building at all. I bought one and just a few weeks ago paid another company to come in and fix all the screw ups and poor workmanship. Heres what happened to me.
I paid Lester Buildings to engineer my building and paid the Lester Dealer/Builder that they recommended as doing "Good Work" to build it. It took them less than 10 days to build it and they left my area. A few weeks later we had our first rain at which time I noticed I had 25 leaks in my roof. I got up on the roof myself and found that they had not installed the screws into the Purlins causing leaks. The Lester Builder/Dealer told me before he left that if he had to come back for anything it would be a $500 minimum, so I fixed all the leaks myself.
It took me 2 years to finish and move into my building at which time I starting finding more serious problems, like on windy nights it sounded like our roof was going to blow off and severe rattling which I thought was my soffit. It was so bad that I told myself come warm weather I had to have it fixed. So earlier this year I had an Amish Crew from Graber Buildings come out and check my building. They found several problems, but before I paid them to fix my building I called Lester Buildings to see if they could help me with the problems. Lester sent out their Regional Manager who was shocked at my problems and said he would talk to Lester Upper Management, but after doing so he said Lester Buildings doesn't feel that they are responsible for any of the problems with my building and also my building only has a 1 year warranty on it. So I paid the Amish Crew from Graber Bldgs. to come in and fix my building and the following is what was found.
Lester Buildings used vented soffit all the way around my bldg., Graber uses solid soffit on all gable ends and only partially vented on the front and back. Also the soffit was installed with staples that bent going thru the steel only allowing 3/8" to go into the facia board. Also, a lot of the soffit only had one staple holding it on. Graber uses screws to attach soffit.
I paid extra for drip stop to be installed on all of the house portion, but Lester shorted my some and where it didn't have it was condensating which would have caused mold. I also paid Lester for 3/4" plywood on all the exterior walls, but again they shorted me, they engineered my building to only have plywood up to the bottom of the soffit. My interior ceilings are taller than the outside soffit, so when high winds blew it was blowing thru the soffit track and venting and down my walls. When the Amish Crew took my roof metal off they called me up to look at the Purlins, there were 8 Purlins that were not nailed, not one nail in them, they actually pulled one up and out. My roof could have blown off and that would explain why it sounded like my roof was going to blow off. My roof valleys had gaps/openings in them where a lot of wind was blowing in and had blown my insulation out of those areas, rain had to be coming in too. There were bird blocks that were not installed, all the ones that were installed had not been nailed, they were just set in place. I screwed everyone of them in to place myself. Some facia boards were barely on the trusses and some nails had missed the truss completely, we had to sister boards on to the sides of these trusses. Facia cover was not cut to fit properly and hung down an inch on the ends.
After I turned Lester Building into the Better Business Bureau they responded by putting most of the blame on their Lester Dealer/Builder, that they recommended to me as doing "Good Work". They also told the BBB that they allotted me the new soffit material to make the repairs, but they left out the fact that it was not until I paid them full price for those materials that they allotted them to me. The Lester Dealer/Builder that built my building is C&C Construction out of Navarre Ohio, Willis Childress is the owner. Lester Buildings is putting most if not all the blame on them and C&C is at fault for doing poor workmanship, but Lester is also just as at fault for shorting me drip stop and plywood and only engineering the plywood up to the bottom of my soffit, they should have ran the plywood up to the bottom of the trusses. Bottom line, Lester Buildings provided me with their Lester Buildings Dealer/Builder advising that they do "Good Work", but that was a lie. Lester Buildings has shown that they don't really care about my building, they only cared about presenting me with a reason that they didn't have to make the repairs to my building with their 1 year warranty.
Oh also, when this Lester Buildings Dealer/Builder told me that if he had to come back for any repairs it would cost me a $500 minimum, he was flat lying. I found out later that he has to provide me with that 1 year warranty.
My dealing with Lester Buildings and C&C Construction, Willis Childress, have shown to be one of the worst investments I've ever made and I don't recommend anyone having to go thru what I did with these people. With that in mind I don't recommend anyone doing business with them.
I paid Lester Buildings to engineer my building and paid the Lester Dealer/Builder that they recommended as doing "Good Work" to build it. It took them less than 10 days to build it and they left my area. A few weeks later we had our first rain at which time I noticed I had 25 leaks in my roof. I got up on the roof myself and found that they had not installed the screws into the Purlins causing leaks. The Lester Builder/Dealer told me before he left that if he had to come back for anything it would be a $500 minimum, so I fixed all the leaks myself.
It took me 2 years to finish and move into my building at which time I starting finding more serious problems, like on windy nights it sounded like our roof was going to blow off and severe rattling which I thought was my soffit. It was so bad that I told myself come warm weather I had to have it fixed. So earlier this year I had an Amish Crew from Graber Buildings come out and check my building. They found several problems, but before I paid them to fix my building I called Lester Buildings to see if they could help me with the problems. Lester sent out their Regional Manager who was shocked at my problems and said he would talk to Lester Upper Management, but after doing so he said Lester Buildings doesn't feel that they are responsible for any of the problems with my building and also my building only has a 1 year warranty on it. So I paid the Amish Crew from Graber Bldgs. to come in and fix my building and the following is what was found.
Lester Buildings used vented soffit all the way around my bldg., Graber uses solid soffit on all gable ends and only partially vented on the front and back. Also the soffit was installed with staples that bent going thru the steel only allowing 3/8" to go into the facia board. Also, a lot of the soffit only had one staple holding it on. Graber uses screws to attach soffit.
I paid extra for drip stop to be installed on all of the house portion, but Lester shorted my some and where it didn't have it was condensating which would have caused mold. I also paid Lester for 3/4" plywood on all the exterior walls, but again they shorted me, they engineered my building to only have plywood up to the bottom of the soffit. My interior ceilings are taller than the outside soffit, so when high winds blew it was blowing thru the soffit track and venting and down my walls. When the Amish Crew took my roof metal off they called me up to look at the Purlins, there were 8 Purlins that were not nailed, not one nail in them, they actually pulled one up and out. My roof could have blown off and that would explain why it sounded like my roof was going to blow off. My roof valleys had gaps/openings in them where a lot of wind was blowing in and had blown my insulation out of those areas, rain had to be coming in too. There were bird blocks that were not installed, all the ones that were installed had not been nailed, they were just set in place. I screwed everyone of them in to place myself. Some facia boards were barely on the trusses and some nails had missed the truss completely, we had to sister boards on to the sides of these trusses. Facia cover was not cut to fit properly and hung down an inch on the ends.
After I turned Lester Building into the Better Business Bureau they responded by putting most of the blame on their Lester Dealer/Builder, that they recommended to me as doing "Good Work". They also told the BBB that they allotted me the new soffit material to make the repairs, but they left out the fact that it was not until I paid them full price for those materials that they allotted them to me. The Lester Dealer/Builder that built my building is C&C Construction out of Navarre Ohio, Willis Childress is the owner. Lester Buildings is putting most if not all the blame on them and C&C is at fault for doing poor workmanship, but Lester is also just as at fault for shorting me drip stop and plywood and only engineering the plywood up to the bottom of my soffit, they should have ran the plywood up to the bottom of the trusses. Bottom line, Lester Buildings provided me with their Lester Buildings Dealer/Builder advising that they do "Good Work", but that was a lie. Lester Buildings has shown that they don't really care about my building, they only cared about presenting me with a reason that they didn't have to make the repairs to my building with their 1 year warranty.
Oh also, when this Lester Buildings Dealer/Builder told me that if he had to come back for any repairs it would cost me a $500 minimum, he was flat lying. I found out later that he has to provide me with that 1 year warranty.
My dealing with Lester Buildings and C&C Construction, Willis Childress, have shown to be one of the worst investments I've ever made and I don't recommend anyone having to go thru what I did with these people. With that in mind I don't recommend anyone doing business with them.
