Strouse Companies LLC – Roofing Contractor in Urbana, Missouri

I hired Eric Strouse, Strouse Companies LLC, to do a major renovation on my home, and quickly learned that while he sold himself and his company as being highly qualified and having adequate staff to handle my renovation, he is vastly under-qualified and he and his crew do work that is sloppy and in some cases, unsafe. He quoted the project at 4 weeks, as I write this we are in the 10th week and of the 17 small projects that make up the larger overall renovation, only 5 are near completion and all work on the project has halted since the owner has refused to act in good faith to bring the project to a close. His response was “I think it's best that it's worked out that way at your cost”. By at my cost, he means the attorney's fees. There has also been a considerable amount of rework due to the crew's inexperience. For instance, when my deck was installed, they drove nails all the way through the railing and they were sticking through the inside. This was done on both the top and the bottom of the railing all the way down the length of the deck. They used boards that were split and had mold on them. And after cutting a board too short, they still attached it by driving nails through the gap as shown in the photo. The railing after initial installation could be moved back and forth with only a single finger. One month later, one of the boards on the deck is already loose. My main floor bathroom and neighboring rooms were flooded when they failed to properly reconnect my washing machine. He has argued that the rework they have done to correct the issues should be considered going above and beyond. I disagree, as the rework brings the quality of the work to just the minimum anyone would expect from a contractor and they have yet to exceed my expectations in any way. The work is sloppy, and you'll be lucky if you can get them to show up consistently once you've written your check. When we were discussing the project, one of the plus sides was that he said he would be doing 90 of the work because it was such a large project. Since then 10 weeks, I have seen him work on only two occasions. He sends his "leads" as project managers instead. Please note, the deck was installed by one of his "leads" who had been put in charge of the project, but had not been vetted for his experience as Eric was surprised to learn that the employee wasn't capable of managing the work on the outside of my home. I have stepped on 4 nails, one of which was in my driveway, because they do not clean up their demo and despite multiple requests for staff to take their cigarette butts with them after they smoke, my yard is littered with them. On more than one occasion my tools/supplies have ended up in his trailer. I had rainwater in my master closet from the first rain after my roof was replaced because they never sealed a vent in the roof so water came right through. Eric said that I had no vents in my attic and that I would need them to provide ventilation. When I questioned this, he backtracked and said I had plenty of vents and wouldn't explain how that was missed in the first place. He ordered the wrong color drip edge for the roof and didn't replace it. They broke a storm window and laid it on the grass in the back yard where my puppy stepped on it and cut her paw on the broken glass. If you choose to use them for your project, please be prepared to keep a very close eye on every step as the work will be sloppy at best and plan to have a thorough inspection before writing that final check. Please also be aware that the owner and family members leave good reviews for his company. While the review is not necessarily untrue, and Strouse Companies is not the only company to write their own reviews, use caution if using them as part of your decision-making process. I hope that my experience can help those looking for a contractor avoid a similar situation.

Eric's crew never arrived on time, took longer than expected, quoted 1 day, took 4 and within 6 months of the gutter install, their workmanship failed on a section and have repeatedly asked them to fix their work. Was told for over a month and half they would be there week after week. So far, they have not fixed the problem and now we are potentially going to have issues with a project that was completed due to their failure to fix a 20 min repair. I would not recommend this company.