Crystal Exteriors

Edgar Li was the fourth and final provider that provided us an estimate to replace three of our exterior doors: Front door, back french doors and back patio door. He was communicative, punctual, and straightforward. He was able to meet the least expensive estimate, but I felt that he was more detail-​oriented than all of them as well.
His installer is an employee and has been for several years. He was here all day, installing the two back doors. He ensured that the space was tarped off, so that no dust could get in the rest of the house, and that it minimized inconvenience. Mr. Li stopped by a few times to check in the work — everyone was fantastic.
The installer came back on another day to do the front door, as it was special ordered and needed to come in. This time there were two guys, and my double front doors became one beautiful door with sidelights. I most appreciated the attention to detail and level of customer service that Mr. Li and his employees provided. This is a small, local, well-​run business, and it was a great experience all around.

Best value for investment possible
Our experience with Crystal Exteriors and Edgar (the owner) was outstanding. They did our roof and siding, and a few other items that we identified as necessary along the way. We learned about Crystal Exteriors from the contractor we hired to redo our kitchen cabinets. We had a terrible experience with a larger company in the area that had visited our home several times to provide estimates and discuss the project. We also had another company provide a quote, so we have several data points to compare against.
Meeting Edgar was a breath of fresh air. From day one, it was clear that we hit the jackpot. It’s not easy to find someone in this particular industry that does extremely high quality work, stays within budget and schedule, and conducts business in a hands-​on and completely transparent way. This is Edgar. First, the price was the most competitive amongst the three bids we received. As with most folks in this industry, he offered a percentage discount on the total project to do the roof and siding together. Along the way, we also had Edgar install screen doors on the front and back door, new gutters, railings on the front porch and back stairwell, and reinforce the footer of one side of our house that had been improperly installed. He also just did (without asking) numerous small tasks along the way that we wouldn’t have necessarily thought about needing (e.g., installing new locks on the doors, house numbers, getting new keys made for us). He never charged us more for these things either, but still did not go over the agreed budget. In fact, when the price of the screen doors increased from the time he quoted us and the time we started the project, he offered without hesitation to absorb the cost. Throughout the project, Edgar was extremely hands-​on. He emailed us regularly to send pictures of the project from the day or to ask questions that needed a decision and we met with him at least two times a week at our convenience and nearly daily when the project was at its peak. He was endlessly kind, respectful, and honest.
The roof: The roof process went very quickly. His crew was finished in roughly two days. It seemed relatively standard in terms of procedure and quality of work. There was quite a lot of rotting or damaged wood that they needed to fix and they re-​built our skylight from scratch to no longer leak. The only other thing worth noting is the added detail he built into our dormers in the process. He added some wood along the edges of the dormers to give them texture, and to allow for a more creative design once the siding was put on. He made it into a nice triangle that provided more depth and a very classy/​modern appearance.
The siding: The process for doing the siding couldn’t have more different. The siding was done exclusively by one of his two siding people that are on his team — Peter. It took a little longer than most companies would to do siding, but it was worth it. Peter approached the project like a meticulous artist, and provided incredible attention to detail, but not at the expense of completing the work, which took roughly 2 weeks in total. The advantage of having this one person do it was that it produced a crisp, seamless, and consistent look around the whole house. He was also able to identify a few challenges and then solutions that might have been overlooked by a larger team. For example Edgar and Peter found significant exposure/​poor insulation under our addition near the basement stairs. Although they didn’t plan for it originally, they added additional material and closed it off in a very elegant way so that the house wouldn’t lose heat from there in the winter.
Suffice it to say, we would work with Crystal Exteriors again in a heartbeat. Edgar and his team are amazing.