I have never taken the time to write and post a review despite many large purchases (including homes, multiple vehicles, electronics and other home renovations projects); including some very good and very bad experiences. However, after our horrible experience with Husker Exteriors, it was absolutely necessary. So you may find this review in multiple places, as we try to get the word out to hopefully save someone else the money and issues that we had. We will try to summarize the lowest points of this experience.

We were high pressured by Jed Hartweg, owner and salesman, into signing on the day he came out to provide an estimate, including an incentive that we would not have to pay sales tax if we signed that day. The couple thousand that we saved in sales tax, was more than lossed in “upgrades” due to the estimate being in error. We were shown six colors that we could choose from for the decking material, but then told the estimate was only for three of those colors and the one we chose was an upgrade. The railing was suppose to be cheaper because we were using black aluminum spindles, but then it came out we could only use those spindles with a white vinyl rail (would you want a white vinyl rail on black spindles on a walnut deck for a project that cost over $30,000?) and if we wanted a black railing we would have to upgrade to composite spindles that also cost more.

A major reason that we contracted with Husker Exteriors was their sales-pitch and promise to manage the process from beginning to end; including coordinating with the hot tub company (Superior Spa and Pool of Lincoln, don’t use them either) that they recommended. Total project time was supposed to be approximately four weeks to be completed no later than July 1. They started the project the week of April 12th and were not complete until July 30th. Due to delays between phases, including shingling the roof of the screen room and putting on the gutters, we had serious damage done to our yard that required we purchase several yards of dirt and our time to repair. Because they did not coordinate with Super Spa and Pool at all we had to find an alternative method to get the hot tub into the screen room which resulted in renting equipment at our expense and more damage to our yard requiring more dirt as well as several yards of mulch to repair. They did not reimburse us for any of that.

Weeks would go by between phases during which we would not hear from anyone. We would call Jim, general manager, to find out the status and would either get no return call or a new date that would not be met along with a rude demeanor.

We sat down with Jed and Jim to explain all these issues and got straight-out lies from Jim and a head nod from Jed. There was no resolution. Just a sorry you didn’t like the process, but you got a heck of a room and deck. The room and deck were because of the subcontractor we could have and should have hired ourselves. For $35,000, we better get a great end product.