Special Report

Lester Buildings are made to last

What sets Lester Buildings apart from other steel post-frame buildings is the way the company stands behind them.

“Lester’s one of the few that have a lifetime structural warranty,” said Rick Sagness, an area manager for Lester Buildings. “If we load your trusses, engineer you building and we have a failure, Lester stands behind it 100 percent for its lifetime.”

Lester Buildings are commonly constructed as machine sheds, hog buildings, cattle barns and fertilizer plants, but their uses have expanded. “In the last few years we’ve actually broadened out into commercial buildings, churches, and even have quoted a few apartment buildings,” said Sagness.

AUDIO: Rick Sagness (2 min. MP3)

  • Rick, I disagree with you. I bought a Lester Bldg and just weeks ago I had to pay an Amish crew from Graber Bldg. to come in and fix all the mistakes and poor workmanship on it. Here’s my story.
    I dealt with the Lester Regional Manager because my area dealer was quiting Lester Bldgs. This Lester manager provided me with a Lester Dealer/Builder advising me that they do “Good Work”, their name is C&C Construction, Willis Childress is the owner. They came in built my bldg. in 10 days and left town. Before leaving I asked if I had a problem I just call your guys back and the owner said yes, but its a $500 minimum for them to come back. A few weeks later we had our first rain and I found that I had 25 leaks in my roof, well I wasn’t about to call this Lester Dealer/Builder back and pay him $500 to fix his mistakes so I got up on the roof myself and found that the screws that this Lester Dealer had installed had missed the roof purlins. It took me 2 days to fix all the leaks, but I did it myself.
    It took me 2 years to finish and move into my Lester Bldg and that’s when I started finding more severe problems, so severe that come warm weather I brought in an Amish Crew to check my Lester Bldg out, who found several problems. Before I paid this Amish crew to fix my Lester Bldg, I first called out the Lester Regional Manager and asked Lester to help fix my Lester bldg., but after he spoke with Lester Upper management he said Lester doesn’t feel its their responsibility and my 1 year warranty is up. So I just weeks ago paid the Amish crew to come in and fix my Lester Bldg and the following is what was found. (8) Roof Purlins not secured, not one nail in them, they actually lifted one up and out to show me, that would explain why on windy nights it sounded like my roof was going to blow off. Gaps/Openings in my roof valleys where cold wind was blowing in and had blown my attic insulation away and was finding its way into my furnace plentum/duct work. Rain had to be coming in too. I paid Lester for dripstop to be applied on the house roof portion, but they shorted me and didn’t apply it to all the house portion from the front porch back to the house peak. I told Lester that I wanted 3/4″ plywood on all exterior walls, but they again shorted me and only ran it up to the bottom of the soffit track, they admitted to only engineering it to the bottom of the soffit, but I told them specifically I wanted it on all exterior walls, it should have been ran up to the bottom of the trusses. Their way allowed cold wind to blow into the soffit track and venting down my exterior walls. Soffit rattling, a lot of my soffit only had one staple holding it on and when the staple went thru the steel it bent only allowing 3/8″ to penetrate into the facia board, also Lester designed vented soffit all the way around my bldg., it should have had solid soffit on the gable ends. 2 bird blocks not installed, but the blocks that were installed were not nailed, not one nail in them. I personally screwed every one of them into place. Some Facia boards barely on the truss and some nails missed the truss completely. We had to sister nailers on the sides of some trusses and renail some facia boards. Facia cover was not cut to fit properly which caused the facia to drop down an inch on the ends. When I turned Lester Bldgs into the Better Business Bureau they put most of the blame on their Lester Dealer/Builder, C&C Construction, you know, the Lester Dealer that the Lester Regional manager provided to me and said that they do “Good Work”. Lester Buildings also said they allotted me the material to make the repairs on my building, but they left out the fact that it was not until I paid full price for those materials did they allot them to me, they made it sound like they just gave me the materials. So with what problems I had with my Lester Building, I would not recommend buying a Lester Building. The one question that Lester Buildings has not yet answer is if their Lester Dealer/Builder, C&C Construction, is still a Lester Dealer after putting up a quality Lester Building like mine?

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