|
|
| We're thinking of putting up a new building. Has anybody have any complaints about there Lester building? Would you build another one? How do they compare to a Morton or Foltzs building? Thanks in advance |
|
| |
|
IA | I have one new last year. I like it so far but as said its not even six months old yet. My local lester builder is very good so thats what sold me the most on it. Wont hear anything negative from me. |
|
| |
|
SE MN | Our shop is a Lester and it was built in 1990. They have good buildings and we have not had any problems with ours. |
|
| |
|
South central Ohio | Get the Morton. |
|
| |
|
Saronville NE | I have a Lester 50x88 built in '94. Its allright, havent had any promblems except for one sagging gutter right above a OH door. |
|
| |
|
| Look at a Newmark out of Pella Ia. Dad has a Lester its great. I looked at the Mortons I don't get that at all. I don't like how they are built. |
|
| |
|
East Central Ia | pullpin12 - 2/1/2013 17:33
Get the Morton.
Care to elaborate? Not at very helpful comment? |
|
| |
|
southern minnesota | I think morton is better quality, and better waranty, but they also cost more. just my 2 cents |
|
| |
|
Eastern Iowa | All of my hog barns are Lester buildings. I have 7 of them. Can't compare to a Morton, though, don't know much about them.
Edited by GangGreen 2/1/2013 19:08
|
|
| |
|
| Find a local builder and a lumberyard that will build to your specs. When I did mine it cost right at 34k, a Name brand building without the overhead door was going to be 1 and a half times more. My building used the same structural lumber specs and building design as the one that it was compared to. Name brand buildings are nice but they are still wood and steel. As far as I'm concerned marketing and layers of management are what you are paying for on the name brand buildings. I know there will be 10 people that say I don't know what I'm talking about and that their name brand shed is far superior to what the locals offer. They will also preach about special screws, paint, nails, and whatever. I feel most of this is a marketing ploy. I believe that some areas may have a lack of qualified builders or competitive lumberyards and in that case the name brands may be a better deal. Do a little shopping around and see what you find. |
|
| |
|
| I have a Bonanza and Lester bought them, I thought for some of their designs.
Last time I wanted another I was down to Lester vs Wicks. I bought Wicks because The Lester came with nails for the steel skin, screws and extra cost option and Wicks were all standard screws. Otherwise they seemed to be very close and less than 2/3 the price of a Morton.
Gerald J. |
|
| |
|
| Just got a bid on a lester and it was 25% higher than the local builder in the area. |
|
| |
|
| I have a Lester 30 x 80 open front shed built in 1973. Dad enclosed it completely a couple years later. Really should have put some skylights in at some point. It only has 2 - 300 watt incandescent lights in it which is minimal.
Quite a few Lester structures around here from that era. Good building for the most part. This one is still pretty solid. Most problems that developed were due to the local crew's attention to detail, not the materials package. This particular crew is long out of business, and I don't know of any new Lesters in this area in over 30 yrs.
Personally, if I was building a new pole structure today I would consult both with local suppliers and construction crews and the national chains. Competition is good. Get some bids, and some opinions from recent customers if possible. A building is never any better than the crew that puts it up. Doesn't matter what nameplate is mounted in the peak of the roof.
I'm hearing ads that Wick buildings are now new to this area. I know nothing about them. Maybe they are making good deals to get established in the region? |
|
| |
|
18c ditch system | Two kinds of people, those that have a Lester's building and those that want one.... Very good buildings. Lots of Doug fur in their buildings. |
|
| |
|
Marshall county Iowa | "A building is never any better than the crew that puts it up."
+1
When the crew that built my Lester shop did a poor job and took material from the job site , Lester was no help to me. I will never think of buying a Lester building for that reason alone. |
|
| |
|
MN | have just one dad built in 1974,, that one was enough for us..... |
|
| |
|
NC Iowa | kwsfarms - 2/1/2013 19:41
"A building is never any better than the crew that puts it up."
+1
When the crew that built my Lester shop did a poor job and took material from the job site , Lester was no help to me. I will never think of buying a Lester building for that reason alone.
i would guess that they took the material after the building was finished. if you look at the contract, you bought a building, not material. when they were done you got the building so you got what you paid for. some companys cut the material so close that they expect you to tear apart the pallets the steel came on for use as purlins. |
|
| |
|
Central Minnesota | Have a lester shop/shed combo built in late summer/early fall of 1987... White with black trim. The black is pretty faded now, and the white on the roof is real streaky. It's dark in certain areas. Looks like streaks in it. But it's also almost 26 years old.
But like someone mentioned earlier. The building is only as good as the crew that is building it. The crew we had here was (excuse my french) a bunch of f***in flunkies! They did the whole thing, cement, insulation, lined it, put up the schweiss bi-fold door on the shop part.. I don't think that crew lasted very long in building sheds. They sold us the lester package. It wasn't lester buildings fault at all. It was the crew. |
|
| |
|
S.E. South Dakota | donny - 2/1/2013 19:12
Find a local builder and a lumberyard that will build to your specs. When I did mine it cost right at 34k, a Name brand building without the overhead door was going to be 1 and a half times more. My building used the same structural lumber specs and building design as the one that it was compared to. Name brand buildings are nice but they are still wood and steel. As far as I'm concerned marketing and layers of management are what you are paying for on the name brand buildings. I know there will be 10 people that say I don't know what I'm talking about and that their name brand shed is far superior to what the locals offer. They will also preach about special screws, paint, nails, and whatever. I feel most of this is a marketing ploy. I believe that some areas may have a lack of qualified builders or competitive lumberyards and in that case the name brands may be a better deal. Do a little shopping around and see what you find. +1 |
|
| |
|
Iowa | Put up a Morton and be done with it. You get what you pay for. There is always going to be some cheap builder, and every builder has made mistakes it's construction. As far as I am concerned there materials are second to none. It's only forever!!!!!! |
|
| |
|
| Not much said about foltz going to put a new cold storage up next spring 60x150 from foltz bought building from dave foltz the owner who is the salesman of the buildings an very good to work with hopefully some people have some comments on there building crews . |
|
| |
|
South Eastern ,ILL | I would have to agree with Donny & 5288. We have four different buildings on our farm. Morton,Amish built,
Walters, and a Tru-Bilt. None have caused any trouble. The newest one is a Tru-Bilt, 80 x 138. Built this past summer,super
strong, very pleased. When I built the Walters (66 x 136) in 2005, they were 34,000$ less than Morton.
The crew forman previously worked for Morton for fifteen years. He told me the only difference between
The two ,was thickness of the metal, otherwise exactly the same.Morton has done a great job advertising and promoting their product, but as far as being cost efficient, their not. My nephews built a Morton, Country
Craft 60 x 120 in 2011, they had to use Country Craft side of the bussiness in order to be Competitive. I looked it over before building
my last building, and said no Thanks. Looks very weak IMO.
Edited by 1000 moline 2/2/2013 07:15
|
|
| |
|
WCIL | Anybody put up a Lester insulpanel livestock like we we did for a milking parlor 20 years ago? |
|
| |
|
Eastern Iowa | 1968. And again in 1983. |
|
| |
|
| I don't recommend buying a Lester Building at all. I bought one and just weeks ago I had to pay an Amish Crew from Graber Bldgs. to come in and fix the mistakes and poor workmanship on it. These are the mistakes and poor workmanship on my Lester Bldg. I paid Lester Bldgs. extra for them to install dripstop on the house roof portion of my bldg. but they shorted me and didn't install it on the portion from the front porch that goes back into the house to the ridge. I also paid them extra for 3/4" plywood to be installed on "All Exterior Walls" but again they shorted me and only ran it up to the bottom of the soffit. After I turned them into the Better Business Bureau they admitted that they only engineer the plywood up to the bottom of the soffit, even though I told them specifically I wanted it on all exterior walls, my interior ceilings are taller than the exterior soffit so the wind would blow thru the soffit track and soffit vents and down my walls.
They also provided me with a Lester Dealer/Builder and said he could build my building in my timeline and that he did "good Work", but they lied. Just weeks after this Lester Dealer/Builder built my bldg. and left town we had our first rain at which time I noticed that I had 25 leaks in my roof, I had puddles all over inside my bldg. Before This Lester Dealer/Builder left town he told me that if he had to come back for anything it would be a $500 minimum, well I wasn't going to pay him to come back and fix his screw up so I got on the roof and checked out the leaks myself, I found that this Lester Dealer had installed the roof screws missing the roof purlins. So, it took me 2 days to do it, but I fixed all that myself.
It took me 2 years to finish and move into my Lester Bldg. which is when I started noticing more serious problems with my Lester Bldg. and earlier this year I had an Amish Crew come in and check out my bldg., The Amish found several problems with my bldg., but before I paid them to fix it, I first called the Lester Regional Manager out to see if Lester Bldgs. would fix my bldg. since they are the ones that provided this Lester Dealer/Builder to me advising that he did "good work", but after talking to Lester Upper Managerment this Lester Manager said that Lester feels no responsibility for what they called "My Building Issues", so I paid the Amish just weeks ago to come in and fix my Lester Bldg. and this is what was found.
Eight Roof Purlins not nailed, not one nail in them, the Amish pulled one of them up and out to show me, and this would explain why on windy nights it sounded like my roof was going to blow off.
A lot of soffit only had one staple holding it on and when the staple tried to go thru the steel it bent only allowing 3/8" to go into the facia board, which would explain the rattling. Also Lester used vented soffit on the gables which should have been solid soffit.
Gaps/Openings in the roof valleys which allowed the wind to blow thru into my attic and blow my attic insulation away in those areas, it also allowed cold wind to find its way into my furnace plentum/duct work, and of course rain was probably coming in too.
2 bird blocks not installed and the ones that were installed were not nailed, again not one nail in them, I personally screwed them off myself.
Facia Boards barely on the trusses, we had to sister boards on the sides of some trusses and some of their nails missed the truss. Facia cover was not cut to fit properly allowing the ends to drop down an inch.
After I turned Lester Bldgs. in they responded by putting most of the blame on the Lester Dealer/Builder, C&C Construction, Willis Childress is the owner, this is the Lester Dealer/Builder that Lester Bldgs. recommended to me as doing "Good Work". Lester Bldgs. has know for some time now about the mistakes and poor workmanship on my Lester Bldg., and again has put the blame on this Lester Dealer/Builder, but I would be that this Lester Dealer/Builder is still a Lester Dealer/Builder. With all that in mind I would not want to see anybody else go thru what I did with my Lester Building, so I would not recommend buying one. I would recommend buying a Graber Building, their built by the Amish who, on my building, showed great attention to detail, unlike Lester. |
|
| |
|
Eastern Iowa | That sucks. Sounds like your builder didn't do a very good job with your building package. I have no fewer than 7 Lester buildings on this farm and have had good experiences for the most part. |
|
| |
|
| I bought a Lester Bldg. and just weeks ago had to pay an Amish Crew to come in and fix the mistakes and poor workmanship on it. I don't recommend anyone buying a Lester Building after what I've gone thru with mine. |
|
| |
Anybody have a Lester building?
