Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
lauren_ploch

Horrible Marvin Ultimate quality

Lauren Ploch
2 months ago
last modified: 2 months ago

I ordered custom Marvin Ultimate windows, 7 sets of french doors, 2 single doors, and a multislide door for my new build. The quality is atrocious. The interior paint is incomplete in many areas. In others, there's debris in the dried paint and large dried drip areas. The exterior clad is defective and not powder coated with exterior color, so it looks silver. I will post more photos of that when I’m at the site this week. The french door panels are all wonky so it looks like each door is wavy. After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on Marvin, I have to wait for a "rep" to come out to see the defects. I need to place an order with another company asap. Does anyone have advice on how to get Marvin to respond sooner? It's holding up our build.

edit to add: we ordered a custom exterior color (Shoji White) and custom interior color (Greek Villa) and we paid a premium for this. These were NOT painted by the builder. You are able to order Marvin Ultimate in custom colors and custom sizes. This is their full custom line so we paid for factory interior paint so that our builder didn't have to do it. A few of our windows were not custom interior painted because those are stain grade Douglas fir. The clad on those is really messed up. The muntins aren't meeting the frames of the doors or windows. It's all a huge mess.









Comments (17)

  • PRO
    toddinmn
    2 months ago

    Squeaky wheel gets the grease. How

    soon before the rep comes

    out?

  • PRO
    Mark Bischak, Architect
    2 months ago

    Do you think "spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on" another manufacturer at this point is the answer??

    What date was the order with Marvin placed?

    What date were the windows delivered?

    What date was the alleged poor quality noticed?

    What did the builder say?


    Post photos.

    Lauren Ploch thanked Mark Bischak, Architect
  • chispa
    2 months ago

    Sorry you are having to deal with this.

    Where is your distributor in all of this? They should be helping as you bought the product from them and not from Marvin.

    We used Marvin Ultimate and Elevate windows and doors in our 2021 custom build and had no problems at all, other than the long covid delivery times.

    For our multi-slide doors (5 sets) we used Euro-wall and also had no problems with them, other than an installer that made some mistakes and then took over a year to fix the issues (missing weatherstripping). All our windows and doors are impact/hurricane rated.

    Interior paint? I don't think that was an option ... ours came primed white from the factory.

  • Lauren Ploch
    Original Author
    2 months ago

    Both the interior and exterior color were custom. They do some standard Ultimate interior paints but we chose a custom color per our designer. I cannot get the photos to upload but am happy to email anyone the photos.


    We have to wait for a rep to come out but I'm planning on ordering from Andersen or Pella asap.

  • Lauren Ploch
    Original Author
    2 months ago

    photos are added to the original post!

  • HU-48094157
    2 months ago
    last modified: 2 months ago

    Frying pan meet fire. Stick with the original. The 3rd party applied custom paint is not a factory finish. That is what you are going to discover was done. And not the factory. That is a factory primed, custom site painted job. This is a builder produced issue.

  • Lauren Ploch
    Original Author
    2 months ago

    It’s not a builder issue. We ordered factory finish for a premium. The windows were delivered last week and I was there when they were unwrapped.

  • chispa
    2 months ago

    Yeah, that paint job doesn't look great. Even our primer looked smooth and clean. I wouldn't be happy with what you got either, specially if I paid extra for it.

    One thing I learned from doing a fair amount of remodeling over the years using high end finishes, both in fixtures and furniture, is that going fully custom is usually a very risky gamble.


    Here is a photo of our delivery. All ours were the standard Marvin Bronze cladding on the outside and all of them came in with no imperfection from the factory.


    This is the inside of one of the French push-out casement with built-in screens. The beige on the left is shipping protection for the screen. Again all the interior white primer was sprayed smooth and had consistent coverage on all the windows. This one looks like they scraped or got dirt on the bottom right during installation, but not an issue as they were going to be painted.


  • chispa
    2 months ago

    Wow, sorry you are dealing with that. Our experience and most of the feedback we had gotten on the product and company was all positive. Have to wonder if they are going through management, supplier and/or manufacturing changes?

    You just need to make sure that Coastal Sash & Door is doing most of the complaining and pushing for the appropriate resolutions, as ultimately they are Marvin's customer.

    Lauren Ploch thanked chispa
  • just_janni
    2 months ago

    I am so sorry you are dealing with this. I suspect your dealer isn't high on Marvin's priority list because they are not large purchasers. Sure tey can advocate for you - but losing them as a client is likely not a big deal for Marvin.


    I'd write a letter with pictures to their CEO and also start engaging on Twitter / social media.


    This is TERRIBLE quality. Anyone that let that ship should be dismissed.

  • Lauren Ploch
    Original Author
    2 months ago

    It’s even worse now. I edited my original post to add a photo of a 9 foot custom window that has two different ogee profiles on the same window. I bought 4 of these windows and they are supposed to be installed on the front center of my house.

  • Marie McDonald
    last month

    You are in a much more extreme situation than I, but I feel your pain!! We currently are in the process of removing a Marvin Ultimate Sliding French door, 16' x 8'. The quality was atrocious, like shockingly poor. It was delivered and installed with broken pieces, missing weatherstripping, cracked sill, etc. Water pours in to the house every time it rains, enough that there are multiple large (bigger than 1m) puddles on the floor. It's been an ongoing saga, waiting endlessly for reps and technicians to come and assess and each time they discover new issues. No lead times from Marvin on how long the replacement parts will take to arrive, they just expect you to wait and delay your project indefinitely. We're also looking at cutting our losses and going with Andersen or similar. It's been unreal.

  • M Miller
    last month

    I am pained to hear this. I've bought a lot of Marvin Ultimate Windows over the years, and they were top-notch, great. But that was all pre-Covid. It sounds like the quality that Marvin was known for is no longer. That is really a shame. I hope this is just a temporary down period for Marvin and they will get back on track.

  • BlueBlob Gaming
    29 days ago

    Marvin product and Warranty are CRAP 7 windows 1 patio door /Flaking within Eighty days. Extremely Drafty and yellowing white pre finished interiors





  • BlueBlob Gaming
    13 days ago

    Marvin products and Warranty are C R A P stay away here is what they will tell you.

  • J Sk
    13 days ago

    ^^^ why to resolve a problem if you can always blame the customer. Shame.