Madison Aluminum Products

We hired Madison Aluminum Products LLC to upgrade gutters around our house and install gutter covers. We had a mostly positive but still mixed experience. The work they did was excellent and they would be rated 5 star if we were grading them on the end product alone. I'm going to avoid using names to protect privacy of the employees.
Context: We were experiencing challenges with water seepage after snowmelt. The gutters we had were too small, strangely designed, frequently clogged, and froze over all winter, meaning there was extra water next to the house where snowmelt was already causing problems. We hired MAP LLC to uninstall the old gutters, fix the design problems, upgrade to bigger gutters, and install permanent gutter covers. I had become temporarily disabled last year, so regularly cleaning the gutters had not been easy for my spouse and impossible for me.
MAP LLC came out, assessed it for free, and gave us an estimate as well as ideas for fixes. When we forgot to pick a color, they came back out and left a set of color samples in our mailbox. We had several phone calls and emails with various staff, including the person doing the estimate (phone only), field staff (both), and office staff (email mostly) to discuss what we wanted done and ask for clarification when we weren't sure on things. This was our first time hiring any contractor ever. We tried hard to keep good rapport. You can't have too many good contractors available to help you and should never burn such bridges if you can avoid it. And I was impressed by how hard they tried before they even had any payment or even any guarantee of payment.
On DATCP's recommendations for hiring any contractors, we asked for copies of their liability insurance, for a written contract detailing what would be done and dates expected for completion, and for lien waivers upon project completion/payment. We also clarified with our municipality about building permits and they were not needed where we live. MAP LLC was helpful in advising on this and agreeable to our paperwork requests.
We made an error though. Our verbal conversations with field staff didn't get reflected fully on the estimate and we didn't notice that before we signed it. This led to some challenges later. For instance, we had asked to drain to one side rather than 2, though had originally wanted to drain to 2 sides. This was a change later after we talked to a landscaper for drainage questions.
On the day they came out, they followed what was on the estimate that we had signed. We asked for them to make several changes, such as a longer downspout on one side, changing drain direction on one area, and going back to draining on one side if possible. It wasn't possible though, they said, as the new eaves are too big to drain to be angled properly to drain the way it previously had. So we compromised and kept the drains on both sides while getting the longer downspout to prevent pooling against the house. We will have the landscaper help deal with drainage there. We asked for hinged downspouts if they were over the grass but since it was too long, they said they couldn't do a hinge for fear of breaking. There are flexible tubes we probably should have gone with instead but we didn't know that could be an option. Instead, they recommended we unscrew the downspouts when mowing and add them back on ourselves. What was a little odd in all of this is that we heard one thing from the person doing the estimate and a totally different thing from the workers who did the installs and fixes as far as what could be done.
While I was mowing the lawn, the lawnmower found some metal chunks left behind from cleanup. I saved them all. It wasn't a ton of mess--enough to mostly fit in a Ziplock bag, but it was worrisome since I didn't see it until a hunk of metal flew out of the lawnmower. I sent a photo of this to MAP LLC and they were extremely apologetic and offered to repair the mower if needed and our bill was discounted generously. They were more than fair in how they handled it and said that this was highly unusual.
Once it was all done, we got and paid the bill. We asked for clarification though, as we had expected higher costs from the need to change several things not on the estimate. They said it was accurate. Then, a little while later, they said there was a billing error and we still owed $700 for gutter covers which were never on the estimate but which we had asked for and were installed appropriately. They didn't charge us for any of the other changes, which was still a pleasant surprise. We paid promptly but asked that they be certain for future customers to not give such a large surprise bill increase for something expected all along. The office person said that unfortunately, a lot was unusual during our case and they normally would have done things differently. They said they weren't proud of the errors and were very kind to us every step of the way.
Seriously, these are good folks. Even though our experience was a bit of a rollercoaster, they made good on their promises. We got the paperwork we requested upfront (lien waiver, liability insurance info, etc). Some of this was our fault for not being more meticulous in asking for an updated estimate before signing. Some of it was theirs, such as cleanup, though human error is okay and no one is perfect. Some of it was just because communication was involving a lot of 1:1 conversations. I think in the future we will probably want to have email threads only, when possible, that include office staff.
If we need to hire gutter/eave work again, we would rehire them. We would also recommend them. They are honest, good folks. When issues arise, they try hard to do a good job and fix whatever's wrong. If/when we do rehire them, I hope it goes smoothly so I can give the the full 5 stars.

Madison Aluminum Products installed gutters and downspouts at our home in Madison last year (2016). This year we had difficulties with one of the downspounts. Repeated messages left over the span of several weeks have gone unanswered. While their web site claims a lifetime guarentee on fabrication and installation, it doesn't do much good when they fail to respond. This is particuarly concerning as there has been a lot of rain this year and water has been pooling next to the house where the downspount in question is located.