Lester Building doors

The reports, as CPSC published them

1. No incident, no one hurt

   Made Oct 29, 2020 · , sent to the company Feb 2, 2021 · , published by CPSC Feb 17, 2021

   The product, in the report: A Lester Barn Building, 30 foot by 30 foot, with two covered side porches 10 foot wide by 30 foot long. Sliding double barn doors in the front and rear allowing to drive through it. Burgundy/Tan combination colors, and used for storage purposes and lawn equipment.

   I elected to have a steel pole barn building constructed on my property by Lester Building Company, a large builder of these pole barn and steel building kits they manufacture in Ohio. Through their own website, I located a local “dealer/representative” to construct this pole barn for me between the August-December 2019 timeframe. Several of the building’s components were either missing or not the correct part as they were engineered for the custom build kit as ordered by their local “dealer/representative” for this construction project. Having been shipped three separate shipments of small parts after the build kit arrived, some of these parts were damaged beyond their use, or were the incorrect parts needed. One of the serious and hazardous issues I have to this day, pertains to about 120 self-tapping sheetmetal screws of the incorrect length of 2 inches which were used to construct the kit’s 4 sliding barn doors with during their individual construction. Their own “dealer/representative” noticed them himself one day while working on an after-build punchlist of items which to this day also, have been left unfinished by him. These longer screws present a clear danger to myself, my family members, and are protruding inside all 4 of these doors by 1 inch now, with some being right next to the door handles used to slide open these doors. To compound matters, the Lester “dealer/representative” as well as the Lester Area Manager and President/CEO of Lester Building Company, have all been told that I have a serious medical condition which involved me using [REDACTED] to correct it, and which could cause me to have uncontrolled bleeding should I cut myself on one of these protruding door screws. Furthermore, the Lester “dealer/representative” said that he would come back to change these wrong door screws, but this has still not happened almost one year later, and the building has been up since November 2019. The “dealer/representative” was notified of this punchlist in November 2019, and I had to tell him at that time not once, but many times through documented emails, that I would be undergoing a blood infusion to kill off my autoimmune system, so my serious medical condition could have a chance to heal here. I also made the Lester Area Manager, and Lester Building Company President/CEO know about it, and directly requested a meeting twice now to have the Lester Area Manager meet with me to no avail. I even asked to have the correct length 1 inch long screws sent to me via mail, so I could have another outside contractor finally fix this serious hazard. I have worked personally in the Occupational Safety and Health field now for 29 years, have a B.S. in Occupational Safety and Health, and I am considered an expert in Construction Safety to this day, providing training to others who manage safety programs in this field. I have never seen a company disregard a blatant hazardous safety issue such as this, especially so when they have been provided many photographs of this problem. The Lester Area Manager and Lester President/CEO’s position on this-they are saying that this problem is between the customer and their respective Lester Building “dealer/representative”. Now if logic is used here, the company which manufactures this engineered building kit, supplies all of the components to construct this building on any of their customer’s property, has the legal responsibility to provide a safe product here, especially when the top management of this company has been provided with the additonal information of photographs and the customer’s serious medical condition whereas blood thinner is used. In my professional and expert opinion here, Lester Building Company separates themselves on these issues when there are clear problems with their own “dealer/representatives” who they willingly list on their website to use. Since the current Lester “dealer/representative” has not finished his job for me, but instead was too focused on starting new Lester Building jobs around our area, I also requested to have another nearby Lester Building Company “dealer/representative” sent to my home to finish this steel building once and for all. Lester Building Company refuses to do this as well, and without a reason, and would instead, assume the liability upon their company if something should happen to me or a family member. So the problem here starts at the President/CEO level of the Lester Building Company, and each person that seems to be involved here with this product they sell, seems to point the finger of the issues at the other. The customer/consumer here still has an unsafe product by this company. All that we wanted was a completed and safe barn building.

   Model

   30’x30’ Pole Barn

   UPC

   None

   Serial number

   30’x30’

   Bought from

   Lester Building Dealer/Representative

   Bought

   Aug 19, 2019

   Where

   Suffolk, Virginia: Home/Apartment/Condominium

   Who was involved

   Age 52, Unspecified

   The reporter’s relation to them

   My Spouse

   As this report names them

   Brand Lester Building, made or sold by Lester Building Systems, LLC

   How badly, in CPSC’s words

   No Incident, No Injury

CPSC’s disclaimer

Sources