BUYER BEWARE! – This contractor does NOT follow guidelines for proper and safe electrical installations!
Hello, I am hoping that you were researching Central Florida screen contractors for an installation reference and happened to stumble on my page. I would like to share our experience with this contractor, because I feel people should be well informed before making a purchase. My parents had a motorized power screen installed over the face of their garage door in September 2023 and ended up with some electrical complications, let me explain the situation. Because no outlet was available within 10ft of the location where the power screen motor was installed, the installer took it upon himself to poke a hole in the ceiling and run an indoor/outdoor extension cord across the inside of the attic to power the screen motor. It is for this reason, I have decided to ensure that anyone researching this contractor before making a purchase, makes a well informed decision.
Most people are not familiar with NEC electrical codes (AKA electrical standards). Although the power screen setup completely functions as intended, the main issue with his installation is that it will NOT pass an inspection when you decide to sell your home, let alone the fact that an extension cord in an attic is a fire hazard. The issue will show up later, because at some point after the install has been completed, you may want to sell your home. If your install was done like ours, an inspector will fail the house prior to the sale and you will have to hire an electrician at your OWN expense to have this corrected before you can sell your home. I brought this issue to his attention immediately after the install was completed on my parents house and asked for him to correct this issue so it would meet code. His initial response was more focused on why his install will not pass a home inspection, explaining that “inspectors will want to charge more money for a second trip”. When I asked why he took the shortcut, he responded with “it is how we do things and will continue to do things”, he then stated his contract clearly states it requires an outlet at the motor install location to perform the install. While that may be true, he should have followed his OWN contract terms and delayed the installation until the proper outlet was made available, instead he installed the screen with an indoor/outdoor cord from Lowes, ran it through the attic and tied it directly to the motor wires in a metal box. I very politely gave him multiple opportunities to correct his code violations and he refused, stating that an electrician needs to perform the install if the customer wants the install completed to code standards. Electrical code clearly states that using an extension cord as not to be used as a permanent power solution, that extension cords are intended to be used for up to 30 days maximum. It also states that household extension cords are not to be used in the attic or inside the walls. Here’s how he installed the power cord in the attic:
Another code violation I noticed upon inspecting his install is that when using metal boxes, code standards require the metal box to be grounded to avoid a shock hazard (this would be another home inspection failure risk). As you can see from the below image, this was not completed properly as well. The green ground wire was NOT bonded to the metal box, as required by code. If you look closely at the top of the box where the wires enter the box, you can also see the white wire is pinched by the metal clamp. It’s supposed to serve as a strain relief for the wires, but a pinched wire is never a good thing.
The last issue I brought to his attention was that the white wire from the motor was very tight against the garage door mounting bracket, which has a very sharp edge and could cut the wire. He offered to pull the extension cord out of the attic and re-run it across the ceiling to the outlet. Because I reminded him that this would not be to code either, he elected to fix nothing and pointed us back to using an electrician. Is this who you want installing your screen?
I will be bringing Kevin Barlow’s code violations to attention of the HOA, so he cannot perform more installations in our community any longer. I am also already working on other methods for getting the word out about how he performs his installs, so we can warn people of his practices. So, how much did it cost to have the outlet wired properly? About $75 in materials and about an hour and a half of time to remove the existing shortcut, wire the new run properly with Romex, a new electrical box, a 6′ stick of 3/4″ PVC, a 3/4″ pipe adapter for the box, an outlet, an outlet cover, two 3/4″ pipe clamps and a couple of tapcon screws. The extension cord he used costs about $26 at Lowes. He could have easily passed the $50 more into the install costs to do this right. If your house catches fire because of using an improper screen installation, how much was really saved?
His business names include: Skeeter Beeter, Skeet’r Beat’r, Barlow’s Tri County Screens and several other naming variations. His business is located in Summerfield, Florida.
*Note that my complaint is with the installer Kevin Barlow of Barlow’s Tri County Screens, not the manufacturer of the power screen. When I called them to point out the installer issues so they were aware, the manufacturer was very attentive and quick to respond to my questions/concerns and stepped in to help correct this situation. Chuck at Screen America is fantastic! Not only did he supply a new cord for the motor to replace the cut one, he engaged another installer from the area to step in and assist, 100% under warranty and at no cost to us. This is how you do business and retain customers!