A guarantee is only worth the mechanism behind it.
So here's ours, in plain English.
Every company in this business will tell you they stand behind their work. Almost none of them can tell you what actually happens if they don't. These are the four things written into our contract with the contractor — not into a brochure.
We don't pay them in full until we've checked the work
A portion of the contractor's payment is withheld at the end of the job. It isn't released until a Lummele inspector has walked the finished work in person and signed off, and every punch-list item is closed. The contractor knows this before they ever set foot on your property, which changes how the last day of a job goes.
The inspector is never the person who sold you the job
Whoever earned a commission on your sale doesn't get to grade it. Our inspection is done by someone with nothing riding on the answer, working from photo documentation the contractor is required to submit at every stage — before, during and after.
If something's wrong, the clock starts and it's written down
Defects get a written cure notice with a deadline our contract sets — not "we'll get someone out there sometime." Anything urgent — active water coming in, structural exposure, a safety hazard — is 48 hours. That one isn't negotiable with our partners and never has been.
If they don't fix it, we send someone who will
Every trade has a second contractor already vetted and standing by. Miss the cure deadline and we bring in the backup, get it corrected, and charge the entire cost back to the partner who failed — out of the money we're still holding, and out of what we owe them on other jobs.
You are not in the middle of that. You don't chase anybody, you don't pay twice, and you don't referee a fight between two companies. That's the whole point of buying from us instead of from a contractor directly.
Three different promises. Know which is which.
Home improvement paperwork deliberately blurs this. We'd rather you understand it clearly, because a guarantee you misunderstand is worth nothing when you need it.
The Lummele Guarantee
Ours. Everything on this page — the holdback, the independent inspection, the cure deadline, the backup contractor. It's about making sure the work gets done right and gets fixed fast.
The labor warranty
The contractor's, and it runs for years after we're done inspecting. It covers workmanship. It stays in force even if we and that contractor part ways — that's written into our agreement with them.
The manufacturer warranty
The product maker's, covering the materials themselves. The contractor is required to register it in your name and give you proof. Plenty of companies skip that step and homeowners never find out.
And the honest limit: we're a sales and vetting company, not the construction company. The licensed contractor named on your contract performs the work and carries the construction obligations — and their license and registration numbers are printed right on your paperwork so you can check them yourself. What we're promising is different, and narrower, and enforceable: we chose them, we inspect their work, we hold their money, and we replace them at their expense if they let you down.
Your cancellation rights are not a formality.
Kansas gives you three business days to cancel a sale made at your home, and that clock starts when you sign. Every Lummele contract leaves your house with that notice printed on it and two detachable cancellation forms attached — filled in, with the deadline date already written on them.
We will never discourage you from using it, never ask you to sign anything that waives it, and never suggest an "emergency" reason to skip the waiting period. If any salesperson from any company ever asks you to do that, that is the moment to close the door.