Dawson Development Inc

Dawson signed a contract to frame my house in 2019. He told me that the Dawson framing crew was one of the best in Anchorage, and he seemed excited about the job. Unfortunately, the work that Dawson delivered was catastrophically, and almost comically, incompetent. The sheathing was cut into many tiny patches with crooked gaps, the nailing throughout the house was almost entirely incorrect, and critical seismic hardware had been left uninstalled and then boxed up out of view. Dawson used incorrect materials throughout the house and left major load paths unsupported. In one bedroom, Dawson used a floor joist instead of a rim joist. The eaves on the roof were entirely unsupported--we're talking plywood hanging over empty space. Seismic straps had been installed with tiny nails and could be pulled out by hand. The framing was crooked and full of big gaps. Wall studs were missing end nails. The floor wasn't properly glued down. In short, it was an absolute disaster, and after spending several months and thousands of dollars trying to fix Dawson's work, we realized that nearly everything in the house--down to the sill plates--would have to be remediated. An engineer and the building designer wrote and signed statements that the framing needed to be demolished so I could start over with a "reputable framing contractor." Almost all of Dawson's framing is now in (or on the way to) the Anchorage landfill. To top it off, I later learned that there is no "Dawson framing crew." Dawson just hired bottom-shelf subs from another company, and then pretended to GC a project that--at BEST--he was grossly incompetent to manage. As to what happened, Dawson never took responsibility for this sham of a job. He simply stopped responding to emails and disappeared. His address is a PO Box. You've been warned.

Dawson is amazing. His guys know what they are doing. They always explain what they are doing. They are very responsible and clean up after themselves. They get upset when you want them to do less than a professional job. We love Dawson. His guys are tremendously courteous. They are very concerned about the homeowner. They always block off if there is gonna be dust. They use air cleaners. They are amazing. He is not cheap.

They are extremely professional. They always want to do it properly and if they find something that is incorrect they want to fix it and make it right. These guys are so good that we have remained friends with them the last 10 years. They are extraordinarily considerate of the home owner since we were living at home when they were doing all of this work.