DAL Builders

We ended up not using them because they were a little more expensive for the price that we were looking to do. They were very professional. They contacted me right away. They were very easy to work with. It was a little more expensive than what I was looking at from other companies. The quote was about $9500. I would definitely call them again if I had something else that I was working on.

They seemed very professional but were kind of expensive. They were punctual and honest. It was very expensive and they were not quite as flexible as I would have liked them to have been. They were straightforward. They had several rules where other guys were more flexible to adjust to what I wanted as opposed to what they could provide.

We had a good outcome. I thought that they project manager, Mike, was very helpful and very responsive. I thought the crew that he had was very knowledgeable and hard workers.

It was an Angie's List Big Deal that I purchased. It was fine. The work was done very quickly, they were right on time, and they were great. The finish isn't coating up at all but I don't really know if that's them or the finish, like the actual product, that was the only negative, because they were matching what was already on there so we provided the finish for them. I don't want to say it was them, that they did anything wrong, it's just not coating up at all. We had it done last summer. We did pay more because it was a colored finish. I would definitely recommend them, they were very clean, everything was cleaned up. He worked pretty quickly and they always returned calls and they came when they said they would. There were some delays with rain but as soon as they could come, they did.

The individual was very knowledgeable and professional. The bid was higher than what we were looking for.

Their bid was quite pricy. Everything seemed to be okay. I don't remember anything negative. I do remember the price being negative. I would recommend them. I want how they responded.

To date, Dal's rep has been to our home to diagnose the problem and evaluate what needs to be done. He was professional and very communicative. He provided a proposal with estimate in timely fashion. We are still receiving bids, but I have found Dal Builders very easy to work with.

The deck was well done and in a timely fashion. Despite promises that they would be reachable and responsive to problems, we had to hound them to get a response throughout the process. The patio was poorly done- the layout was incorrect and luckily I happened to be home and had to inform them that the pattern was wrong. Then the patio wasn't level and had to be redone. I believe the patio was done by a separate company/subcontractor - but this was not stated at the time of the proposal.

Mike, the project manager was on top of it from the beginning to the end. He was very responsive to our phone calls and kept the project going at a fairly quick pace.

We never used them but they were fine. Previously we had them do some work for us. I thought they were very good. They were professional, knowledgeable and they have a lot of expertise in a lot of areas. They were good.

Our decision to choose DAL to replace our porch came as a result of seeing their work done on a porch across the street and checking recommendations on Angie's List. Overall, the work was done on a high level of professionalism. They worked carefully, efficiently and thoughtfully. Questions were asked along the way and advisements were invaluable to the final appearance. It was especially nice that they took the time and effort to make sure the stringers (and therefore, the stair steps) were level. The carpenter had to custom cut the stringer to our "unlevel" concrete pad at the bottom of the stairs. We had selected to have 12" columns installed, but the DAL builders advised us that they would have been out of proportion and we switched to the 10". This turned out to be much better. We are really pleased with the results. Nothing against DAL, for they did a quality job for what we had asked, but due to our inexperience there were a few things we might have had spelled out in our contract if we had thought of them at the beginning. Things like, post caps, an access panel (to get under the porch) that is hinged like a door, or more detailed wood trim to accommodate decorative accent colors when the porch is painted. I'm sure DAL would be more than willing to make these changes for us but we will probably be keeping things the way it has already been done. We are very pleased with our new porch and with Mike and the DAL team.

It was overall a good experience. He was prompt, he showed up when he said he would, he explained everything, and got back to me pretty quickly. I have a problem because I have three good guys. I get three quotes if I want to do something just to make sure and they are all really good so we're really not sure who to go with.

The estimate was way higher than we expected and that's why we didn't go with them. They were very professional and timely.

Job seemed to be done ok. I would use these guys again for the right price. Was not overly impressed.

These guys are the real deal. We did not do the work so can't say how it would have gone but would certainly use them in the future

I liked everything about them. The project manager was excellent. The owner of the business was very rational and thoughtful in his approach. I was pleased with their work. If you're doing electrical, dry wall, painting, just use Dal Builders for everything.

Mike was prompt for both appointments. He measured the areas and offered his opinion about the configuration of new kitchen cabinets and where the dishwasher should be located. I also requested a quote for replacing all the the existing double hung windows in the apartment stressing that the windows must match the grids in the existing window. Mike offered his opinion that Prairie Style windows would look nice too(he sketched a picture of what he meant by Prairie Style) but I reiterated that the grids of the windows MUST match the existing windows and the windows of the second floor apartment. The quotes that I received were high relative to the quotes from other companies. I was disappointed to see that the windows he quoted were for the Prairie Style and not the style I had requested. Although I was told I would have the quote in one week, I had to wait a little over two weeks for the quote for remodeling the single family home and received it only after making a reminder phone call. Finally, I emailed a question to Mike regarding the quote for the apartment but never received a response.

I've hired a dozen contractors in the past 10 years in Chicago - this is BY FAR the worst I've ever experienced. My condo association hired DAL Builders in 2011 to replace our roof. The first attempt leaked horribly, they tried to patch it numerous times without success over the course of 8 months, and then replaced the entire roof in the summer of 2012 - after we had gallons of water leaking into our bedroom, bathroom, stairwell, living and dining rooms on two floors of our townhouse. My wife and I had to endure several months of delay while DAL tried to collect from an insurer, all while our home's interior was compromised (open walls and ceilings to remediate mold, replace drywall, etc.). When the leaks returned in December 2012, we were told that it was a faulty seal in the skylight - even though DAL's contract clearly stated they were to "seal all skylights". A second leak in January 2013 is far from the skylight and their project manager - who did not come to see the leak or evaluate it - claimed via email it also from the skylight and "not part of their scope". After 14 months, hundreds of emails, phone calls and text messages, and despite our best efforts to simply have a new roof that doesn't leak, it looks like we are headed to court. I have reasonable expectations. I have an engineering background and used to work for a company that builds modular buildings, so I understand the challenges of keeping a flat roof from leaking in challenging Chicago weather. I understood and was patient through numerous leaks and the efforts of several subcontractors over months to fix the problems created by two faulty roof installations. But I don't need a background in home building to understand that a new roof shouldn't leak! This contractor has breached his contract in four key areas. He didn't install the angled insulation to pitch the roof on the initial install (and he fought against doing it the second time he replaced the roof), he didn't use an insured subcontractor (which caused months-long delays when he was fixing the thousands of dollars of interior damage from the leaks), he hasn't stood behind his contract language which clearly states the he would seal all skylights, and he isn't honoring his five year warranty. We were also disappointed to have such a poor experience with a contractor who is so highly rated on Angie's List. Maybe DAL's subcontractors for drywall and decks are great - the company's ability to deliver a leak-free roof just isn't there. Also of interest - as of January 2013, DAL's website lists an old office address and the owner has refused to give us a new address despite multiple requests (there is no Wilmette office. The address at 1517 W. Hood is the owner's home which he sold in 2012). The website makes the company look like a highly awarded and respected firm. Our experience with their project manager (affable but completely unreliable) and the owner has been very different from the glowing reviews on the company's website. They have not stood behind their work and have breached their contract multiple times. I've never left a negative review of anyone in a public forum before, but I've never heard of a worse experience with a contractor. I hope you won't make the same mistake we did.

I liked their customer service and that was pretty much it. The first thing you want to do when your spending money with a contractor is you want to be able to trust them. I talked to Mike from Dal. He came out and he let us know a few things. We were just kind of going along with it. I didn't like that he high-balled himself out of the jobs instead of just telling me he didn't want the jobs. I've had maybe 15 contractors in this house and nobody has quoted me even close to $300,000. This was for a single family home. We are looking at maybe 2,000 square feet top and bottom and that's it. So, instead of just being honest with me and saying I can't take the job,or this is kind of out of my area; which I could have accepted. He just high-balled himself out of it. He gave me a choice of A or B. One was $300,000 and one was $400,000, and that didn't include cabinets or anything.

showed up on time and finished on time.

The initial cleaning was very poorly done and on parts of the deck seemed not to be cleaned at all (large area had no evidence power washer on them). The deck was then sealed in a very haphazard fashion, leaving large dark spots all over the deck. Multiple emails with pictures of the spots had to be sent to DAL before they agreed to come back and address the spots they left. They offered to reseal my deck, but did not power was it again, this left all of the stains from their previous work and did not address the cleaning that had not been adequately done in the first place. Again calls were placed to DAL and a third time they came out, this time they did clean and seal my deck, but they small power washer they were using left burn marks from its engine on my deck in multiple places. I did not call them about the burn marks, I was too frustrated with he whole experience. They may be fine for big jobs, I do not know, but for small jobs they seem to send people who do not care or know what they are doing. Not recommended.

The project went well for the most part. There was an issue with the bottom step which is concrete. The sub contractor that performed the concrete work misaligned the step which required for it to be completely removed and re-poured. This pushed the completion back a few days, but Mike the project manager was able to have it corrected and it turned out great. Dal Builders did a great job and the new porch makes the front of the house look fantastic.

Project manager and carpenters were experienced professionals who offered good suggestions and did quality work, and were neat and polite. They were easy to deal with and responsive to our questions and requests. Problems encountered were resolved satisfactorily. The deck is beautiful and sturdy

Other than problems from the city of Berwyn, the work went smoothly.

We had an initial problem that our association chose an architect that had inadequate experience with Chicago porches. The builder (DAL) recognized the issue and was forthcoming about it, and stated that he wanted to vary from the drawings to repair and reinforce the porches as he had done before in similar instances, always aware that he needed to get the enclosed porch and stairs up to code. Specifically, the architect apparently had little or no knowledge of the way horizontal wooden support beams were tied into the masonry in old buildings, and the architect's plans called for an expensive, unnecessary and potentially damaging component of the job involving drilling into the old masonry. He apparently didn't understand that the horizontal beams were already tied into metal sheets behind the masonry. This was explained by DAL. We were able to reinforce the connections between uprights and horizontal beams without messing with the masonry. While this discrepancy between the architect's desires and the builder's proposed plan led to conflict within the association, ultimately we were able to agree that DAL's plans made the most sense, and DAL did a good job and kept the price very reasonable. I believe we saved ourselves unnecessary work and expense. Dave Larkin was the only builder I dealt with who instantly understood the problem and understood how to fix it within a reasonable price range. Other builders either refused to do it, preferring to tear the enclosed porches down and start over, or gave estimates that were far greater than we paid DAL. I think there was some initial poor communication between the builder and members of the association, but once this was resolved, we ended up gettting a job done that we had been trying to get done for more than 5 years. Kudos to DAL for that. We were able to voluntarily come up to compliance with Chicago city code, which was a huge relief, given recent scrutiny of back porches.