Get matched with top barndominium builders in River Forest, IL

"Wonderful service!"

"DAL did a fantastic job. They were communicative throughout the process and made sure the quality of work was excellent."

"Paul is fantastic to work with. I've worked with his company on several different projects over the past 5 years - kitchen remodel, front porch remodel, stairwell rebuild. His team is knowledgeable, responsive and good at what they do. Can't recommend him enough."

"Great work done in a very timely manner. Have used them numerous times and will continue using them."

"Above and Beyond Construction recently completed an almost whole-house renovation including a family room addition, a fully remodeled kitchen, relocated stairways, three bathrooms, and a finished basement. The addition seamlessly blends with the original spaces, making it feel like a natural extension of my home. The work is detailed and outstanding to the point that visitors do not know where the original 1911 house ends and the 2024 house begins. The highly skilled craftsmen matched the woodwork details of the original house to the new addition perfectly. Chester is easy to work with, has a positive outlook, and a good sense of humor. He will work with you to answer questions, provide suggestions, and address concerns throughout the renovation process. Above and Beyond transformed my little frame house from an outdated, decades-neglected, design and décor calamity left by the prior owners into an elegant space that honors tradition yet transcends centuries."

"Absolute top-notch job: great quality workmanship, friendly and flexible carpenters. Would absolutely hire again."

"Was the garage built well, overall? Yes. Was everything else a complete mess? Yes. Down payment in April 2021. Project not completed until July of 2022. There were a couple occasions where absolutely nothing was happening for 2 months at a time. Numerous messages unreturned or returned very late, sometime until threats of getting a lawyer. At some point the excuse was covid, an other it was a death in the family, at another their office manager simply told me she "had not been feeling herself lately" and that was the cause of a couple of months delay. Survey took an insane 5 months. Not because surveyors were not available, they were, but they used *their* guy, who was apparently very backlogged. I was charged for the services of 2 people for the survey - It was an old man doing the work, while his wife sat in a lawn chair and read a book all day. I was quoted the garage when wood prices were at their absolute peak, and even though the lumber was ordered a year later they had the audacity to call and ask me for more money - despite them already denying me a discount for the obscene delays. When they initially told me they submitted plans to the village (after my numerous requests for status updates) I called the village and they had not submitted anything. First plans actually submitted to the village had multiple errors and I had to catch it to have them correct it. When the plans were finally accurately submitted and G4U were not responding to my requests for updates I called the village who said the plans were approved a while ago and G4U had not yet paid the permit or right of way. Go figure. By the time the permits finally came through it was now November with freezing temps, so the project now had to be pushed until early spring of next year. The demolition guy they sent, which is used by at least a couple of companies (saw him at a Blue Sky job last week) knocked over a wall of the old garage on my neighbor's fence, 5 minutes after I told him to please be careful to not do so, since it was clear that was going to happen. He also knocked over a wall of the old garage on my garden, wrecking my wire fencing and he couldn't care less about it. The cement sub-contract they used poured a terrible mix of concrete for the apron with awful seams and crumbling edges. I had to call them out on it and they came back to tear it out and repour it. The concrete work is not particularly great, with rough spots and out of plumb areas along the perimeter. I've also got a surface crack forming already, less 3 months after the pour. The concrete guys also splattered wet concrete on the siding of my house, which was an absolute pain to try and scrub off after hardened. Furthermore, the concrete guys had fried fish for lunch and they threw the bones in my bushes, which my dogs found and nearly choked on. The guys who did the framing worked quickly and professionally. However when the lumber was delivered they damaged my chain link fence and chain link gate. They later repaired the gate, but only after I discovered the damage a couple weeks later and called them out on it and noted it was on camera. Which by the way, from the security footage they clearly saw the damage when it happened and decided not to tell me about it. [This should be enough for you not to use them.] I told them specifically the brand/color of siding I wanted to use, which had 2 month lead time. They waited to order the siding until the day they started the framing, which led to another delay in finishing the project. The aluminum guy they used for the soffits, gutters, door frames was very good. I would hire him in a heartbeat. The electricians were good, however, not the installer's fault, I told the salesman Bob that I wanted to put a 100amp sub panel in the garage later for some EV chargers, so he up charged me to put a 3/4" line to the garage from the house - only to find out now that per code you can only run 60amps with a 3/4" conduit, so I'm stuck with that. Dozens of cigarette butts scattered through my yard during the project. Additionally... About the same time I made my down payment I recommended Garage For You to my neighbor because of the initial experience with the salesman. His project was also mired with delays and poor communication, to the point where I was embarrassed I had recommended them. At least his garage ended up getting finished in 2021."

"We hired Design First to redo our downstairs including a kitchen and bathroom. I would never recommend this company to anyone based on our experience with them. The company should be renamed Disappointment First. We used this company due to the recommendation of a friend but did not realize the ownership had changed. There are several other reviews that discuss how the company’s performance degraded with the new ownership. If you do use Design First, please learn from our mistakes in dealing with them and insist upon a firm completion date with a penalty per day for missing it. Several of their competitors offer this, and in our naivete we did not request a penalty for missing the completion date. We had a signed change order with a guaranteed 12/25/23 completion date, that they missed by several months. When we brought this up in discussions with them, they were dismissive and stated no penalty so nothing we can do."