Worthington Design & Remodeling

I chose Worthington Design and Remodeling to do a complete remodel of my childhood home in downtown Indianapolis. This home had a lot of sentimental value for me, but perhaps even more importantly, was going to be a very costly remodel so it was extremely important that selected the right company to do the job. I couldn't have asked for a better company to not only do the remodel, but project manage the entire whole-home renovation. What's more, I no longer live in town, so I was fully dependent on Worthington and the team to not only deliver, but also manage all aspects of the project and they were excellent. Specifically, the team that I worked with was excellent. Sydney was my primary contact in designing the new space. Andy was my project manager who was diligent in making sure I was kept up to speed at every turn, managed all contractor work, managed any delays or roadblocks, and has even supported me post-completion of the project when I had guests in the home. Lastly, Dan was the lead carpenter who worked his magic. Once the new foundation was laid, Dan went to work, addressing every detail and quickly building my home, but with a quality that was top notch. Everyone that stays at the home raves about the renovation and the design concepts that Sydney helped me bring to life. I highly recommend Worthington Design and Remodeling for any renovation you are considering. The level of professionalism and attention to detail were amazing! I am an extremely satisfied customer and am very grateful for my Worthington team!

We highly recommend Worthington Design & Remodeling. We remodeled our kitchen and it was a first class experience. From project planning all the way to completion, the staff was professional, skilled, and knowledgeable.

Had a terrible experience with them, starting March 2022. The project was to be a master bathroom remodel. As of October 2022, still did not have a viable design or contract. The problems with this vendor were many: • Lead designer was aloof and unresponsive. Virtually every communication with her took at least a week to get a response. She would either forget to tell us which of their offices to meet at, and in one case, she just didn’t show up. PAINFULLY SLOW. • Initial estimate was reasonable, but they refused to provide details that showed allowances they had included for major areas such as tile, fixtures, etc. It was just a number, $XX - $YY for the whole thing. • After several months we finally had our selections made, and revised pricing came in at >50% above the initial range. Naturally they said it was because of the selections we had made, but since they never gave us a breakdown of the initial allowances, we were completely blind to the deltas. Even after this, they refused to give us a breakdown of the costs. We were shocked and disappointed, and demanded a more thorough detailed analysis but their response was, “that’s not our model”.

This was not a good experience! They are very expensive. I paid a premium price but got an economy job treatment. We were without our bathroom for THREE months. It is a small room and should have taken a few weeks. The design phase went well and I really liked the design team. Unfortunately the execution and construction phase was a nightmare. The trim work done by the in house carpenter was very good, but the subcontractors that they hired for the rest of the job were in my opinion, substandard. The plumber put the cabinet drains in the wrong place and failed the code inspection twice. The electrician put in the wrong type of switches, and also failed the code inspection. The drywall company left a mess and very rough finished walls. We had drywall dust everywhere in the house. The tile company worked sporadically and killed a large section of our lawn where they dumped the tile and grout wash water. The glass company had to remake a large mirror three times to get it right. Workers often showed up in unmarked vans unannounced or failed to show up when expected. Almost all of the bathroom hardware was wrong, as it was either the wrong color, size or type. This was a very agonizing experience.

Our first visit with Case Remodeling went well, and we had a good discussion about the scope of work and what we wanted out of a basement remodel. After that brief discussion, a number of pictures were taken and we went over the next steps which would involve Case providing a rough estimate before design fees were paid to continue further. Unfortunately after that first contact, Case Remodeling did not follow-up. After two and a half weeks of waiting we decided to move forward on our ~$35K to ~$40K project with another provider. Based on our experience, we will not be soliciting bids from Case Remodeling on future kitchen and bathroom renovations.

I reached out to these guys, set up an appointment, met with a rep and purposely did not say exactly every little detail since they are supposed to be design and project managers. Never heard back. Not professional at all. I've heard negative things as well from other industry professionals as well. I would stay with a local team. These guys aren't worth your time.

They refused to provide me with an estimate

I had Case come to my home to give me an estimate on a master bath remodel. I had a total of four companies bid my project. They came out, measured and we discussed what I wanted. Nothing was getting moved with electric and plumbing, etc.. We met one week later to discuss estimates. I was told that my bathroom would cost between $35,000-40,000 to complete. I live in a small home in an older Carmel neighborhood. My house is 2250 sq feet, built in 1987. I told Case that I wanted to spend $25,000 on the remodel. They said they could not do my bathroom. The 3 other companies gave me estimates all below $25,000. It was clear Case did not want my business. This company made me feel like my house was not good enough for them to remodel.

They were not cheap. We paid top dollar, but we got excellent service and we were happy with their work.

The designer, Rochell, came out to my house. I told her what I would like done in my bathroom. Mind you this is a hallway bathroom. After she went back to the studio to evaluate the cost she emailed me and said it would be over $20,000 to upgrade my small hallway bathroom. She proceeded to tell me in a email form that if I paid less than that I would only be able to get laminated floors and and low grade vanity etc. I sent her a email back to let her know that the cost would be out of my budget and thanked her for her time. She did not respond to my email even to say...ok if you ever change your mind just contact me. This was very unprofessional and I would not recommend her. If you do decide to use Case do not take her as your designer.

Everything was GREAT! I am incredibly happy with my new kitchen. My designers, Rochelle and Sydney, held my hand throughout the design process and were wonderful in helping me make my new selections. They really listened to what I wanted and the look I was going for. My project manager, Mike, was outstanding. He stayed on top of everything and was very quick to answer any questions I had and address my concerns. My lead carpenter, Jim, was wonderful as well. He was so kind and helpful and had amazing attention to detail and did fantastic work. Case was not the cheapest estimate I got, but I am a firm believer in that you get what you pay for. There were so many people looking out for me and my project and making sure that everything was completed correctly and in a timely fashion. They were so thorough throughout the entire process and were very upfront about all costs. I felt very well taken care of throughout the whole process. I highly recommend Case for any project you might be considering!

It took awhile for them to come out, but they did finally reach back out to me to let me know when they could come out. The repair work they did was excellent. I was so pleased with the work and the man that came out to do the work. It turns out they were recently awarded an award for being the #1 Home Improvement company in the state. They are very busy, which is why they took awhile to get back to me, but by the time they finished the work and I saw how good of a job they did, it no longer mattered that it took awhile for them to contact me. I would use them again in a heartbeat!

We decided not to use them because they were too high. There was no charge for the quote. The price of the quote was ridiculous. It was fine. The only thing I didn't like was that they came out to give us a quote, what they do is come and look at your kitchen, take pictures, then go back to work on their computer system and so forth. Then they call you back to provide you stuff. I basically had to hound them to call me back for a quote to finish up. That was kind of disappointing because I didn't know if the guy forgot or what happened. Didn't they want my money? They wanted something stupid like $60,000 for a kitchen remodel when it was not going to be that expensive. That didn't include flooring or appliances. That's why we didn't use them. They probably do a nice job and so forth, but I am just not going to pay that much money. I had to hound them to even get the appointment, and then they gave us a ridiculous quote. They never called us back to see if we were going to use them. They didn't do sales pitch or anything like that afterward. That was at least nice. You can look at it two different ways. Either they are so pompous and don't care about getting service from people, or they realize they are too high or don't care about our business. They were punctual.

Case exceeded my expectations. It actually is now much better looking and built than when we bought our house.

I realize that this is a lengthy review and want this evaluation to be as accurate and even-handed as possible. I contacted CASE at the suggestion of my father who had several projects completed by them in the past. He did share with me that over the years, CASE became increasingly expensive and, while they did add computer aided design improvements, the quality of their work, and particularly the work of their subs seemed to suffer a bit. The last project at his house resulted in a serious buried gas line leak that took over a year to resolve between CASE and its subs. My association with CASE began on August 3, 2016 when CASE visited my house to quote on an improvement to my existing rear patio. My plan was to build an outdoor kitchen with sink with built in grills (a Webber gas grill and a Big Green Egg) and to run power to the outdoor area. We would also need to expand the patio to make room for the kitchen and a table. We emphasized that we wanted this done before winter. We also requested quotes to remove the current cement staircase, and bury the power cord to an existing hot tub, among some other minor items. We made it clear on the first visit that we had a budget of no more than $30k total. They provided an estimate of anywhere between $19k and $49k for the described work. As my budget was within their range, I assumed we could reasonably reach our goal. On August 12, I signed a contract for design work that specified $750 as a deposit to be credited to the final project, if begun within 6 months but otherwise not refundable. The contract specified that even though I was paying for the design work with this $750, it remained the property of CASE and would not be returned to me if I didn’t go through with having CASE do the work. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT POINT THAT THE READER SHOULD NOTE : even though you are paying for ?design work?, the work product does not belong to you. We met with CASE on 4 separate occasions between 8/12 and 10/3 to complete the specifications for this work. During that time, CASE never actually provided us with a quote for the original scope of the project. However, we discovered that we could not get the same pavers as our existing patio. This would significantly increase the cost for that portion of the job, so we started to scale back the project. Our evaluation of where to cut back was significantly hampered by the fact that we were never provided a detailed breakdown of individual costs, but rather simply a (very high) lump sum figure at each meeting. They explained that the sink we requested would be “very expensive”, but never provided an actual dollar amount. This continued for each and every item until we asked “how much to simply build an outdoor countertop for the grills?? Despite repeated requests, we were never provided with an itemized price breakdown for the original scope of the project. They simply stated, “If this were my home, I would not be happy with the quote being presented?” (That is a direct quote from Jeff Baird, the project manager at CASE referencing the cost of the project). On October 3, CASE delivered their final plans to me. We didn’t get a chance to select the granite for our countertop as CASE took the liberty of selecting one for us. For the first time, I was informed that most of work would be done by a sub-contractor (despite CASE’s pitch in August that “we do all of the work ourselves - no third parties”). However, the most shocking thing was that the estimate for this “stripped down” version of the project - essentially a simple counter top - was over $15,000. It seemed at this point that CASE was weary of working with us and just wanted to either keep our deposit or charge a very large amount for a small project. On October 4, we asked CASE for a breakdown of the latest estimate as I couldn’t understand how a simple counter could cost this much. Keep in the mind that the grills are not included in this price, as I had already purchased them separately. I sent a follow up request for this breakdown on October 7. Ten days after my first request, on October 14, I received a phone call from Jeff. I responded immediately, and on October 17 he informed me that they could reduce their fee for setting up the subcontractor by an additional $2k to bring the overall cost to $13,002. He called it a “pass through” fee. I finally received a breakdown that showed a $3,600 fee for CASE on top of the sub-contractor fee of $4,223 and all of the parts and labor for CASE. A screenshot is below, showing only CASE’s portion, and they suggested I pay the subcontractor for their work directly. *Screenshot will not print, but the breakdown is: Contract Amount: $8,779 Project Management / Design / Administration: $3,606 Labor General / Demolition / Dump Fees / Carpentry / Material: $897 Plumbing / Rough / Finish / Materials: $560 Cabinets / Labor / Material: $496 Countertops / Labor / Materials: $3,220 On October 19, I asked for more information from CASE as the breakdown didn’t make sense and most of my desired elements were not included. On October 28, after no response, I followed up again. On Halloween (12 days after my request and 3 days after my follow up), CASE responded saying they didn't get the email. I immediately replied, saying I was concerned with the way they are handling the situation, and had strong reservations about this project, including the 3rd party who will be doing the majority of the work (and not listed on Angie's List, nor do they have a website). The chronology from this point is: • 11/7 - Jeff Baird at CASE responded that they have done everything in their power to make me happy, and that they don't understand my concerns. • 11/10 - I responded to Jeff at CASE, offering to discuss in person or on phone over the weekend at any point. • 11/15 - Jeff responded that they have a busy schedule, and didn't have time to meet to us. I follow up with an email demanding my money back due to poor treatment and lack of follow through with CASE. • 11/23 - Jeff responded they are sorry, but reminded me that I signed their contract stating that they have complete control. • 12/6 - After no further response for two weeks, I contact the owner of CASE, Larry Greene, to plead my CASE. He replied immediately that he will talk to Jeff about the matter, but that they have over $3,000 in design costs invested in this project, and they do not make a habit of returning deposits due to their costs. While I understand that concept, $3,000 is an outrageous sum given the level and amount of service we were given. Even if they put in 15 hours, (I doubt they had nearly that much time invested) it comes to $200 an hour to design a countertop. • 12/19 - No response from Mr. Greene or anyone else at CASE. • 1/4/2017 - Still no response from CASE I realize that I have no real recourse and that CASE will be keeping my money after delivering what I consider to be profoundly horrible customer service. However, I hope this review can prevent others from suffering this fate. My advice to anyone reading this is: DO NOT SIGN THE “DESIGN” CONTRACT WITH CASE unless you are willing to part with your money, regardless of the treatment you subsequently receive from CASE. I expect that CASE will have their own spin on this but the facts noted above are the facts. We both have spent a lot of time in a very frustrating process that could have, and should have, been easily avoided. All CASE had to do was to disclose upfront that the scope of this project and the budget I was willing to spend were too far apart before they took my $750. That minimal amount of professional honesty would have saved us both a great deal of time. I can only assume that they expected they could convince me to spend significantly in excess of my stated budget after I had paid their “design fee”. Further, I am very disappointed with CASE’s excessive delays in responding to my inquiries and their disingenuous attempt to resolve the matter fairly.

The entire process went well. They were great in the planning phase adjusting to our work schedules. They had evening appts which is a plus for us since we both work. We took a long time to get to a final plan but this was our issue and not theirs. Again, the designers listened and put our ideas to work plus added their own ideas as professionals. The work went smoothly and efficiently. They were always on time and let me know if there were any issues to consider. They managed all of the subs for plumbing and electrical. I was happy to let someone else do all of that - and they did a great job.

I contacted Case to have a shower installed above my tub, along with a quote for new carpets, glass invading in my master shower, and a bath fan installed. I never got a quote, call back, or anything. After 4 or more emails to the rep that came out, and zero responses, I called, and the rep said he would notify the assistant to get on it. It's now been almost another week, and nothing. Jeff our rep was incredible polite, professional, and knowledgeable, but nothing really matters if you don't follow up.

Absolutely the most professional service we have ever used. It was hard to believe they were able to accomplish everything that they did because it was like they weren't even here. Quiet, clean, and outstanding workmanship. Plan on using them again in the future for another project.

It went very well. No additional leaks since the repairs. Very professional and knowledgeable. Ask for Mike Pfiel. He is amazing!

Tom Beatty came to do the estimate, and seemed nice enough. But I got the impression he felt he was wasting his time. My condo is not high end, but he does not know that I have plenty of money to do the work I want done......I let it pass. Case has seminars they hold periodically to educate people on how remodeling projects go. I attended their seminar 2 days after Tom came to take measurements. The seminar was very informative, and did give me a couple of things to consider. They talked a lot about "Pull and Replace" vs complete remodel, and it made me realize I was really doing a pull and replace kind of effort. I was impressed. They have a lot of different materials at their showroom, and I got a sense of confidence in the company. While I was anxious to start, I was willing to wait, since they seemed like they really understood what they were doing. So imagine my disappointment today when I got the estimate for the Master Bathroom only. And it wasn't much of an estimate. It basically said "Take stuff out, replace the stuff, paint".....that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it is close. And a price tag of $23K. THEN they want $750 to do the design of the bathroom........which absolutely blows me away. I can see a couple hundred for their time, but that's extreme. In addition, I have a picture of exactly what I want it to look like! Which I gave them! There isn't any design involved! One of the key things I mentioned was moving the wall of the Master bedroom and reducing the size of the master bath and a closet. It wasn't even mentioned in the estimate! Let alone all the other projects we discussed. I will say that remodeling companies charge a lot for what seems like a basic piece of work. I thought with Case, based on the reviews that I wouldn't be gouged, but with an estimate like this, I have no confidence of what they think they are committing to.......And I honestly think the work I want done could be easily done for under $10K.. at least for the master bath...we aren't talking about major construction (unless the wall moving was included in the estimate, but I do not think it was). I think he threw the high priced, no detail estimate at me to make me go away. It worked! Too bad for them. I have a budget higher than that that I was planning to use for all the projects, but I guess they don't want to bother to take it seriously. As a last note, at their seminars, they give away by raffle gifts to the attendees. One lady won a microwave oven. I won 2 hours of handyman service.....but for some reason, they have yet to give me the certificate for the service. Both the owner and his wife were there. it was no mistake, they went forward with the raffle for the handyman services, but so far, it hasn't materialized. Oh, and I just got an email back from Tom "I?m sorry you are not comfortable with our system. We are a design / build firm, which means we first design the space after you have been given a budget range for the scope of the project. This is what is in our plan agreement. The complete scope of work planned for the area. Moving walls is not part of this scope." What a bunch of crap! What is the point of having anyone come to look at your house or even talk to you? He didn't even listen to what I was asking for. Don't use these people unless you want to get ripped off and be treated like you are nothing.

Mike Phiel was superb. I think he can do anything around the house. The jobs were small and fitted around his schedule but always preceeded with a phone call. The work was done to very high quality

Very nice job. Reliable people to do the job while I am at work.

This was a large project for a room addition, removing 2 walls (1 interior, 1 exterior) to enlarge the family room. Case completed a master design plan for the initial phase, providing many ideas for interior renovation. The design ideas were well done and the designers very flexible and professional. Case uses an interactive software package so you can take a virtual tour of different plans. The quality of the workmanship was good. The only issue we had was some turnover of the lead designer on our account and the lead Forman.

We enjoyed working with Caee. Everyone we worked with was very professional. They were a bit expensive, but we feel like we paid for good quality.

They services went very well, and they were also very professional. Also completed services in a timely manner.