Route 9 Design & Build Inc

John acted as general contractor and did the plans with his team in his office, based on out rough drawings- he had some subcontractors working with him for construction but he was always available and fast to connect with us on any questions. He gave us a not to exceed number for our budget and held tru to that for the final bill even though some of his estimates went over- he took the overages into his costs which we appreciated greatly. His overall estimate was in keeping with other estimates that we got at the time - it seemed fair- and we choose to work with him because he seemed good with communication and got back to us quickly- even very early in the process before we even signed with him. Other builders made us wait weeks or months for more info. There we some errors made in the general construction,as sometimes happens with big projects ,but fixed quickly and professionally by John. Overall nothing that would make us NOT recommend them. Big project always have some unexpected things and the real test is whether the builder will try to pass those expenses onto the client in some hidden way to recoup the errors- we did not feel that this happened. We had done a previous large building project with another contarctor 3 years ago and they went over budget by 40K!! without telling us until the end, which left us in a cold sweat and a pannick to refinance with the bank. They had not provided a not to exceed number and we did not know that we should have one( live an learn- the hard way). By contrast working with John and Route 9 Design and Build was a very different and much less stressful experience. The quality of work was very good with a much nicer attention to detail than out previous builder. We would absolutely consider using Route Design again and would recommend them to friends.

I first had contact with John Landry and Route 9 when my wife and I were purchasing our first home. A beam needed to be fixed in order to close. We hired John Landry to fix this beam and since we were happy with the work decided to use John and his company for our small renovation. Proceeding with John Landry and Route 9 Design was a huge mistake. I am sharing my story to save other potential clients the burden, stress, and overall waste time of dealing with John Landry and Route 9 Design. John Landry agreed to do structural work and plumbing in our renovation. He told me this would cost between $10-15K (in an e-mail). He never gave me a written contract stating the scope of his work which (I later discovered) is illegal. All Home Improvement Contractors completing work costing over $1k are required by MASS GEN LAW 142A to submit a written contract to prospective clients. The following is a list of problems we had with John and his company: -Irresponsible management of the project/worksite. John never knew what was happening at the worksite. I had to come home from work at random times daily to check on the workers. Many times I'd show up to find nobody working or people showing up late/leaving early, etc. John frequently told me over the phone particular work that had been completed that day which had not been done at all. -We never received credit for mistakes that had been made during renovation and had to be fixed. An example would be the installation of a beam through our bedroom floor. Another time a worker shot nails through our new radiant heat system. The plumber had to stop what he was doing, fix the damage, bleed the system, etc. The list is endless and we never saw credit toward work needing to be fixed. -Failure to pull a building permit I had pulled a permit to do the demo in my house. John Landry never pulled a permit to do the structural work. When the building inspector asked why he hadn't pulled a pemit, John blamed me. He was told several times by the building inspector to pull a permit and finally by me. He finally pulled the permit his last day on the job. -Poor workmanship that had to be fixed by another contractor. After firing John from the worksite I had to hire another contractor to come and fix and finish the renovation. Toward the end of our business relationship I called John to tell him he needed to get a building permit and he proceeded to yell at me over the phone telling me how hard he had worked, how his work was "top notch" and how i was too young to understand that this is the way projects go. Getting yelled at by someone I was paying thousands of dollars to was the last straw. I told him he had until the end of the week and Friday he was off the job. Up until this point I had paid every invoice in full. He sent me a final bill for $6K--which would make the total project come to $21K. Considering all the issues I had and the quote from the new contractor to fix and finish the work I contacted my lawyer. I told my lawyer the story and he said I shouldn't pay. I decided not to pay and soon got a court summons saying that John Landry was suing me for the $6K. My wife and I had to wait two months to go to court, but the magistrate ruled in our favor (telling John he was “fighting an uphill battle”). Working with John Landry and Route 9 Design was a nightmare. It seems like everyone has a horror story about working with a contractor – we really didn’t think that would be us with our first home right after getting married. The money that was completely wasted on working with Route 9 was the tip of the iceberg. Hiring them will mean entrenching yourself in stress, incompetence, and disrespect. The work they did was inadequate, irresponsible, and unsafe. Our house is still not to code because of the work they did. Please don’t make the same mistake we did – do not hire Route 9 to work on your home.

John and his crew were professional and excellent workers and John happily made any changes that we came up with. We are totally satisfied with his work and are happy to hire him again since we bought a 100 year old house that needs a lot of love. If I had one criticism it would be that the dust from removing the old plaster could have been a bit more contained to the living room.

I would give him a "D" on billing. I would give him a "C" overall. I would not use him in the future.