O'NEILL DEVELOPMENT CORP

I first became aware of O'Neill Development Corporation through an in-depth article in the Real Estate section of the Washington Post. They had just built a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,) certified home on North Chelsea Lane, Bethesda, Maryland. My wife and I were very interested in the environmental performance of the custom home we planned to build, including design, construction methods, operations and maintenance. So we approached O'Neill with our plans and ideas. It was immediately clear that they were thoroughly conversant with the techniques we had in mind--for example, Insulating Concrete Forms for foundation walls, Structural Insulating Panels for exterior walls and roof panels. We signed the contract with O'Neill many months after our first contact with them; but by then, they had already provided us with important pre-construction services. The house we had in mind had been designed by Sarah Susanka and we purchased the plans from a California architectural firm that she has authorized to sell her plans. However, the structural plans had to be developed to meet Maryland code requirements. The structural engineer that O'Neill recommended was excellent. In general, their sub-contractors, especially those who did the concrete and Stucco work, were among the best in the business. O'Neill's own talented and dedicated team, led by Brendan O'Neill Junior, included: Martin Johnson who we worked with closely to put together the building permit application, Rob Melby the on-site supervisor and gifted carpenter, Kerri Ford who coordinated the subcontractors, obtained quotes, and hand-held us through all the many selections and decisions we were required to make, and importantly, Brendan O?Neill Senior, who founded the company in 1975 and was always available and willing to provide guidance. Uniformly, they were exceptionally generous with their time, accommodating of our needs and situation, and clearly dedicated to their chosen professions. Throughout the project I had weekly meetings with them that lasted an average of two hours. For each meeting, Kerri prepared a formal agenda containing the current items, Change Orders, the decisions from the last meeting, and outstanding items. Also for each meeting, the project plan was updated and timelines reviewed. In spite of difficult construction weather conditions, the project was completed in timely fashion. Separately, Brendan Junior handled every issue that arose, especially those that were raised by adjacent property owners, promptly, gracefully and competently. He was always careful to shield us from these situations knowing that this was to be our future home. Here are two examples of issues that gave rise to complaints: (1) A Verizon cable was severed during the excavation; but this only occurred because Verizon had illegally run a trench through our lot to service some homes behind our property. They had not notified Maryland Miss Utility, the state entity responsible for making utility lines before any excavation is authorized?Miss Utility?s slogan is: ?Before you dig, every dig. It?s the law,? and that is exactly what O?Neill did. As a result, the Verizon lines were not marked, were consequently cut, and Verizon made the repair; (2) In another case, a neighbor?s basement got flooded during a heavy rain storm. However, on careful examination, it became clear that the fault was simply a leaky basement that revealed itself during the heavy downpour. I would highly recommend O'Neill Development Corporation to anyone who has a custom home-construction project in mind.

Cut Verizon FOIS internet, phone and TV to three adjacent properties. Verizon had to install temporary wires that hung in our trees for months to get the service to work again while they made a permanent fix. Repeated contacted O'Neill and their response was hey that is the life of construction, so basically suck it up. The regular trespassing, damage to driveway from large construction trucks and complete disregard of using adjacent property as if it was part of the construction site is unprofessional and illegal. We had to contact the police, take photos, etc. It has been a horrible year living next to such unacceptable contractor oversight and adjacent neighbors feel violated.