DESIGN BUILDERS

I had a bad experience similar to other low-raters. At first Design Builders seemed like a good firm to handle a big, complex deck rebuilding project. But after James initially estimated the project would be within our ballpark budget, he wrote a proposal that was nearly twice that much, and when I balked and asked him to explain, he hung up on me -- a very emotional move I've never seen from a professional businessman before. Moreover, during our $250 proposal review session, he allotted only one hour's time for discussing the essential parts of the complex project, and spent the first two-thirds of the time insisting on talking about extras that we didn't even want, especially in light of the inflated price he proposed for the basic project. He refused to discuss ways to hold down the costs. He later withdrew his $250 fee, but the experience left a bad taste and impression. Overall, we'd warn you away from James because he overcharges and acts unprofessionally toward potential customers.

It went very well. The design team was very helpful and gave us some great ideas, we worked very collaboratively to develop the final design. The job was initially delayed because of city inspections but Design Builders kept us informed throughout the process through emails and phone. They also had a wonderful online program that housed all the emails and documents to the project, even budget and budget changes. We actually had to do very little regarding scheduling and city filings, the company did it all for us. Once started the workers were wonderful (respectful, informative and consistently cleaned up). The project was completed close to the final time-frame as delays were caused by the weather. The roof and deck look great. The only unexpected part was the price (more than we expected) but working in the city tends to increase the price. Our feeling is that you pay for quality and I believe we got it. Thank you Design Builders!

Worse than we ever could have imagined. Our previous review still stands verbatum but we would like to clarify that the work was never completed. Based on our own extremely negative experience working with James Moylan and Design Builders Inc., WE WILL NEVER RECOMMEND DESIGN BUILDERS INC. for any project inside anyone's home. James Moylan has not, as he suggests, made any previous or ongoing effort to work with us directly (except with further payment to him, even though we had already paid a substantial amount for work never finished) or to inspect and resolve the problems we encountered in working with him or his crew. At the hands of his crew, we sustained damages to our house that James has refused to return to see or discuss. We invite anyone to contact us to discuss the details of our project. 202-362-4949

We went with Design Builders as they have great online videos and marketing. That is where the quality ends. From the start the job was a disaster. DB charged us to create an architectural blueprint for the job. When they showed up to review the prints it was obviously a design from another job. We reviewed the prints and highlighted the changes that needed to be made to make the design work for our house. Unfortunately the subcontractor was given the wrong set of plans. About a week into the job I noticed that the entire structure was nearly a half a foot too low and didn't cleanly tie into the roof line as needed. It took a few days to get DB to realize this and take action. At about this time the project manager for the job called me and indicated he was quitting DB and told us "good luck". As we got deeper into the job we also realized that the sub contractor being used was new to DB. We were assured they were good, in spite of the grievous issues going on with the build. Towards the end of the job the sub contractor attempted to install decorative trim on the inside of the porch. It was cut so poorly that huge ugly gaps were visible. When this was pointed out the fix they employed was to fill the gaps with wood putty. (On a natural unfinished ceiling) A few years later, the wood putty is all cracking and falling into the porch. We contacted DB and asked them to fix this issue. They asked "what do you want us to do about this"? I asked that they remove the wood puttied boards and re-cut the trim. They never bothered to respond to my request or call back.