JAMES BARTON DESIGN-BUILD INC

If you are looking to work with a fast talker and someone who doesn't hold up his end of the bargain then this is your company. We invited James out to look at our house and give us an idea of what it might cost to do what we wanted. He took a look at it and thought it would be in the ball park of 80-85K. We stupidly took him at his word and paid to have some design done and get some quotes put together. During the design process we took several of his design teams suggestions and asked each time "what will this cost". The response was always we won't know until we quote it. That should have been an immediate red flag for us. We ultimately changed about 5 items from our original plan. When the quote came back he sent us the numbers 2 hours before our meeting and they were at 193K, over double our original budget. James could not provide an itemized list of what each item cost and we asked for an explanation on how this got so out of hand. His response was, well you changed scope on us. Keep in mind we changed 5 items, several of which were THEIR suggestions. Five total changes should not equate to a bid 110K over our original number. We asked him to go back and bid it at the original scope, without any of our changes. He said he would get those back to us in about 4 business days. 4 business days came and went and no response from James. We had to reach out to him again to ask where they were at and when we could get the numbers. It ultimately took him a full 8 business days to provide the numbers. When the numbers came back the quote was 143K, almost 75% more than our original budget. At this point we were not happy and asked how his original estimate could be so off and to see an itemized list. Again he could not provide that list and then went on to blame us for not reading his design contract that stated any numbers before this were a "guess". Keep in mind that James did not walk us through the design contract, just sent it over for us to sign. I have called several times to discuss how someone in this industry can be so off on a "guess" when they are supposed to know the industry but he has dodged my calls and will not answer his phone. He is either completely incompetent at his job or trying to hood wink us into paying way more for something that it is actually worth. James' business model is to get you based on a low bid, then come back with much higher bids and blame it on the industry or some other unknown factor that he can't produce, hoping you will double or triple your budget to his benefit.

They are great.

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We had to take them to court, because the floor height was too low and didn't match up with my other floor. I won, but it cost me a lot of money.

The initial meeting to just look at what I wanted to do to expand the entry went well. James told me he thought about 25 to 30 thousand to do that part. Maybe another 3 to 4 thousand to take the wall out between the kitchen and dining rooms. We scheduled a meeting to have the designer and crew come out to go over what we would like to do. They took pictures and measurements. We again asked about what he thought about a price and we were told the same type of information. We signed a contract and wrote a check for $3,500 dollars. They came up with a nice design. We had 2 meetings to pick out all of the materials. Then the meeting about what it would cost was crazy expensive. I asked him to just quote me what it would cost to just do the shell of the entry way with no inside finishes, no electrical only buttoned up. It still came back at $50,564. We are not proceeding with them and have wasted $3,500 and at least 8 hours of our time. I feel duped by them. I understand a ball park estimate but, after taking all the inside finishing out of the project and it still ends up twice the original estimate is ridiculous. You sign the contract having faith in their estimates and that they are somewhat close. We would not have proceeded knowing this information. Thanks.

Barton did not do what they said they would do and prepared a report to our Association Board saying work was done when it clearly was not done.

We initially planned to work with James Barton Design/Build on insurance work and on a remodeling project. We completed the insurance work with James Barton, but after working with them, decided against doing any more business with them. First, James Barton pressured us to sign a contract after the first walk-through (and yes, it was a red flag, one that we ignored because they were recommended by an acquaintance). Once the contract was signed however, communicating with the staff became incredibly difficult. They don't listen. This happened in trying to schedule meetings, and in listening to us about what we thought the problems were with the insurance work that they did for us. One example is that my husband indicated that there was a problem with wetness behind the laundry room wall. James Marsden, the owner and principle estimator, scoffed at this, saying that he had tons of experience and that my husband needn't worry about any wetness behind the wall. Of course there was wetness behind the wall, which necessitated a delay for the wood to dry out. The wetness issue was identified by the drywall team. In the most surprising incident that occurred, we woke up one morning to find the key that we had given the company representative in the front door, waiting for anyone to use it and walk in. We don't know why something so egregiously unsafe occurred, but the company gave an anemic apology. That incident, and others, led us to decide against using them beyond the insurance work; we decided that we did not want to have them do the remodeling work. We then requested our deposit of $6,000 (paid for the design and remodeling work) be returned. We even said that we would accept a portion of that amount since the company had done some measuring work. They refused to return the deposit, citing their contract, which states that they do not return the deposit for the design work if a plan has been shown to the client. Yet, the company never showed us a design. (And, despite paying the design fee, you don't get the plan.) I can't help but wonder if they even completed one. The bottom line is to avoid James Barton Design/Build like the plague that they are.

The work was done wonderfully and on time. The time it actually took to do the work was a little longer than he had initially told us, so that was one small issue.

Our experience was outstanding. They were courteous, thorough, hard-working and responsive. They did an excellent job on everything and were very good about communicating with us. I fully intend to recommend this company to friends and family. James did a great job of explaining things to us and Andy and John (our primary contacts on-site) did a fantastic job of keeping us informed of everything that was happening. This was a big job and was done in less than 3 weeks with minimal damage to our landscaping, and it looks wonderful!

THE WORKMANSHIP PROVIDED WAS EXTREMELY SUBSTANDARD. HIS CREW WALKED OFF THE JOB AND HE HAD NO OTHER WORKERS TO COMPETE THE JOB. WE HAD TO HIRE ANOTHER COMPANY TO COMPLETE THE WORK AT AN ADDITIONAL COST TO US OF $20,000.00 THIS IS OVER AND ABOVE THE ORIGINAL $45,000.00. OUR HOUSE SAT PARTIALLY UNSIDED, EXPOSED TO THE WEATHER FOR 3 MONTHS. WE ALSO HAD TO TAKE HIM TO COURT TO RETRIEVE SOME OF OUR INITIAL INVESTMENT. WE DID WIN THE CASE. WHEN THE JUDGE ASKED HIM (AT THE HEARING) IF HE WAS AWARE THAT OUR HOUSE WAS COMPLETED (BY OTHERS), HIS RESPONSE WAS NO. HE NEVER CARED THAT HE LEFT OUR HOUSE IN THE CONDITION IT WAS IN. IT WAS BECAUSE OF OUR CASE THAT HE CHANGED THE NAME OF HIS COMPANY FROM JAMES MADSEN TO JAMES BARTON. ALSO, HIS SUBCONTRACTORS WERE VERY LATE EVERY DAY, SOMETIMES NOT SHOWING UP TILL 11:00 OR NOON. THEY WERE RUDE, MADE INAPPROPRIATE COMMENTS AND HAD NO IDEA HOW TO PUT SIDING ON A HOUSE.

WE DEALT W/JAMES MADSEN, OWNER, WHO WAS FRIENDLY. HE TOLD US UP FRONT THAT WE NEEDED TO BE SURE WE WANTED TO DO THE REMODEL BECAUSE THERE WOULD BE A $3500 DESIGN FEE, BUT, THAT FEE WOULD COME OFF THE PRICE OF THE PROJECT IF WE WENT WITH THEM. THE ESTIMATE WAS WITHIN OUR BUDGET SO WE SAID GO AHEAD. THE ACTUAL ESTIMATE EMAILED TO US WAS THOUSANDS HIGHER THAN THE VERBAL ESTIMATE. DEVASTATED, WE MET SEVERAL TIMES AT HIS OFFICE TO REDUCE THE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT. THE COSTS WERE BROKEN DOWN INTO THREE AREAS, $3750 FOR PLANS, PERMIT FEE OF $500 PER JOB, (THE CITY OF LAKEVILLE GAVE US AN EST. OF $150 - $175 PER PERMIT, NOT $500), $750 FOR SETUP AND SITE PROTECTION, AND WERE NOT TAKEN OFF AS HE HAD PROMISED, BUT WAS ADDED TO THE PROJECT COST. AT NO TIME PRIOR TO PAYING THE $3500.00 WAS IT EVER MENTIONED THAT THESE COSTS WERE NOT INCLUDED IN THE ESTIMATE. AS A RESULT, WE WERE NO LONGER IN OUR BUDGET AND HAD TO CANCEL THE REMODEL, COSTING US $3500.