BuildSense

Randy and Eric and the whole team were great to work with. After the initial meeting at our house, we meet at their offices for several meetings and worked out the budget the design. They delivered a full and complete set of plans to us as contracted for.

My wife and I are in a good position to write a review because we are the veterans of one previous house renovation, from 18 years ago, and my wife also had the experience of building a small house on her family property in Asheville. So we were not exactly wary when we approached our renovation project, but we weren?t naïve either. We knew there might be various difficulties, but we were ready to take the plunge into a major renovation again. Our Durham house was in a location that we loved, but there were numerous problems with it. For one thing, it was small, just 1300 square feet, three bedrooms and one bath (we used two of the bedrooms as our studies), a good sized kitchen. We were both looking forward to impending retirements, and felt we?d be falling all over each other. Also, the existing bedroom was quite close to a neighbor?s house and screened-in porch; we?re both early to bed people, and sometimes that was a problem. Our kitchen was spacious, but it was somehow designed in a way that we were all over each other, especially in the morning, when we were both making tea, were making vegetable juice; there was never enough room. We are also grandparents and didn?t have a guestroom for our family to visit. We thought of moving, but we love our location in Durham, and it?s also true that you never know what you?re getting into when you buy a new house. We knew the problems of our house; the question was, Could they be fixed? The first thing I would say about working with BuildSense, and perhaps the most important thing, was that we liked and trusted everyone we worked with. The moment we met Randy Lanou, we liked and trusted him; he listened to what we wanted, and didn?t claim to have some instant answer to the problems we were coming to him with. My wife had done a great deal of research on the Internet before approaching anyone, but we had an immediate good reaction to Randy, then to Erik Mehlman and Nick Owings, and over time to every single person we met at Build Sense, including Evan, Kendall, Scott, George, Ryan, and the whole crew. We never had the feeling we were buying a used car. We weren?t facing a lot of empty promises. We knew this was a big project and BuildSense never tried to downplay that. In the past we?d encountered people who lowballed the project in order to get the work. BuildSense never did that. In the early planning stages, they took into account our various suggestions, and the different problems we were trying to solve, but they didn?t cater to us; they gave us what they thought were the best solutions to our various issues. We immediately agreed; they had had a better idea than either of us had, and we chose their first choice as our best option. The skill with which they faced all of our issues was remarkable. One thing I really appreciated was the fact that, not only did they make an accurate initial assessment of costs, they also itemized the various costs before the project was actually launched. Their initial assessment was quite accurate, and the itemized costs proved to be as well. My experience in the past was that builders badly underestimated what something would cost, probably in order to get the job in the first place. Then they were pretty cavalier when the costs got greater. BuildSense understood our concerns about cost, and they didn?t try to play them down. They cost money because they don?t do cheap work. But they don?t pretend things are going to be cheaper than they are. As I write the job isn?t quite finished, but the company has stayed on budget and within the original time frame. Erik and Nick scheduled regular meetings with us to keep us up to date on how things were going. The schedule didn?t always go exactly as planned, but when there were problems they generally were able to schedule things so we could keep moving forward on pace. Another thing I really appreciated about BuildSense is that they have relationships with come great sub-contractors. We especially got to know the framers and the painters, but really everyone seemed remarkably skilled and hardworking. Again, that?s something of a contrast to our previous renovation, where everything seemed much more haphazard. I?m sure that part of the reason that BuildSense has such good subs is that they do a lot of work and they?re a great company to work for. They get good people because they are good people. Honestly, I don?t see how you could go wrong with these BuildSense. It is a classy company that does superb work.

I can not say that we had the best experience with this firm. While the plans were decent, I regret that I didn't follow my own heart and insist that the house be designed on the plot that I had wanted, but was swayed by their "expertise" and now have plans that are not worth the paper they are printed on. They are very much committed to following their own ideas, and while they say they listen to the clients, this is not the case. The fact that we walked away after spending over $30K say a lot. I don't know how I missed the other negative reviews on this site, but I wish I had done more homework. I am confident that there are other providers that are as competent and can preform these same design services at a much more affordable price. We are sad about our lost investment but are so so grateful they are not building our house.

Bradley was kind, engaged, and professional. He was able to determine several areas of concern and ranked them in order of priority (urgent, important, consider soon). In our home, the biggest issue found was inadequate insulation that causes our utility bills to be much higher than they should be. At this time, it's possible to have the survey as a separate service, yet Build Sense takes on all kinds of projects so it's possible to go forward with the company after the assessment to address the concerns found in the survey. The total price for everything was $180 and it was truly a steal. We'll be calling them back when we're ready to address the insulation problems.

Our experience was terrible. The owner was difficult and not helpful when we encountered a problem. We have worked with designers before and since contracting with this firm and have been pleased with the outcome. We would not recommend this firm for design services and would like to spare other consumers from the bad experience and expense that we incurred.

The work was very high quality. The crew was reliable and dependable. Any problems that we had were quickly addressed and resolved. Overall, we were very satisfied with the work that was done.

THEY WERE OUTSTANDING. THEY BUILT THE HOUSE PERFECTLY. THEY DID IT JUST THE WAY WE WANTED IT DONE. WHEN THEY WERE DONE, IT LOOKED LIKE IT CAME OUT OF A MAGAZINE. IT IS GORGEOUS.