Innovative Homes LLC

Amazing Ben delivered on time on budget with great communication. Even through outside challenges including Fairfax County and Dominion Ben Bull Dogged everything and made sure he exceeded our expectations. He had great solutions for the challenges faced with a 50 year old home reno while avoiding any pricey change orders. To this day I can trust Ben to address any warranty issues.

I was trying to find information on a property they owned. No one was answering the phone at either the sign In front of the house, or at the company main number. No voicemail message, nothing, very unprofessional

Quality of work above average but timing, application and customer service some what suspect.

unknown

I had several contractors come by my house to pitch their decks and pricing. When Ben Hickerson from
Innovative Homes first came by the house, I knew right away he was the guy. He
was very professional and you could tell he enjoys his work. After selecting
Ben, he brought over several different design options to fit my interests. This
was the only difficult part for me because they were all beautiful! Ben called
to let me know what was coming at each step along the way. Additionally, took
care of all of the paper work (Building permit, HOA, final inspection by County
of Loudoun etc.). He was able to finish my selected design quickly and it's
amazing! I am so happy I selected Ben Hickerson with Innovative Homes and would
highly recommend him to anyone!
 
Randi
Waters
Leesburg,
VA 

The work performed was shoddy from start to finish.   There were problems at every step of the process from use of low quality material to poor craftsmanship to poor design.   Examples: (1)  the cable railing was installed backwards.  The ends that must have access in order to tighten the cables was built over and made inaccessible.   As we hadn't finished payments at the time, the firm had someone come out and redo the work.   The person who came out to check it admitted it was "poor design on my guys part."   Although the cable was reversed, weeks after completion it was already loose and boards were coming up.  (2) The wood cap railings  were different sizes leaving an inconsistent look to the railing with some parts wider and thicker than others - we had to have the workers  replace some of the railing.   Parts of the deck were not replaced, leaving a gap in the wooden floor boards that had to be fixed.  One person who came out to looks said "I don't know why they didn't do that, they should have."(3) The carpentry was done very poorly leaving misjoined corners and boards with gaps and differing heights. The rails do not meet cleanly and neatly.  It looks amateurish and by far from a professional finished appearance.  Some boards were mismatched  with differing widths and heights.  We had them a few boards that we noticed at the time.  (4) A lattice screen was built on one side of the deck for privacy, but was left without any support - a person leaning against the lattice could easily fall through and end up on the ground 15 feet down.  When asked about it, the firm built a T frame behind the lattice (which has already warped - see mention of the material used).(5) The workers rebuilt a door at the base, but  inexplicably installed decorative hinges under (rather than over) lattice and failed to install a door handle and latch.  When asked to install a latch, they installed in backwards and had to come out again to reverse it.   (6) The workers failed to replace the lattice around the deck stating that their supervisor said it was not part of the contract. When pointed out that it was part of the contract, they agreed to do the work.  (7) Boards warping within weeks of job completion:   The material used seems cheap throughout.  For example, the wood does not appear to be standard pressure treated  'green wood' available at Home Depot for use on outdoor decks, but rather untreated pine. I asked and was assured it was pressure treated.  The fact that the  railings have warped significantly within weeks of completion, resulting in pulled screws and loosened cable railing, suggests the wood was wrong for the job.   I'm currently  replacing some of the boards.  (8) the deck lighting failed after the deck was complete, but as we had not made final payment, they came out and fixed it.  However, one of the lights has failed since then - in a matter of weeks.   The electrical work under the deck seems poor -- junction boxes that were opened to do some wiring were left open.  I discovered it after job completion and reinstalled the cover plates on my own.  However, there are a number of loose wires under the deck with only screw caps over them.  As this is outdoors, enclosing them in an outdoor junction box or disconnecting them entirely would seem to have been the way to go.
The workers and owner were nice throughout and made efforts to fix each area that we called to their attention, but often we'd have to ask for the same thing several times or it would be fixed wrong and then have to be done again.    I asked about the electrical work after having made final payment and received no response.  Bottom line: poorly managed, poorly executed, cheap materials used.

While the finished product is very nice, Mr Hickerson apparently is incapable of managing a project.  He constantly made lots of promises that he more times than not failed to live up to.  What was scheduled to be a two to three week project took over two months.  While he has made multiple promises to provide us with the breakdown of the actual costs for the materials, he has failed to do so, which could cause a reasonable person to believe that he has not been completely honest with us about the costs.  He also misrepresented facts to his subcontractors on several occasions and was very disrespectful about my wife.  I am amazed he manages to stay in business and would not recommend him or his company to anyone.