Design Builders, Inc.

Worse than we ever could have imagined. Our advice to anyone considering Design Builders for any home improvement work is DO NOT HIRE THIS COMPANY. James Moylan's interest is not in you or your project, it is entirely in what he can get away with at your expense. If you choose to hire Design Builders, be extremely careful to protect yourself and your own interests before you enter into a contractual relationship with this company. James Moylan is a smooth up front salesman. Beware. When issues arise on the job, do not expect James to take any responsibility for problems resulting from mistakes or unauthorized changes to the work made by his crew. If he treats your project the way he treated ours, he will ignore the issues or deny that they exist and he will be completely unresponsive to your specific concerns. On our project he did not comply with his obligations according to the contract. He performed work without obtaining the required permits, and his crew made unauthorized changes to the job without our prior knowledge or permission. Beyond that, we experienced an alarming lack of communication between James and his subs (including the project manager), serious incompetence in the management and execution of the work (beyond the unauthorized changes and the absence of required DC licenses and permits), and silence, deceit and denial of fact from James to us. We issued a stop order very early into the project because we were out of town and had received photos posted by the project manager which indicated significant problems and errors on the job. We wanted to inspect these areas in person before allowing work to continue. Despite receiving the stop order, Design Builders continued to work in our house for two days after we asked them to cease, while we were still away. This unwarranted work caused further problems for us. Expressing our concern about the lack of communication within the Design Builders organization and apparent problems in workmanship, we requested an on site meeting (to take place as soon as we returned home) with James Moylan and his project manager so we could walk through and address the progress as well as changes and errors in the execution of the job. James never responded, but 15 minutes before their arrival the project manager announced that they were on their way, in answer to my earlier query that morning about whether we could expect a meeting sometime that day. During the meeting, which took place the week after we issued the stop order, James abruptly walked out without comment or explanation and remained outside by his truck, leaving his ill-prepared project manager to try to carry on alone. That was the last time we saw James. He never returned again to the job site, refusing to continue work without further payment even though we had already made a sizable payment up front for work that was at this point still not done. The contractual requirement for any additional payment had not been met by Design Builders. James refused any further meetings with us. Hoping to resolve our concerns and the multitude of issues pertaining to the job with Design Builders, with the ultimate goal of eventually reaching an equitable solution before resuming any work on site, we held to our initial stop order. James repeatedly declared all of our concerns and issues "unsubstantiated" regardless of the fact that on several occasions we had outlined them for him and provided him with an extensive, very carefully detailed itemized list (which he ignored for almost a month). He in turn never addressed any of our specified issues directly. After continued requests from us, James eventually provided us with his own list of the work still to be finished. His list of work still to be done was filled with erroneous information, including items that had already been completed by Design Builders. In response to his flawed summary, we posted our detailed list on the Design Builders Co-construct message board and also sent it twice by direct email to James. He did not respond to any of the items on our list, ever. Throughout the stop order James continued to maintain that Design Builders was "ready, able and willing" to finish the job, despite (and without acknowledging) the fact that they did not hold any of the DC Home Improvement business and professional licenses required to perform this work in the District of Columbia. Six weeks into the stop order we asked to terminate the contract with a refund of a portion of our advance payments as reimbursement for work never delivered, and as compensation for work done incorrectly and compensation for documented damages to our property. James refused to accept these terms, stating his position that Design Builders would refund no money and admit to no wrongdoing. Alternatively, he followed with various " compromise offers" which would allow us to seek termination only with mutual release of any and all claims and our acceptance of "no admissions" from Design Builders Inc., and that there would be no financial compensation to us for any reason. We eventually discovered through the DCRA website that Design Builders' licenses had expired shortly after we issued our stop order, and that the plumber working on our job held no DC license and was therefore ineligible to obtain the required permit. Because Design Builders also never acquired the required electrical permit, we suspect their electrician (whose name Design Builders declined to give us when asked) who worked in our house was also unlicensed in DC, thus ineligible to obtain a permit for our project. Neither of the permits required on our project was ever obtained by Design Builders, nor ever mentioned by Design builders. When we pointed this out to James Moylan in our detailed itemized list of problems on the job, he ignored the itemized list, indicating that he had been unable to access the entire message. We sent him our list in two forms: on his Co-construct platform and also by email directly to him -- and although the list was somehow partially cut off on Co-construct, the email contained the full text. He had access to the full text but chose to disregard it. When the full text was sent again directly to him in a second email, James stopped responding to us entirely until after he had renewed his business licenses which had expired several months prior. However, at no time during ur relationship with Design Builders did James EVER acknowledge to us the status of his and his crew's business and professional licenses, nor did he ever acknowledge the absence of permits on our project. Nearly nineteen weeks into the stop order, as soon as his business licenses had been renewed and after neglecting to communicate with us for several weeks, James Moylan issued yet another "final" "compromise offer" and simultaneously blocked our access to the Design Builders Co-construct site (even though we were still his clients). As with his previous "compromise" offers, this offer stipulated that we may take action to terminate the contract ONLY by agreeing to no recovery of money paid in advance, no compensation for damages to our property resulting from Design Builders negligence and mishandling of our project, and granting no fault on the part of Design Builders, Inc. With this offer, James asserted that otherwise we would face a potential lawsuit brought against us by Design Builders, Inc. This time he added that if we did not respond almost immediately he would hand the matter over to his attorney. Following months of frustration and anguish, with a job in no way finished and our house in disarray, and with James Moylan continuously failing to directly address or acknowledge any issues concerning his and his crew's deplorable performance on our project, we realized we had to step away from Design Builders Inc. if we wanted to get the project completed. We had discovered that Design Builders business licenses had been renewed, effective on the same day that James gave us his last "final" "compromise" offer allowing us to terminate the contract with a mutual release of all claims. Citing James Moylan's failure and ongoing refusal to comply wit

<p>The initial interactions and sales pitch were great.  The delivery and implementation were bad.  Once things got going, there was a lack of communication as to what would be done -- some days no one would show up and I would call and ask.....was told they had to finish up other jobs.</p> <p>I can deal with a little lack of timeliness (stuff happens), but....the quality of the work provided is not good at all.  When presented to me as "complete," the finished product was an absolute mess -- footers not filled in, filthy and scratched flooring, post caps and finishing not installed, gaps in screening, gaps where flooring met the structure....just plain sloppy.  Work was not properly reviewed and quality controlled -- it was done by very young people who clearly didn't have the experience or attention to detail.  Then, I discovered that the roof leaked where the screened porch attached to the house.  The reason this is significant is because it caused water damage to the wood siding that had been installed inside!!</p> <p>They did have a roofer come out and relook at the job to see if they could stop the leak -- while it appeared fixed, the very next rain we had it leaked again.  They did send out a more senior person on their staff to review and he stated that there were clearly some things they needed to fix, and stated that he thought there might also be an issue with water coming in near my chimney.  The house is brand new and I called the builder to address this - who came out and fixed it right away.  However, the leaking persisted.</p> <p>I called and emailed to have this all addressed -- was told that it would take weeks.  After complaining that timeliness was important as they had been fully paid, something opened up earlier.  So...on August 17th Design Builders had their senior person and roofer come out to work on the roof again -- they spent a significant amount of time on it.  We had been experiencing a dry spell and it hadn't rained in days.  After completing this work, I asked them to please replace the water damaged interior boards and finish the other repairs.  The response that I got was basically ...."our roof is water tight...it is your builders fault....we will not replace the boards."</p> <p>I stated that I did not agree with that statement and would like to review with them further.  When they came out on August 20th, to work on the other items, their senior person was there again and...it started to rain!!!  What do you know...after they spent time fixing it on August 17th, it no longer leaked!  Their person acknowledged that it was no longer leaking.</p> <p><br /></p> <p>So....bottom line....before they worked on the roof on August 17th it leaked.  After their work it did NOT leak.  From this fact, it is clear that the leaking was caused by work that was their responsibility.  I have sent several emails to the owner stating that based on these facts they need to replace the water damaged boards.  He doesn't even have the courtesy to respond.  There are also other small outstanding issues.</p> <p><br /></p> <p>DO NOT USE this company.  Good sales pitch, poor quality and lack of customer service -- all at a very high price.</p> <p><br /></p> <br />

Design builders did a great job.  THere were a few delays but some of them could not be avoided.  The end product is very nice and I would use them again in the future. <br />

James, the owner of the company, spent time with us explaining, in <br /> detail, the options and trade-offs in planning our new screened patio <br /> and sun deck.  One other company we contacted was less helpful and <br /> patient--a third company never returned our call. The time spent by <br /> James--and a site visit to a screened porch he had built earlier--made <br /> us comfortable in selecting Design Builders although the price was well <br /> above a competing bid. We are happy with the screened porch/deck. It is a <br /> quality job, looks great, and James followed through on everything he <br /> said he would. At times, it took a bit of patience on our part, but that <br /> is almost always the case with a significant construction project.  You <br /> pay for quality--and we received that quality from Design Builders. <br />

Pending completion

They were very good. They did a good job. They worked really hardly. They were pretty serious about their job. They were very professional. I am very happy with them. I will definitely use them again in the future.

James Moylen and his team are skilled and knowledgable and understand well that the customer comes first. I chose Design Builders over two other contractors because James listened more carefully than the others to both our hopes and fears, and specifically addressed each and every one in the design and throughout the construction. He and his workers were courteous, cleaned up the worksite every day, and most importantly, did a top quality job on every aspect of the work. Yes, there were small glitches along the way, but James maintained very close communication with me throughout and took every step possible to keep me a fully informed and satisfied customer. I highly recommend his company and would not hesitate to work with them again.

I began getting quotes for screening in our porch in April. Even though Design Builders were not the cheapest, I liked the system they were going to use. It would allow us to easily rescreen if something were to happen. And I got a good feeling about James Moylan, the owner, who came out to give the quote. We signed him in early April and the contract said the project would be complete in late April. Fast forward two months (June 21) and the job is finally complete. It took a lot longer than expected. First, the wood had to dry out before it was painted and seeing how we started in the rainy season, that took a week longer than we thought. Second, the original doors that were installed were not the ones we preferred, so new ones had to be ordered adding another three weeks. Third, Design Builders was experiencing a rash of staffing issues and an increase in business that spread the existing staff thin. This wasn't necessarily bad. The porch was screened quickly and we were able to use it despite boards not being painted and the wrong doors being installed. Plus, James kept in constant contact with me. I received emails frequently telling me of the project status. Most importantly, the quality of the work is top-notch. We think they did a fantastic job of problem solving some areas of the porch that looked like it might be impossible to screen. We would definitely use them again and would recommend them to others -- you just need to be patient.