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    Design First Builders

    3.5 (49 reviews)
    Closed 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

    Services - Design First Builders

    Guest house or ADU construction

    Manufactured home construction

    Modular home construction

    New room addition

    Design First Builders Photos

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    Recommended Reviews - Design First Builders

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    We had to argue with Rick about getting this fixed. He refused to believe it, and only climbed into the attic at the end of Feb to review it
    Saif R.

    We hired Design First to redo our downstairs including a kitchen and bathroom. I would never recommend this company to anyone based on our experience with them. The company should be renamed Disappointment First. We used this company due to the recommendation of a friend but did not realize the ownership had changed. There are several other reviews that discuss how the company's performance degraded with the new ownership. If you do use Design First, please learn from our mistakes in dealing with them and insist upon a firm completion date with a penalty per day for missing it. Several of their competitors offer this, and in our naivete we did not request a penalty for missing the completion date. We had a signed change order with a guaranteed 12/25/23 completion date, that they missed by several months. When we brought this up in discussions with them, they were dismissive and stated no penalty so nothing we can do. Substantial completion of the project was end of Feb 2024. We were still missing items like cabinet doors until July 2024. Whenever we brought up our concerns Design First's management made excuses like well, we've done tens of thousands of free work for you, which is nonsense. They did not do any free work and never provided any itemized invoice detailing additional work. During the project there were several issues with their work and the attentiveness of the project manager, Rick. There are other reviews speaking to similar issues. Some of the key mishaps they made on are project are venting the kitchen exhaust into the attic, we had to argue with Rick to get this fixed and it took several weeks. They did not level the subfloor causing the floating floor to be uneven, this is especially noticeable in areas where they cut into the slab to move plumbing or vents. The flooring warranty and the installation instructions specifically call for the floor to be leveled. The sealed over an existing floor vent, even though the plans showed it was to be converted. They cut the AC refrigerant line and initially refused to replace it. I contacted three local HVAC companies (Residential Heating and Cooling, Blue Frost, and On the Mark) regarding this and all of them said it should be replaced. Design First eventually replaced it, after arguing for several weeks with them. They trapped moisture in the attic with improper vapor barrier and air sealing and planned to insulate over it. The kitchen cabinets were installed missing several screws in the all the doors. It took them months to fix it. Their upcharges are ridiculous, this is mentioned in several other reviews as well. We had previously redone a kitchen with Home Depot in another house, and it was a significantly better experience. Design's First value proposition is that they handle everything for you, which is why they are worth the premium prices. This was not our experience, and I found working with them was very difficult. However, several of their subcontractors were great and I've listed their information below. Many of them mentioned other customers also were unhappy with Design First and in the future, I would work with the subcontractors directly. Electric: Volt-Amp Electric: (847) 531-8658 Plumber: Janus 773-817-7058 Siding and windows: Wheeling Construction 312-200-5083 Framing: Vale Construction 773-949-8318 Painters: Tom 773-540-0836 Demo: Rich Byrgiel 630-707-1177 Trim, cabinets, moulding, etc: Marin Construction 773-673-2014 Tile: Rauxel Tile 708-915-9395

    I lived in a plastic covered master bedroom for two months while DesignFirst dragged my master bathroom project out forever.
    Don Z.

    After years of dreaming, I finally decided to remodel my bathroom. I looked DesignFirst up online and the initial consultation seemed to go well, so I moved forward. Unfortunately, there were early warning signs that I ignored and I paid for that later. During the initial phase, promised emails were several days late and only sent after I reminded. Poor communication became a recurring theme throughout the project and caused immeasurable stress for me. There seem to be little to no communication between staff. I spent hours with the presales guy talking about what I wanted for my new bathroom. It took much iteration for him to even get a close approximation documented. I told myself that things would go more smoothly once I was a paying customer, so I went forward and paid my first installment to show DESIGNfirst that I was serious. Unfortunately, I ended up having all of the same conversations with the next designer that was assigned to work with me. That first payment was taken via credit card, but DesignFirst became evasive about taking subsequent credit card payments. I pressed the issue until they made it clear that only checks were acceptable despite the precedent that had been set. I thought things were going to be better as progress was made choosing actual products such as cabinets, flooring, fixtures, etc. But then came the next wave of disappointment. I was given a list of model numbers and prices for the chosen items. An hour of searching online and I found that I could save significant money. When I pointed out that we could save $500 by buying from http://www.nationalbuildersupply.com it was implied that they could not be trusted and might be selling returns. This is despite an A+ rating on Better Business Bureau and resellerratings.com. They indicated that they could not purchase that way despite the hundreds of dollars in savings. I ordered the smaller items and had them shipped to my house. Unfortunately, larger items like the toilet and shower doors must be shipped freight and I could not be home to receive them. DesignFirst would not accommodate my request to deliver my items to them due to some kind of risk and responsibility avoidance that ended up costing me several hundred dollars. Angry and disappointed, I soldiered on because I just couldn't bear to start over again and I had signed a contract with DesignFirst. The work started in late April. The first day of work they covered the adjoining bedroom and hallway in plastic to protect it and then gutted the bathroom. That was the last day that things went smoothly. The communication problems with this company were epic. Repeated requests for construction schedules were ignored. Days went by when no one even showed up. I lived in a plastic covered bedroom for over two months! The original estimate was 2 - 3 weeks. Some of the things that went wrong... Presales assured me that all materials would be purchased before construction began in order to minimize disruption to my life during construction Two days after the start I was asked to choose new flooring because my choice was out of stock. Shower pan choice was posed a week later and a delay in making the choice was blamed on me, which caused another week of delay as we waited for the pan to be manufactured. I chose coved, but the other one was delivered anyway. Frosted shower door glass was chosen during the design phase, but only upon delivery at my house was I told that frosted glass was not available for the Kohler doors that I had chosen. The closet door chosen during the design phase wasn't ordered until well after construction had begun and when it did arrive, it was the wrong color. Discussions with unresponsive DesignFirst staff resulted in more stress and delays. It appeared that DesignFirst had never worked on a Corian based shower before as the majority of the delays appeared to be related to it. They were unable to communicate the schedule associated with the fabrication time of the Corian components. They seemed unaware of dependencies around preparing the floor, floor pan, walls, etc. Once it was installed, I noticed all the little problems. The shower walls are shifted so that they hang over on one side and under on the other. I was told that this is acceptable variance. The shower drain was sticking up above the shower pan. Fixing this added an additional week to the project. One of the glass shower doors had two feet of the edge chipped off, but was installed and left to be discovered by me. It took 6 weeks to get a replacement. There were other smaller issues, but they all boiled down to the inability of DesignFirst staff to communicate with each other and the customer. It was the most stressful project I have ever embarked on as a homeowner and I hope that I never have to deal with anything like it again. I have my eye on other remodeling projects in my home and I will not be going back to DesignFirst.

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    Tony S.

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    Tony S.

    Thanks so much Dennis, hope to see you at our next event!

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    A fantastic group of people who listen to what you want and work within your budget. A+ from start to finish!

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    Page 1 of 2

    Ask the Community - Design First Builders

    Review Highlights - Design First Builders

    After confirming and pricing the job (using Tony's design) with the Design First staff, we signed the contract.

    Mentioned in 6 reviews

    Read more highlights

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    Peter Renovations - Wrigglyville- Bathroom Remodel

    Peter Renovations

    (23 reviews)

    We are overall happy with the way the shower turned out, but there were a few things that left me…read morefeeling less than satisfactory. After reviewing the scope of the project, it was estimated that it would take a week and a half to complete. Not only did it take over a month to eventually complete, the days that the team would work were unpredictable. On several occasions, as the team would leave for the day, they would tell us they will be back tomorrow, and then not show up. Or, they wouldn't be able to tell us when they would come next, and would surprise us a few days later. They ended up needing to complete this project after I had delivered my baby (original timeline would've been completed weeks prior to my due date). Additionally, we noticed there were a few design decisions that were made without consulting us, like the drywall of the shower/re-installation of the water gauge (it's now not flush with the wall and very loose) and the selection of tile at the base of the shower that doesn't match the floor. He had offered to come fix the water gauge, but after coming to look at the issue, he has not gotten back to us in 5 weeks. I had high hopes for this project, and while it still looks nice, the lack of communication made it really difficult to want to recommend Peter or use his team again for future projects.

    I recommend Piotr and his team. We hired them to renovate our kitchen and master bath. They quoted…read moreus a fair price and delivered both projects on budget. They were respectful and responsive and easy to work with and we're very happy with the finished product. We would definitely hire them again for future work.

    Design First Builders - contractors - Updated May 2026

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