I first met Jacob when he came to my property out of genuine curiosity after hearing about a water intrusion issue I was struggling with. He did not have the capacity to work on my project but he came to support the completion of a difficult time. I moved into my home in February 2021--during a snowstorm--and by March, we noticed rainwater entering the house. Over the next several months, I spoke with more than two dozen contractors, most of whom had no clear idea how to fix the issue. Eventually, we hired a contractor who replaced the siding, but unfortunately, that didn't solve the problem either. That's when a friend recommended I call Jacob. From the moment he arrived, Jacob listened with patience. He took the time to hear all the details--my concerns, what other contractors had said, and he carefully reviewed all the photos I had taken. He didn't do any physical work on the project himself, but what he did do was shift the entire direction of the process. He coached me on how to speak with contractors, shared terminology I should use, and--most importantly--he told me I was likely looking for the wrong kind of specialist. Though water was coming through the siding, Jacob suggested the issue was probably with the roof, specifically the "cricket." Following Jacob's advice completely changed how contractors treated the situation. I started getting better responses and more respect. And he was right--it was the cricket. Once that was addressed, the problem was finally resolved. Since then, I've called Jacob again for advice on another project, and once again, he offered clarity and insight that helped tremendously. Jacob has become a trusted advisor. His knowledge, experience, and thoughtful communication make him someone I would absolutely trust to manage a project from start to finish. I can't recommend him highly enough. Thank you Jacob! read more

Jacob is awesome! He's super talented with Chief Architect and his renderings are seriously impressive--realistic, detailed, and spot-on with what we were imagining. Beyond that, he's just a really gifted designer who knows how to bring ideas to life. Highly recommend working with Chavez Design Build if you want someone who can make your project look amazing before it's even built. read more

We were looking for a contractor to remodel our kitchen in our 1902 home and were having a difficult time doing so. I reached out to Jacob after remembering he contacted me in regard to doing some graphic design work... In late 2019, Jacob and his interior designer came to our home for a walk through and to do a mock up of floor plans (for the entire living area or the house). My mom who is the owner of the house paid every bill in full and on time. We chose to work with Jacob and his crew late 2019. After some consideration, we decided to do a partial home remodel with electrical updates completed to the entire house (uncompleted to date). Understandably, Jacob decided to step away from doing any work on houses at the start of the pandemic which we appreciated. When we were able to though, we decided to not move forward working with him for a number of reasons. When we reached out requesting the amount of money in escrow (almost $15K) to be returned to us with the list of concerns and problems, he responded by asking for a meeting. We decided not to do this as we feel uncomfortable working with Jacob because of how the project unfolded / lack of communication. I have reached out a few times recently and have not heard anything back from him. He still has my mom's money. Contract states: "Home Owners may terminate this Agreement at any time, but shall provide Contractor with fifteen days written notice..." Jacob's bookkeeper also commented that any amount left over in Escrow would be returned to us at the end of the job. Below is only a partial list of our list of compliments and complaints. Positive points in working with Jacob: *Local to our neighborhood *Has design background *Early on, there were a few workers gutting different rooms of our house. It wasn't one man crew. Negative points in working with Jacob: *Pushy when asking my mom to sign the contract, she did not have time to read through the entire document. Jacob was in the room with us the entire time waiting for her to sign same. *Specification sheet - every other page to this document is missing... *Cabinet maker shared with us that Jacob told how much money in Escrow we had left. This is private information. *Everything seemed to happen too fast yet here we sit with an unfinished house. *Windows - My mom requested windows different from the ones we already have which cut down on the sun from coming in. The wrong windows were ordered. *One meeting we had with Jacob which was over four hours long... he had us choose a shower w/out seeing it in person. He printed off a photo of it with the short write up. He requested my mom to sign her name next to it possibly because of the window dilemma noted in the last bullet. *Overcharging for different steps (ex: asbestos test paid for out of pocket / charged again on bill, ex: found name of another client on bill - may have paid to have their debris removed -this was unclear to us). *Horrible communication and a lot of assuming by Jacob. Crew was pretty good at providing communication, however Jacob was not. *Scheduled different flooring subcontractors to come by when he already knew what direction we were going in. (ex: having flooring people come by to provide an estimate when Jacob already knew we wanted Marmoleum). *Laundry attic vent incorrectly installed by Jacob himself (I remember him saying, he could do the job as his stepdad is a plumber). Drips into laundry room. When faced with this, everyone from the bookkeeper (yes, the bookkeeper) to the foreman blamed it on our roof being old. A boot was placed around the vent and the leak still persists. We had roofing contractors not associated with this contractor look at the work, inside the attic and on the roof who told us the problem was not with the roof. We had a plumber look at it who told us the vent was leaking because the pipe was laid out incorrectly / and as a result was collecting water. Then we had an inspector look at it and were told that the contractor should have used new pipes for the entire project, not new on already existing pipes which is the reason for the leak. Thankfully, the attic is dry where this vent pipe is, however the ceiling drywall needs to be replaced. Attic vent also juts out of ceiling and it looks completely unfinished. *About 2 days before the pandemic, several pieces of molding, trim picture railing, window casings and doors, were taken from our property to have paint removed. These items have not been returned to our property. Pieces are original to our 1902 home. *We have not been able to use our kitchen due to room being incomplete / laundry is off of kitchen. *For the entire area which was remodeled, only one door is present. No doors are present to the entries for the bathrooms, basement or one of the bedrooms. *Every single room was touched and is unfinished. More to follow... read more

J-Chavez Design Build - Shows attic vent sticking out of ceiling. - General Contractors Near Me

Jacob was very knowledgeable and generous with his time. He helped me focus on the energy upgrades that would be most useful and recommended contractors for the work. read more

Jacob took time to thoroughly explain the ins and outs of an upcoming project we are looking to complete. He did a fantastic job answering all my questions and was incredibly knowledgeable. Jacob has a combination of design and build which really sets him apart from other general contractors. Integrity of the work he does is top of mind for Jacob therefore you projects will be getting done the right way. read more

I really appreciate Jacob's attention to detail and quality of work. So many contractors today want slam work together and get paid, and Jacob is the opposite. He truly wanted to know to what we liked and what we wanted in our house. He helped us understand some of the more technical choices and provided just that. It's rare to find contractors that can design and build. I was glad we did much of our remodel after Covid, because I heard from friends and was warned by Jacob how difficult it was to get subcontractors and the city on a schedule during the pandemic. I'm very happy with his work and would work with him again. I suppose some would leave 5 stars but I always like to leave room for perfection. read more

Hired Jacob to convert an existing garage into a two-bedroom ADU. Despite hiccups and unpredictables along the way, Jacob was able to keep this build close to budget, solid, and attractive. We now have a tidy, comfy space with great design elements that feels like home. I really appreciate that Jacob and the various crew that worked on this were able to clearly explain decisions in the design, presenting options, seeking feedback, and making sure we were making informed choices. read more

Professional and efficient we are in the beginning stages of our remodel and Jacob has been very helpful and insightful in helping us with our vision. read more

Jacob and his team, including Mack, did a great job on my project when black mold had "crept" into an area of my house. Jacob carefully identified the cause of the water entrance, and they did a great job of repairing the affected area, including a "super" clean-up. I will definitely hire again. read more

Decent designer.  Terrible general contractor.  Very expensive, very slow, and extremely poorly organized. He seems unaware that he is responsible for everything on a project getting completed, done correctly, and done in a reasonable order.  He seems to have no solid relationships with employees or subcontractors; he does not supervise them adequately, resulting in issues with quality, completeness, safety, cleanliness, and attendance.  He bills time and materials, but completes projects in the wrong order (which assures they take much longer) and then charges to fix his own mistakes. I attempted to resolve issues with this contractor multiple times with no resolution.  After terminating our agreement, he refused to engage with a mediator to resolve outstanding issues. Employees and subcontractors regularly left uncovered blades and loose nails on the floors of our living spaces.  They also left food waste and beer cans indoors, and some used the backyard for a toilet. No cost estimates were provided up front since everything was done "by the seat of his pants." Subcontractors made incomplete bids which he did not notice until they showed up and only did what they bid (and sometimes not even that).  Demo was started without appropriate planning or necessary people in place. My gutted kitchen literally sat, unusable, for months past the expected completion date, with demo debris all over the house and yard.  I finally cleaned it up myself.  In total, the amount of time we had no usable kitchen appliances and only plywood windows was 14 months; this was for a relatively small kitchen remodel. I highly recommend you look elsewhere for work on your house. This contractor is unprofessional at best and dangerous, at worst. read more

Ive been working with Jacob Chavez going on three years. I can say he is one of the good ones. Every time we've worked together Ive been happy with the communication from start to finish. And I can see the effort he puts in to uphold his end with integrity. Hes been fair and transparent with me when it comes to pricing. And when problems arise as they always do in life in any arena I know him to be creative and willing when it comes to finding a solution. When it comes to the quality of his work, it is top notch and I know he doesnt nickle and dime his subcontractors but will go the extra mile even taking a loss on occasion to give his clients something special. I enjoy his attitude and dealing with him on a personal level,he is down to earth honest and aims to learn ,grow and always do better. He is a good contractor, I trust him.hi read more

I hired Jacob to design a floor plan for my home that I had purchased. I was very excited about the prospect of improving my home design and researched online for the right contractor. One of the early letters that I got from his assistant Matti talked about how the new design would transform my home into something amazing. Well, it did turn out to be a transformation! Things did not go that well following the initial meeting and agreement. I was quoted between $750 and $1200 for the design. I was not told that Jacob would have someone else doing the work - 23 hours of assistant work and 3 hours of Jacob's time per the invoice I was given. When I realized what was happening I sent an email to Jacob. "I feel that you did not look at my home for optimizing the design relative to the property that it sits on, and how could you if you hadn't been there? I did not receive the plans by e-mail that we had agreed you would send before our meeting (which was itemized on the bill), and I have been charged for modifications that I still have not seen or received :( " My bill ended up being $1209. It had a powder room, a bike garage, and an additional bedroom instead of the car garage! I paid for the drawings with changes to the plan which made them closer to my original wishes. The bid that Jacob gave me to implement the drawings was around 60k dollars. I paid him for the design work and started saving. I completed work on the loft that needed remodeling over the next year and finally had saved enough to start on the downstairs. I contacted Jacob to get another set of drawings to take to the city to get permits. The next problem was that the city would not approve the drawings because there were no calculations for the two beams holding up the house. I contacted Jacob and he told me it would cost additional money to pay an engineer for the calculations. He had an engineer that he worked with and could provide that service. I then paid Jacob additional money for that and he sent me a page of calculations. I took that into the city and my drawings were approved after calls to Jacob and many hours of late Thursday nights at the bureau of development. I then hired someone to do the work. Shortly after the beams were installed, I called the city for an inspection. The structural inspection did not pass! The ridge beam (the beam holding up my entire living room) had began to sag. Next the kitchen beam began to bow. I went to the city to find out what needed to happen. They told me that my structure was drastically wrong. The plan read 4 x 10 or 20 x 1 3/4 and neither calculation looked correct. In fact they told me that my ridge beam was at 179% failure, and I needed to get immediate support under my roof before it snowed! This was in late October 2019. I called Jacob and he told me if I paid him more money he would re-engineer a solution to the problem and blamed it on the builder that had installed it. I paid him again. He then told me verbally that he would replace the beam himself for $1000. By now, I had paid Jacob a total of $2049. I agreed to the $1000 additional money and Jacob came to the house with one of his builders. By then I had had a friend help me place large jacks in the house to hold up the beams. Jacob and his worker measured and crawled and hemmed and hawed. He talked to himself asking "Why didn't Matti put a post in here?" In the end he said, "oh this is much more work that I thought. I will have to send you an estimate." A few days later, despite the fact that Jacob knew that the build out had been done and paid for to his specifications, I was sent an estimate for over $15,000 to fix my house. I was shocked and had spent over 14,000 dollars already. I decided to hire a structural engineer to tell me why my house was falling apart. After a look (and $800 of expense) the engineer determined that both of Jacobs original beam recommendations failed. I have now taken this case to the CCB. I am still living with jacks holding up my home. Jacob has come back to offer to fix my place for free, but only with the threat of a law suit and no offers of compensation for my thousands of dollars of losses. read more

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Had a great overall experience with Jacob. He was very professional and knowledgeable. The drawing plans for my remodel were very accurate and permitting was a breeze. We would definitely recommend and use J-Chavez Design for future projects. read more

We had a major kitchen remodel and some bedrooms/bathrooms with Jacob's team. They had great design ideas and he's a perfectionist with execution. He's thoughtful and lovely to work with. We liked all the subcontractors too. Highly recommend. read more

Jacob's designs are absolutely beautiful and his team does a great job of executing them. He takes great pains to stay within your budget and deliver a really nice finished project. I highly recommend his company. read more

I contacted Jacob Chavez Design to assist with the designing of a spec house that I wanted to build in north Portland...Jacob was very pleasant to work with, he listened to and integrated the elements that I wanted included, and provided a wonderful design that led to a very successful project...he was professional, knowledgeable, and I would definitely recommend Jacob Chavez Design for any design work that you may require. read more

Jacob is easy to talk to and has great vision! He takes pride in his work and has a passion for the history of the projects he takes on. I definitely recommend talking with him when planning you next remodel! read more

We hired Jacob and his team to do a garage to ADU conversion. I highly recommend Jacob. The ADU is now finished, I'm sitting in it now, and it is amazing. Far beyond what we had hoped when we first decided to start this project. I'll mention the two really stand out qualities I saw in Jacob's work. The first is that he was easily able to take the vague ideas my wife and I had and turn them into reality. We wanted a railing with storage, and an office nook by the stairs with extra storage, and some means to create a bit of privacy. Maybe you can visualize something from that description but I couldn't. Jacob however turned those ideas in to two beautiful built-in designs that now really take this place above anything we had imagined. The second quality is that Jacob hires really good people. Every single person who worked on this project, and I really do mean every single person, was not only extremely kind and friendly but very good at what they do. Every question we had was answered clearly by anyone we asked. Every concern was addressed. We were kept in the loop on all the important information. The work itself is impressive. When we first met with Jacob we of course asked how much he though the project would cost. Before he considered a number he said right away, "I take care of my people." The care he takes really shows. Jacob knows how to hire the right people. read more

I absolutely recommend JCDB for everything from home remodelling, to design work, to additions and home energy work. One of the big standouts when working with Jacob is his honest nature, his knowledge of all of the trades involved in home construction and remodel work and his ability to view the project from all sides. He takes the time to talk with you about your ideas and dreams for your home and helps you filter though decisions to bring it all to life. All of the sub-contractors and staff that Jacob works with are capable and professional. Jacob was very thorough in the bidding process for our basement remodel and has been able to keep us below budget. This has allowed us to continue to work with Jacob to problem solve and fix a couple of other long-standing issues we have in our 1949 home! My husband and I have worked with Jacob twice in the last 10 years. We first met Jacob when he was managing a project for us as part of the Clean Energy Works program through the city of Portland. At that time, he was working for Faison Energy Solutions and the project was to evaluate and then create a plan to upgrade our home's efficiency. I was so impressed with his work from 2011, that I looked him up when we decided to get started on our basement remodel. This was at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and little did we know that the pandemic would continue on for so long. However, this has given me a bird's eye view into the scope and sequence of this project because I have been working from home this entire time! Jacob and his team are currently finishing up on a basement remodel for us. They have done an amazing job at transforming our previously awkward full basement into a beautiful finished space. The project started in early June and has involved reconfiguring the entire layout of the basement: opening up the stairwell, adding two large egress windows, a spare bedroom and a beautiful tiled bathroom. Jacob's creativity and design was imperative in the success of this project. He has an eye for creative solutions. He designed a solution that included rerouting some of our HVAC ducts in the basement so that we could raise our basement ceiling by nearly a foot AND it fixed several issues we were having with airflow throughout the house. The bulk of the work is complete and they are working on finishing up a built in, a custom stair railing, an outdoor privacy screen and a water issue with one of our upstairs windows. read more