Davies Design Build

In a world of Net Promoter Scores from 1-10, I would give Davies a 1 (a detractor score). I've held this review for 5 years for worries about how Davies might respond. We moved out of our home for 11 months for a remodel project we were told by Davies would take 4-6 months. And while the craftsmanship is good (see the photos below) there are many serious concerns I would flag here in opposition to many of the reviews posted here by employees and friends of the company. I should also note that we and they were prepared with attorneys at the end of the project and we ultimately settled in order to forego legal headaches. 1) Subcontractors: For the first 3 months of the project our project supervisor could not get their own subs to come and even bid on the project. He ultimately had some of his friends (not affiliated with Davies) come and do the work (excavation, framing, electrical, plumbing). The supervisor ended up leaving Davies after 4 months on our project. He shared horror stories on the way out. Our house then sat for 6 weeks with almost nothing done on it. 2) Project Management: After we started, we began hearing from internal employees and subs about the challenges of working with Davies. It scared us. The common inference was that the company was in it for awards with the Parade and if you weren't a parade home, and especially if you were doing a remodel, watch out. We spent more time coordinating and scheduling subs to work on our home than anyone else. Commonly we heard of the challenge of getting subs to respond to our project team. Many of their subs never did respond and we had to get our own: finish electricians, finish plumbers, stone work, all hardware, plumbing fixtures, etc. All of that I arranged on my own. Oddly, we had an opportunity to have a Christmas special about home remodels at Christmas-time filmed in our house with Magnolia Network (Chip & Joanna Gaines), but this didn't motivate them to finish. 3) Disorganized operations: Our project bills/draws were most often not done within the scope of time laid out in the contract. And when we received the bills, we've had to make significant changes to correct them. We were told several times that people in accounting had left the company and that it was causing lots of disorganization and delay. 4) Bids v. Actuals: Our contract was a typical contract. We contracted with Davies for cost-plus work, they then create sub-contracts with trades. Our contract specifies that they will get bids from trades and have us review and approve those. Sadly, this rarely occurred. We didn't see most bids, only the estimate put on our project cost document which we were told reflected the bids. However, even then, the invoices we received from trades often exceeded the bids by 50% or more. By contract, that should require some sort of change order if there was any change of scope, but we never received a single change order to sign. Davies simply passed along all costs in spite of the clear over-charges that we didn’t agree to. Toward the end of our project we submitted a formal letter of complaint to Steve Davies asking to please see all bids on the project, all invoices on the project, all change-orders on the project and a copy of the the sub-contracts with the trades. We didn't hear back. Silence. Within the first few weeks of the project our 3rd party designer and architects shared our exact project and material specifications with them. It was incredibly detailed. Dozens of pages of spreadsheets. Down to the color and material specification for every finish in the house. Davies refused to price out the material costs. They said it was the responsibility of the designer. The designer wouldn't either claiming that it was always the contractors job to give these project quotes. After 6 weeks of arguing and no one doing it, I finally spend dozens of hours getting the material costs myself. At the end of the day, our home is beautiful and the craftsmanship has been great quality...see the pics. I just would warn against using Davies.

This is not something I want to do, it is something I feel compelled to do. When we began the build project, we already had finished plans, we were in the middle of wrapping up engineering and then applied for a permit. This was May 2018. They began foundation work in late June/early July. Our job, on our contract, was slated to be finished in late April, 2019. At some point in the fall of ’18, one of their staff asked if we would consider being a parade home, come June ‘19. We declined. Their other parade home was started (shovel in the ground) after our build. Their home was larger. Davies did their landscaping, a sports court and a pool was placed. And it was finished in time for the Parade of Homes in June of ’19. So our home was supposed to be done first, it was not finished! So when did they finish/complete the job…if not June? Well, they still haven’t finished the job! Yes, 9 months past the due date, when our contract said “10 months to completion”. And our #2 builder option to build our home, built our next door neighbors home in 10 months (they began 2 months before us…and have been in their home since February ‘19). Same sq/ft as our home. Same size home, right next door! 19 months and counting…can you imagine paying for 2 homes and all that entails, month after month? Have we had issues with funding? No, a cash build. Did we add another level to the home? No. Did my spouse die and take all her secrets with her? No, she’s been on top of this since day 1…pushing and pushing. One day I may come back here and publicly share: “it’s a miracle, they finished our home!” For now, this is the most painstaking thing we’ve been involved with, relying on someone else to build our home. A 25K+ sq/ft home was built a block away, finished recently, in 22 months. We’re at 19 months, our home is ¼ that size…and Davies is taking this long. We have pages of notes/pics, and the like, all showing countless delays, misunderstandings, mistakes, crazy decisions, errors, etc. 19 months in and we don’t have stairs on our deck. We don’t have a solution for an interior slide they knew about on day 1. We don’t have railings installed. We don’t have the right gutters. We don't have a landing in the garage. Countless subs that work for them have complained to us privately about delays/misunderstandings/payment issues, etc. They have done so many things in our home 2-3-4 times, because they couldn’t communicate correctly. They don’t utilize any builder/client software. They didn’t give us our first schedule for completion until month 13! And they’ve missed every deadline on these schedules for 6 straight months. They have not given us a sufficient formal apology, they have not offered concessions or discounts, they have not offered to cover all of our double house payments. They have offered nothing. One of our parents died during the time we should have been in our home. A friend was undergoing life saving organ transplant and we wanted to host them in our current home, and they couldn’t get the home done so we could help. Again and again they have burdened our family. Hopefully others will learn from our experience.

This is not something I WANT to do, it is something I feel COMPELLED to do. When we began the build project, we already had finished plans, we were in the middle of wrapping up engineering and then applied for a permit. This was May 2018. They began foundation work in late June/early July. Our job, on our contract, was slated to be finished in late April, 2019. At some point in the fall of '18, one of their staff asked if we would consider being a parade home, come June '19. We declined. Their other parade home was started (shovel in the ground) AFTER our build. Their home was larger. Davies did their landscaping, a sports court and a pool was placed. And it was finished in time for the Parade of Homes in June of '19. So our home was supposed to be done first, it was not finished! So when did they finish/complete the job...if not June? Well, they still haven't finished the job! Yes, 9 months past the due date, when our contract said "10 months". And our #2 builder option to build our home, built our neighbors home in 10 months (they began 2 months before us...and have been in their home since February '19). Same sq/ft as our home. Same size home, right next door! 19 months and counting...can you imagine paying for 2 homes and all that entails, month after month? Have we had issues with funding? Nope, a cash build. Did we add another level to the home? No. Did my spouse die and take all her secrets with her? No, she's been on top of this since day 1...pushing and pushing. One day I may come back here and publicly share: "it's a miracle, they finished our home!" For now, this is the most painstaking thing we've been involved with, relying on someone else to build our home. A 25K+ sq/ft home was built a block away, finished recently, in 22 months. We're at 19 months, our home is ¼ that size...and Davies is taking this long. We have pages of notes/pics, and the like, all showing countless delays, misunderstandings, mistakes, crazy decisions, errors, etc. 19 months in and we don't have stairs on our deck. We don't have a solution for an interior slide they knew about on day 1. We don't have railings installed. We don't have the right gutters. We don't have a landing in the garage. Countless subs that work for them have complained to us privately about delays/misunderstandings/payment issues, etc. They have done so many things in our home 2-3-4 times, because they couldn't communicate correctly. They don't utilize any builder/client software. They didn't give us our first schedule for completion until month 13! And they've missed every deadline on these schedules for 6 straight months. They have not given us a sufficient formal apology, they have not offered us concessions or discounts, they have not offered to cover all of our double house payments. They have offered nothing. One of our parents died during the time we should have been in our home. A friend was undergoing life saving organ transplant and we wanted to host them in our current home, and they couldn't get the home done so we could help. Again and again they have burdened our family. Hopefully others will learn from our experience.

I have had the unique opportunity to be a sub and a client of Davies Design Build. In both roles I have had a consistent positive experience that has been ongoing for almost 35 years. Uncompromised integrity, quality, fairness and kindness are just a few of the values I have always experienced. They listen and try to understand what is wanted. They are “pleasers” .... in other words they do their best to go the extra mile, give you value beyond what you are paying for, listen to you, and most of all they don’t just give lip service to their clients and subs, they actually show respect and sincere consideration on anything they are asked to do. Even unreasonable requests are met with patience and a “ will do if there is anyway we can” attitude. Our business’s 35 year reputation is to be a supplier of luxury and estate homes. It is our feeling and experience that our reputation has been built by and enhanced by being associated with the truly elite builders of our market which includes Davies Design Build. As a client, my job took longer to complete than we originally anticipated. However, the delay paid off not only in money saved, but profits made. The result of the delays were substantial savings on costs as they battled to keep my project on budget. They spent tons of time and incurred expenses to save me money that they could have justified as a change order. I am thrilled and proud of the results which include hitting the budget, and the savings they fought for me to get created substantial equity for my wife and I at closing. Thank you Steve, Arnim and Ed for all you have done for our family.

I first came to know about Davies Design Build at a parade of homes 3 or 4 years ago. I was so impressed with the quality and design of the house that we immediately put them on our short list of builders to build our new home. Ed Axley (one of the owners) met with us numerous times, even coming to our home to discuss project ideas. He was knowledgable and so artistic! His mind works in such a way that ideas come to him automatically and he has so many visual concepts just by looking at a set of plans that it's amazing. He was also very accomodating in trying to stay within a given budget without sacrificing quality or style. Unfortunately we chose another builder (based on false reviews and a dishonest sales pitch and fraudulent bids.) who we eventually had to fire (and who is a convicted felon and has since lost his license.) But throughout the process Ed remained a trusted associate. I would even say he became a friend through the process. He never expressed frustration at all the time he spent with us that yielded no financial revenue he was ever gracious when we ran into him at future parade of homes events. He even went so far as to offer help and support if things didn't go well with our building experience. Although I feel we made a huge mistake in not choosing Davies Design Build, I try to help others avoid the same mistake and am very vocal about recommending Davies when others ask for help on who to choose as a builder. Each year their home in the parade of homes is beautiful and of high quality and I can't recommend them enough...I wish someone had been as vocal with me.