Design-Build Contractors & Firms Near Glen Ellyn

“I liked the whole design process because they were able to show us our project in 3D. It was very detailed and allowed us to see exactly what it would look like upon completion. Rick the superintendent was wonderful. He managed the project and subcontractors expertly. He was very responsive and answered any questions. We have recommended Bradford and Kent to several friends.”

“I could not be happier with the bathroom and minor kitchen remodel that Chi Renovation & Design did for me. After shopping around for a little bit, I decided to go with them because they were the most professional and genuine when I met them for an estimate. I was impressed from the very beginning by how responsive they were. Normally, I hate it when I need to “work” for a company to get back to me or just correspond in general. But all of my phone calls and emails were returned within half an hour, which for a company in this industry, I can say from past experiences is really rare! Overall the quality of their work is very good. I have seen and worked with other contractors, and I have found Chi Renovation & Design's work to be much better. I particularly liked that they assigned a designer to my project. This was included in the cost. They showed me samples, so I could pick out all the materials. The designer was really good, and I have a beautiful bathroom and kitchen as a result. The proportions are all perfect, and everything is very functional. They were extremely competent and good at what they do. The professionalism of everyone I've worked with was remarkable. Lior has a lot of experience and was able to give me lots of cost-efficient and creative suggestions on what he thought would work for my space. He re-did my entire bathroom and knocked down a wall in our kitchen. He was very patient with answering all of my questions and thorough with the initial estimate he gave. One suggestion in particular proved to be extremely helpful and that was his advice to knock down a wall that was creating an awful divide in our kitchen. Once we got rid of it, the kitchen transformed into a much more open and sophisticated space. Another thing I was very pleased with was how timely and neat they were, I really appreciated that. I trusted having them around and they did an excellent job. I'm very happy with everything and would definitely recommend them”

“They designed and built a family room addition and converted a portion of the the garage to a full bathroom. Overall it went very well, and make no mistake they were very good. But since everyone could stand some improvement, I will be forthright about what went well and what needed improvement. The initial design phase for the space was a great experience and they were very patient with us. We went through three rounds of various ideas before we settled on the final plans. When we met with the architect, he had some extremely helpful suggestions and as the building began, my husband and I often commented to each other how glad we were for the architect's ideas. In particular, he suggested that we move the whole room so that the new roof line could be centered between two of the upstairs windows. It has become one of the things we like most about the addition. We found that their interior design staff was not very much help. Although, we have strong ideas about what we like (both of us have some art background), and we ended up just going our own way on the bathroom ideas. We found that their tile prices are too high, so we bought the tile on our own. They told us from the beginning that we were not obligated to buy all our materials through them--and that is a big reason for recommending them. We liked that about them. And they have a particularly good tile installer who really created a work of art in our bathroom. We had some trouble with the installation of the ceiling in the main room. When the drywallers put up the ceiling, it was very obvious that it was wavy. My husband was very unhappy with it, but Design First called back the drywallers back and they took it all down, shimmed the ceiling joists and put the drywall back up. The carpenters also were very accommodating when one of the windows was not centered on the wall. My husband wanted them to move the window and they did not complain at all. In fact, the carpenter encouraged my husband to tell them whether we were happy or not. They moved the window without much trouble and without any griping. In general, once the building work began we felt that we were not left for very long without someone showing up to work. We never felt abandoned; they worked pretty steadily. We also were pleased that they had a port-a-potty on site for the workers. We thought that was very professional of them. We were also very pleased that they were able to match two brick colors that are in the original part of the house--a white brick and a red brick, from 1963. I wanted a fireplace whose brick would match the white brick in our entry hall because from the entry hall you can see straight back to the fireplace. And the white brick in the entry way is original to the house. And I wanted the outside chimney to be an exact match to the existing, original brick on the front of the house. They were able to match both bricks, so from the inside and the outside the addition feels very much a part of the original house. I also wanted the mantel finish to match the wood in our entryway--also original to the house. The interior designers were very helpful on this score and their shop carpenters created a lovely modern maple mantle. Over the white brick, it's gorgeous! We were also pleased that they cleaned up after themselves. We had some misunderstandings over some of the electrical requirements, and my husband was a little annoyed but we did manage to get things clarified. One thing to note: my husband was very careful about watching all the line items in their cost reports as the project went along. It's a good thing too because he found two errors which would have cost us about $1700. They were very obliging and fixed the line items without any fuss. One thing that surprised us was some stalling that occurred over the permits: we were being required by the village to upgrade our electrical service when it was clear to the electricians that we didn't need to. Design First told us that they had had trouble with this office before and did not think that we would be able to get around this. But my husband was having none of it: He went in to the village office, talked to a couple of people, wrote up our request for a variance, and got the requirement waived. It saved us $3000. We were surprised that Design First was not able to do this; however, we chalked it up to lessons learned. Just because you have a contractor doing a lot of work for you does not mean that you don't have anything to do. Whether Design First should have been able to get this waiver for us or not, we really don't know. But they were honest with us and encouraged us, as the homeowners, to do all we could do to get it waived. I also want to say that their project manager did a good job interfacing with all the workers. There was some miscommunication here and there, but that seems all par for the course. He was even tempered and seemed well-suited to his work. There were two other instances that did not pass the plumbing inspection and Art, the plumber, came back twice without delay to fix things. Overall, we were very happy with them and we love the finished product! We love our new space! And we would definitely recommend them to others. (I would give them 4.5 stars, but I can't figure out how to do it on this site.) Project Date: 7/1/2014 Project Cost: $68,000”