We had a horrible contractor for our two story addition (they are now out if business. We used Case to redo two of our bathrooms, fix stuff our original contractor screwed up and do a mudroom for us. They were fantastic. Everything about them was great from the workmanship to the schedule to the lead protection. On time and one budget with both jobs. They are in the higher price end if things but after going for a low cost contractor and getting burned, I learned my lesson. (BTW- the low cost contractor had been in business for years and had good references, but they over leveraged, had a job or two that didn't pay them and boom, our $ was going to finish up other people's remodeling).

Anonymous wrote:Hi 15:56, I wrote the 15:38 post. You're right, the building permit data itself doesn't say anything about quality or customer satisfaction. However (depending on the county/jurisdiction) there is a lot of other data available on where the contractor has worked, the number and types of projects they have done, and average project cost (if the county tracks this).

Looking at all this aggregated across multiple cities/counties may (or may not!) be helpful in choosing one contractor vs. another if price is not the only factor you are looking at. Since I am market testing the service I am still determining if the quantitative vs. qualitative analysis is more valuable to potential customers.

Feel free to email me if you would like to discuss in more detail. (Address is km@vrble.com)

I'm not sure why you would need to pay someone to do this, but I think the advice about looking at potential contractors for your job in the permit records Montgomery County undoubtedly makes accessible online is a great idea. We did this for Arlington and were able to identify those contractors doing these high dollar additions. In many cases you can look at websites for examples of their work and drive by projects. You can also contact the contractors and get them to give you references who you can call and ask about their experiences and satisfaction with the contractor.

We ended up going with an Architect and are in the design phase now, but we are keeping in contact with one of the builders we like who is costing out the proposals. We fully plan to seek competitive bids from other builders and vet builders by checking references. Our architect gave us the names and numbers of close to 15 people and we called and talked to every single one of them. Some of the references let us come over to their house and look at the final work.

We did something similar in Chevy Chase but probably on a smaller scale (we added a master suite instead of two bedrooms & the family room is not large). It cost around $400K. We had multiple bids and they were all in the same ballpark.

Vista Remodeling did my whole home. Very pleased.

Gene Adams

(703) 406-0770
(

Reviving this old head to ask for more contractor recs for addition work. Listed here are Mike McCurly, Potomac Valley Builders, and Bell Builders, which may or may not be out of business

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the midst of a 450 2-story sq foot addition. Total cost is close to $130k. We could have got it done cheaper. Posters who are claiming 400k are nuts. And the fact that you live in Bethesda is irrelevant. The costs are the same in NE DC as they are in Bethesda. The only reason you might pay a premium in Bethesda is because the contractor thinks you are rich and wants to fleece you. Of course it depends on how big you are talking about (sq ft) and how fancy your finishes are but $400k+ sounds crazy. Plan on $250-300 per sq foot (high end).

Agree. I added 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen renovation and basement for about $250 k in Bethesda. $400000 estimates are outrageous unless you're doing high end everything with lots of built ins.

This is very helpful. We've decided to have an architect draw up the plans and then bid out the job to 5 builders who have been recommended. Will be interesting to see if the bids are drastically different.

Why 5 Builders ?

I say this because I am a builder (from another area). When I hear there are five guys bidding a job I get disincentived to go hard after the work. 1 in 3, 1 in4 probability is greater and its easier to spend some getting to know client. Also the math works better from a ROI perspective. When I hear 5 bids, I think the customer is very cost conscious, and there is nothing wrong with that, but I know I may look at other work first. I do wonder if some of the better builders don't bow out hearing you are getting five bids.

Also, if they numbers coalesce around a price point, what selection process will you use to determine bid award ?

Not PP, but I imagine that (1) You dont tell the contractors how many other bids you are getting. (2) Price is of course just one component; if the numbers coalesce, then its about references and, for me anyway, the specifics of the contract and allowances. Just making it up, a bid where both parties say its $200K but one comes with builders insurance, or some kind of clawback for missed deadlines, or one is asking for all of it upfront, etc - not all the same thing. If the numbers don't coalesce, I don't think you chose the bottom bidder unless its obvious that bid is not underbid. My biggest fear is getting three lowball bids - all of which are unreasonably low - not being to assess that and then ending up $100K over budget.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the midst of a 450 2-story sq foot addition. Total cost is close to $130k. We could have got it done cheaper. Posters who are claiming 400k are nuts. And the fact that you live in Bethesda is irrelevant. The costs are the same in NE DC as they are in Bethesda. The only reason you might pay a premium in Bethesda is because the contractor thinks you are rich and wants to fleece you. Of course it depends on how big you are talking about (sq ft) and how fancy your finishes are but $400k+ sounds crazy. Plan on $250-300 per sq foot (high end).

Agree. I added 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen renovation and basement for about $250 k in Bethesda. $400000 estimates are outrageous unless you're doing high end everything with lots of built ins.

This is very helpful. We've decided to have an architect draw up the plans and then bid out the job to 5 builders who have been recommended. Will be interesting to see if the bids are drastically different.

Why 5 Builders ?

I say this because I am a builder (from another area). When I hear there are five guys bidding a job I get disincentived to go hard after the work. 1 in 3, 1 in4 probability is greater and its easier to spend some getting to know client. Also the math works better from a ROI perspective. When I hear 5 bids, I think the customer is very cost conscious, and there is nothing wrong with that, but I know I may look at other work first. I do wonder if some of the better builders don't bow out hearing you are getting five bids.

Also, if they numbers coalesce around a price point, what selection process will you use to determine bid award ?

Someone mentioned Bell Builders in Bethesda. I believe they are no longer operating.

Hi 15:56, I wrote the 15:38 post. You're right, the building permit data itself doesn't say anything about quality or customer satisfaction. However (depending on the county/jurisdiction) there is a lot of other data available on where the contractor has worked, the number and types of projects they have done, and average project cost (if the county tracks this).

Looking at all this aggregated across multiple cities/counties may (or may not!) be helpful in choosing one contractor vs. another if price is not the only factor you are looking at. Since I am market testing the service I am still determining if the quantitative vs. qualitative analysis is more valuable to potential customers.

Feel free to email me if you would like to discuss in more detail. (Address is km@vrble.com)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to add on to our house in Bethesda. We want to do a pretty large 2 story addition--it includes adding 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, & a powder room; renovating an existing bathroom & bumping out/renovation a kitchen.

Any recommendations for contractors or design/build companies?

Anyone else do a similar project? I'm curious about what I should expect to pay.

OP, and anyone else looking for a contractor, if you have narrowed your options down to a few contractors and need more information (beyond the price they are quoting) to help make your final decision, I would be happy to assist. I posted a few weeks ago on a new service I am market testing that uses publicly-available building permit data to help buyers evaluate which contractors they should hire. I will produce an in-depth report customized to your specific contractor search. Please contact me at km@vrble.com for more details.

I'm curious how building permit data will provide any measure of quality or customer satisfaction. What can you say about that?

I'm curious because I don't recall anything on our building permit that would help me if I was looking at it and considering our contractor other than my ability to know how many permits he was mentioned on (I pulled the permit not the builder, btw, though they were named on it.

Anonymous wrote:We are looking to add on to our house in Bethesda. We want to do a pretty large 2 story addition--it includes adding 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, & a powder room; renovating an existing bathroom & bumping out/renovation a kitchen.

Any recommendations for contractors or design/build companies?

Anyone else do a similar project? I'm curious about what I should expect to pay.

OP, and anyone else looking for a contractor, if you have narrowed your options down to a few contractors and need more information (beyond the price they are quoting) to help make your final decision, I would be happy to assist. I posted a few weeks ago on a new service I am market testing that uses publicly-available building permit data to help buyers evaluate which contractors they should hire. I will produce an in-depth report customized to your specific contractor search. Please contact me at km@vrble.com for more details.

Wow. We got a bid for $100K for NOT an addition. Kitchen reno, two bathrooms and add a bath out of existing space. Did not include appliances, cabinets, vanities. What are these people thinking? Also, was in a lower COL area than the DC area. Think Hagerstown or something like that. WTF. I guess I would take an addition instead.

Recently finished a larger project but this would no doubt work for this one... we used Archaeon Architects (Cabin John).

They drew up detailed specs after lots of consultation with us, saying that should result in bids close to the estimate by letting bidders know exactly what's spec'd.

We bid to 3 contractors, 2 of whom (both with 20+ yrs experience) were within 2% of the estimated cost. The third bid was absurdly high (20%+ so we dismissed it out of hand). Final cost was less than 5% over the contract price (due mostly to choices we made in progress).

Having the architect spec the project and oversee construction was very useful IMO and kept things on course where needed, and also allowed some minor tweaks that wouldn't negatively affect the design/finished product.

I'm confident either of the 2 contractors whose bids were in the ballpark would have done a good job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did one in Bethesda a few years ago that was in the $400-500k range. The kitchen was probably $85-$100k of that though. We did custom built ins in 2 rooms, exterior stonework, 3 bathrooms (1 high end, 2 more mid-high end), kitchen, all new top of the line windows/doors, new roof, etc. We had 4 architects bid, and 5 contractors once we had the design, and the cost estimates were pretty consistent.

I've never heard of architects bidding. Did they charge you a fee to meet with them?

The architects gave us bids to work on the project yes. No fee to meet with them. They didn't seem to be surprised by the request to meet and our architect has since had a few prospective clients tour our house as an example of his work so I know others also go through an architect selection process. As part of their fee estimates they all had to estimate the scope of the project - some were hourly and some were a percent of the project.

We did this in 2008 without the kitchen renovation and ended up spending $230K plus architect fees. We got a huge range of bids, from $150K (!?) all the way up to $450K.

I am really happy we went with an architect and he did help us evaluate the bids.