We just wrapped up a kitchen and bathroom renovation with Detroit Build a few weeks ago and it…read morecouldn't have been a better experience! This is a long review, but I tried to include what would have been helpful when I was looking for the right contractor to work with before our project started.
I reached out to the team late last summer and scheduled a time for an initial consultation in September 2020. Several members of the team came out, including Seabrook, the owner, and Rebekah, a designer with Whiski Kitchen. One thing I loved about that initial experience is that we discussed absolutely everything up front - the design concept, how far we should go with the scope of the project, the timeline (we entered into this project when I was 4 months pregnant - whoops), budget, etc. Then, Rebekah took everything I was looking for and turned it into a beautiful digital rendering that we tweaked a bit from there (for the record it looks EXACTLY like how our actual kitchen turned out!). I was really blown away by how much time and care they put into the project before we had even signed a contract or committed to anything. This process between the initial meeting and signing the contract took a couple of months but it was well worth it in the end and the back and forth up front saved us so much time once the project was underway. Work started a couple weeks later!
During our early conversations Seabrook jokingly told us that no matter who we work with for this reno, we were going to be miserable while the house was torn apart, but it seriously wasn't that bad! I give so much credit to Detroit Build for how smooth the process was for many reasons, but most notably:
- The team is pretty exceptional at project management and did an excellent job of ensuring there were almost no unused days while the project was underway. We chose to leave the house every day while the team was here (except Saturdays) and of the 12 weeks they were working, there were maybe only 4-5 days when I came home and couldn't clearly tell what had been done that day. They also wait to start demo until materials (such as cabinets) start to come in so you don't spend any time waiting on deliveries, which felt really important given that EVERYTHING is backordered at the moment.
- Kristy was my main point of contact during the renovation and she's the absolute best - I miss texting with her every day now that our project is over! I didn't have a day-by-day project schedule or plan to go off of which I actually really liked because this business can be incredibly unpredictable and it's easy to feel disappointed when things don't get done on the exact day you're expecting them to. Instead, I had near-daily updates from Kristy via text - especially after the rough inspection was done, and a general idea of when we'd see major milestones completed and I always felt like I was in the loop/knew what to expect.
- They were transparent about how the timeline and cost would be impacted if I made changes to the plan while the project was underway so we could weigh all aspects into our decisions. That said, we added quite a few elements (including painting two additional rooms outside of the initial scope) and the project ended right on time!
- I just love the Detroit Build team and everyone they work with, both direct employees and subcontractors. Everyone was so kind, respectful and treated our 100-year old home like it was their own. The team even made recommendations for the design based on things they knew we'd need when we had a baby that I would never have thought of! They really treated our project with care and made us feel like a priority.
At the end of the day, no renovation is going to be 100% perfect. I work in project management personally and I make mistakes, so it would be unreasonable for me to expect that anyone I hire wouldn't occasionally do the same. What set this crew apart was how they handled it when there was a concern or a miscommunication (though there were so few). In fact, the team proactively pointed out issues to us (like a small scratch on our tub) that they believed to be their fault that I hadn't even noticed. At the end of the day those experiences just showed me how much Seabrook and his team care about taking care of clients. We couldn't have asked for a better team to work with during this renovation - I hope this has been helpful if you're considering DB for an upcoming project! We'll definitely hire them again in the future.