When my mother died, she left me a nice amount of money to do a high end remodel. We hired Chads…read moreDesign Build in July 2025 after a very nice discussion with Chad. He is a great guy with political values that align with mine and I wanted to spend my money in a socially positive business. However, we paid $24,500 for nothing; we did not take drawings nor designs away from this experience that we can even use with another builder. Working with Chads Design Build was a mistake because this reputable company has gone downhill and does not stand behind their work. When we started talking with the design architect, Maryam, in December of 2025, it took many meetings of not communicating well nor working with an experienced person. When we complained to Chad in April 2026, he ghosted us. We also had not seen him the whole time we worked with Maryam. Chad ignored a letter we sent to him in June 2026, and he closed down the jobtread communication website and did not deliver hard copies of any as-built designs to us that we might be able to use with next design company. When we sent him a certified letter in July, 2026, he had a lawyer send us a letter with a non-disclosure agreement -- meaning no reviews like this would be allowed if we accepted a refund for a small amount of money he had not yet spent on our job. (He had asked for an additional advance to cover trade walks before we even had a plan to go to that step). Maryam was inexperienced. She did not know how to read or use the architectural drawings that we brought with us (that we had paid another architect for prior to hiring Chads). She did not know building codes, left out important things like existing radiator locations so that we might avoid the cost of moving the steam radiators. She discarded our initial design ideas and ignored several basic parameters. (enlarged bedroom, bathroom moved to the other side of this wall, jack and jill bathroom design, wet shower room with no ledges). She didn't offer a single idea about where stairs might be located (which now we know can be done without totally losing a full bedroom with the remodel.) We would repeatedly ask for changes of elements we didn't like and they would not show up on the next designs. Other peoples names and addresses were on our designs. Most importantly, we asked over and over again for stair tread and risers to see where a moved staircase might land in the basement and disappear on the first floor. I had to show her the City of Madision building codes on stairwell heights. It was the MOST IMPORTANT question and we never got it addressed. We would ask for a design for the space above the stairwell and renditions of what it might look like to put a pantry above the stairwell as it disappears into the basement. We never got any ideas from her. To try to gently support her inexperience, we set up several face-to-face meetings to accommodate her schedule. We would make handdrawn renditions on her initial as-built floor plans to show her what we had hoped their computer software could show us. We taped our house up with blue painter tape to figure out and show Chads what we were trying to do. Yet, she apparently did not know how to get their software to do this. I learned how to use 3-D software and showed her what I was hoping she would do in her design drawings. In sum, what used to be a very reputable design build company (and very high priced), appears to be losing its steam, creativity, ability to work effectively with people who want to work interactively to develop a design for their remodel. It might be explained by their loss of experienced employees and high turnover to new employees who are just not that good yet. We unfortunately, hit them in their transition. But Chad ghosted us and did not work it out so that we feel it was handled honestly. We lost a lot of money but worse, we lost our inspiration and hope to do a remodel. I feel bad that I wasted my mother's money and am glad she is not alive to know how I misused her money.

I invited Chad into my home for a remodeling project. First thing he said when he looked over my…read morearchitect's plans was he does not do free estimates. Why was this information not shared when the appointment was made? He then said it would cost thousands of dollars to do an estimate. I succinctly declined and said things would not work out and asked him to leave. His attitude changed and he started asking me personal questions about my home. Being a single women this was incredibly creepy. When he realized I was not going to do business with him he threw out a number for the job which was double the last estimate I got from a very esteemed business in town. Funny, I was golfing with a group of people that I had never met before and I was sharing this story with them when one of the women in the group said she had the exact same experience with Chad. This is a predatory business practice and I would warn anyone [not just women] about letting him into their homes. Incidentally I finished the project with a reputable group of workers for exactly my architect's estimate which btw was a third of Chad's estimate!