Zink Design Services LLC
About us
Owner-operated, uses subs occasionally, no travel charges, cost determined by job.
Business highlights
Services we offer
3D residential design services for additions, decks and new homes & commercial tenant improvements., remodels
Amenities
Emergency Services
Yes
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
| Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 79% | ||
| 11% | ||
| 5% | ||
| 5% | ||
| 0% |
ok now
"This was actually for a trellis and not a pergola. All engineering was supplied to the client in printed form but he apparently misplaced them and did not immediately contact me for an electronic copy. The contractor then questioned the beam sizing but again, I was not contacted until this review was written. Once I contacted the client to ask about the review, he explained what happened and I was able to remedy it easily."
It's hard to know what to expect on a large project such as a new custom home, there's just so many variables with regard to cost, city regulations, and deadlines. All in all, I feel Ryan delivered a substantial value for the money.
Ryan is a very knowledgeable, patient, and a pleasure to work with. Half way through our re-design project our builder bailed because the project was "Beyond their building scope". The minute we learned that our builder was walking away after 4 months of planning, I contacted Ryan to let him know about the situation. He was more than accommodating in helping us through to the end. He was extremely complete in answering all of our questions and communicated directly with us as the project moved forward. He attacked our mess and worked closely with us to make the changes we needed to be able to take a beautiful set of plans to the county to submit for approval. He made great design suggestion and was very helpful with the “Nuts and bolts” of designing and was able to make our dream home a prefect home. This is our last house we will ever build…it’s our dream and Ryan helped make it all possible. He’s a stand-up guy and his willingness to take the appropriate amount time to complete our project correctly speaks volume!
We had an issue trying to understand a part of the plans, Ryan came over and went over it with us. He was really responsive on this.
This is not our first experience with Ryan. He did plans for a major rebuild with dormers on a previous house a couple years ago that was a lot more work. It was designed from the concrete forms to attaching to the existing house and rebuilding the top floor with a new design and floor plan.
I would not hesitate to use Zink design services again and I know they will do a wonderful job for anyone that chooses them.
The contract was to provide construction documents for a 640 sq ft addition to our house. I had a plan of what we were roughly looking for and sent it to Ryan after he came out and looked at the house, took measurements etc. His first draft was totally off from what we had sent him and it turns out that he forgot that we had sent it and just went off of memory.
He sent us another draft that was based on our plans. After a number of back and forths, we got a final set delivered minus one piece that he said would be to us in a few days but actually took nearly a month to get to us.
Overall, we have a set of plans that is functional for structural construction, but we were expecting a lot more. It doesn't include a lot of detail (which we expected it to have, as it was not specifically excluded in the contract and we were expecting documents that could actually be used for construction - by ALL trades), like even the most basic electrical, HVAC, plumbing etc. Our goal was to use the plans to get accurate quotes from contractors and to ultimately take them to the city for permits. Without the details the plans are just about useless in soliciting accurate quotes for construction. We are putting everything on hold to I can't speak to whether there's enough there to get permits.
We were also hoping for more guidance, more actual *design* help instead of just charting out the structural details in Autocad. We had thoughts, suggestions, questions etc and when we brought them up, instead of going over how that might work, if it was even a good idea, if it made sense money- or design-wise, there was just a few days of radio silence then a new draft that included the changes.
The final piece that we were waiting on was from another vendor. Ryan told us it would be to us in a few days after we paid for and picked up the rest of the plans. We called him repeatedly to get updates as we were only waiting on that piece to go to the city and get permits, and we needed that piece. He said he didn't know, he couldn't get in touch with them, etc etc. After three weeks, we finally asked who he was using, called them ourselves, and got what we'd been waiting on within 48 hours.
The plans themselves, for what they are (basic structural plans), are serviceable, and I'm sure Ryan is knowledgeable in CAD and in that type of work. However, the final product that he gave us was not what we were expecting, and we are now delaying the project until next spring because we didn't get what we needed in time to get the permits on our timeline and the plans that we did get require a lot of detail work to be useful to us. We were also consistently frustrated with his communication. Even acknowledging that he got our email and he was working on making the changes would have been helpful (esp since half the time we weren't actually asking him to make the changes, but were only asking him about the impact of a choice).
If you know exactly what you want and you only need structural plans to take to the city for permitting, Ryan may be a fine person to work with. If you actually want design support, or construction documents that you can use for getting quotes from a general or from sub-contractors, you won't get what you need.
"Admittedly this is a project that got off on the wrong foot from the start. My understanding of what they wanted and what they were apparently looking for turned out to be 2 different things. I thought I was being brought in to take their idea which appeared to be complete and formalize that into construction documents. With this, I did not expect any design development but just simply to get the plans done. I got some feedback from them throughout the process and responded to them with updated versions and feedback on their ideas. In the end, the design did not change dramatically from the initial layout that they provided. I am sorry that they felt I was unresponsive or that they did not get the design attention they wanted but I was never informed of these issues during the process. The first time I learned of these concerns was when I read this review. As for the completeness of the drawings, they are done to a standard level in the design industry. This project was a simple 1 story addition to the rear of an existing house. Plumbing is taken off of the construction documents and figured out by the plumber. Electrical and HVAC are often not expressed on the plans but after a site visit, both trades can accurately bid the project. Admittedly, I did not manage their expectations upfront as to what was included and not included in the final plans and that was my fault. As for the trusses which come from a third party, they are correct. It took about a month when it should have taken a week or two at the most. My truss guy was very apologetic but that of course did not get his work done any quicker. I even sent the file to 2 other truss companies to try and help speed things along but in the end, the first company was the first to deliver. I wish I could have done more to speed the truss companies up but they are not under my control."
"I am sorry that this project did not end smoother and I am not writing this response to shunt responsibility. I am writing this response to clarify several things though. First, Mr. Popma did not pay me $2700. My fee was $2000. Overall, I believe [member name removed] is clumping the engineer and myself together both in fees and response. The second point to clarify are the delays. This project moved forward in spurts admittedly but mostly that was due to the clients vacation and response times as well as my own vacation. This project roughly stayed on course, time wise, until the final item to be clarified; redo's. This home is on a very severe hill and [member name removed] wanted a suspended/elevated concrete slab. I drew it up as he wanted and then sent it to the engineer. Once the engineering for that came in, the client was not pleased with how much was going to be involved to do this suspended/elevated concrete slab. I had a couple of other engineers look at it and they agreed that what was done was in line with what they would have come up with given the severity of the slope. [member name removed] chose to have it re-designed and engineered and then was unhappy at the time it took and the additional cost he incurred. I feel the engineer took an appropriate amount of time to re-work the project and at the end of the day cut his fee in half due to [member name removed] being upset. My role in dealing with the engineer is to mostly be a coordinator between the client and the engineer. I wish I had foreseen the problem with the first go around of engineering but I did not think anything was out of line until [member name removed] responded. While I do wish that this project had gone smoother, I can say that both my engineer and myself are assessing this project to see what we can do to improve in the future."
The County had a lot of codes that surprised us all. The building finally got done. One big problem was one bathroom had the toilet against a wall that was not long enough to have the required ADA handbar so we had to hire a plumber and contractor to switch the sink and toilet. Other than that, Ryan was always there working out solutions to the problems that arose. Had there been a more hands on general that communicated better with Ryan, the job probably would have gone smoother. The building finally got done. Ryan worked hard to make it happen.
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