BRYAN & ASSOC INC

We hired this guy originally to just do the architectural design work, but ended up going with him for the build-out as well. We should have gone elsewhere for both now that we get to live with the shortcomings of both. Design: The devil is in the details. The room addition ceiling height is very low compared to the rest of the rooms in the house. The drawings only showed an exterior elevation and plot plan of the interior. The ceiling heights were not called out, so when we returned from vacation to look at the addition, it was too late to change the ceilings due to the entire roof would have to be redone. The interior design had a major flaw in one of the supports. I should have listened to the other contractors who looked at the bid drawings. They all said the support he listed on the drawing wouldn't work, but the architect was so sure of himself that we believed he would make it work. Not until the entire room was torn apart did he come back to say he needed to revise the support design. He said he would send a sketch, but that never happened and now we have a very strange looking column in the midst of our room. Construction: Where to begin . . . how about doing due diligence before giving a bid. My mistake was not paying CLOSE attention to the buzz words on his bid. In some cases things were fixed price while others had allowances baked into the numbers. Since he was the architect and has crawled around the attic and all around the house for the design, you would think he would have a good feel for simple things, like mechanical work (HVAC ducts, refrigerant lines, etc.). Other contractors brought all of their trade leads into the house prior to their bid and came up with detailed estimates. The problem is that Robert would send change orders for items that should have been obvious during the design phase, but he would never send me receipts for the other allowances that likely came in much less than the estimate amount. So, if the cost were higher on some items, I paid via change order. If the costs were less, I never knew. Painters: Never ever use this guy or his paint crew, EVER!!! I am still finding holidays and its been 3 months since they were done. The instructions were to paint everything inside, including ceilings, cabinets, doors, trim, walls, etc. All attachments, nails, hangers, hooks, etc were to be removed, repaired before painting. Well, that happened about 50% of the time, The rest of the time, they either painted over the top or taped around something. It wouldn't be so bad if they actually left the remaining unused paint behind, but they didn't. On top of that, I have repeatedly asked for the paint brand used so I can go match it at the store, but Robert refuses to respond (a common theme with him). So now my bathroom toilet roll fixture was replaced, leaving the previous paint visible and I have no way to get touch-up paint to match! On top of that, the painters were also tasked with staining some new cabinets. Well, guess what they decided to do instead of hand applied stain . . . they decide that spraying the stain would be better. It was a huge mess, overspray on every wall in the living room, they did not protect any electrical outlets or loose speaker wiring , so I had to clean all of that up when they were done in order to hooko up the TV, stereo, etc. Again, do not use this guy, especially not for paint. Stone: We had a cultured stone façade installed around our fireplace from floor to ceiling . The stone has big gaps where you can see the mesh backing and lots of blue painters tape around the mantle. There are certain areas where the mason didn't adjust to the columns very well, so the end cap on the column sticks out 3 inches beyond where the stone below - not a good look. Dirt & filth: His crews would regularly track mud and dirt throughout the house with no cleanup. On many occasions they left their "remnants" in the toilets without flushing and pee'd on the floors. They did a crappy job installing plastic sheeting to block the rest of the house from the dust created from demo, sheetrock, sanding, etc. The entire house was coated with thick dust, so I hired a cleaning crew to come wipe everything down, only to have his guys come back and destroy everything because they forgot to install the plastic sheeting again! They also decided that my garage would be a great place to cut and saw all of the wood used for the project, but they never cleaned up after themselves. Sawdust was everywhere, along with their trash. Change orders: Got one for $2500 for HVAC ducts and refrigerant line relocation even though there was no doubt this would be necessary as part of the room addition. He listed a $1000 allowance for HVAC work on the bid. The HVAC is still not great, the new room additions are always 3-4 degrees hotter than the rest of the upstairs. He sent his contractor out who complained that Robert never gets them involved at the front end of projects and that if he would have on this one, they would have increased the capacity of the evaporator coils in my upstairs HVAC unit which would solve the problem. So I now have a hot brand new room. Great! Got one for $1800 for some trim work around my stairs. The problem is that the trim work was included as a fixed price in the original estimate. I refused to pay for this and he threw a fit and wouldn't talk anymore unless it was through his dingbat girlfriend. Speaking of which, Robert needs to hire someone who is good with a calculator. I think I got 4-5 final invoices, each of which had some stupid mistake that I had to correct and get her to resend. So, buyer be very afraid of Robert Bryan or his sister company House Potential!