Schroeder Design Build

Our project with Schroeder, estimated at 12-15 weeks, wound up taking more than a full year. It was an unnecessarily stressful, frustrating year, that their own employees referred to as “embarrassing” and “incompetent” at various points. The project was mainly focused on our kitchen, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, a staircase, and a fireplace facade. After 15 weeks, all that had been completed was demolition and some rough-ins - for months, we lived in a demolished home with no kitchen, just waiting for updates (pic 1 below - our living room and “kitchen”). The big problem was that Schroeder failed to identify one of the only walls we were removing as load bearing. It took months for them to just come up with a plan to address it (we were told their engineer was on leave). When the plan was finally drawn up, their engineer failed to account for an exterior door, so it took another week to run the calculations to determine that the load would hold over the door frame, and another 2 weeks for the county to review that letter. Eventually, the beam was installed someplace different than we had discussed, which caused downstream problems. We then failed inspections 5 times over several weeks - the first time, the wiring was just hanging from the ceiling (picture 2), no fireproofing had been done, and the inspector was baffled that he was even being scheduled. The second time, the right permit hadn’t been requested, approved and issued. The third time, Schroeder didn’t have the approved plans in the house for the inspector to review… and on and on. We didn’t have even a barely-functioning kitchen (e.g. floor, sink) for over 6 months after demolition. To make matters worse, they did not do much cleaning until a new project manager came on several months into the project, so we were left trying to clean drywall dust and various demolition debris after the good days when any work happened. It was a comedy of errors that could have been avoided through better planning and more consistent management. From demolition to completion over a year later, we went through 5 different project managers, at least one of whom was fired mid-job. Several subcontractors, including tile, drywall, and paint were either fired during the job or (we were told) shortly after because the work they did was so poor. The people Schroeder hired to do some of the most detailed work had little-to-no experience in what they were asked to do, including tile and paint (it was the same guy for both), and the concrete pour for the fireplace (it was cracking after days so we wound up having to just tile over it - again with the unqualified tile guy, even though we were told they brought on someone with more experience). When plans changed after the walls were opened up, the drawings were never updated, so subsequent sub-contractors were left having to figure out solutions on the fly. Change orders were built before they were approved on multiple occasions, which led to tense conversations. This was written based on detailed notes, messages to and from Schroeder, and time stamped photos and videos.

Schroeder’s pricing is competitive. Their customer service was excellent. Their crews were hard working and timely. Of special mention, our designer reworked the drawings on our kitchen space 2-3 times over the Christmas holidays. The result was phenomenal. We don’t receive a guest that does not like our new kitchen/sunroom. Our lead carpenter was an ‘old school’ artisan - extremely precise and took great pride in his team’s work. He held people accountable and wasn’t afraid to call a sub-contractor back to fix a shoddy job... before we ever noticed. He also tossed a guy off the premises because he smelled of alcohol. A true throwback to my father’s generation of tradesmen. Our project manager did his best to resolve all concerns to our satisfaction. If we had any issues, it took some time to complete a few follow-up actions. Like most companies in the business, money is time and Schroder needed to get on to the next job. Additionally the quality of a few of the materials have been problematic. Paint on the cabinets chipped quicker than we anticipated, and the luxury vinyl tile scratches with the tiniest grain of sand. Felt pads on the feet of chairs don’t even work. My wife and I are considering a 400,000-500,000 addition to the home. We will absolutely go to Schroder before we consider anyone else for the job.

Lovely people to work with. I gave them a budget and we worked together to determine must haves and wishes and came up with excellent solutions. Their work folks were always prompt and polite and pleasant to have around. The result has been complimented by many. We ran into a couple of small problems and what we were impressed with was how cheerfully and quickly the problems were taken care of even 2-3 years later.

We have been very pleased with both the work of Schroeder and the responsiveness to any issue. We had them convert a screened porch to a sun room. They were very creative in making the whole room come together, including the duct work. It is now the room we live in! We ran into a couple of minor issues several years after the room was completed and there was NO question about coming out. Their commitment to long term satisfaction was most evident and appreciated.