Top Barndominium Builders Near Ashburn

I have been professionally involved with the custom home industry in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. are for almost 50 years. In that time, I have been personally involved in over 1,000 custom home projects. I have had the privilege of working with dozens of custom home builders and architects. It has been a gratifying experience. The custom home industry has challenges beyond those found in the production or speculative home industry. By its nature, there are no two identical projects. Each project is designed for a specific client and contains features, and consequently, applications specific to that project. An architect must have the ability to understand the client’s needs and the ability to communicate successfully with that client and the custom home builder to provide this client the results he is anticipating. The custom home builder plays a significant role in this process to conceptually determine the practicality and feasibility of delivering this product. His feedback to the team is critical. I have had the pleasure of working with many competent builders. I have worked with Potomac Valley Builders (PVB) for almost a decade. Together, we have worked on extremely large and complex projects as well as small projects they will take on at the request of an associated architect or prior client. Many of these projects involve complicated systems that require them to have the ability to adapt to a specific circumstance, understand a complex aspect and aid in the resolution of issues. The nature of this work obviously creates situations where understanding of issues both physical and personal will require tactful input. PVB and its employees and associates have always proven to be masterful at these challenges. Potomac Valley Builders has a staff of competent and reliable people. They are extremely customer focused as their top priority. This would be expected from an organization whose reputation is their main source of business. They also take great pride in their projects and have an impressive resume of their results. They treat their associates and subcontractors with respect and fairness. I have always valued this relationship and hope that it will continue for many years to come. If I were to be in the market to have a project built in Metropolitan D.C., PVB would be on a very short list of companies I would seek to engage.

Having arrived at a satisfactory settlement with Paramount Construction, Inc. of all of our difficulties in the designing and drawing of our new home, we have terminated our relationship with them and cancel and negate all earlier made critical or negative statements or comments made about them. Angela Bardwell

The beginning of the service great however after the completion of the project that's when the problems started occur. My walls and flooring started to buckle and mold was appearing on my walls that was in 3 months after the completion of the project. I contacted him as soon as the problem occurred however no response (4th month). The problem is now affecting my health due to the increase mold which is from not a proper foundation (no facial board or siding was implemented) and the flooring is continuing to buckle as well as walls. I contacted him again and they insisted that I purchase some items to fix the problem temporary vs arranging a meeting to see the problems or even provide a solution. I hope this information is helpful.

I called M.H. Barnes in the morning and they sent out Shawn that afternoon. He was there on time and they called to let me know he was on his way. The bottom body sprayer had lost all water pressure. Shawn was great. He took it apart. Cleaned the screen out and put it all back together. I had a bunch of questions about how the body sprayer was assembled and where the screen was. He took the time to patiently answer all my questions. He was also careful to clean-up where he was working so it was left exactly how he found it. We have used Barnes before and they continue to provide quality service with friendly professional plumbers. I will continue to call Barnes for all my plumbing needs.

Slow tub drain and leaky tub faucet. Also, slow kitchen sink drain. I called Barnes and spoke to Shawn. I make an appt for him to come out to the house. He arrived on time and was able to make all the needed repairs. He snaked the tub drain and replaced the inside parts on the tub faucet. I was glad he had the parts for the faucet that were at least 20 years old. Shawn also made a repair to the kitchen sink so we could use our dishwasher again. I've been a Barnes customer for sixteen years.

This is the second time I have called Moss and I am extremely pleased with the results. I requested Stan Stevens (for the second time) and his experience and professionalism made it easy to have him moving around my house. He really puts the "improve" in home improvements. Anything he touched, he made better by his thoughtfulness about a solution and then his execution. His work is pristine. The fact that Stan was still there after 2 years between calls tells me that Moss is a good company to work for. For the price and quality, Moss will be the company I call for services.

The story with Bill is he says yes to everything but delivers on very little. My project was filled with false promises, average quality work and a complete lack of caring from Bill Viands. Be forewarned that he can charm you with Southern Hospitality but see the notes below for the real story. Some things I experienced with Bill: 1. Bill Viands promised to finish the house in December (10 months total) and it took 18 months. 2. In November, Bill Viands told us the house would be done in December?see #1. 3. Bill Viands never provided a schedule and any price he provided was not based in reality! 4. Bill Viands promised to coordinate installation of electric and gas utilities?he never did it. 5. Bill failed to pay some subs for almost a year. Even his sub contractors don?t like working with him. Metropolitan Fire and Tristate say they will never work with the man again because they view him as incompetent. 6. Bill Viands hired his brother at a premium price to work on my project. I came to the job 26 times (random times) while Bill?s brother was supposedly working and he was sitting in his car all 26 times. He had a pile of books in his cars with him. 7. Bills own employees said he was over staffing the job which was paid for on an hourly basis. Bill muzzled them but continued to overstaff the project. 8. Bill Viands promised me a 30% discount on a commission he was due ($30,000) and he changed his mind at the end of the job and held the house hostage until it was paid. 9. Bill Viands provided sub contractors with the wrong version of the plans which means they designed their solutions incorrectly. 10. Bill provided no change orders and made expensive substitutions without providing any guidance cost impact. He continued to tell us we would be able to keep it within budget. 11. During the project Bill provided an estimate on the remaining amount of cost for the project?it nearly cost double what he indicated. 12. Bill Viands over paid the going rate to have dirt removed by 100%. He paid $11,000 for a $5,500 job. 13. Bill Viands does not honor any warranty work. 14. Bill Viands charged $5,000 to clean the house!!! Worse part is that he did not clean it as promised. (one of hundreds of false promises) 15. Bill Viands did not show up for one meeting on time unless there was money due to him. In fact, he missed numerous meetings all together. 16. Bill Viands took it upon himself to change the windows that the architect specified. In reviewing the sizes, Bill incorrectly sized over 50% of them. In addition to a $40,000 increase he installed many of them incorrectly! 17. Bill Viands often needs to be given plans numerous times because he lost them routinely (electrical plans, kitchen appliance specs, landscape plans, etc) 18. Bill Viands prides himself on the quality of his workmanship but most architects who have seen the house rate the work as ordinary in many areas. Some parts are being redone because they are so bad. 19. Bill Viands admitted that he hired a painter for $25,000 and charged me $50,000?the worst part about this is that just two months after moving in the paint outside is peeling and there are numerous areas in the house that are not adequate. 20. Bill Viands admitted to us that it is okay to stretch the truth once in a while and to ignore subs. 21. Bill Viands surprised us at the end of the job with a $165,000 bill. Just two weeks before he believed the balance was $35,000 22. Bill installed the driveway incorrectly. It cost nearly $65,000 to repair the butcher job he did. In a nutshell, if you are building a house and want a turnkey builder, look elsewhere. Bill took two years of my life and made it miserable. He was a nightmare to work with and without a doubt gives contractors a bad name. For your own sanity look elsewhere.

We chose a pricey option, hence the lower grade in that category. My other cavil is that, on the first day of a two-day project, they showed up several hours late. The crew was professional, friendly, and helpful when they did arrive, and they did a very good job of removing the old structure and assembling the new one. I would recommend them again.

I contracted with them with the barn, but then, they also had a subcontractor that did the building and everything else. Scheduling was a little problem afterwards. It was a little bit delayed. I think they could have been on-site better to oversee the project.

Provider consistently showed up when scheduled, worked until job is done, maintained contact with property owner as to what was desired in work and progress, quotes for work never changed - price estimated was what was charged. Provider is dependable, honest and consistently exhibits good work ethics. Leaves property clean and no trace. Repeat customer, will remain repeat customer.

Potomac Valley Builders: Sloppy Management, Lousy Work Our home was built by Potomac Valley Builders, working under the guidance of our architect, Jim Rill. We chose PVB for several reasons, including Jim Rill's recommendation and the evident competence of Gerald Witmer, a principal in the company that we were led to believe would supervise the project. We paid PVB more than two million for the completed house, and have now lived in it eight years. As we got acquainted with our house, we also got acquainted with its failings. Roof On the day we moved in, rain poured through the ceiling of the master bedroom. On other occasions, water has come through the ceilings of two other rooms – our office on the top floor and the ceiling of the “glass room”. We keep a bucket in the office to catch the drip whenever it rains. Electrical We have always blamed poor planning for the fact that we have electrical panels are located on opposite ends of the basement, and that circuit breakers on one side control many circuits on the other side of the house. Our electrician has shown us that the original electrician intentionally broke components in our circuit panel to increase the ability of circuit breakers to handle the load that was placed on them. Lutron switches and dimmers are installed everywhere, but with no evident planning. To turn on a light on one side of the room, you generally must walk to the other side. We had to have our circuit breakers completely redone: the lavbeling was inaccurate and often illegible. Plumbing Our builder selected PVC with thin walls for most piping, including the water main to the street. We've had a burst water main which flooded our basement. The shutoff at the street was not marked and was buried. Heating and Air Conditioning The subcontractor who did this went out of business right after we took occupancy, leaving us with a number of problems: Most air conditioning filters are inaccessible, requiring the removal of cabinet facing. Heating and air conditioning are regulated by separate controls. Any given room is likely to have its heating and cooling controls in different locations. To shift from heating to cooling or vice versa, a dozen valves must be opened or closed, along with a number of switches. With this effort, we suffer when the world is warm in winter or cool in summer. Our swimming pool was connected to a pump and filter inside the house, and its water was heated by running it directly through our geothermal units, without use of a heat exchanger. Because this water was salted as part of our pool bacteria control procedures, problems developed. A hot water heater designed to supplement the work of the geothermal units soon corroded and failed. A replacement for it corroded and failed. The geothermal units failed. Swimming Pool As soon as we added water to the swimming pool, the pool room developed serious condensation on all surfaces. Our builder suggested and installed an industrial-size dehumidifier. Because the dehumidifier created considerable heat in the pool room, he suggested that we run the room's air conditioning year-round. Our electric bill for our first month of use was over $1,700. It turns out that no dehumidifier is needed if the pool is simply covered when not in use. Due to some poor planning, the two huge geothermal units we have installed do not have the capacity to control the temperature of the pool room. Without discussion, PVB installed a small electric heater in the pool room, and placed a small geothermal unit under the floor of the pool room, to try to keep the room warm in winter. Driveway The corners of the new driveway immediately began to subside, with puddles lasting long after a rain. Our builder was willing to address this for an additional charge, but was unable to match the look of the original driveway when he patched. A section of the driveway bordered by a stone retaining wall is subsiding, and will soon need attention. Several area of the driveway are now worn through, exposing the under layer. Roof and Driveway Drainage We designed a system to capture all water that falls on the roof of the house or garages, and all water that falls on the driveway, sending it to a pair of huge underground tanks. These tanks sit on a deep gravel bed intended to capture excess water that comes from rain when the tanks are full. An irrigation system draws from these tanks. But little math seems to have been involved in this design: When the tanks are full, after 10 minutes of irrigation the well pump kicks on to replace the missing water. Obviously the float valve is too high in the tanks. With the high float valve, the tanks are normally nearly full. A heavy rain fills them, fills the gravel bed, and flows down the hill. The pump that draws water from the tanks failed in its first year of use, and had to be replaced. Outdoor Staining The exterior of our house is stained to reveal the natural color of the wood. But initial staining was done before the stone masons were finished, and stone dust stuck to the drying stain. In an effort to remove this mess, PVB powerwashed the surface of that soft wood, damaging it. To maintain the house, we have twice restained using the same product that PVB's painters used. Unfortunately, the wrong stain was selected for the house. It buckled, bubbled, and peeled. We finally found an excellent painter who researched stains, spent 4 months preparing the surface and staining, and the stain has now lasted us three years – and still looks good. Koi Pond Our koi pond had plumbing to handle skimmers and provide filtration. Pressure gauges were placed on the pipe, so that the connections could be tested. But no tests were ever done, and after the concrete was poured and dried, operation of the pump revealed that many of the pipes leaked, and could not be used. The koi pond's remaining piping that is in use, has one or more leaks that the builder could not locate. To offset this, the builder installed an autofill, which needs to run frequently to keep the water level constant. Skimmer baskets were installed in two locations on the edge of the koi pond. But they were of a size that suited a much smaller capacity indoor swimming pool, and immediately clogged with leaves. One of the baskets cannot be removed because concrete was added above it for the patio. The other is connected to a piece of PVC that is leaking. Snow guards Attractive snow guards were installed by the builder, but installed backwards, so that they would fall over whenever pushed by a load of snow coming from above. It took repeated complaints to induce the builder to reverse them. Patio drainage We are currently in the midst of a $60,000 repair of the drainage of our second story patio, and so can report on some details of construction problems. Four patio drains connect to a single horizontal PVC pipe which connected to a single vertical pipe. This vertical pipe clogged, so that water entering one of the four drains would bubble up. At times, the water got so high that it threatened to flood over the threshold and into the house. Our builder was unable to remember where the vertical pipe was located, had taken no photos during construction to provide this information, and could not locate it after extended digging in our back yard. He tried repeatedly, but could not snake the clogged vertical pipe. Our plumber was unable to do any better. As we jack hammered our way through the patio to access the drain, we found that the piping was located below a foot of concrete, rebar, and membrane – impossible to repair without destroying the patio. Drains were poorly chosen. Those installed were not designed to capture the moisture the membrane was blocking. When we opened it up, the concrete of the patio drained for days. A gentle test of the PVC that the builder buried in the concrete reveals that the PVC leaks at most joints, which operated as if they had not been glued at all. The builder did not place any weep holes on the edge of the patio, to allow water that had soaked into the concrete below the flagstone to escape. But that likely wouldn't have been of beneft because the patio was designed with a slope to carry water falling on it to the middle, not the edges. The builder did not seal the patio stone. Water soaked through the patio and the ceiling of the bedroom below when the house was new. These problems occurred, we believe, because there was inadequate supervision. We chose PVB because we were told that Gerald Witmer would be our project manager. Two months after construction began, a new project manager informed us that he was in charge. We were never consulted on this change. The new project manager was, to be polite, pro-active. At first, we wondered why PVB never sked us to be a reference for new customers. Now we know why.

It turned out terrible. They took forever to finish it; they hired unprofessional labours instead of license individuals. They’re just unlicensed. They shouldn’t be building at all. If they do work for you, they use cheap, cheap materials.

The purpose of this review is to detail our experience of the actions of Pighini Builders, during construction of a home on a lot adjacent to our property. From Fall 2015 to Spring 2016, Pighini Builders constructed a custom home on a lot adjacent to our property. During the process, Pighini Builders and/or their sub-contractors caused physical damage to our property and other neighboring properties and we found actions taken to address these concerns to be inadequate. Specific examples: 1.Severe road damage to a shared, paved private drive. This extent of damage can happen during the course of home construction due to heavy truck activity. However, damage should be repaired at the end of home construction. There is a precedent in our community of this. The previous custom home builder created similar damage and they cutting out the damaged areas and re-paved at the end of the project. Pighini chose to cover/fill damaged areas with gravel which will wash out over time and the gravel will further damage the asphalt over time. 2.Tire ruts in neighboring yards – Pighini Builders and/or sub contractor vehicles frequently parked on and drove onto adjacent private property. Not only was this trespassing but it caused severe ruts and lawn damage. Pighnini Builders attempted to repair some areas but left many completely unaddressed. Further Pighini Builders did not return phone calls asking for fixes and to prevent further occurrences. 3.Trash and debris – Trash (food waste/packaging as well as construction debris) was not properly contained on the construction site and was often found in the adjacent properties. Pighini Builders did not clean this debris up at the end of the project and we are still finding trash in our property. To be clear, the properties referenced are all in excess of 10 acres so this is not a case of small lots where there is little room for maneuvering of vehicles and containment of construction debris. We believe all of these issues could have easily been avoided. We felt this needed to be communicated to those looking to select a builder. I would not recommend Pighini Builders due to the damage done to neighboring properties, the lack of communication/response, and the lack of action to address damage.

They are excellent and they are on Angie's List. I have used them for years. They are all very professional and have always done the job. I have never had anything break that they have fixed and have always been pleased with their work. They always show up within their window of time, which is important to me. They put booties on over their shoes so they don't drag anything over my floor. They are very careful and considerate when they are in my house. The service people are very knowledgeable. I had an emergency several years ago on a Friday afternoon in the spring or summer. They showed up, brought as many people as they needed and stayed until after midnight to help clean up. They are wonderful.

He is fantastic. He is very honest and straightforward. If you have an idea, he will do the idea. If you ask him for his ideas, they really work. He is very creative.

We interviewed multiple contractors and finally decided to go with SVC Homes. We wanted to let people know that SVC Homes LLC is great company to work with, and the end result is exceptional.The principle owner Sandro listened to us from the beginning, and worked with us to build the home we desired. They were very patient with us and helped us select materials and products within our budget that we would enjoy. Our overall experience was everything you would expect from a quality contractor, and it shows from every member of their team. We cannot express enough how happy we are with our new home. They had a flexible approach to choose among high quality products and materials within an upfront fixed price and focused on overall commitment to customer satisfaction. For us, the result speaks for itself. We got more then we even imagined and at the original cost we agreed to when we started the project.

the wall and the bathtub and this will create all kinds of cleaning problems, mold, etc. The windows are cheap. Single hung - can't open hard to clean kind. We received numerous threats from subcontractors about liens. The biggest was from Guy C. Lee for the materials to build. The second was from the HVAC contractor who emailed us more than three-four times that he had not paid. We even paid him an additional $15,000 so he could pay his contractors to keep any liens from being filed against us. These are only for the ones we know about. Going to see an attorney about this, but whatever you do, do not use Jimmy Allen, a.k.a. Allen-Barnes Builders, Inc. He lives in Emerald Isle, but his business is listed out of Wilson, NC. Oh, one last thing. I spoke with the county inspectors and our house failed inspection 32 times when the inspectors should only have taken 8. As a final straw, the house failed the county's CO inspection on 8/13/2012 and this builder as of 8/19/2012 has failed to contact the homeowners with any resolution for making the required repairs to obtain a CO. NEVER USE THIS CONTRACTOR.

The experience was excellent overall. I would recommend them to anybody! They were very responsive, showed when they said they'd show up, and did exactly what was asked of them to do. Their price was on the upper end, but the quality of the work was well worth the price. The crew was very well-mannered and professional, too!

Purchased a $39 water heater flush. Randall came out on the day scheduled (after calling to see if it was ok to come early, which it was). Noticed the anode was due for replacing and checked it. It was full of mineral deposits and he was able to replace it while he was here. Also was able to flush the water heater in my barn for me, not for the coupon price, but close enough. Did not try to sell me anything I didn't need, which I am very happy about. Courteous, professional service.

Cleaning out my barn, I found a drainpipe in the floor and wanted to determine if it was connected to septic system. I figured that it would take one of those drain snakes with a video camera on the end which I knew would be expensive. After waiting for a call back from another provider for a week, I called Everready. Norman was out here within 2 hours and determined within 20 minutes that the drainpipe was not connected without having to use a video camera.