Constraction reviews in Springfield, Virginia

Terrible Experience. Signed a contract, made a downpayment, and no one contacted us for months except for grumpy excuses. After 8 months of no work, we asked for our money back and were threatened with a lawsuit for asking for a refund. Hired a lawyer and threatened to sue to get our downpayment back. After 13 months, we finally got our money back. No work was done and we wasted 13 months and $1000 paying a lawyer. Do Not Hire!

I went to see them at the Dulles Expo center today .
A rep. asked me what I was looking for and when I mentioned " Convert Half To Full Bath" . He said arrogantly "it will Cost 20000$ plus" and that too without even looking at my house.
While I believe with all rating the company gets their Clientele may be rich but with the arrogance he spoke I believe he thought that I landed in Dulles from a foreign country and came straight to him.
Springfield there are better reasonable contractors.

I'm extremely thankful I chose Graves. I had a large unfinished basement that I wanted to have totally finished with some very specific soundproofing requirements along with a full bath etc... I had at least half a dozen contractors come out to give quotes. In addition, I had a very tight deadline. Their price was competitive, not the cheapest, and not the most expensive.

Graves was the only one who actually thought "out of the box" and gave some excellent recommendations, they were able to put the bathroom in a totally different spot than the rough-in, and they were able to move a column and wall to make the entire basement more open. Things I didn't even think were possible. I even talked with the state inspector when he was at the house, about the specifics and he confirmed that it was no problem.

I would check on the progress in the basement every few days, and I might notice something that wasn't quite right. The next day or two I'd check on it and they had either fixed it, or taken it down. So I didn't have to bug anyone to get the details correct.

The end result looks amazing, far beyond what I expected. The bathroom is just beautiful, the colors, carpet and trim look incredible as well. I'm so glad I didn't go with another company.

They also came in on time and on budget! I thought for sure no company would be able to make the deadline, but they seriously were on top of every little detail.

Needless to say I've had several dozen people in the new basement and everyone is blown away by it. The first thing they ask is - "wow - how much did all this cost?" And it was in the same range as a standard "builder grade" that other contractors were quoting.

Doug's crew designed and built a total rework of a split level. They transformed the main level into a gorgeous open concept space with 9ft ceilings and a soaring vaulted great room. They added another level above the main level with a master bedroom and bath. They also redid the other bathrooms in the house and seamlessly melded the old parts of the house with the new parts so that it looks as if it were built all at the same time. The work is impeccable and the attention to detail was fantastic. Doug and his crew were open to our suggestions and also helpful in making cost effective and functional decisions. I would use them again on a future project

Doug brought my small, 25 yr old kitchen into the 21st century! His price beat another contractor's estimate, and the level of personal service was fantastic. Doug took my rough idea of a Tuscan kitchen, helped me to refine it and made it a reality. He and his team were professional and courteous. My kitchen is still small, but it is beautiful. Doug has other much larger projects, but I always felt like I was a priority. He went above and beyond for me (fixing a problem that was caused by the delivery folks) and I will use him again for every remodel I have.

Fantastic work done by Graves. They remodeled our hall bathroom and expanded our master into a walk in closet. The design process was easy and Caroline gave us great recommendations for everything.

The whole process took 6 weeks and they kept on schedule even with a few surprises. When they found an issue, they worked hard to resolve it quickly and keep moving. The work was done at the end of may and beginning of June during the coronavirus, and all the workers wore masks when they were within 6 feet which we really appreciated.

The project finished on time and only a couple thousand over what they quoted at the beginning because of the unexpected plumbing issue and a window replacement that we requested. Working with them was pleasant from beginning to end. Whenever we had questions, one of the Chrises would get back to us immediately. I would work with them again!

We had a minor leak a few weeks after completion and they were here within an hour of me calling. The leak wasn’t caused by their work but they fixed it anyway, which was awesome.

Graves Design and remodeling did a phenomenal job on my home. I had a major renovation taking the back of my house to an open concept layout that included the removal of major walls, a small addition to the dining room, a complete kitchen and laundry room remodel along with the addition of a real pantry. Plus, we added a large addition off the kitchen. Doug, the owner was not only present for the work, he often got his hands dirty. I was impressed with their vision and excitement of seeing our project come together. Before I signed with them, I called their reference and every word was true to form. We are VERY happy with the outcome of our beautiful new space.

We had a great experience with Graves. We originally asked Chris to design a sunroom and bathroom off our living room. We wanted the option of turning it into a first floor bedroom later on. He gave us a design, but then gave us an option of a larger addition, adding the sunroom off the kitchen, a small deck, and a spacious master bedroom with closet and ADA accessible bathroom, at a cost of about 30% more. He showed us how we could repurpose our carport shed to become the back end of our new large bathroom. The rooms are up on pillars, so we had heated floors installed. heating and the heat and AC come from ceiling units. Now we can move to first floor living any time we want. He also created a design for finishing half of our basement, and we opted for that also. Chris is quite a creative designer; he shows you features you didn’t know you wanted until you saw them on paper or a 3-D design. Caroline was great at helping us pick out paint, tile, and fixtures. Chris and owner Doug Graves came frequently to the site to check work and solve minor problems. The County came out several times for inspections and approved the work. The work crews were polite, pleasant and prompt. We had a few communication problems, but those were resolved. We showed appreciation with drinks, snacks, and occasional lunch money, and they were very appreciative. After we had paid in full, we realized there was a bulge in the wall of the bathroom and that they had not cleaned up the construction dust that had settled on the tops of items in the basement. Chris sent people out promptly to take care of these issues. Generally, the workers cleaned up the work areas and organized the materials at the end of the day. We highly recommend Graves Design for excellent, reasonably priced work.

Go elsewhere! Save yourself the drama and total lack of accountability. One excuse after another from begging you for a payment to pay his workers, repair upon his endless repairs with always the response "I got rid of him now I'm sending you my best" and now being completely ghosted when the poor workmanship is truly showing itself! Please see the attached ceiling, under the roofing to the extension he placed but "it's not our problem" followed by complete silence and no return calls. Pm me for additional pictures and details. Go elsewhere! Save yourself the drama and total lack of accountability. One excuse after another from begging you for a payment to pay his workers, repair upon his endless repairs with always the response "I got rid of him now I'm sending you my best" and now being completely ghosted when the poor workmanship is truly showing itself! Please see the attached ceiling, under the roofing to the extension he placed but "it's not our problem" followed by complete silence and no return calls. Pm me for additional pictures and details.

We are very happy in our renovated house! The crew was hard-working, punctual, responsive to my comments and suggestions, and very good at paying attention to detail. The woodwork was especially fine. Since it was such a complicated job, we had some scheduling back and forth, but my calls were always acknowledged. I felt I was in capable, trustworthy hands throughout. Doug was forthright about the gas lines in my 80+-year-old home and we compromised with gas fires and wood-burning stoves in fireplaces, that look very nice. I feel this is a company that stands by its work and its word. We were all so pleased with the kitchen that Caroline, the designer, had it professionally photographed for the Graves website.

Graves completely overhauled our home, turning our post-WWII chopped up Falls Church Cape Cod into open living luxury. Over the course of 7 months, Graves remodeled nearly 80% of our home. The biggest change was rotating our stacked staircase 90 degrees to allow our first floor to be completely open. This enabled us to move and expand our kitchen, build an entryway onto the house and really make our space more usable. Prior to this change, we had whole rooms we weren’t using and would fight for counter space in our small galley kitchen. We now have a semi-custom kitchen with large island perfect for cooking and entertaining. Upstairs we popped up the back half of the roof (shed roof) so that we would no longer hit our heads on the sloped ceiling, upgraded HVAC/insulation, built a walk-in closet, added a double-vanity master bathroom with large shower and WC - overall creating a second floor master suite. In the basement, we finished off the space, so we’d have an exercise room and tv area - plus replaced some features that needed it (new sump pump, drainage). Outside we got a brand new driveway complete with appropriate drainage to pull water away from the house. To say that we’re pleased with the changes is an understatement.

We looked at multiple companies before making the decision on who to use. Graves was the only company to really listen to our concerns with the current space and offer a solution in which we could envision living. All other contractors offered the “easy” (and uncreative) solution of building a big addition on the back of the house. This wouldn’t have tackled our problem with unusable space.

Graves prices were reasonable and actually came in a bit lower than some of the bigger names. The contract was set up in such a way that we didn’t have to worry about being nickel and dimed as issues popped up. Early on in the process, we did have a budget. We could have stuck pretty close to it… but as we started to pull things apart and think critically about finishes and features, we realized that we didn’t want to go through a future renovation. As a result, we changed scope, schedule and our budget increased. We were under no pressure from Graves for this to happen and made this decision on our own. We’re super glad we did.

As is the case with most contractors, time estimation and scheduling could have been better. Sometimes we would hear that something would be done the next day but in reality would be done within the next week or two. There were usually reasons for the wait and communication could have improved. We found some of the contractors were more respectful of our space than others. We had most of our items in storage, but the crew still managed to damage a few items we left behind. With such a large project there were bound to be a couple accidents and each time there was we spoke with the owner Doug and he promptly corrected the situation.

The best feature by far of using Graves was that they take pride in their work. Anytime Doug came by, he would inspect the work of the team and make them start over if it wasn’t perfect. Even a few months after the job was finished, he had his team ready to address any questions or concerns we had. We even accidentally scratched up our hardwoods moving our furniture back in and he kindly had the crew come fix the issue at no charge. All projects have challenges, but Graves will work with you to make it right. It’s for this reason that we would wholeheartedly recommend working with them. We’d certainly do it again.

The team at Graves Design and Remodeling was outstanding. We had a basic idea of what we wanted with our kitchen renovation/expansion. Caroline did a great job adding design elements - both functional and aesthetic - that really improved our basic idea. Chris and his team were fantastic with the demolition and reconstruction. They had really good attention to detail and craftsmanship. They gave good advice when there was a decision to be made that I wasn't sure of. They were also really good about handling small changes in the project without nickel and diming for every little change. Even during COVID, they were good about keeping close to schedule. They've been attentive to the small punch-list items at the end of every project. At least one of our neighbors has already done a project with them, after asking us who our contractor was. We will hire them again for our next project.

In 2001Doug Graves and his team updated three bathrooms in our home. So when we were looking for someone to renovate two bathrooms in our newer home we went back to Graves for an estimate. The Graves team first worked with us to develop a plan within our budget, setting a construction timeline around our family needs, working with us to complete the work just a day before we expected company. Along the way the team helped with some other small jobs that we needed at no additional expense. When we contacted them three months later with a concern they came back and made the minor corrections needed. We are pleased with the quality of our new bathrooms.

Graves Design & Remodeling just completed a major renovation of our master bathroom/sitting room and a total update to our kids’ bathroom and we are thrilled with the result! We absolutely recommend them if you are considering any size of remodel to your home!!

We got three bids from highly recommended local contractors and Graves came in with a terrific design at a reasonable price. We decided to go with them because we felt as if they were as invested in our project as we were!

This was our first construction project with bathrooms and we did not really know anything about what would be involved. Chris, Caroline, & Doug helped us from beginning to end with all the choices, big and small, we needed to make. They have a wonderful line of reasonably priced, high-quality products and have made strong connections within the community so when we went to stores to look at products, we felt welcomed as soon as we mentioned their names.

The crew who worked on our project were consummate professionals! They were respectful of our living spaces while working and each day they cleaned up after themselves so we never felt as if we were living in a construction zone. Each day they laid down a drop cloth and each day they swept, wiped, and otherwise cleaned up. They were friendly and answered our questions. They seemed to really enjoy their job and the craftsmanship shows.

There were problems with our home that no one could have known about (maybe the original builder of 40 years ago?), that needed to be fixed. While that was above the cost of the project, their prices to fix the issues were very competitive and we knew the work would be done right! We came in about at our budget for the original project, only going over because of poor original construction and additions we wanted as we moved forward.

Most importantly, our remodel was completed within the window of time they said! Each inspection and our final walk through were a breeze because of the high quality of work. Nothing needed to be changed to pass inspection, which made our projects move quickly forward.

We highly recommend Graves Design and Remodeling. They had great design options, they came in at about cost for the original design we approved, their construction crew are top-notch professionals, they kept our living quarters clean while they were working, they completed the work within the time they said they would, and most of all because we felt as if they were as invested in our project as we were!

We recently moved back to the area and bought a 1986 home that had the original master bath. The room had an awkward layout and it just wasn't our style. I got three different quotes from some of the larger companies in the area. While they spend a lot of time and money on advertising, I felt they were lacking in understanding what I wanted for my home. There sketches and 3-D modeling seemed to lack attention to detail and I didn't get a good feeling that they understood what I was looking to accomplish.

In my estimation, Graves Design went above and beyond. We had a personal consultation with the owner (Doug), and he was very attentive in listening to what my wife wanted in a remodel of the master bathroom and walk in closet. He spent a number of hours creating a 3-D rendering of the space based on our details and provided us with a layout that we loved. The project was started approximately two weeks after we locked in the design and it was completed in 5 weeks. The Graves Design crew is very professional and we had zero issues with them. They laid down drop clothes, covered our furniture and did there best to minimize dust and debris. At the end of each day they would sweep up around the worksite and kept the area nice and clean during the renovation. Doug is detail oriented and a perfectionist, and I've witnessed him on more than one occasion ask his crew to change some things around because he thought it would look better. I also failed to mention that Doug had the lowest quote as well.

We now have a picture perfect bathroom with a massive walk in closet that made my wife very happy. Doug guarantees his work and came back over and adjusted a valve in our shower for us when we asked him. You won't be disappointed with the results!

I should also mention that Doug's company completed a major renovation for us about 6 years ago on a different home we owned and did a phenomenal job on our master bathroom, downstairs fireplace, and laundry room. Because he did such a great job, I called him when we moved back to Virginia in 2014.

We needed to remodel/modernize two bathrooms in our home. We were aware of the work our neighbors did when they updated similar spaces so we had an idea of what was doable and what we were able to do given the bathroom spaces. We interviewed three contractors and told them we wanted modernized spaces based on what we learned from our neighbors. Two contractors provided designs nearly identical and very similar to the work completed in our neighbor’s baths. But, the Graves design blew us away – it was unique, creative and completely different from the two earlier proposals and the work we had previously seen. Not only did we get our two new bathrooms but, by reducing the size of a closet in an adjacent, we also got a new walk-in closet. All this work for a total price that was in between the prices of the two other proposals. We met with the Graves team to finalize the design, produce the detailed statement of work and the work schedule. Graves suggested a variety of stylish components and features and then assisted with the color schemes of the hardware components, the wall colors, vanities, flooring, tiles, etc.

Once the work began, the teams were very pleasant, organized and on time each day to start work (including the last couple of weekends when needed to meet the original schedule) and meticulous about cleaning up after each day’s work. Graves obtained all permits and the materials for the work. The cost of the project was provided up front and was remarkably accurate.

We could not be happier with Graves’s work from the design phase, through the 6-week construction period for our three new rooms. Their constant attention to detail on even the smallest issues was truly impressive. Consequently, we highly recommend them for similar design and remodeling projects.

Our 3 week bathroom project took 3 months with weeks of no communication and when Graves did call, it was with excuses that had nothing to do with our job. Once completed we have called consistently for a warrantable item for 2 months and no response. They won't even pick up the phone or answer emails. On top of that, we now have a vendor threatening a Mechanic Lien on our house because they haven't been paid by Graves Design. Look elsewhere for your project and save yourself the drama.

We hired Graves to do a total renovation of our small condo in Old Town Alexandria. We chose Graves because the estimate Tom provided was much more detailed and thorough than any other we received. Also, Tom came up with some innovated ideas that we had not thought of. The design ideas by Caroline were awesome and turned out great. Throughout the process, the communication with Graves was always easy and straightforward. There were no hidden fees or extra costs. The price they quoted was the price we paid. Doug Graves was on the job site daily and he took over some of the most detailed aspects of the project and completed them himself. They came back and completed all of the follow on items quickly and within the project time promised. I have another project to do at the condo and I plan to use Graves Design again. They are true professionals.

Graves Design built us a beautiful family room addition. It was in the beginning/middle of the pandemic but Doug and his team got the job done. The addition required an existing slab and brick retaining wall repair, They cleaned original brick and reused it so the alteration is indistinguishable from existing retaining wall. It was a hustle and stop job, but Doug informed us why as we all worked through pandemic challenges. Though it took more time than we originally planned, it was worth it. We also appreciated that Doug stuck to the original budget (I'm sure at his own expense as cost of materials were going up). We absolutely love our new room and I recommend Graves because the final product was great and the cost was cheaper than we expected.

Doug Graves and his team completed a water damage restoration and a new kitchen and bath. They were personal, professional and took care of every detail. Would definitely hire them again, highly recommend them.

Graves Design and Remodeling is not a company you want to deal with in any remodeling process. What should have taken 3 months took over a year. We employed the owner, Doug Graves to redesign and remodel our kitchen. From start to finish there was nothing but problems. We signed a contract in August and went to his show room on Traford Ln. in Springfield which had recently been updated with some beautiful cabinets. His assistant drew up plans for us and we chose cabinets. The drawings were sent to us and upon review, I noticed several discrepancies in measurements. I brought these to the attention of the team and they made some changes, but I would later find out not all issues were remedied. Come October we inquired when the cabinets would arrive and to our surprise it sounded like they hadn't even been ordered. After all that, the cabinets still arrived in the wrong sizes. This set us back several more months as we ended up having to reorder several. On top of that, no trim was ordered. There were no kickplates, island trim or anything for moulding. Once the second order arrived, there were still problems with the island cabinets being too tall on one side. Doug suggested we just rig them and make the island an inch taller than the rest of the kitchen. I said absolutely not. I then sat up for hours one evening trying to think of ways to make it work so we didn't have to wait yet another few months for more cabinets. I came up with a plan and we ended up doing a two level island with a bar on one side to accommodate stools. As a customer, I should never have had to be this involved in correcting the contractor's constant mistakes.

Along with this, throughout the process Doug was hard to get ahold of and would never come to the home to check on things unless I insisted he did. Even then, he came once or twice over the course of 3-4 months of construction. Working with all of his subcontractors was ok, but they were not well coordinated. For instance, the countertop company showed up before the cabinets were installed. They said Doug told them that the kitchen was ready with cabinets. They came from a long ways away, so they measured what they thought would work. Of course they were wrong and we had to have new countertops cut adding more time to the process.

Beyond this, we had wood flooring in our living room that came up to our kitchen tile. I told the contractors countless times we only had a few pieces of wood to replace what they might need to move, so they should be extra carful to keep anything they could. On the day they removed flooring, a large part of the wood floors were removed without care. Most of it was splintered and thrown out onto the lawn. In the end we waited another month for them to go find something similar and make it right.

As the tile flooring went in, it was fine, but within a few weeks the grout started to crumble. After speaking with Doug and his assistants several times, we finally got one of his contractors to come back and dig out the grout to replace it. It lasted another several months and began to crack again in several areas. At that point I called, emailed and texted Doug, the contractors and his assistants with no call back. It seems the company is still around, but now run by Mayflower Construction. Doug is still the owner.