If you or someone you know is looking for a custom home builder for your project, you might want to know about our expensive and protracted misadventure.

We contracted with Estes Builders from Sequim, based on their promises and reputation as a well-established, experienced design/build firm. We wanted an affordable custom house, on time and on budget ($600,000 in our case) as Estes Builders promises in its website. Instead, three years later---and after expenses costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars---Estes Builders terminated the project. By then, we only had the walls of a foundation with a drainage system that the city had deemed inadequate for water conditions discovered on our property months after the city had issued our building permit.

Previously, we have worked with other builders on new and remodeled construction, and we never experienced a situation as egregious as what we suffered with Estes Builders. This aborted project cost us an enormous amount of time and money with little to show, and we still live in a rental house where we expected to stay just the one year that Estes Builders said was needed to make good on its promises. Even as we move forward with a new architect and a new builder, we feel that the minimal work that Estes Builders completed for us actually has constrained our design options, while decimating our budget.

After our prolonged and painful experience with Estes Builders, we feel we could never recommend them to anyone. The construction industry may have some great builders, but we do not feel that Estes Builders is one of them.

Custom home project gone bad

If you or someone you know is looking for a custom home builder for your Bainbridge project, you might want to know about our expensive and protracted misadventure.

We contracted with Estes Builders from Sequim, based on their promises and reputation as a well-established, experienced design/build firm. We wanted an affordable custom house, on time and on budget ($600,000 in our case) as Estes Builders promises in its website. Instead, three years later---and after expenses costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars---Estes Builders terminated the project. By then, we only had the walls of a foundation with a drainage system that COBI had deemed inadequate for water conditions discovered on our property months after COBI had issued our building permit.

From the start, we told Estes Builders that our small lot had slope issues. Also, we alerted the builder that groundwater drained off the downhill side of our lot. Estes Builders didn't direct us to get geotech studies before they started designing the house for us. We thought everything was fine. We were optimistic.

However, we feel we had continual problems and delays in virtually every step of the process. For example, even the initial design was bigger than we'd requested, and Estes Builders insisted on more money to downsize that. Almost two years into the project, excavation for the permitted plan hit groundwater. Six months later, Estes Builders advised us that the water issue required an expensive shoring wall. Shocked, we ourselves hired a local geotech firm. Either we had to build the shoring wall or redesign the house, they said, and they advised Estes Builders to revise the now-outdated drainage plan included in our permit. Instead, when Estes Builders began foundation work another 6 months later, they installed the drainage according to the permitted plan. Ultimately, COBI insisted that Estes Builders revise the drainage plan, and only then did Estes Builders agree to do so.

Everything seemed back on track. But rather than correct the installed drainage and continue building, Estes Builders quit, leaving us with foundation walls, inadequate drainage, and plans for a house that no longer could be finished within our budget.

Previously, we have worked with other builders on new and remodeled construction, and we never experienced a situation as egregious as what we suffered with Estes Builders. This aborted project cost us an enormous amount of time and money with little to show, and we still live in a rental house where we expected to stay just the one year that Estes Builders said was needed to make good on its promises. Even as we move forward with a new architect and a new builder, we feel that the minimal work that Estes Builders completed for us actually has constrained our design options, while decimating our budget.

After our prolonged and painful experience with Estes Builders, we feel we could never recommend them to anyone. The construction industry may have some great builders, but we do not feel that Estes Builders is one of them.