Business ProfileforSchroeder Design/Build Inc

We hired Schroeder in late 2019 to redesign a home built in the 50s and needed a full renovation. What we found out - very expensively - was that this was waaaaay over their capabilities. We ended up firing them after about 6 mos. Below are our reasons: As a client who wants a home redesign and expansion - we should have been able to talk to a real architect. Andrew hid, yes hid, that architect from us. We never saw him or her, nor chatted via phone, in person, or zoom and tried to quietly pass off their CAD person (who was nice but not a real architect) as the one responsible for the design. After a few rounds of really bad design and no one taking responsibility for it, Andrew began just designing it himself and then we felt we had to design it to correct all the horror we were receiving! And we knew something sketchy was going on. We got a home design that looked like a Best Buy store. And for $40,000 the architectural drawings we received did not include all the design specifications such as electrical, plumbing, engineering that they should have. The next TOP 10 in the Metro DC Design Build group we hired delivered all of that in the first round of architectural plans. DO NOT HIRE SCHROEDER. But here’s what should scare you the most as a home renovator: 1. Andrew called our banker several times to ask how much we could afford – He made our banker feel very uncomfortable. 2. Andrew refused to show us exactly what design plans were submitted to the appraiser. We asked multiple times for these files. He avoided sending them every time. 3. The bank’s independent appraiser actually complained about Andrew, saying he “just doesn’t get it” – when our home’s value was coming in low or ways to improve it’s value. 4. They lead you down a path that is above your budget and then start taking things away or charging more. For example: you expect new drywall in a complete renovation project but yet we heard “We were planning to reuse 50+ yr old drywall – you want new drywall? 5. There was no “what can we do to make this right” from Andrew when we told him he was fired. There was no refund to correct the clearly insufficient design skills of whoever the ghost architect was on our project. Never would I recommend them to anyone. We threw away 6+ months with them. $40,000+ on sketches that were not worth $5,000. Of recent May 2021: I went back into one of the vendor stores that Schroeder introduced us to and spoke with one of the designers that helped us 18 months ago. I told the vendor our situation and this person said they had others leave Schroeder and work directly with the vendor. They weren’t surprised with our situation.