Dabbs Design and Development, Inc. - Whittier, California

Chuck S.

I would not hire them again, or recommend them to anyone. Unfortunately, I am currently trying to find somebody to redo everything they did.

Randy and Lisa started off great. They came out to the project site, he had Trex catalogs and we talked about different ideas and solutions. When they were working on their estimate, they needed more details and came out an additional two times. The estimate was in the middle of the pack. Not the most expensive and not the cheapest. Lisa, Randy and I started going back and forth on the proposal/estimate… and this is where I started noticing problems. I would say I needed a few things changed on the proposal, they said they would take care of it. Then about a week later I would get another estimate and they didn’t make the changes I wanted. We would talk about it and they would say they would make the changes. I would get the revised estimate and same thing. Sometimes they would kind of make the changes, but not like I typed it out. Eventually I thought I was being too nitpicky and said close enough. In hindsight, I should have stopped here and not continued with them.
My project was to remove existing flagstone tile and wood railing from my front patio and replace that with Trex aluminum railing. And to change my steps from 3 steps to 4 steps to make the rise shorter and a wider step. And to add ADA rails to the handrails.
At project start I spoke with Randy and said I understand this is a construction project, but this front patio is are only way in and out of the house where we can lock the house up, so we needed to make sure we kept access to it as much as possible. He said he understood, but apparently he didn’t. The first thing they did was demo which involved taking out all the tile and taking down all the railing. Railing to include the handrails for the stairs. Now there is no way my elderly mother can use the stairs. I thought it was going to put up some temporary railing, but he didn’t. We lost use of the stairs and front door on Day 1, Dec 11 and didn’t get use of the stairs/front door again until around Jan 24th. Project finished on Feb 22, 2024

This review is already too long, but to abbreviate… the quality of their work is horrible. Towards the end of the project I stopped asking Randy to ‘fix’ things because he kept making it worse and I already knew I was going to have to get somebody else in to fix things. The PVC conduit he used for the electrical wires for the lighting… he didn’t use any glue to hold the connectors together, he didn’t plug the holes, etc. Today I realized that there are only 2 bolts holding down the railing post at the bottom of the stairs. He only installed 3 of the 4 bolts and one of those wasn’t installed correctly and wouldn’t tighten down.

Within 15 minutes of Randy “finishing” the project and leaving the site I had an electrician on site to see what it was going to take to fix what Randy had done. The electrician kept shaking his head in disbelief. My advice is to avoid Dabbs Design. In the end he outsmarted me and got me to pay full price for very very poor job that I will have to get redone. Unfortunately, it was probably easier to just pay to get him out of there instead of taking another route.

Jacqueline D.

Randy of Dabbs Design and Development is the only contractor my family has ever hired. We've worked with Dabbs Design and Development for a few years now on several different home projects. Randy and his crew are always professional, always pleasant, always helpful if you're not sure of what you need (or want). Randy will work on several ideas for you to choose from when you're unsure of which direction to take and he's not afraid to tell you if your choice isn't going to work.. rather than do what you ask and then you're dissatisfied. Randy and his crew have been in my home and it's always like having family over. My small granddaughters live with us and they love Randy! The work done on our home is top quality! The items needed for a job (ie flooring, toilet, bathtub, tile) are always the industry best. We are very pleased and satisfied with the work provided by Dabbs Design and Development and continue to call them back for more projects! Lastly, we really appreciate the personal touches provided to us. We had a water filter system installed and the company doing the work said they'd call their contractor for some minor work due to installation. I didn't want anyone touching my home! I called Randy and he came immediately and did the work himself. Also, we purchased a shed from a costco road show (don't ever do that), Randy saw how poorly it was built and once we returned it, he offered to build us a shed.... WHICH TURNED INTO AN ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL ROOM WITH MARBLE FLOOR! It is now my granddaughters school room since they are being homeschooled. Eventually, it will be my dream "she-shed!" After some heavy rain, we were having trouble opening the school door. I called Randy and again he came to help in just a few hours! As I speak, we are under reconstruction in the bathroom for water damage. Thank you, Randy, Dabbs Design and Development and thank you to your crew for all the hard work you continue to put into our home! Sincerely, The Dewees Family

Carlos T.

HORRIBLE, UNPROFESSIONAL AND DOES NOT SEEM LEGIT