Welcome to the home of A-1 BUILDERS, INC. and ADAPTATIONS, our design division, recognized as Bellingham and Whatcom County's premier design/build contractor working towards sustainable business and construction practices! We are a full-service remodeling and custom home builder, addressing both residential and light commercial projects. Our team is committed to outstanding workmanship, impeccable aesthetics, and green, sustainable designs that will last many lifetimes.

Every building project can be viewed as a three-legged stool consisting of design, construction and material selection. We provide all three of these skill sets under one roof and this represents added value worth much more than the sum of the three parts. You are buying more than a finished product; you are also buying our knowledge. Our professional input on all three legs of this stool is part of the purchase price and part of what comprises a full service, design/build company.

We can make this process as seamless as you'd like.  The great majority of our work incorporates all three legs of the stool because, whether viewed from your perspective orours, the design/build strategy is a compelling approach to a complex process.  Let us show you how design/build can produce a project that is less expensive, quicker, less prone to communication errors, more seamless, and, all-in-all, less stressful.

While the design/build strategy offers the most intelligent approach to a complex process, this is not sufficient to insure a responsible project, one that acknowledges and addresses the potential environmental impacts of what you do to your home or office.  Responsibility implies utilizing tactics that achieve energy efficiency and resource efficiency, as well as sustainable business and sustainable building practices.  This responsibility drives us; you will find these tactics, and this passion, herein.


OUR AWARD WINNING TEAM
Since 1955 the award winning design/build team of A-1 Builders and Adaptations has served Bellingham and Whatcom County with a seamless approach to quality remodels and custom homes.  Whether you choose a single service from the following list, or the entire seamless cluster, our attention to detail will not falter:

• Complete design service, creating as-builts, site plans, interior and building designs, and engineering details.  We can also help you through the entire permit process.
  
• Specifying products and systems, such as your flooring choices, appropriate heating systems, appliances, lighting solutions, etc.
  
• Providing you a showroom where we can help you choose, and purchase, cabinets, flooring, countertops, ceramic tile and more.  Our offerings of green building materials surpass any other showroom in Bellingham and Whatcom County.
  
• Complete construction services for new and existing buildings, in both the residential and light commercial sectors.

Our expertise includes additions, kitchens, bathrooms, master suites, garage conversions, hardscaping, landscaping, decks, second stories, whole-house remodels, basement remodels, tenant improvements, new custom homes and outstanding outdoor environments.  

Our remodels strive for a seamless tie-in to the existing home so that the changes appear to be an original portion of the structure.

The leadership of Rick Dubrow (President), Cindi Landreth (Vice President, Adaptations' Manager and Designer), Joe Gillmer (Production Manager) and Patrick Martin (Sales, Estimating and Design) steer our design/build team, earning our reputation for innovative designs, attentive professionalism and a focus on excellence and quality service.

Just what kind of design/build team do we offer you?  In early 2007, for example, we employed 18 employees with an average of about 16 years of experience per person! That’s 279 years of human experience paying attention to your dream project. We know what does and doesn’t work because we’ve practically seen it all, thereby marrying practical solutions with an aesthetic, caring touch.

“I hired A-1 Builders for the first time in 1980 to build an addition on my home.  I chose them because, after I received several bids, their bid was the only one to provide the detailed cost breakdown that I had requested.  I was so impressed with their work and professionalism that I have since hired them for three more projects.  My experience has been that they keep me fully informed about progress and the inevitable problems that arise, including specific cost changes that happen when I request an alteration in the original plan. They are prompt and show up when they say they will be there. A-1 Builders has completed my projects in a timely manner and there have been no surprises in cost.  What all this adds up to is a high degree of trust and clear communication.  The bidding process has always gone smoothly with a high degree of flexibility that has allowed me to handle parts of the projects on my own. Rick Dubrow has become a close personal friend - a rarity in the usual downward spiral of complaint-and-dispute that so often occurs between contractors and their clients.  A-1’s employees have been unfailingly friendly, hardworking, and professional.  I have also appreciated the ready availability of the Adaptations side of this business for their help with design aspects of my projects.  I give A-1 Builders my highest recommendation.“ – Michael King

Our expertise, attention to detail and environmental stewardship has led to our receipt of the following prestigious awards since 1994:

1. The Waste Wise Business Award in 1994 from the Whatcom County Waste Reduction and Recycling Program.
   
2. The Bellingham Business Journal’s 1999 Readers Choice Award for Best Home Builder.
   
3. The Bellingham Business Journal’s 2000 Readers Choice Award honorable mention as one of Whatcom County’s Most Community Friendly businesses.
   
4. The Washington State Department of Ecology Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling Award for their small business category (less than 100 employees) for the year 2000-2001.
   
5. The 2001 Governor’s Award for Pollution Prevention and Sustainable Business Practices.
   
6. The Founders of a New Northwest award for 2002 from Sustainable Northwest (a non-profit organization that promotes stewardship and conservation of natural resources and environmentally compatible economic development throughout Alaska, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.)
   
7. RE Sources’ first annual award in 2003 as their Environmental Hero  for their business category.
   
8. The Bellingham Business Journal’s Readers Choice Award as Whatcom County’s Most Environmentally Responsible Business in 2004 and 2005.
   
9. In 2005 EnviroStars awarded us its highest rating: 5 Stars. A-1 Builders is not only the first builder to receive the highest EnviroStars rating in Whatcom County, we were the only builder to receive any level of recognition in the entire 5-county, Western Washington EnviroStar program!
   
10. Received the 2005 Great Feets Award from the Bellingham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee for the beautiful, custom-designed and built bicycle parking facility, or bikeport, constructed at the Bellingham Community Food Coop downtown.  Practically all materials and labor were donated by our employees, suppliers and subs in celebration of A-1 Builders' 50th anniversary (1955 – 2005).

WHAT SETS US APART FROM OTHER CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES?
In order to bid a remodeling project, we usually perform something we call a marathon bid: we meet the appropriate subs at your home before we submit our price to you, thereby learning much more about your home. There’s a reason we are called a general contractor: we are generalists!  Having the subs visit your home, with you present, to discuss problems and solutions before we submit our price to you, offers a level of expertise and accurate pricing inaccessible otherwise. Our construction Proposal price is therefore more realistic and extras are far less likely to occur during construction simply because we've minimized the chance for surprises.

We use the Project Manager approach to manage your project. Our Project Manager is your lead carpenter and project coordinator, driven to maintain the continuity of your project from start to finish.

Our Project Manager has a support team behind them, including the designer. Instead of having to drop what they're building in order to resolve a problem, our Project Manager can call someone else on our team to research a solution while they continue with on-site progress!
  
We are remodeling specialists --- it’s what we like to do! We just don’t remodel when there’s nothing new to build, like so many other builders. Our reputation to perform quality work, as rapidly as possible, has created a trail of happy clients since 1955.  

No matter what materials, design or strategies are used, your project still impacts your neighborhood and environment.  Why not turn your home over to Whatcom County's renowned specialist in orchestrating construction with the smallest ecological footprint?

“My wife Ann and I have been customers of A-1 Builders and their sister company, Adaptations, since 1994, when they remodeled the kitchen and upstairs bathroom of our house in Sudden Valley. We were living in Hawaii, with intentions of moving here eventually, and we'd purchased the house expecting to do some renovations. But we could never have anticipated all the improvements we would need to make, or the creative possibilities that would emerge under the sage guidance of Rick Dubrow. And it is impossible to overstate how satisfied we have been with the results.  Within several years of those initial projects we made additional improvements on the house almost too numerous to mention. Being over three thousand miles away could have been a nightmare. Yet we were blessed to have Rick's imaginative insights and sensitive stewardship at this end, which enabled us to make long-distance decisions with confidence that our best interests were always the uppermost consideration. In fact the cost of the project quite often ended up less than the original estimate, and always when we came to visit we were overjoyed by the quality of the workmanship.  Now that we finally moved into our house, A-1 has already done a number of jobs for us----and we have several larger projects in the works for the spring.  And now that we know most of the A-1 team personally, we can say we've never met a  better bunch of craftspeople ---- skilled, knowledgeable, courteous and concerned...." - Philip Damon