NICK WILLIAMS DESIGNS

My husband and I hired Nick Williams & Associates to build our dream yard with a pool and outdoor bathroom beginning in December 2014. It was a huge project that took a span of over two years to complete. I had seen many of Nick’s designs in Sunset Magazine back in the 1980’s/90’s and was in awe of his vision and talent. When we hired Nick we felt an immediate positive connection with him and we completely trusted him to take our project in a direction he best felt it should go. We do not have unlimited financial resources like I’m sure other clients may have. Nick was mindful of that so he tried to maximize where to put our money for maximum effect and guided us where we could cut some expenses creatively. One example was by using free broken concrete (which looks like stone when dyed) for retaining wall materials, etc. It was genius and the look is right in step with our rustic aesthetic. Nick has always listened to our ideas and desires and has always been cooperative and positive. Never negative or difficult in ANY way. He would simply guide us when we we had thoughts that were different than his and we would always come to conclusions that suited all of our needs. Nick worked with an excellent pool contractor (Splash Pools) that came highly recommended to us whom we had found on our own. They are closer to our home and they did the framing of the pool/ spa which Nick was very amiable about. It saved us money and Nick had nothing but praise for their work. As the project was coming about, it was not without some issues. There were some problems with our spa and and infinity pool edge seeping water through the real boulders that were used. They were pin holes that needed sealing that were very difficult to find and fix at first. Both Nick and the pool/masonry contractors stood by the design and came up with a permanent fixes that suited us all without any extra costs to us. We voiced concerns thinking at first there were design flaw issues that couldn’t be resolved. We were wrong, however. We needed to take a step back and let the experts figure things out. Which we were glad they did. The end result is spectacular. To this day, Nick and the other contractors have always stood by their work. Several repairs/ issues (not that there have been many) long after what we would have thought were after a “warranty” time frame have been remedied without any out of pocket costs to us. Nick not only stands by his work and his lines of accessories such as outdoor lighting, etc. if one of his lights stops working he fixes it or simply gifts us a new one. He comes to visit often and checks on things. He never has let us down and continues to always give of himself through continued deign ideas and simply through his friendship to us. We do not just feel like clients anymore. He is truly a friend. We had the best experience you could ever hope for working with Nick Williams & Associates. He is not only such a gifted artist but also just a caring, giving, honest individual. I cannot give Nick a higher recommendation than one billion stars! He’s fantastic to work with.

Talented designer, but not accountable when things go wrong. Nick Williams definitely does great design work, and he uses high quality contractors. There is no questioning that. Of course, he's really expensive, but good design costs. We'd hired Nick for a couple projects in the past, but we've developed the opinion on the last project that he values his "vision" higher than the needs, requests, or budget of his clients. In other words, Nick is a difficult man to deal with, and he's not very good at listening. Specifically, we needed our project to be completed in stages due to budget limitations. It was clear that the end of each stage should look and feel complete, but at one point he left a bunch of ugly exposed structural masonry. He said there would be a fireplace there in the future. We reminded him that we said, "Maybe there would be a fireplace there, and it would be years (if at all) that we'd do it." At that point, it became a difficult task to get him to clad the exposed masonry properly. Of course, he charged us extra. On the same job, we later discovered that the manner in which he built our patio cover was not done to code. This is something we recently found out from another contractor, and, In fact, there may be safety concerns. We hired Nick to redo our backyard and pool on our last house in 2009. It looked great. A work of art, no doubt. We thought everything was great which is why we hired him to work on our next home. However, I recently learned from the person who bought our old home that the weight of the boulders he placed on the edges of the pool actually caused the pool and the pebbletech surface to crack and leak at that point. This is unfortunate for the new owner because he has no recourse, and he had to eat the entire cost of repairing resurfacing the pool. So... If you have a big budget and you are okay with Nick doing things his way then you'll be fine. But if something goes wrong... watch out! I recommended Nick to a family member. He built a patio structure for them. It looked really great, but it collapsed within a year, and Nick would not take responsibility for it. None. They're still arguing about it. Recently, I wanted to hire one of Nick's contractors to build a fence and shore up the patio structure that he worked on previously. The contractor was afraid to take the job without checking with Nick first. Nick wouldn't let him take the job. How petty. Basically, Nick took out on me his disagreement with my family members by barring this contractor from working for me. Incidentally, this is the last straw that has led me to finally write this review. Perhaps, this is why Nick had us sign separate contracts with each sub-contractor? I imagine this shields Nick when things go wrong. If you decide that Nick's design sensibilities are what you want then I recommend you have ironclad contracts that hold HIM accountable—not his contractors. Furthermore, I've coincidentally had conversations with two other former clients of Nick Williams. Interestingly, they have had similar experiences. In essence, we concluded that Nick is first-and-foremost an artist with an almost stereotypical artist personality. He's difficult, he's prickly, and his people skills suck. He's great when you want what he wants, but it's the times that things go wrong that really matter when it comes to hiring someone. Nick functions like a general contractor, but he's not accountable like one should be.