We are very happy we used Tinka Construction to remodel our small bathroom and update our kitchen…read more George and his crew are super friendly, clean, and creative at solving transitions between spaces. His team is resourceful and they did not generate excessive work to add cost. For our kitchen / laundry facelift, we updated the flooring, backsplash, lighting, and reconfigured our laundry area. George's crew helped to side vent the dryer which the big box store was unable to do. George gave valuable input on our bathroom design to optimize the small space. He had suggestions for an in-wall toilet, a corner sink, window ledge niche, and talked us out of a doorless shower (thank you!). He knows small spaces very well and was able to place the fixtures in their best locations. George would give us a heads up on our requests that were going to cost more than ~1k. He had some subcontractors come in to help with varying degrees of quality and cleanliness. We are glad he managed the plumbing contractor who had to come back 3 times. His paint jobs varied quite a bit in consistency depending on who was painting. The best part of working with George was that we were expecting our first child, and he worked very hard to complete the project before her due date. To our surprise and delight he totally finished it before she arrived!

George helped us with a complete remodel for our home in Berkeley. He and his crew (Oni, Enrique,…read moreMarvin, Wuillian) are extremely smart, honest, professional and creative. His pricing is also reasonable and transparent. We started with an awkward layout (even no room for fridge in the kitchen!) and ended with a tastefully transformed home: open, modern and feels much more spacious than before. George is patient, transparent, detail oriented (with a special eye for safety!) and always a clever problem solver on behalf of his clients. What he did for our project was too much to list, but I'm attaching a few photos where the end results can speak for itself! Contractors like George is hard to come by and highly sought after in the current environment, we would recommend him to any one who values craftsmanship and quality!

We hired counterforce to do our seismic retrofit work for our house in South Berkeley. These guys…read morewere the best contractors I've hired. Clean, professional, and they did really excellent work on time and on budget. I could not recommend them more.

I hired Counterforce Inc to do mandated retrofit work for my apartment building in Oakland. James…read moreand his crew were the ultimate professionals from beginning to end, timely, responsive, friendly .... easily the best contractor experience you could ask for. I highly recommend Counterforce Inc.

Bob and his Reedco team built two ADUs for me at my East Bay apartment complex. The ADUs were built…read morefrom the ground up - and Bob was the GC. He perfomed the site work, foundation work, framing, all MEP, drywall, paint, and finishes. He was easy to communicate with and navigated the construction process well. He has quality work and is fairly priced. I would recommend him to anyone and I plan on working with him again.

Reedco completed an extensive renovation of a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment for us. Although we had…read moreideas of what should be done, we listened to Bob's suggestions and ended up accepting pretty much all of them. We felt confident his approach made a lot of sense. However, since this was the first project Reedco did for us, we weren't 100% sure how it was going to unfold, but we are happy to say all went well. The crew was as nice and as accommodating as one can expect. Although the project took a little longer than we had planned, the result was spectacular. Reedco took an uninhabitable apartment and turned it into an apartment that's not only livable, but stunning. Thank you Bob, and a big thank you to the entire crew. A special thanks to Raymundo who led the job.

We had a formidable request for Berkeley Craftsman (BC), to demolish a very old, dilapidated…read morestructure in Kensington and replace it with an entirely new home; and to do it all when we were living 3000 miles away in New York. To top it off, along came COVID adding to the challenge. But BC brothers and co-owners, Michael and Mark Butler, came through with flying colors. They are masters of their art and I couldn't recommend them more highly. We started working with Michael Butler developing an estimate after our wonderful architect , Cathy Roha, drew up plans taking into account all the restrictions dictated by county, oddity of the very irregular lot, and neighbors' sensitivities. We went through several iterations with BC and Cathy in response to surprises discovered underground on the property during the long permitting process, as well as to keep the cost within our budget. They listened and came up with suggestions for changes. It was a team effort all the way through the project with Mark, Travis Cutright, the project manager who is truly wonderful, the plumber, tiler, electrician, and other great subs. This may be a first, but as much as anyone enjoys having construction going on next door to them, the neighbors were totally impressed with BC, who went overboard to respond immediately to their concerns. The entire BC crew take great pride in their work and they regularly sent us photos along with lots of suggestions as we struggled to make decisions from across a country racked with COVID. Showrooms weren't open making choices difficult, but we had lots of help from Mark and Cathy. No one got infected working on the house, a tribute to their following strict protocol. Even with the shutdown in 2020 and accommodation to the distancing rules following re-opening, the project came in on budget and had PG&E not delayed turning off the gas / and delayed again turning it on, it would have been exactly on schedule. Pretty impressive! The house looks beautiful, is beautifully built, and we love living here. One year later, Mark still responds to minor problems we discover. We couldn't have been in better hands for this daunting project and are grateful we had the opportunity to have BC build our new home.

We hired Berkeley Craftsmen for a major remodel of a 1932 house, and they exceeded our expectations…read morein every possible dimension. It is exceedingly rare to find all the qualities you want in a general contractor--top to bottom throughout an organization--but Berkeley Craftsmen delivered them all: exceptional competence and skill, absolute reliability and trustworthiness, meticulous attention to detail, and a genuinely delightful team to work with. They should really be called Berkeley Perfectionists--in the best sense of the term. We would walk through the house, and someone would suggest moving something "one inch," and every time they were right. It's hard to believe, but they cared about our house just as much as we did. The entire team worked incredibly hard and steadily over the course of ten months. Even when we expanded the project scope--sometimes at their insistence, because they were committed to doing things properly--they stuck to the schedule and finished on the promised date. Literally no one could believe it, but we moved in on the day we had agreed to at the start. We cannot speak highly enough of the integrity, craftsmanship, and quality of Berkeley Craftsmen's work. And just as important, we were lucky to enjoy the camaraderie and collaboration that came with working alongside this remarkable team.

We recently completed a kitchen and bathroom remodel with HHR, and we could not be happier with the…read moreresults! From start to finish, the team was professional, knowledgeable, responsive, and genuinely committed to making sure the finished spaces were exactly what we envisioned. A remodel is a major undertaking, and there are inevitably a lot of decisions and moving pieces along the way. What really stood out to us was the quality of the work and the attention to detail. Our kitchen and bathroom have been completely transformed, and the finished spaces are both beautiful and functional. The craftsmanship is excellent, and the entire team and crew clearly take pride in their work. They were thoughtful about the details, worked hard to keep everything moving and on schedule, and were always willing to answer questions and make adjustments along the way. We would absolutely recommend HHR to anyone considering a remodel. After having to put our remodel on hold for over a year, we came back to work with them, and we are so very glad we did. Thank you, Jason, Sadie, Dylan, and the entire crew, for all of your hard work and for helping bring our vision to life!

Home Healing Renovations completed a comprehensive remodel of my house that included some serious…read morefoundation retrofitting and concrete site work. This was a big 10-month project that involved coordinating with an architect and multiple engineering disciplines. I hired HHR on a personal recommendation, but also because I could tell that Jason cares first and foremost about doing quality work, and is a straightforward and honest communicator - not always easy to find in a contractor. The house looks great, tons of neighbors walking by keep telling me so, so it's not just my opinion - but also, several neighbors have commented on how nice and friendly Jason's crews are. That was my experience too, if you hire this company most or all of the work will be done by employees who - as best I can tell - like their jobs and the owner. That makes a big difference in how the project goes. Shout outs to Rafael, Costa, Santos, and everyone who put tons of work into fixing up the house.

Jimmy Stuart Construction did a fairly large job for us in our 60-year-old home in El Cerrito. He…read moregutted and rebuilt our kitchen/dining area and two bathrooms, did some structural work (new beam, shear walls), and numerous odds and ends (laundry room, outdoor deck and lighting). His experienced team has been together for years and is highly professional and committed to detailed work done right. They became like an extension of our family. They always went the extra mile to give us what we wanted. The crew kept the house clean, responded quickly to our calls, and coordinated well with subcontractors (cabinets, windows, plumbing, electrical, countertops, brickwork, mudders, painter). Jimmy was a wizard handling the permitting process. Stuart has a practical approach to solving all the issues that arise during construction. He discussed the problems and offered solutions. As things were finished he came back and fixed the little glitches that come up and made adjustments as needed. The work was done in two months, as promised, and, considering the adjustments we made along the way, was essentially on budget. Results are amazing, like living in a new house. We highly recommend Jimmy Stuart Construction.

1. Emailed Stuart Construction with a description of our project and request to schedule a time for…read morea consult. No reply after more than a week. 2. Called their telephone number only to get a voicemail message saying the voicemail box was full and could not accept any messages. 3. Called again and spoke to Jimmy who asked me to email him the details of the job. 4. Emailed Jimmy, more days went by without a response. 5. Received a call from Jimmy and apology. He said there was a possibility of stopping by our house that weekend to walk through, and would call to followup. Never received a call. The end.

I can't recommend Duval Construction enough. Everyone we worked with was knowledgeable,…read moreprofessional and courteous. They built a beautiful driveway with very specific requirements---to match a Mid Century home. It turned out even better than I had hoped! They were responsive to issues that came up along the way, and minimized inconvenience during construction. The site was kept neat and clean between installations. The rebar laying was a work of art. Our neighbors (and even people we don't know) have commented on the finished work with enthusiastic compliments. Lastly, but not least, Celine, the office manager is one of the nicest, most efficient and professional managers I have ever had the pleasure of speaking with. Thank you Duval, for making our driveway a thing of beauty!

Duval Construction completed a complicated job of repairing our subfloor when we found out we had a…read morebad case of dry rot on our existing floor joists. They worked with an engineer to come up with the most efficient and cost saving way to do this, which saved our existing flooring from being torn up. To complicate things even more we were on a time crunch and they did their best to accommodate us, successfully completing their work on a tight schedule. Can not recommend them enough, they are honest, hard working, responsive and kind.

It is so rare to find a contractor who is willing to take on a range of tasks from small to large…read moreand do excellent work on every task. Harvey Varga took on a whole list of things that we needed done--from building a 150-foot fence, building a sidewalk and concrete pad, rebuilding kitchen cabinets to install a dishwasher, putting in a new vent fan, fixing an improperly installed dryer vent, etc. He was very responsive to our initial request for work and had a crew with a couple of days. Each task was given detailed attention and done with perfection. His crews were efficient, competent, thoughtful, and quiet. They were respectful of us, our property, our neighbors, and our dogs, and cleaned up at the end of each day. It was a pleasure to work with Harvey Varga and his crews. We give him and them our highest recommendation particularly for someone who has a mix of small and large jobs. Tom & Virginia

Harvey and his team did an excellent job stabilizing and repairing our outdoor stairs. The stairs…read morewere in really poor shape and felt like they were ready to fall down, so we needed the work done immediately. Harvey was extremely responsive and his crew started quickly. He communicated clearly about what was possible and was honest when the stairs turned out to be in worse condition than first assessed. The team replaced the unsalvageable parts and stabilized the rest, and the workmanship on the parts they replaced looks solid. All-in-all there was only so much they could do given the stairs were built incorrectly and were in very bad condition, but they pulled through and got everything into a safe, workable state. Harvey was also a really nice guy to talk with. Professional, personable, and easy to work with. He kept us informed when the timeline shifted, worked efficiently, and left the area tidy when they finished.