This review is long overdue. Michael and his team, including Max and Alberto and the rest of the crew, were wonderful and easy to work with. We first hired Artifex for our home renovation which included new kitchen, two new baths, new windows and sliders, refinishing existing hardwood floors, insulation throughout, new electrical, and interior and exterior paint. We even removed a wall and installed new support beams. The work was completed in 4 months and that included a pandemic related delay. The entire team is highly skilled and professional. They offer smart suggestions and good alternatives. And I can't say enough about the quality of their finish work - tile and carpentry. We hired Artifex again for our deck and railing replacement project and experienced the same level of professionalism. We would definitely hire them again for any future projects....That is, if they can fit us in :-) read more

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We hired Mike and his team to completely gut and redo our kitchen, master bath, and master bedroom. In addition, we asked for a face lift on the guest bath and new hardwoods throughout the house. There literally wasn't a room in the house that we didn't touch. We originally got 4 quotes on the job and Mike's quote was in the middle range but it was the most complete quote, and he also spent a lot of time even before we signed the contract answering our questions and walking us through each line item. For two people who had never gone through a major renovation before this was incredibly helpful. He originally told us it would take 3 - 4 months to complete the job and everyone who we talked to, who had been through a renovation, told us to expect at least double that. True to his word, Mike and his team completed the work in under 4 months and this was after we were delayed by two weeks when they had to fix shotty work that had been done before we moved in. In addition Mike was very conscious of our budget. He helped us pick cost efficient products and often helped us located less expensive alternatives when he knew of a good option. On the other hand, he and his team are very committed to high quality work and would also let us know if it was worth it to spend the extra money on certain items. If there were places where we could save money by doing the work ourselves, Mike worked with us to let us do that which was a huge plus for us. Throughout the process Mike and his head carpenter Luiz were responsive and did a great job of keeping the whole team on task. In addition, either Mike or Luis were on-site monitoring the work almost every day. This is not a company where you never see the general contractor. I also have to say they were both incredibly responsive to our calls and emails. We are both extremely detail oriented people and Mike took the time to answer all of our questions and he responded in a timely manner. The final product couldn't have turned out better. We have had people tell us that our house looks like it came out of a magazine. And, they are right...it turned out amazingly well, on-time, and within budget!! I would recommend Mike, Luiz, and the rest of the team to anyone. read more

I am very happy to recommend Michael. He and his crew did an incredible job on our home renovation which involved gutting our 2 story colonial-style home in North Berkeley down to the studs -- completely remodeling our kitchen & 2 bathrooms and installing a third bathroom as well as making structural changes to various rooms and spaces in the house. Throughout the whole process Michael was attentive to our needs and constantly checked to make sure we were happy with the work in-progress. His crew's attention-to-detail was fantastic and my wife and I are extremely satisfied with the outcome. read more

Artifex was our choice for the re-do of our 34 year old kitchen remodel. They installed all new cabinets, patched our tile floor, updated the lighting, installed all new appliances (range, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave/convection oven) and replaced the sink and faucet. Michael Miller (the contractor) recommended an excellent draftsperson and he worked with her to ensure that our project plans received same-day approval from the City of Berkeley Planning Department when they were submitted. He anticipated and prepared for each step of the inspection process so we had no problems. Every one of his workmen was an outstanding craftsman with a keen eye for detail in their trade and expert artistry in their work. They were very clean and kept debris from getting into the rest of our house. They helped us set up a temporary kitchen, and returned all the furniture to its original location. They were all a pleasure to work with, making the work flow smoothly from start to finish. read more

We recently did an extensive remodel on our home in El Cerrito. We chose Michael Miller with Artifex Construction to be the general contractor. And are we glad we did. The whole experience was very positive. Michael and his crew are very professional and are talented artisans. They are always on time, on budget, and very trustworthy. Michael was very competitive in his bid. He was instrumental in helping with our designs and came up with numerous ideas to improve our home as we went along. Michael is smart and very creative. Michael and his crew made the whole experience much less stressful (remember this was a major remodel with a new kitchen, new sunroom, bathroom and dressing room remodel, new cabinetry, new decking with stairs, new house siding, earthquake upgrade, and new roofing). Our home is now quite beautiful worthy of a magazine spread. We love our new home. We highly recommend Michael Miller and Artifax Construction to anyone interested in doing new construction on their home. Give Michael a call and he will gladly give you our phone number as a reference. You will be glad you did! Leslie and Ken El Cerrito read more

We are so glad we chose Artifex for the major renovation we completed in May 2021. The project involved a complete renovation of the kitchen/dining room (2 load bearing walls removed, steel beam), 2 totally renovated bathrooms, one new bathroom, complete renovation of large laundry room, and conversion of a downstairs space into a teen bedroom. Michael's estimate was fair, his foreman Max was terrific to work with, and his subs did a really great job. They're all smart and determined to do it right. When unexpected issues arose, Michael was proactive about offering solutions and his change orders were reasonable. Michael was also really patient about my frequent changes of mind about certain details, like the location of a closet or paint colors. We were back in our house on schedule, even though the project extended over the holiday season. Whenever I popped in to see what was happening, I found the crew hard at work. The house looks fantastic, and the quality of the work is exceptional. Not to brag, but you should see my tile and my floors. The tile was complicated, and we wanted to match the existing random plank oak floors with wooden pegs. Honestly, I still can't believe what a great job they did on both. We've heard lots of negative renovation stories from friends who used other contractors, but Artifex exceeded our expectations by far. We're planning on having them do some structural work next year. read more

We used Artifex to perform a complete remodel of our kitchen, including moving a wall and an outside door, plus adding a half bath into a space that was previously a closet. We are very happy with the result. Also, the process itself went really well. Michael quickly resolved issues we brought to his attention, and he provided a lot of sage, helpful advice. Our discussions always felt collaborative, and we felt that charges for modifications from the estimate were very fair. The team, led by Luis, was great - working normal hours, protecting the house from damage and dust, and just generally being friendly and easy to have around. The quality of their workmanship was excellent. I highly recommend this company. read more

The net is: if Michael/Artifex can fit you into his schedule, hire him. We hired Michael to completely remodel our 1961 contemporary in Piedmont. New kitchen, 4 new bathrooms, all new HVAC, plumbing, electrical, drywall, floors and finish work. The job was done on time and on budget. His pricing was very reasonable (which is a deal in this market). Our real estate person and neighbors practically fall over when we tell them that we accomplished the entire remodel in two and half months. We were really lucky, but the sheer fact that Michael had the subcontractors and employees who were able to scramble and make things happen on that aggressive timeline is pretty much unheard of. I am an ex-contractor and Michael and his team are amazing at what they do. The team are really pros when it comes to finish work ... beautiful work and amazing attention to detail. At the same time, they are superb framing carpenters ... many times I had to talk them out of additional framing support. I would much rather have a contractor over build structural components rather than skimp on framing ... particularly when you live in an earthquake zone. The electrical, plumbing and tiling subs were amazing craftsmen in addition to wonderfully kind and fun people. Towards the end of the project, my wife and three kids lived through the construction, and I never had a concern about poor behavior or language. In addition, my wife moved from Boston and considers many of the folks on Michael's team her first friends in California. The only criticism I can make of Michael is that his personal design tastes are more traditional and mine are more modern, but it was never a problem. He suggested options and never complained if we didn't go with his smart suggestions ... although much of the time we did. It was really a wonderful experience working with Michael and Artifex. I remember calling his references before our project, and the references were so overwhelmingly positive that I was suspicious that the references were relatives of Michael (which they were not). How often do you find anyone who says that they went through a huge remodel and says that they love their contractor? Not many is my guess. I am half considering buying another fixer-upper just to do another project with Michael. If he has time to squeeze you into his busy schedule, sign him up ASAP. read more

Artiflex Construction - Micheal & crew are skilled craftsman in residential remodeling, the recently completed the installation of kitchen cabinetry, trim and misc. carpentry as part of the complete remodel of our bungalow kitchen. We are thrilled with the quality, the care, and the costs. He seems to have a talented crew - certainly Alberto and Luis are gems. Although our kitchen project is on the small end of their spectrum of work - they treated us very well, made a schedule which worked of us, provided good suggestions, and quoted additional work very reasonably. We will definitely seek them out again. read more

Michael was recommended to me by Jeffrey Lim at KitchenSync (also 5 stars-see http://www.yelp.com/biz/kitchensync-berkeley) when I needed advice about replacing my tacky particle-board kitchen cabinets . From there things escalated to produce a beautiful new kitchen which has vastly improved my quality of my life. We did not change the size or layout of the smallish square kitchen, except for changing the orientation of a breakfast nook. All my appliances were up to date too. What I got was new maple cabinets and hardware, Caesar stone countertops, LED lighting under the cabinets, deep new sink and fixtures, 3/4" oak floor to replace the peeling linoleum and match the hardwood in the adjoining dining room and living room. We were so happy with Michael and Luis (foreman - the guy you see very morning over your first cup of coffee when you undertake something like this) that we ended up redoing both bathrooms also . One bathroom a relatively minor facelift - I had a leak behind the tile and huge mushrooms were starting to bloom, so we had to remove the existing (gray and pink 50s) tile to see what was going on. So I got new glass tile around the original tub, a new carrrera floor, low-flow toilet, fan, paint. Then we gutted the pathetic little second bathroom which we had put together from 2 closets when we bought the place in '91, took some space from an adjoining home office, added a window because there had been none (our original contractor had told us this was impossible but Michael and Luis did if - a narrow window that lets in natural light in the morning and makes a huge difference), new walk-in shower, floor, vanity, toilet, great tile work on the floor and shower. In conjunction with these major projects we ended up putting in some new windows, refinishing the floors in the entire house, painting. Michael and Luis and their entire crew were great. Especially for someone like me - I am not into remodeling and shopping, my husband even less so to put it mildly. I didn't really know what I wanted, no idea of a "dream kitchen" or that kind of stuff. I just wanted it to be over and better. But I love the improvements, my house is so nice now. I put off doing work on the house all these years partly because of the money but also partly because of bad experiences with contractors in the past. The Artifex guys are great, they have a great bedside manner, they will not rip you off. The job was well-done and within budget and time estimates. All the employees and subcontractors (electrician, plumber, tile, floor) are highly skilled and seem to feel good about the company. When things did not go smoothly (flaws in some of the cabinets when they arrived from the manufacturer for example) they caught the problems right away and dealt with them. I recommend them without reservation. read more