I have only had one encounter with Ferber Construction and I would not let them near my home with a swiss army knife, let alone any kind of serious construction (or destruction) equipment. My interaction with Ferber construction started with a maniac driving the wrong direction down a very narrow street in front of an open air mall with not much room in front of the store fronts before pedestrians would be entering the street. This particular street had speed bumps around every 50 feet or so. This vehicle was so fed up with me driving slowly in front of the stores looking for pedestrians and slowing down for every speed bump that the driver felt it was necessary to pass in a cross walk and not slow down for any more speed bumps. He then sped through the Home Improvement store parking lot and felt entitled enough to park in the lumber loading zone while he did his shopping. I happened to be heading to the same store and after I parked I walked into the store passing the maniac's vehicle. I was well surprised when finding a company sticker on the pickup advertising Ferber Construction. Surely somebody would try and drive less recklessly when advertising for their company. I called the number thinking that the owner of the company would like to know if his employees are mistreating his vehicle and generally making a nuisance of themselves. When explaining who I was and why I was calling, this man started a profanity laced tirade about driving slow and cell phones. I explained that there was no reason for someone to drive the way he did in a parking lot and that his speeding and reckless driving only saved him around 4 seconds. He decided that this was a challenge to his honor and wanted me to "tell it to his face". I told him where I was and that I was just entering the store and I would be glad to discuss it face to face. He responded by repeatedly asking where I was and so I kept telling him, I'm entering the store, I am at the entrance and I would be glad to talk to him about it. He mumbled one last thing then hung up the phone. I am a rather large man, I believe the owner of Ferber Construction truly did not want to discuss this face to face and avoided me after seeing me. I waited for a couple of minutes and then went and did my shopping. By the time I had finished shopping, I had forgotten the name of the construction company. I saw that his vehicle was still parked in the lumber loading zone so I loaded up my vehicle and started to drive that way to write down the name of his company. The owner of Ferber construction saved me the trouble by driving in front of me very slowly glaring at me. I recognized the vehicle and even recognized the owner as someone who had walked pass me in the store entrance mumbling. I got a good look at the name of the company again and pointed to the man indicating that I recognized him and his vehicle. He then proceeded to exit the store parking lot at a high rate of speed and got back onto the main road quickly and I assume, sped away. I did not have a "professional" encounter with Ferber construction in any way. I certainly didn't hire him and never would. I would not hire him even not considering the escalated conflict from the phone call. His disregard for the safety of others around him and the short-cuts he took while driving would probably show up in his work as well. His sense of entitlement does not bode well for any kind of courtesy or respect. His completely unprofessional and confrontational manner at any kind of criticism does not indicate that this would be a person who would like to be corrected on the job or even be open to suggestion that you would like to have it done a little differently. In summary, I wouldn't let him come near my home or business to do anything. read more

Gary Ferber was recommended to us a number of years ago, after a contractor flaked and abandoned our fencing project. If I ever see that guy again, I'm going to thank him-- Gary has turned out to be our best contractor experience by far. My wife and I have renovated our home in South Austin over a number of years, and Gary has been a gigantic help on a ton of projects, large and small. He finished the original fencing project quickly and affordably, and has worked with us on probably 15 projects since with the same attention to schedule and budget. He's never delayed projects or surprised us with additional fees or wild budget changes. On projects where there were surprises beyond his control, he worked with us to find smart solutions that worked for everyone. We've worked with Ferber on renovating a kitchen and bathroom, removing popcorn ceiling and adding recessed lighting, building fencing and other structural elements outside as well. I think he's touched just about every aspect of our home, from construction to renovation, electrical, you name it. Gary can build anything you might want, but he's also a great resource for design ideas. He recently worked with us on designing and building a great modern shed and large steel planter, and completely transformed our home office with wall-to-ceiling bookshelves, stained concrete floors and new windows. I don't often write Yelp reviews, but we've recommended Gary to just about everyone we know looking for help with home renovation so there's no reason not to share that information here as well. He's never disappointed us. read more

We called Gary to give us an estimate on finishing out the reno on our dining room. We choose to go with him due to the pricing and the quick start date. He repaired drywall, cover ugly ceiling tiles with new sheet rock, textured everything and built stair frames. It has been 4 months and we have had to basically re-do or touch up EVERYTHING his team did. Pretty quickly after the job was complete we had to rebuild the stair frames as they were not tied in completely to the wall and wobbled each time you stepped on them. We also had to try and fix cracks in our brand new ceiling (new as in brand new sheet rock). About one month ago was when our frustration level increased. On one wall of our dining room we started to notice four big lines appear where the sheet rock panels matched side by side. Also, in one corner the drywall tape starting coming up from the wall and now it's a mess. At this point we called Gary to ask that he come and fix the issues. On our first call he answered and said he would send someone out that week to fix it. We never heard from him. I have called 4 more times and left a message. We have yet to hear back from him. The most frustrating part of this horrible experience is that we wanted to finally hire professionals to complete part of our renovations so we could have a break from working on the weekends and after work. It is going to be really difficult to trust any construction workers with projects after this experience. I have never written a negative yelp review until now but this has been ridiculous. read more

I called Gary to help renovate our dining room. We asked him to repair the drywall, cover ugly ceiling tile with new sheet rock and texture everything. We also paid for them to build new stair frames as we ripped out out-dated wrap-around stairs leading into the dining room. It has been 4 months and we have had to basically re-do or touch up everything we paid for them to do. We had to rebuild the stair frames as they were not tied into the wall and wobbled when you stepped on them. We have had to try and fix the cracks in the new ceiling. And one month ago the tape in one corner of the wall began coming undone leaving the corner in a mess AND on one wall you could see the 4 protruding lines where the sheet rock were matched side by side. After the corner and lines of the wall we were fed up and called Gary to ask that he come back and fix the corner and wall. He answered the first call and said he would send someone out that week......no one contacted us. My husband called back 4 more times and left a message. We still haven't received a phone call back. The frustration level we have over the simple jobs we paid him to do is beyond belief. The most frustrating part is that this was the first renovation project we actually paid a construction company to do because we wanted a break from renovation work. After spending a decent amount of money we are having to go back and try to fix just about EVERYTHING we wanted a professional to do. It's going to be really difficult to trust someone doing renovation work now after this experience. read more