See review by Leah T. After much trial and error with contractors, I finally found Builders Now…read more 110% recommended!

Joining the "wild west" frontier of ADU construction in Southern California has been fraught with…read morecountless, never-ending, stress-filled, unexpected, and costly challenges along the way. This has been my personal experience since March 2024, when I first started my journey into the world of ADU building. Within one year, I had fired two contractors and wasted thousands of dollars (see my other review for the full story) on re-design and re-engineering--all while navigating the bureaucratic world of the City of San Diego Development Services Department. At that point, I was pretty much ready to give up, but I was in too deep to turn back. After learning from these costly mistakes, I finally found Chris Riha, founder and CEO of Builders Now. He was the 10th contractor I interviewed after I was left with no contractor by the spring of 2025.Builders Now is a breath of fresh air. It is a small but growing business done the right way: built on trust, honesty, and integrity. The level of thoroughness in the bidding process was unlike any other contractor I had met; Chris asked us questions we had never considered and, most importantly, made sure there was a clear plan and a mutual understanding of expectations all clearly laid out and explained. He was always available for questions, not just only after he won our business. Chris has built a strong team, with Brad Hibbard, our Project Manager, taking the lead on handling scheduling, inspections, and subcontractors with precision and close attention to every detail. Simon and Galen bring decades of experience and fine craftsmanship to their work, which really shone through when we got down to the finishes.As with any major construction project, there were a few hiccups along the way, but that is to be expected. What makes a company not just good but great is when they remain accountable and take the time to make things right. Construction is a competitive field, but the businesses that last are the ones like Builders NOW. It's not fun being the guinea pig, but hopefully, this review can help others save a ton of time and heartache. 110% recommended!

Stan is an honest, dependable, and experienced licensed general contractor. My neighbors and I…read morehired him to install deck steps. We have a shared area and individual entrances. He was extremely helpful during the estimation process. He researched and advised on materials that were ideal for the beach area. He was able to address the damage to the structure due to salt air. He and his crew were professional, completing the job on time and budget. He even repositioned a pipe that stuck out from the wall. I've had the steps now over a year. They are attractive and well installed.

Over the past 10 Years Palmer construction has done multiple projects for us. Stan is consistently…read morereliable and always does the highest quality work. He won't let you down.

After listing a variety of problems that needed the attention of a experienced handyman, who was…read moreversatile enough to address problems in many areas, I hired Trent to do some work on my shower, also repair my front door and do various smaller items that needed attention. I give his service 5 He arrived promptly with a list of things I requested Arrived with all the tools he needed to finish the my wish list. Also arrived right on time. I highly recommend him for several reasons. His quote was very thorough and covered what he was going to be doing. Arrived on time - this is important to me, shows the home owner's time matters to him. Very knowledgeable about various problems that occur in homes over the years, and even better, he cheerfully answers any questions I had about the repairs. Would not hesitate to use Trent for any upcoming repairs. Janet Ballard

Glen Street Construction carried out 2 major projects at my house updating 2 bathrooms along with…read moremy kitchen. The bathroom work consisted of tiling both of my bathrooms (which included a Wainscot tile section and 45-degree titled tiling besides the horizontal tiling) , replaced all 3 toilets, installed a new bathroom fan, installed over a half dozen towel racks and toilet holders, installed 3 vanity lights along with touch up painting, repaired both bathroom floors which had water and termite damage, installed 2 shower doors, installed LED lights in each bathroom, installed a tub, install of 2 shower heads and their respective plumbing, and followed up with touch up painting were needed. The other major project was a kitchen upgrade. This upgrade consisted of painting all the kitchen cabinets and all 3 bathroom vanities, installing granite tops in the kitchen and all 3 vanities, installation of a tile back splash in the kitchen, install of a new kitchen sink, install of 60+ cabinet handles, and installs of 3 new faucets in the bathrooms. Also included in this job was some drywall repairs or my downstairs ceilings to fix some poor workmanship from earlier construction when the house was originally built. Touch up painting was then done after all the kitchen and other work described was completed. I am very satisfied with the work performed by Glen Street Construction! And would I have this company back again to do more work you bet! They were very professional throughout the entire 2 projects and were always ready to correct or fix or whatever I requested in a very timely fashion. If they were going to be late or something changed that required a work delay they always notified me so I wasn't surprised which I greatly appreciated. The also made some suggestions related to the design such as tiling and counter tops that helped me make my design choices. I am designed challenged and needed some advice from someone a bit more well versed in such matters and I got that help from this company. I am glad I listened as the final product came out very well. In addition, I also found it helpful that I didn't have to be there the entire time the work was being performed. They did the work while I was at work and when issues or whatever came up we either communicated via text messages, email or phone which worked out well in this case. Again I was never surprised when I came home at night due to the good line of communication this company kept with me. Even on the weekends if something changed I was notified on several occasions, so again no surprises. They even sent me pictures via text messages to show me how good things were coming along which was a great preview for me so I didn't have to wait and see until I got home later that day. Oh yes, I need to mention how good they cleaned up each day. Many times after I got home the place looked like no one had ever been there except for the new work done. They did a good job cleaning up after themselves. They also were very good at putting down tarps on the floors and rugs to keep them from getting messed up from the construction work. All in all I love my 3 new bathrooms and new kitchen that the Glen Street Construction company left me after all their hard work and effort!

Hi all. If you are interested in new or remodel construction I think Glen and Teddi would be worth…read moreconsulting before you choose anyone else. They give honest estimates and do not up sale. Glen has a great reputation here and in other states he has worked. He any came at the agreed times and cleaned up completely before leaving each day. I don't think there is any project or construction Glen can't complete to your satisfaction. The tile work was artistic and each tile placed to perfection I also went on a short vacation during my remodel and he "house sat" ! They took care of my dogs and cat. That was very thoughtful of Glen and Teddi. We would and will use them again.

This is a review for Jonathan Jones and Teak Owl for a project to do the following:…read moreCreate 6 custom cabinets Create 2 custom tower cabinets with appliance garages Resurface 30 cabinet doors Create 5 pullout drawers We originally interviewed 4 cabinet makers with good reviews on Thumbtack. Jonathan Jones of Teak Owl told us that he was a 4th generation cabinet maker and assured us that the job wouldn't be completed until we were 100% satisfied with the end result. 6 months later we still have unfinished cabinets and are dissatisfied with Teak Owl. We felt that Jonathan misrepresented the quality of his work and was belligerent when we pointed out mistakes/errors, often emotionally charging conversations and threatening us with "not showing up tomorrow". There were several issues with the quality of work. Items shipped unprotected - arrived damaged Cabinets were shipped with no covering whatsoever, resulting in them being heavily nicked/scratched/blemished upon arrival. Items damaged during installation Cabinets were damaged during installation - several dings, scratches, and blemishes were added while Teak Owl installed the cabinets. When we brought the previous two points regarding damaged cabinets up to Jonathan, he argued that he didn't charge us for "perfect" cabinets - more on this later Mismatched paint for touch up To repair the previously mentioned damage, Jonathan decided to use paint with a glossy finish, despite the fact that the cabinets were painted with a matt finish. His touch ups now look like greasy stains. Crown molding Painted with immediately noticeable poor quality - there were several highly visible blemishes. When we brought this up to Jonathan, he dismissively lectured us that we were "incorrectly" viewing the blemishes with multiple light sources and accused us of going out of our way to find mistakes. This seems like a pretty lame excuse for poor workmanship. The cabinets would nearly always be under two light sources anyways, given the kitchen windows. Gaps in tower cabinet installation One of the tower cabinet's right sides floats from the countertop and has a ¼" gap - it was supposed to rest on the counter. Jonathan claimed that the wall was not plumbed properly and therefore it was impossible for him to make the cabinets flush. It would have been easy to flush had he scribed and/or leveled it. Cabinet door overshaved One of the cabinet doors was shaved down too heavily, resulting in it noticeably not aligning with the other cabinet doors. Original crown molding didn't match The crown molding appeared unfinished because it was noticeably narrower than the decorative side panels. Jonathan claimed that he finishes all crown moldings this way, but agreed to redo it. Cabinet crown didn't align correctly As he redid the crown, we noticed that the crown joints at the corners did not align with the doors - this looked unprofessional and of DIY quality. Jonathan claimed it was not a mistake, and that the crown should align with the cabinet box and not the doors. We asked Jonathan to redo this as well, and offered pay for the additional work. Inconsistent cabinet drawer fronts - looks like repurposed material The majority of base cabinet drawer fronts Jonathan installed have two 1 and inch hinge holes in the back. These holes are visible in the garbage pullout door and one of the drawers when you open. In all the bigger drawers except one, he installed the drawer fronts with hinge holes at the bottom so the holes are not visible. But in one drawer, he installed the holes at the top, so when you open the drawer, you see 2 big holes at the top. When we addressed it, he said "We typically drill holes in them." They look ugly and look like repurposed old doors. It does not make sense to drill hinge holes on the drawer fronts. He agreed to plug the holes on the garbage pull out door, but told us that we should not care so much about the back of the drawer front. If he installed the one drawer front with holes at the bottom like all the other drawers he did, there would be no issues at all, but he installed this one drawer front upside down for some reason. He was not happy to flip the one drawer front and reluctantly did it. We noticed after he flipped the drawer front, the drawer did not open well and we knew something was not right. When we asked him about the drawer not opening very smoothly he didn't even bother to check it but said, "It's because of your drawer." It would have taken Jonathan less than a minute to realize that the left side of the drawer was off the rail, wheels resting on top of the rail. He had mistakenly installed the drawer front while the drawer was off rail resulting in the drawer front not centered and crooked by 1/2". To make the matter worse, the drawer front is cracked in the back, and we believe Jonathan was trying to hide the crack by installing the drawer front upside down.

I highly recommend Teak Owl / Jonathan if you're looking for high quality finishes with exceptional…read morecustomer service. The cabinets throughout my condo (kitchen and two bathrooms) were showing wear and making the space feel dated. Jonathan was attentive and collaborative during the design process. Without having the budget for an entirely new kitchen, they were able to leverage the existing cabinets and reface the dated wood/pulls. It now appears to be entirely new and completely modern. Even when faced with issues of my doing (ordering a refrigerator that was too large & a broken tile) they were able to pivot with the design to make it work. The finished product looks amazing and compared to a complete remodel, they saved me thousands!! I could not be happier with the entire experience and finished product.

I am pleased to recommend Ed Shepherd and his company, WestCoasTile, for any of your tile…read moreinstallation needs. I worked with Ed frequently at a former job working for the "Cadillac of Tile Showrooms" here in San Diego, Unique Stone Imports. He completed a number of very intricate and detailed jobs for my clients always to rave reviews. So when it was time to hire an installer for my own home's kitchen back-splash, Ed was my go-to guy. He did an absolutely beautiful job installing my 3x6 glass brick tile and was a pleasure to work with. I am so happy with my new kitchen splash and would hire Ed again in a heart beat.

Buyer beware! I hired Ed Shepherd, the owner of WestCoasTile, based on the reviews that were posted…read moreon Yelp. At the time I hadn't noticed that most of the reviews were several years old. After I waited 4 days for Ed to start my job, he notified me the day he was supposed to start to postpone my start date yet again for another 4 days. Once he finally got started he threatened to quit the first day because I wanted to verify some information with my drywall company before he did tile layout in one of the bathrooms. This would not hinder him getting started in any of the other 4 areas he was supposed to be installing tile in. Once he arrived on site he started telling me he couldn't do the layout that we had discussed because he would have to make too many cuts to the tiles. He also said he couldn't put the niche, that we discussed, in the shower wall, 'cause he didn't seem to know how to prep and center it. Basically, he was cutting back on the amount of work to be done but offering no reduction in price. I asked him if there was a possibility of changing the tile direction in the second bathroom from vertical to horizontal before he started that room. He explained that he had already started that bathroom and had a few tiles on the wall so I agreed to stick to the original plan. Just having the conversation upset him so much he walked off the job and would not respond to my texts or phone calls for the rest of the day. That night he emailed me to tell me he was quitting and keeping the 35% deposit I gave him even though he had only done 15% of the scope of work agreed upon. He also wasted 2 boxes of expensive floor tile that he installed incorrectly had to tear out and reinstall. I think if he were paying for the materials he might have been more careful. Not only did he rip me off and waste my materials but left me in a lurch because I was out of town and he knew my other contractors were waiting on him to get the tile work done so they could proceed with their work. Good luck to anyone that would be foolish enough to give Ed Shepherd a deposit up front to "get the job started". What a waste of time and money!!!

I can not thank RBD Contracting Solutions enough! I called Robert to come look at my pergola I…read morebought at Costco and could not get put up. I have seen some of the work he has done from his daughter over the years and was very impressed. Although I didn't think he would even take time to come look at this because the size of the job was not something he could retire on (Lol) he came to look right away. Robert gave me a very fair price, he was kind, he showed up exactly as promised and works fast. I could not give RBD Contracting Solutions, Inc and Robert a big enough recommendation to equal how happy I am with him and his work. 5 star service and quality work without a doubt! Thank you so much!!

We are very satisfied with RBD Handyman Solutions. They…read moredid excellent work: came punctually, rebuilt the fence, installed a security door, replaced a leaky pipe under the sink, and secured a wobbly brick wall. Robert is very personable and notices other minor problems which he then repairs. All old materials were properly removed and discarded. RBD also provided accurate bids and bills. Everything was carefully repaired and attended to. We highly recommend RBD Handyman Solutions and their excellent work!

I recently had my bathroom remodeled, converting an old bathtub into a beautiful new shower, and I…read morecouldn't be happier with the results! The team was fast, clean, and extremely easy to work with from start to finish. They handled everything--including the hot mop and full waterproofing--thoroughly and professionally. They originally estimated the project would take two weeks, but they actually finished ahead of schedule, completing everything in less than that. The quality of the workmanship truly exceeded my expectations. We have another bathroom that needs remodeling, and based on this experience, I will definitely be returning to them again. Highly recommend!

"My bathroom remodel was amazing! The quality of the work was excellent, and the team paid close…read moreattention to every detail. Thank you all so much!"