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Golden State Seismic & Structural

5.0 (116 reviews)
Closed 7:00 am - 4:30 pm

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Softstory retrofit
Nader A.

Brian and team conducted a full engineered seismic retrofit (including soft story) of our home in Castro Valley. Brian was fantastic to work with and communicated regularly and accurately. I first learned of Brian through a colleague who also had similar work done on his home and after bidding to three vendors, he ultimately was my final choice. I'm glad we picked him. He's both thorough and delivers what he says he will deliver, which I appreciate. He delivers value for the money invested (he's not the cheapest, nor the most expensive) which is what he strives for. No surprises in working with him, which is a good thing when dealing with construction work.

Valerie H.

A seismic retrofit was recently completed on our 60+ year old home. We've been in the house for 30 years and finally decided to apply for the grant from California's Earthquake Brace+Bolt program. I interviewed 3 contractors from EBB's list (sent out requests to about 6 but didn't hear back from a couple) and decide to choose Brian Bouchard with Golden State Seismic and Structural, Inc. His bid came in the middle but I don't always choose the lowest bid. I go with the person who I feel will do the best job (and go with my gut feeling too). I've been burned on some occasions but not in this case. Brian and his wife, Holly, are very experienced dealing with the red tape and hoops of EBB and are really on top of everything. They know what docs/photos needed to be uploaded, and get it done right away. They sent back their estimate quickly also. Brian and Holly are excellent on communication with their clients; they email or text you within minutes, if not seconds, with any questions or comments you might have. I have never experienced this with any contractor/business I have dealt with in my 36 years of home ownership. The actual work took about 1.5 weeks as Brian predicted. There were 4 inspections done during the whole process. Our house is on a slope and has cripple walls. Gerardo (the foreman) and his 2 coworkers were very efficient and did their best to keep the work site as clean and neat as possible. Gerardo was very knowledgeable about the process and was here to deal with all 4 inspections. They were all very nice and respectful. Also, Brian would always give me a heads-up text before he stopped by. Brian is also a very cool guy. Knows his stuff and not condescending in anyway, easy to talk to. We had one glitch which he resolved immediately. I don't give out recommendations lightly to friends or family but Golden State Seismic and Structural is one company I would highly recommend for your seismic retrofit.

During, crawl space retaining wall excavation
Kelly B.

In July 2023 we had Golden State Seismic complete our retrofit and build a retaining wall in our crawlspace. I would recommend GSS to anyone considering a retrofit. We live on a hill and have a house where our living space is over our garage and crawl space. When I initially called Brian for a quote he helped guide me through the process of getting an engineer first due to our cripple walls being over 7' tall. He recommend Dan Szumski who we contacted and started working with right away. While Dan was out working on our plans he talked about all the work he had done with Brian over the years and helped make the decision to go with Brian even easier. We hired GSS as soon as our plans were done and they submitted our plans for permits right away. As soon as the permit was issued we got placed on their schedule which was just a few weeks out. When it came time for the work Brian showed up with a crew of 10 (!!) our first couple days due to a delayed job at another house. The speed that they worked at was incredible. It's a very loud, dusty, and robust job to get a retrofit on a 1956 house but they did a great job communicating through the whole process on what each day would entail and how things were coming along. We had to have a Hardyframe installed at the front of our house as well which required concrete demo, rebar install, then new concrete. Their concrete work was also top notch. Our crawl space retaining wall was due to damage from the 12/31/22 storm and a big undertaking itself. The work/layout of the crawlspace required hand digging of all the dirt. Brian's team executed the install very well and we are happy with the final results and added storage space in the crawl space now. Overall Brian's entire crew was the best you could hope for at your house. They cleaned up so well every day, would answer all my questions, and walk me through anything I wanted to know. In the end, it looks like almost nothing happened in our garage. The drywall work in our garage was great! It's a shame to cover up all the work they put in and the concrete work is also just as great. If you choose GSS for your project you will not be disappointed!!

Bracing on a concrete retainer wall at basement of house.
Krista G.

Just finished an earthquake retrofit with Golden State for our single family home in the Oakland hills. Brian and his crew are beyond unbelievable! They are seriously THE BEST. I am in the property management industry and work a lot with various tradespeople and construction crews. Brian and his crew are the cleanest, most respectful and professional crew I've ever dealt with. They were on time every day, cleaned up after themselves every day, and worked quickly and efficiently. Brian stayed in touch with us every step of the way and updated us every day (truly unheard of in construction). The work was clearly stellar, not just by my own (unprofessional) assessment but also made clear by the City of Oakland's building inspectors as they came through for the various inspections throughout the project. We had to wait a few months to get on Golden State's schedule, but it was well worth the wait! Brian and Holly are an awesome team.

Victoria J.

Brian is a straight forward guy who saved us about $40,000 on a recent foundation project. Having been told by Alameda Structural that we needed a complete foundation replacement, Brian inspected our foundation and told us that might not be the case. He suggested hiring an engineer to give us an un-biased assessment and sure enough, the engineer only recommended a seismic retrofit. Brian could have easily told us we needed the $60,000 foundation replacement but instead, he went the honest route and saved us a lot of money. We couldn't recommend Golden State Seismic enough!

Hardy Frame attached to existing upper beam and to (future) reinforced concrete floor beam.

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Ask the Community - Golden State Seismic & Structural

Review Highlights - Golden State Seismic & Structural

Brian had also recommended a couple of upgrade options in his quote which we agreed to that were useful.

Mentioned in 111 reviews

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