I feel very fortunate to have had Brownstein Construction, a licensed contractor, do a remodel on…read moreour home. I met Clark at the permit office, in passing, while seeking a permit. He overheard me sharing my project, and introduced himself. From there, he had a simple and straight-forward bid process, showed up to meetings on time prepared, and is a very good communicator. He's friendly, fun to work with, and no-nonsense. More than anything, he cares to get everything right and safe. Through our months of work together he would listen to my ideas, always working with me to make my dream home. All of my questions were treated with respect, and nothing was left undone. His team was creative and positive as they navigated any unforeseen hiccups. Most of all, every member of the team showed up with an open mind and integrity in their work. In working with a contractor, one has to be adaptable to their schedules. From the top-down, these are blue-collar guys, giving 100% everyday physically. As owners, it is our job to treat them as the peers they are: they should be allowed to take family vacations, pivot to other clients while subcontracting takes place, and they can get sick just like anyone. Marin is a very wealthy area, and I did not take for granted that these gentlemen would get up at the crack of dawn to be cognizant of commute traffic, to be most efficient with their time on the job. Similar to other counties, the permit process stinks. But the permit process should be no reflection of the contractors. Both contractor and owner have to be highly proactive in the permit process, given the broken system we are forced to use. I have already referred Brownstein Construction to family and neighbors. And I will certainly use them for future projects.

Clark Brownstein and his company did the remodel on my less than 1200 sq ft condo. The job was to…read moreremodel 2 small bathrooms, the small kitchen, redo electrical, put in floors and paint. Unfortunately I would not recommend Brownstein Construction nor would I choose to work with them again. We had to wait 2 months for the County of Marin to issue the permit. The project started in July. We had a deadline for the project of October 15. Then we moved the deadline to October 30 then to November 1 then to November 15th. Despite the apartment not being ready I had to move in about November 20th. The guys had made a big show of coming down and working for a couple of days before i moved in but to my surprise they left without installing the shelves in any of the largest cabinets, not the kitchen or the linen cabinets. I wrote Clark and said the rolling retractable shelves aren't installed and he wrote me back saying watch a You Tube video and do it yourself. I lived here in the apartment with all the boxes containing kitchen items piled in my living room for well over a month. Also I couldn't put anything away into the linen closet. They did not come back to work for a long time after that. They did not come back to work for a long time after that. Then just 1 man would show up to work for some hours and then week or 2 later some other guy would come and work a little. There were meetings Clark scheduled with me for which he did not show up. One time I waited for 45 minutes before texting him and about 45 minutes later he called to say he is not coming to the meeting he is doing something else. I was ghosted by Clark more than once. Luckily I came to the apartment the day they were laying the floors and they were laying the floor crosswise the way you walk in the apartment. When we talked about the job Clark told what they could and would do and then did not do it. They said we can put that cable box in the closet behind the tv and no one will ever see it and then did not do that. Oh we will have a cleaning person come and clean it up before you move in and then took that back.. From the beginning of talking about the project i said i want cedar shelves in the linen closet and into the project he said no. I wanted a ceiling fan and had bought it and he said no after saying yes. As Christmas approached I said whatever is left to do please do it before i go out of town on December 18 and as the day approached Clark said they, or 1 of them, could only come on December 18 so I changed my plans for sake of getting the project done. Still it was i think January the 23 when I was finally able to shut the door behind Clark. That day he kept saying "It's always a rough road. It's always a rough road." and made a big deal about shaking hands. The work is ok. There was nothing complicated. It was completely straight forward. The tile in the primary bathroom is a little uneven and around the shower they did the seams with some silver joiner. It looks cheap and I would not have chosen that look and have never seen that silver capping used anywhere before. The grout on either edge of the silver capping is at uneven depths and needs to be cleaned all the time or it looks bad.

We have used Steven twice now for remodeling jobs and are very pleased with the results and highly…read morerecommend him. He answers calls, shows up on time, communicated via text and phone and we were actively involved in the project. It was done on time and we love our new skylights. Thank you Steven and gang.

I was looking to have recessed lighting installed at my new place, but wanted a single installer to…read morepatch up and repaint the construction after it was installed. I was advised that Steve would handle everything and they weren't kidding. Aside from handling the lights, they ended up doing some hardwood work on my stairs, installed a new door, fixed issues in my bathrooms and did some touch up paint work. Given, aside from the recessed lighting, these were last minute request were not planned and they shifted some schedule and made it work for me. After each day of construction, they left the place very clean and livable to not get in the way of my stay in the place. They are very knowledgeable and are willing to educate if you ask. Will definitely be using these guys for my bathroom remodel in the future. Also, they work acquire most if not all their work from word of mouth. I was trying to do some research on their quality of work, and couldn't find anything. So I created this review to let folks know these aren't a bunch of amateurs (they did have an apprentice with them), but actually have good craftsmanship. Plus, I get to say I'm first to review them..HA!

We were very pleased with the experience & outcome of Benelli Roofing. Ben was professional,…read moreattentive to our questions & concerns throughout the process. He provided a fair market quote & communicated any potential issues that may arise during the reroofing so there were no surprise costs. The new roof looks great & we would highly recommend Ben & his crew.

Benelli roofing totally deserves 5 stars. We replaced our 30 (plus) year old roof a few weeks ago…read more Benelli's quote was well below that of the 'big box' competition. Ben didn't try to convince me to upgrade to higher grade materials. However, I decided to go with the 'middle tear' roofing material. Benelli roofing discovered some rot because the old roof had been installed improperly. Rather than charging a bunch of extra $$$, the repairs (including new plywood at the roof edges) only came to $300 including labor AND materials. Ben Benelli didn't require any deposit and didn't require a signed contract to get us on his books. The company is licensed and bonded. His crew consists of himself plus two others - one of which is also a licensed roofer with many years of experience. I TOTALLY recommend Benelli roofing if you need a new roof.

Rod and the crew are superlative. Quality work done on time and to quote. We had the entire house…read moreand garage/breezeway foundation razed, raised, and replaced. Rod's crew also repaired cracked joists so our under structure is more sound. Very pleased with the work.

These people are the unique leader in raising, moving and reinforcing homes. Very responsive and…read morelined me up with other experts in architecture and working with local government.

After being ignored by many other contractors who either didnt call back or said they werent…read moreinterested in our small ptoject, I found Chris who was willing to meet with us. Chris showed up to give us an estimate and spent a good amount of time walking us through all the options. When we decided to go ahead with the project Chris got us in the schedule within the week. We are very happy with the work that was done, everything as promised and then some! Chris was great to work with. I would definitely hire him again!

After interviewing several General Contractors, we chose C L Richeson Custom Builders to manage the…read morerenovation of a 1937 historic home we had recently purchased. There were many criteria we used to select our GC (punctuality, skill level, experience, references etc.) but the most important thing for us as inexperienced homeowners was trust. By really taking the time to listen carefully to our needs, explaining technical details in layman's terms and presenting detailed proposals (with options for cost/quality) over a period of several meetings, Chris earned our trust and ultimately our selection to do this job. That trust turned out to be well deserved - Chris really became our advocate and champion. He showed real pride in the project and personal ownership of the transformation of this house. I'm sure we were not the easiest clients to deal with (picky and indecisive) but Chris was patient, unfailingly positive and handled all issues with a good sense of humor. During this renovation he saved us considerable heartache and money by helping us avoid common pitfalls; for e.g. when he could have subbed out certain aspects of the job (floors, HVAC, roof) and taken an easy % for little effort, he instead guided us through getting quotes, evaluating/selecting them, and then followed up on the quality of the work with these contractors. He showed us that he values honesty and doing the right thing above making a quick buck. I will confidently recommend him to my closest friends and family. Our once dilapidated craftsman home is now transformed! When we tried to buy this house the bank would not even give us a loan until we did emergency repairs it was that badly neglected! Now it's the pride of the neighborhood (and has significantly increased in value.). We are so happy - 100% satisfied with the high quality of the work and the excellent management of this project. Thank you Chris!

It's sometimes difficult to find someone local to do work on mobile homes. If someone's really…read moregood, they're sometimes either so booked that you can't get them when you need them, or they don't return calls in a timely fashion because they just don't have the time. It can be discouraging. I needed work on two projects. One was for my mother's mobile home that had been damaged in a kitchen fire. We called Joel Vargas at Var-City General Contractor. He called me back immediately and we met to scope out the project. He did a fabulous job at a reasonable cost and my mother could not have been happier with her new kitchen. Joel was extremely communicative and I really enjoyed working with him while overseeing my mom's project. As he was finishing up that project, my husband and I found ourselves in need of some major work on our own mobile home. We needed our house re-leveled and it was quite a mess underneath. Lots of garbage, cables, rocks, etc. We had all the garbage and large rocks removed, had a moisture barrier put down, had our belly band repaired in several spots, plumbing issues repaired, electrical and gas fixes, and replacement of entire skirting around house after it was re-leveled. The project evolved into not only fixing the entire underside of the house, but also relocating double doors from the back of the house to the front, moving windows around, closing up a single door, and adding some new windows and a ceiling fan. We LOVED working with Joel and plan to use him again for some more work on the house over this next year. We highly recommend him!

We have nothing but the highest recommendation for Joel and Var-City Contracting. He and his staff…read morewere friendly, responsive, great to deal with, and created an awesome deck that we love and will get to enjoy for years. My wife and I wanted to build a great deck to go with our new swim spa, something that would minimize the appearance of having a spa simply slapped down on a pad but would instead help transform our backyard into more of a place where our family would want to spend time hanging out. We designed a multi-level deck with riser lighting to accommodate a lounge area, dining area, and a raised sundeck for chaises and to allow our kids to easily get into the swim spa. We initially read some Yelp reviews to help us choose the contractors we wanted to bid. Joel was the last one we consulted, as Var-City didn't have that many Yelp reviews and we hadn't heard about his deck work until we started asking for referrals from friends when our first round of bidding didn't go as well as we wanted. From the start, he distinguished himself with his communication, showing that he really cared about what specifically we wanted, and that he actually wanted to build it for us. So many contractors would fail to get back within the timeline they had provided, wouldn't respond to follow-up calls or emails for weeks, or would get back to us in a way that left us feeling like they either didn't care much about getting our job or that they couldn't be expected to be responsive. Joel's bid was extremely competitive but it was his outstanding communication that clinched our decision to go with his company, and nothing that happened after we signed a contract with him did anything to change our opinion. This project took several weeks. His crew was never anything but friendly, respectful, and on-time. Before the job had even progressed to the halfway point, his foreman's wife was injured and he had to miss the rest of the job to take care of her, and Joel was able to replace him with another foreman with no delay. A job as big as this was bound to have at least a few issues that would arise during its construction, but this again is where Joel's communication really shined. He was always happy to answer questions about both what had been done so far and what was to be done next. Both my wife and I are perfectionists, and if we wanted things done a certain way, he was able to either do that or explain why it would most likely (or certainly) be better to do it a different way. We quickly learned to trust his instincts and ideas for how to do things, and when on one occasion a mistake was made, he took responsibility (very nice) and got it fixed immediately (even better). There were even a couple of times he would bring an issue to our attention before we noticed anything, if he felt something had possibly been done in a way that might not be good enough. This was a large multi-level deck with a composite material, a double border in a second color, a railing in a third, a section of wraparound stairs, and LED lighting in the risers. It also required gutter modification and another small concrete pad to be poured due to my own oversight in planning, which Joel's work addressed. It had to be constructed at precisely the right elevation, primarily over our existing concrete patio but also extending into our lawn. It had to pass three separate stages of permit inspection. And we needed it to be finished before our swim spa was delivered. Var-City delivered exactly what we needed on all accounts. This was a massive job, and we were incredibly impressed at the level of care and intricacy that was involved in how they made sure all of the elements fit together. We love our deck, and now have to get the house and rest of the yard to look as nice! Joel's company is going to be the first call we make when we have projects in the future; we have no hesitation at all in either recommending him or hiring his team again.

The 1st and 2nd time I hired Kelly he seemed to do good quality smart fast work at a fair price…read more The 3rd time was a disaster. The quality and care of the work was totally shoddy, careless, non-functional and non- durable. The price was completely disproportionate. My friend who looked at the work described it as having been "phoned in" on a toy plastic Mickey Mouse phone with a fake rotary dial. One example- the installation of a washing machine drain connected only with duct tape and without a standpipe, so water leaked all over the floor the very 1st time the washer was used. Another example: Repair of a redwood gate using a piece of interior trim (not redwood and not waterproof). I wasn't sure how/if it was attached to the rest of the gate so I pulled on it gently and it started to come of in my hand. It was only attached with a few staples (not strong or waterproof). My mistakes: 1. I did not read other reviews, especially the one where Kelly responds to an unhappy client with "I know who you are and I know where you live". 2. That I let him do these super simple projects without me supervising and telling him not to use the wrong materials, not to attach moving parts in a wet environment with tape and staples and not to make the work disfunctional, weak and ugly. My bad.

He weatherproofed my deck. Unfortunately, two years later the deck needs to be totally redone.read more

Pattern Tile and Design! Yay! I needed what was basically an emergency shower repair--two walls of…read moretiles. Olmer quickly returned my call, came out the next day to give an estimate. We scheduled the install for a week later, but when time opened up, they came 3 days earlier. Again, showed up on time, the work was beautiful and was completed quickly! I wish I'd had more time-I would have had them do the floor as well! (The bathroom is the size of a handicapped stall at Macy's. It's always seemed funky and cramped. The tile makes it look spacious and fancy.)

Great customer service! Olmer was quick to respond to my call and was able to start the work within…read morethe week. The work he completed on our shower floor was completed in 2 days and he was up front about costs and how that might change as they completed the work. Lucky for us there were no new costs and we are very happy with our new shower!