Schafer construction did a full remodel on my bathroom here in Montclair, Oakland. I got a few estimates, this one was just a little more expensive, and were well worth it. I got the recommendation from a friend who also lives in the Oakland hills, so I thought I'd give them a try. I've done other home improvements that have gone (some have gone way) over what I was quote, with these guys I felt very informed on any changes that had to be made, and was given choices all along the way. In my past home renovations, the workers have left things outside, made a mess in the non-working area, and were generally disrespectful. But this job was the opposite of that! These guys were so respectful, worked around my schedule and kept my house clean. I recommend Schaffer Construction to everyone I know! The price was accurate and now I have a beautifully renovated bathroom! :) read more

Schafer Construction - Front door to the office. Great family feel inside. Barbara is the best! - General Contractors Near Me - San Leandro, California

Call this morning to schedule an appointment for an estimate on a project that we wanted to get started on. Barbara after putting me on hold for several minutes came back and said they were scheduled out till August. Then explained how long the process of permits, drawings ect.. it was going to take a long time. Then she asked the size of the project. And our location. And she thought maybe (either you do or you don't) they didn't even come out to our area. Sounds like this company is not interested in getting work. Very poor handling of customer service. In answer ........ I know how long it takes to get the project completed. We want to get started right away with plans (my husband would draw them up) estimate, permits ect.. We were not asking to have the work completed right away. There is a difference. But they way she handled the phone call was unprofessional. When I commented that it sounded like you did not want our business, she hung up. read more

I've known Rudi for many years and it was a pleasure to finally work with him first hand on some improvements on my house in Rockridge. My nearly 100 year old house was due for new windows and my 14 year old deck was looking tired so I hired Schafer Construction to do the work. His crew was efficient, polite, professional and always on time. I received regular communication throughout the project and couldn't be happier with the finished product. Everyone on Rudi's team was accessible and quick to respond to questions. A big thank you to the entire Schafer Construction team for a job well done! read more

The owner has been threatening me to take down my original review. Rudy sent me several threatening messages on yelp saying he was going to sue me. I contacted Yelp and they blocked him from sending me further messages and said my review did not violate their terms. The owner (Rudy) replied to my original review by saying I paid him a settlement and never attended the arbitration. What he left out (or lied about) was we had a lawyer at the arbitration along with a family member who were in direct contact with me during the arbitration hearing....as it was in California and I now live in Nevada. Our settlement was for attorney fees and nothing more.... so my comment was entirely truthful. We paid not one cent towards the remaining bill. The owners reply was rude, aggressive, misleading, contradicting, etc. His reply shows his true colors clearly. Again, my advice is to stay away from this company! read more

Caution! After receiving several marketing postcards for this deck and bridge driveway construction specialist, I gave a call and made an appointment for an evaluation. Unfortunately as a medivac pilot I was called in the middle of the night and was not able to be there when Rudi Schafer arrived. My wife showed him the areas where there was water leaking through the top sealant, as I had asked her to do when he arrived. #1 I always have concern when inviting a contractor or any other vendor over to our home to meet my wife and family when I am not there. Because of their professional marketing I believed this to be safe enough, and in fact there was not significant safety conflict. #2 I believe that a professional contractor and deck specialist should be able to evaluate and estimate the preventative maintenance needed to make our deck and bridge driveway last for many more years. He should be able to do that evaluation with or without the home owner pointing to the leaking areas. (I don't go to the hospital and tell them which arm is broken. They are professionals and can figure it out on their own.) The recount I received from both my wife and her two friends who were at the house that day, was that Rudi looked around at the areas my wife pointed out. At the spot of the final leaking area, Rudi asks "well, what do you want me to do about it?". Their response was, "I don't know... I'm not quite sure?" He is after all the deck and drive specialist. Why should they put words in his mouth.... Rudi is a very large man. My wife and her friends are 5'1" or less. He has a very large intimidating presence just by his size. Without any attempt to offer options for repairs or ask further questions, he immediately and aggressively barked "this is a complete waste of my time! This is so disrespectful!". Being caught off guard, her one friend says "I'm sorry, what do you mean? I don't understand?". He continued to aggressively state while standing in our DRM "you make me come all the way out here, and the person who called me isn't even here! I do free estimates and you don't even know what you're talking about and you're just wasting my time and money!" With everyone in shock at his quick and aggressive reaction inside our home, the friend tried being polite and de-escalate the situation by saying, "sorry about that". As if to say "sorry if there was some sort of confusion and you felt your time was wasted". His reply was a very rude "No you're not!". My wife was very much intimidated at this point and did not reply, but the friend was not so shy and told him exactly what she thought of his rudeness, and asked him to leave. Today I called to respectfully ask what had happened and what he found with the deck and drive. Basically to give him an opportunity to do the right thing. I very quickly found the same attitude and the conversation went downhill quickly. At BEST Rudi did not want to do a preventative job because it was too small. He seems to want to wait until it is a complete rebuild project. It may be that he simply does not understand deck repair and cannot actually evaluate the preventative maintenance needed on our deck and driveway. In short, if you decide to invite Schafer Construction into your home, you should be sure to understand deck repair, give them specific instruction on what needs to be done, and how exactly to do it. read more

Yesterday I awoke to my deck off my bedroom hanging by a thread and ready to collapse onto the deck off the living-room and possibly spill over on to a sidewalk and parked cars! Frantically I called Schafer Construction and Rudi Schafer made himself available to come over and assess the damage and safety risk. The deck was ready to collapse at any moment and if so damage to my living-room was highly likely as one deck would crash into the other. He advised me to move all valuables/breakables and hope for the best. He assured me he could have a crew in the morning come to shore up the upper deck and then dismantle it. The deck hung on through the night and true to his word , a professional crew arrived and was able to take care of it. I am forever grateful for the prompt action Rudi and his team took to preserve my property from further damage and more importantly avoid potential harm to my family and neighbors. Job well done! read more

I called Schafer Construction on May 1, 2020 about getting an estimate to remove my old redwood deck and build a new deck to replace it. The estimator that I talked to said that they charge $385.00 for a "verbal" estimate, and if I wanted a written estimate the charge increases to $450.00. I had to repeat what the estimator just said just to be sure that I heard him correctly. He did something about "...they want to be sure they know who they are dealing with." I told him that they must have a large backlog of work if they think they will get customers to pay $385-$450 for an estimate. Especially with so many contractors not being able to work because of California's "shelter-in-place" ordinance. There will be many other decking contractors who I will contact that will come to my house and give me an estimate without charge. I definitely would not recommend Schafer Construction to anyone looking to hire a contractor. There are many other 5 Star contractors in the East Bay. read more

Schafer Construction just built a new deck for us in Montclair to replace a deck that was over 20 years old and had been largely wrecked by a mudslide in 2017 and by the company that stabilized the hill after the slide. Rudi Schafer is very knowledgeable, the crew he sent was efficient and good at problem-solving and the price was fair. Decks are their specialty; we used Trex and were able to make an informed choice because of their extensive experience in the area over many years. read more

Schafer Construction did some extensive dry rot repair on our stucco home in the Oakland Hills. They were very professional, competitively priced, and did great work. On top of that, they worked neatly, have very courteous employees and care about the quality of work they do. You won't know the value of all of these qualities until you work with a company that is messy (leaves the door open while they sand and grind outside covering all of your furniture with a fine dust), doesn't show up for work, does poor quality work, etc. Schafer took our construction seriously and professionally all the way to the end of the project. If I had the work to do again, I would not hesitate to call them. If you are looking for a contractor to do repair work, look no further, call Schafer. read more

Schafer Construction, Thank you for the outstanding work on our front deck. The build is stout and the finish is fine. It exceeds our expectations. Speaking as experienced consumers of home remodeling ($300k over 10 yrs with multiple different contractors) our experience with your company is among the best. Reasons for our praise of Schafer construction include: -Willingness to refine proposal to fit within scope and budget of project at a competitive price -Setting up appropriate protection/covering for existing structures and maintaining cleanliness of worksite -Focus on quality and integrity of build, especially for weight bearing structures -Detailed communication and updates on project and prompt response to concerns -Professional integrity, bearing cost of additional work for certain unforeseen complications (out of contract done at Schafer's expense) -Working late for a week to ensure deadline met for social event -Attention to fine detail on finish product, even purchasing paint and painting adjacent wall (also out of contract at Schafer's expense) to make sure the final product was perfect for our party. Great Job. Great Company. Highly recommended. read more

Wow, that's interesting because my experience was totally different. Rudi arrived on time and was very professional and knowledgeable in respect of our floor . In fact, after a lengthy inspection realized that the ground was shifting causing problems not the foundation as one contractors had said ( the other contractor wanted to rebuild our entire foundation ) Rudi suggested that we strengthen the joists that were in place saving us a lot of time and money. read more

Schafer Construction just completed a deck repair/restoring project at my Berkeley, CA home and they were professional, knowledgeable, and wonderful to work with. Most importantly, their work is first rate. I have a large upper and lower redwood deck in my back yard. Like many homeowners, after several of years of keeping the deck in good shape we allowed it to become weather-worn and several small areas needed replacement. I contact several companies that did deck work before I found Schafer Construction in San Leandro, CA. Rudi Schafer came out to my home and took the time to give me a concise tutorial on everything decks. He also informed me my deck was not in as bad a shape as I thought. Schafer Construction's project proposal allowed me to pick from several repair/restoration choices, depending on my budget and what I wanted to get done. The results were amazing. My 20 year old second story deck, which looked worn and beat up, was restored by Schafer's unique process to the point where it now looks recently new. Other areas of the lower deck were expertly repaired. As with all projects, there were a few loose ends all of which Schafer Construction addressed before the project was declared finished. Schafer Construction offers a variety of construction services-- I can't wait to work with them again when I'm ready to do my next project. read more

We had a deck and a patio build in our back yard last week by Schafer Construction. They were very fast (only 4 days) and we are very happy with the result. Bobby and Edgar were very efficient. Even when we asked for a change in the patio design, Edgar did not mind moving around the heavy flagstones for a second time. Thanks, guys! read more

After interviewing and seeking bids from several companies, Schafer Construction came out on top, thanks to the friendly professionalism and expertise of Rudi Schafer, and the thoroughness, quality and competitive pricing of the design proposal. From beginning to end, the entire crew of Schafer Construction exceeded our expectations. They replaced our upper and lower redwood (30 plus year old) decks with much larger, reinforced decks of quality grade redwood and repaired areas of dry rot. The crew was courteous and hard-working, and always cleaned up at the end of the day. They were much more than carpenters...they were expert craftsmen, who took pride in the quality and detail of their work, especially in the railing of black matte balusters framed with redwood. Everyone who has seen our new decks are blown away by the transformation. Our new decks now provide an exquisite setting for entertaining and simply enjoying the beauty of the Bay. We heartily recommend Schafer Construction and would consider them again if the need arose. Aileen and Roger read more