My wife and I hired Kerr Construction to remodel our San Francisco kitchen. The project involved…read moretearing out old wall and ceiling material, some re-ducting, new electrical wiring, new lighting, counter top, light fixtures, floor refinishing, appliance installation and painting. This is a difficult review to write, because many aspects of the project were done well, and the overall look of the finished product is fine. But Jeff Kerr showed such poor judgment at the end of the project in cavalierly rejecting a serious complaint, that I have to warn off potential clients from this firm. His painters finished their work while we were away. We continued to be away for many days later. We received an emergency call from an upstairs neighbor, saying that a drain that runs only from our unit, was discharging muck into a neghbor's property. We hired Teevan, a firm that has worked for years on our house, to clean out the drain. The cost to me was $3,800, not a small amount given our total project cost of around $50,000. Teevan found and photographed clumped up blue and white latex paint. These were the colors used by Kerr's painter. The occurrence of this emergency was within a couple of days after the departure of the painter. I emailed Jeff Kerr, and said that 1. I didn't need compensation for the emergency repair, but 2. That I recommended he stop using the painting contractor. Clearly these folks dumped the paint residue down the drain. I thought that I was being quite generous with Jeff. I felt it was appropriate to do this because we had developed something of a social relationship. What a mistake on my part. After not getting back to me for over two weeks, I reminded him of my complaint. He said he had been busy, and then said that the report showed there was brown paint in the residue and that they didn't use brown paint. So, I am left with the conclusion that Jeff Kerr is tone deaf, has almost no sense of how to come part way towards a customer, and in fact, has shown to me that he is "just another shoddy contractor." Potential clients can do better.

There are so many contractors in Marin but Kerr Construction is the best of the best. Jeff is a…read morefantastic person with so much building and business knowledge. His professional crew repeatedly deliver the highest quality of home construction. His office employees are always friendly and helpful. Construction can be stressful but it is so much easier to navigate the land with a company that is all around excellent in its class. My husband and I have worked with Kerr Construction on several projects and will definitely work with them more in the future.

Fontana Construction completed two projects for us-the first took a few months and the second about…read morea month. Stevan Fontana, the owner, is a man of great integrity who takes enormous pride in his work product. He runs a tight organization which makes certain that all jobs run smoothly from engaging and closely monitoring engineers, architects and subcontractors to handling the permitting process and inspection process. Their bills are documented and exact. Time estimates for each stage are provided and prove accurate. Our site supervisor, Jason Mackey, was a delight to have on location. He was extremely competent and diligent and most of all anticipated our concerns. Having him on location enabled us to leave our home for a few weeks as the work progressed. I highly recommend Fontana Construction.

When the Tubbs fire destroyed our Fountaingrove home in October 2017, our decision to rebuild…read morenecessitated finding a contractor we could trust to manage every aspect of our project. We researched and interviewed a number of local contractors, but after we interviewed Fontana Construction of Marin on a friend's recommendation, we knew we'd found the right firm. Fontana was everything we could have hoped for and more, especially during that very stressful time. Extremely client focused and quality conscious, Stevan Fontana's team managed every aspect of the rebuild with consummate professionalism, including prompt communication, regular on-site meetings, and friendly collaboration with our architect and the city of Santa Rosa. Fontana and their reliable subs used high quality fire-resistant building methods and materials. When issues arose, Fontana was reasonable, fair and had our backs at every stage. We are saddened to hear about problems that other rebuilding homeowners have had with their building professionals in addition to all the stress brought on by the fires and their aftermath. Fontana earned our trust and built us a beautiful home on schedule. They have earned our gratitude and our highest recommendation.

We worked with Zeus Remodeling for a project that amounted to a whole-house remodel (with…read morelandscaping) and were very satisfied with both the process and the end product. At the start of the project we set out to find a 'one stop shop' in that we were focused specifically on Design-Build firms who would help plan a vision and then execute to it. While my partner and I have strong aesthetic opinions neither of us are particularly creative and we were seeking a firm that could come in and present us with options that we could iterate on. Thankfully this turned out to be a strong match to Paul's artistic sensibilities. We interviewed several other firms through this process but none of them inspired the level of confidence or empathy in terms of what we were looking for. I should also call out Paul's skills in sketching as a tremendous tool in pre-visualizing options as we were discussing layouts or alternative designs An adjustment going into the process that led to a better outcome was recognizing that the project would evolve along the way. That can feel a little daunting going into a project of this magnitude but being prepared to adjust designs as new options presented themselves and being opportunistic worked out very well for us with the final result. While I suspect that some firms come with an attitude of 'give the client what they want but no more' in preservation of their margins I felt that Paul was constantly providing useful ideas and feedback - he was easily as invested in the project as we were and we benefited significantly in terms of the end result. Designs are nothing without execution however and I'm pleased to say that both Paul's subcontractors and the various vendors that he leveraged are true craftsmen. Clean lines throughout. Well fitted fixtures. As a tech/AV nerd who insisted on incorporating Cat8 wiring to every room and Dolby 7.1 Atmos Sound systems into several rooms I was encouraged that Paul's team were able to accommodate all the wiring requirements to specs that I provided. His team were even able to customize framing to accommodate built in wall speakers and other unreasonable requests. It's tempting to offer advice to others here because obviously we learned so much through the process. The one counterintuitive thing I will share, which Paul obviously knew but we learned by experience is that it's necessary to take your time getting to done. Moving back into the house post-remodel there are necessary adjustments to the work that only become apparent once you start to live there. Paul's team was very responsive in the months following the bulk of the project as needs arose and we felt supported working through the remaining small issues that came up. Would recommend to anyone seeking to take on a project like this, you'll be in good hands.

Paul finally did return my call! He was very generous with his time, helping to answer several…read morequestions I've had about my house. We also exchanged several emails, and I appreciated his willingness to dig up old information that I needed for insurance purposes. I think if you can get ahold of him or his team, they'll do a good job for you. They seem knowledgeable and capable in all things remodeling. My only demerit reflects the challenges I experienced in communications with them. They could invest in some processes, staff, or tools to make sure questions/requests don't fall through the cracks.

Paul/Romy are best in class. We had a wood home that needed a complete overhaul as well as decks…read morethat needed to be stained. The wood looks beautiful; we couldn't be happier. Their team of people are professional and experienced!

Our house is reborn…read more We have a cedar shingle house that was looking significantly worn and the integrity of the siding was starting to fail. We were torn between restoring the shingle siding or ripping it off and fully replacing. We are SO glad that we chose to restore with Marin Wood. Paul and Romy were amazing to work with - true professionals and artisans. They restored our shingles to perfection while resealing interfaces, and the restaining is a serious upgrade to the look of our house. We feel like we were able to maintain the architectural integrity of our home - even improve it - while not sacrificing visually or structurally. And all of this for a fraction of what it would have cost (in contractor woes and money) to re-side the house. We look forward to continuing to work with Marin Wood. 10/10

We live in San Anselmo and have used Ivan and his crew for three different projects spanning over…read morethe last 6 years - two bathroom remodels and one major kitchen + primary suite remodel. Ivan's communication and attention to detail are what sets him apart. When we selected finishes/specs for the projects, he was very thoughtful about bringing up additional variables we needed to think about before ordering these specs. These details are vital in a construction project when so many things can go wrong and can lead to friction. Ivan treats the project like a team with the homeowner. When other miscommunications occur with manufacturers or subcontractors, he's also exceptional at troubleshooting any unexpected issues that arise. I'm a real estate agent in Marin with lots of exposure to GC's. Where other people have horror stories about their contractor experiences, we have only amazing things to say. I have also recommended him to several clients and they have all had wonderful experiences. We plan to hire Marinland once again for our major expansion/remodel in the coming years.

We have a high bar and Ivan exceeded it on our kitchen remodel. He thought of details we had not,…read moresuch as glue between the very limited space of our Stove and our counter...those little details are evident all over our kitchen. His pride of work and integrity were evident throughout every decision. It wasn't a question of what was easy for Ivan...it was a question of what was right. Structural, timing, framing, details, painting, and more.

The Velic brothers were really nice to work with and did a great job on my kitchen island and…read moreflooring! Would recommend

I can't say enough nice things about Velic Construction brothers.I hired them through a friend's…read morerecommendation and am so glad I did. They only did the work that needed to be done, nothing extra. they showed me anything along the way that was going to be done. I felt completely comfortable with their skills and ability to do the work. I also felt completely comfortable leaving him here alone, and giving him the garage keys. They are completely trustworthy. More important than anything, Velic Construction excels at one thing that makes all the difference in the world: communication. They were always prompt in their replies to our questions and took as long as we needed to explain the answers in full-detail, without skipping a thing. They turned our experience into something my husband and I never expected when we set out to find a contractor: they made it an education into their trade. That's how thorough they are in their explanations in as far as we wanted to know about any aspect of the job. They understand that this level of communication is the key to having happy clients and I can't stress what a difference it made for making our remodeling a truly happy experience. Not only would we hire them again for our next home-improvement job, we can honestly say that we are looking forward to it. We are going to miss having them around.

We have used Michael and his crew from Serecsko Building & Remodeling for several projects at our…read morehome and have always had excellent results. It was great to be able to go away on a trip and know that our 50 year old, dry-rot infested, deck would be demolished and rebuilt by someone we could trust. With excellent results! They have also replaced our driveway. Which included building us a very nice new gate into our yard. When we had some termite problems, I was able to hand Michael the information from the inspector on recommended repairs and his crew did the job! The quality of the work is always top notch.

We had our deck power washed, repaired and restained by Deckmasters and they did awesome work! In…read moreless than 2 days, our deck looks beautiful. Regan was a pleasure to work with, very knowledgeable after years of experience in the business, and we're very happy with the outcome. All at a reasonable price!

Had them waterproof and stain my driveway. They worked very hard and the outcome was excellent…read more Very grateful workers. I have received lots of compliments on it as well. Highly recommend them. A realtor took a photo of it right after they finished it and informed me that I increased the value of the house.