Initially we had Zebra Construction do an SB721 inspection and provide a report. We had so much confidence in them that we went ahead and had them take care of our balcony which included waterproofing and railing issues. They are extremely knowledgeable, responsive, and made sure we were satisfied with their work. Michelle is top notch at her profession. She was very attentive, extremely nice, not to mention funny with a great sense of humor. Kevin was very charming and on top of everything. Yousef was very communicative and also a pleasure to work with. Together they make a great team that care about their clients and the quality of their work. I would highly recommend Zebra Construction. They are a company that is honest and very trustworthy. They will ensure everything is done correctly and will make the whole process easy. I will definitely use them again in the future for other projects. Thanks Michelle, Kevin and Yousef! read more

Michelle and her entire team took great care of our soft story retrofit. Very attentive to all the details. Communicated perfectly and consistently. Though this is an expensive job, their price beat the competition. If I owned another property in need of such work, I wouldn't even think of turning anywhere else. read more

Update Michelle, yes it did rain you are correct. That is why the job originally took 5 months, not including them slacking off by taking more than hour long breaks and talking super loud amongst themselves/blasting music while people are trying to work inside etc. (I asked them several times to please respect this). I only know this because I work from home and they made my life hell with the excessive noise. Obviously construction noise is expected so I am not referring to that. In my last post I was specifically referring to the job not being done correctly and you having to send guys back out to do major repairs which has prolonged the torture to the tenants by 9 months now, and this is still going on. I mean they actually caused so much damage that my apartment had to be inspected because they broke through other tenants walls. Do better. Glad you fired the guy that was drinking but pretty sure that guy wasn't downing a case of beer by himself. read more

As a tenant: Completely fed up with the lack of professionalism from this company. Communication is extremely poor. They are currently retrofitting our building but you never know when they are going to show up. You ask for them to notify you when they are going to show up or when they're not and it's never consistent and can never plan for it. When they don't show up (after they said they would, and you've planned for it by moving your car) they say they are waiting on the City Inspector or Engineer. And when they do show up it is unplanned for (and then they ask you to move your car early in the morning). Its a joke at this point. They are on their own time and have no respect for tenants and their parking situations. Would never recommend this company to anyone ever. read more

Professional, kind, and way faster than expected! Highly recommend. Michelle and Yusef were both awesome to work with.

Zebra Construction just did an earthquake retrofit job on my apartment building. This job was estimated to take 2 months and was finished 1 week early. At the end of the job the parking area was power-washed and left much cleaner than before. I live in the unit directly above the work area. The crew kept conversation to a minimum and did not play any music. They had great attitudes and did their best to address resident concerns. The work area was orderly and properly cordoned off. The raising and lowering of the building caused some small cracking in the drywall of my unit. The foreman immediately came to me to inspect the damage. His crew were courteous, wearing masks and shoe coverings when they entered my unit. Contractor Michelle followed up right away and made her own inspection. Contractor Michelle was professional, friendly, and quick to respond to all of my concerns. She gave a phone number and returned all voicemails. At the end of the job, she worked with me to arrange for repairs to my unit. As you can imagine, I was very concerned about what I would have to endure during this process. I work from home and require a quiet environment to concentrate. Zebra Construction put me at ease almost immediately with their great attitudes and attentiveness to my needs. Contractor Michelle's friendly attitude, intelligience, and professionalism let me know right away that things were going to be ok. Of course, there were more than a few days that were noisy, but I cannot imagine this retrofitting job could be done any more efficiently and professionally than Zebra Construction did it. As a private resident who works from home, and who lives directly above the work area, I can definitely say that I would recommend Zebra Construction and contractor Michelle to anyone. Well done! read more

Zebra Construction was absolutely wonderful to work with. We already had approved retrofit plans. Some retrofit companies refused to use them. Zebra looked at our plans and gave us one of the lowest bids. However, looking at the buildings they had already retrofitted, the quality of Zebra's work was excellent and comparable to the work of other, higher priced retrofit companies. Our retrofit project required sawing and breaking up concrete in our parking area for a trench 75' long, by 2' wide, by 4' deep. The trench was then filled with 1" rebar, which then had to be tied into the foundations of existing steel columns and also tied into 3 new steel cantilever columns, which Zebra had to install. The trench was then filled with concrete. The finish troweling on the concrete was exceptional, the stucco work was great, as was the finish painting. Kevin and Michelle kept me informed by both email and phone during the whole project and they were always available, if I had any questions. Their crew worked incredibly fast. They started on Nov 23, 2020 and finished on Jan 8, 2021. That's only 35 work days, including their taking off for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. Really amazing! The parking area was kept clean and available for tenant parking at night. My brother and I can highly recommend Zebra Construction. read more

My four unit building has a corner covered wooden balcony with tongue & groove flooring that was solid but the ends were cracked and broken and needed replacement. The supporting joists are not visible from below because they are covered by redwood furring. I was in fear and trembling from SB721, especially since the building is now in an HPOZ. I telephoned at least six SB721 inspection companies. Prices ranged from $800 to $3,500 with two at $800. Most of them did not even know the law--and these were licensed contractors with 25-40 years of experience. They did not know that a direct inspection of the load-bearing members or its equivalent was required. One $800 price with 40+ years' experience told me that inspecting the bottom of the balcony for damage sufficed and that if the redwood furring looked clean that was enough. Another $2,500 bid with 25 years' experience was going to use a pronged moisture meter on exterior floorboards as his equivalent inspection. I had replaced a badly molded fascia board 10 years before and was afraid that the fungus had spread to the joists and that this might trigger major problems. One $3,500 company assured me they could fix any problem but once a joist was bad we would have to bring in the structural engineers--and that might require rebuilding the balcony from scratch to meet new building code! Google showed a company called Zebra Construction that supposedly combined modern technology with old-fashioned competence and values. I had a former contractor who could replace the flooring but had never done a SB721 report and could not understand and navigate HPOZ issues. Michelle Durey at Zebra turned out to be adept at all these things. She did a preliminary inspection, met with the City to feel out HPOZ issues particular to my case, then wrote a deft permit application that allowed joist replacement without further issue or ado. I thought her bid was high because I expected a 3-day job for the flooring. It turned out to be an 8-day job (with a rented toilet for the workers), even though there was no damage to supporting wood, because there was a lot of extra work that Michelle had anticipated and baked into the bid, such as upgrading to building codes along with taking down and re-assembling four sets of railings. There was a minor non-structural problem with three fascia boards that had dry rot which they repaired and painted at no extra cost. The crew leader was himself a licensed contractor and the workers were conscientious and showed pride in their work product. The final job was picture perfect and we were done! Michelle's SB721 find-and-fix-and-then-inspect business model gave me peace of mind throughout the entire process. read more

If you must perform a Soft Story Seismic Retrofit for your building, I will strongly recommend you contact Zebra Construction for a consultation and to perform the work. You will not be disappointed. We had the pleasure of working with Michelle, Responsible Managing Officer of Zebra Construction. We had the engineering plans and report in-hand when we solicited proposals from four Retrofit contractors. We reviewed and qualified all the proposals. All the contractors had a good understanding of the work scope, and all proposals were cost competitive. However, after an on-site meeting with Michelle to review in detail Zebra's proposal, work scope, schedule, and to set expectations (Zebra's and ours). We decided to partner with Zebra Construction even though they were not the lowest cost. We felt that we were willing to invest a little more (less than 3%) for the Zebra's plan to execute the work, their schedule, and their commitment to safety. Michelle did an excellent job in keeping us inform on the project status, coordinating with the engineering company, tenants, inspectors, and other third parties involved with the project to get permits, inspections, and complete the work. Our need for involvement other than project status updates was very minimal. We felt very comfortable with Zebra's performance and quality of the work. We had no calls from tenants or neighbors associated with the work. The work site was kept clean. Overall, we are very pleased with the retrofit result, Zebra Construction, and their work team. Zebra delivered on performance, met schedule, cost control, quality, no change orders, and a thorough completion package. We are especially thankful to Michelle and her professional work ethic. Michelle's open and timely communication made it a successful partnership. As for the little more cost, we feel the investment paid big dividends. We would not hesitate to do any future work with Michelle and Zebra Construction. read more

Zebra Construction gets an enthusiastic 5 star review from my husband and I! We hired this great company for to do earthquake retrofitting on our 4 unit apartment building. They gave us a fair, honest and reasonable estimate, started the work quickly and completed it very quickly - in about 5 weeks! Their work looks great and they have been very easy to work with. One of the things you want to avoid with a seismic retrofit is having the project go on too long which limits parking for tenants. Zebra completed our retrofit in record time, so there was minimal parking disruption. My husband and I have seen buildings in the process of being retrofitted in our neighborhood that have gone on for months and months. We wanted to avoid that and we certainly did! We can't praise Zebra enough! An excellent, professional company that does great work at a reasonable price! read more

We just completed our seismic project in Los Angeles. Michelle, Kevin and Yusef have been a pleasure to deal with throughout the project. They were knowledgeable and responsive. read more

I have been working with Michelle and Kevin for a while. They really know about their work and provided great service to me and others. I recommend this construction company for your future projects. read more

I was recently faced with the difficult task to choose a company to do the soft retro fit project at my apartment building. I got three estimates from three different companies and decided to go with Zebra Construction Co. Not because they were the most cost effective ones but because of Michelle Durey, the owner. From the initial conversation she impressed me with her knowledge, professionalism and honesty. I signed the proposal/contract for a certain dollar amount and at the end, I paid exactly that amount. There were no hidden charges or additional charges being added throughout the construction. The office staff (Yousef) is very prompt in answering your phone calls and responding to any issues or questions. Construction process is never easy but Zebra Construction Co. makes it trouble free and takes care immediately of anything that comes along. At the end of the construction I received a full binder with all the information pertaining to the project. It was such a nice and professional way to show they take pride in their work. If you are looking for a company to do your soft retrofit project, look no further. I highly recommend Zebra Construction Company to do your job. read more

I hired an engineer who designed my plans. Then I met Michelle and Kevin. They gave a quick response and had another engineer redesign the plans and cut the cost of my retrofit in half! Highly recommended and will definitely be contacting them for my next retrofit. read more