I had a very strange phone call with James Gillett yesterday. I called because I want help preparing for the special inspection of my home's shear wall. The city of Oakland requires this inspection, but the previous owner (who had the wall installed) never did it. Special inspections are expensive and the city only authorizes a few companies to do them. I want someone with experience (such as James) to correct any major issues prior to the inspection so I don't have to do it twice. James initially said this was exactly the kind of thing he did and he would look at a "representative sample" of the shear wall. Things got weird when I told him that the city requires the whole wall to be inspected and I'd have to remove the drywall that covers part of it prior to his visit so he could look at all of it. He said I could do that "if I was masochistic" and that I should "learn to take yes for an answer". I again mentioned that the building department told me that inspecting the whole wall was the only thing they would accept, but if he knew a better way I was happy to do it. He said that he had already explained everything, that there was "no point arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" and he didn't appreciate me "giving him the third degree". I got the impression that James either didn't know anything about the inspection process in Oakland or didn't realize (despite several mentions) that addressing it was part of the service I was requesting. He seemed to think I was questioning his seismic retrofitting expertise, mentioning several times that he has been doing this work since the 70s and that many engineers and contractors do substandard work. I can't evaluate his expertise, but I know that before hiring someone, it's important that both parties understand what service will be performed and why. I remain baffled why he was so defensive over my attempts to reach that understanding. Over the years I've learned that when I get a strange reaction to a very normal question, it's best to just walk away. I was disappointed that this happened after reading so many positive reviews, so I decided to post this to give fair warning to others. read more

I highly recommend Jim Gillett, owner of Earthquake Construction Service. Jim has extraordinary technical knowledge of effective seismic management practice, an incredible work ethic, and a commitment to doing the right thing for his clients at a fair price. My wife and I have had two extremely satisfactory experiences with ECS. In the first case, Jim installed sheer walls, updated bolts and insulated reachable areas in a partial basement and in the crawl spaces of our 1908 Craftsman house. The price was right, the workmanship excellent, and he got it done in less time than he estimated. More recently, Jim inspected our new house, built in the late 70s. Although we were eager to hire him to do some work, he told us the house was so well built that no upgrade was necessary, and he explained to us exactly why that was the case. We were convinced, and were impressed both with his knowledge and with his ethical treatment of us as customers. In our experience, not too many would turn down work, even if it were unnecessary. So, six stars on a 5 star scale. read more

Jim Gillette and Earthquake Construction Service retrofitted my house in 2006 and my commercial building in West Berkeley in 2013. Both projects went great: on time and on budget. Jim made a list of recommendations and costs for upgrades to the basement crawl space of my house. We picked the five most effective upgrades, and Jim personally supervised or performed all of the work. He even insulated the basement at a small, additional cost. Now our 1915 house is bolted and shear walled. The 60-year-old commercial building was more difficult, so a structural engineer designed all of the shear walls and tie-ins with the existing frame of the building. Again, Jim personally supervised or performed all of the work to the exacting specifications from the drawings. I have been a happy customer of Earthquake Construction Service twice, and I would gladly recommend them for any size project. read more

James Gillett of ECS stands out in the crowd of seismic retrofit contractors, primarily because he is an original thinker. Of the several contractors who bid on the work for my house he alone didn't depend on a boilerplate design. Instead, he worked with me to bring the house to the maximum level of structural soundness, while staying within my budget. He didn't try to sell me on fixing every defect, and helped me to understand the difference between what was urgently necessary and what could wait 5, 10, 15 or more years to address. Also he mostly works alone, which keeps the job quality at a superb level. His complete knowledge of materials and techniques, fine attention to detail and great appreciation for fine older house stock (especially the pre WWII era) houses came through in all of his work. He put in the extra time and effort to fix things not specified in the contract, including trying to match original design elements. He is a teacher at the Builder's Education Center in Berkeley, an industry member of SEAoNC, and wrote a book on seismic retrofitting. Suffice it to say he is a more than qualified builder. I highly recommend ECS for consulting, seismic retrofitting, and finish work. dedicated to the preservation of fine older house stock especially the pre WWII stuff could ring true. He does fini sh work also. read more

Recently having purchased a property in the Oakland area, we required seismic work on our Tudor style home. After obtaining three estimates, we went with ECS for 2 reasons: 1) cost and 2) care. Typically one associates lower cost with lower quality but this is not the case here. Jim's costs were lower likely because he has less overhead (is an artisan who works alone) and because considers the position of the homeowner. Jim took the time to explain, multiple times, his scope and what it meant. He also offered advice and tips on home improvements to consider that were outside of his service offering. Most importantly, we feel good about the transaction at the end of the day. Although we've had no prior experience with seismic/construction work, inspectors and other contractors have remarked about how sound and exacting the shear wall work appears to be. read more

Jim is the best in this business. His extraordinary knowledge of seismic retrofitting, combined with his honesty and meticulous attention to detail makes him the only contractor to use if you need your home retrofitted. We have a 1910 craftsman and after interviewing four different companies, Jim was the contractor we went with. He walked me through every detail of what he planned to do and also explained the work that was not necessary. As another reviewer mentioned, he brought our home to the maximum level of structural soundness. Worth giving him a call. read more

Jim was very knowledgeable and helpful in clarifying our seismic retrofitting needs. He was available by both phone and email which makes communication very easy. Unfortunately he doesn't do retrofitting unless he can stand up and our job demands working in a crawl space. read more

My wife and I just moved into a 102 year old house in North Oakland that has had very little updating since the 1950s. There has been (and still is) a huge amount of work that needs to be done to the house cosmetically, but we are happy that structurally, it has been significantly beefed-up by Jim from Earthquake Construction Service. We talked to 3 other retrofit contractors - one of them quoted us $130,000 over the phone without even looking at our house, another guy showed up, looked around, said he'd get back to us and we never heard from him again. Jim came over on his bike, spent an hour looking around our basement with us, gave us a free copy of his book on earthquake retrofitting, and agreed to do bolting, blocking and sheer-walling for a totally reasonable price. Jim works alone, and seems to be doing this out of the sheer enjoyment of seeing historic East Bay homes preserved. His quality of workmanship is excellent - the blocking that he put in behind our sheer walls is PERFECTLY seated against the floor joists providing a huge amount of (theoretical) rigidity. He is also a super nice guy who will happily spend an hour with you extolling the virtues of vintage lumber or explaining the details of load-paths. He even lent me 3 screw-jacks for a month so that I could lift up the sagging rear addition of our house and install new legs/concrete piers. Jim is awesome...don't do a retrofit with another contractor until you talk to him! read more

James is an honest guy who knows building stuff. He assessed our foundation and recommended a tailored approach to getting our house bolted down correctly. His pricing was fantastic for the work. Inspector commented that the work he's seen James do is a 10 out of 10. He did our job himself which probably means it took a little longer but we knew he was doing it right. read more

James Gillett is a stand-up guy with unparalleled knowledge of retrofitting Bay Area houses. After awarding the 1st phase of my retrofit to another company, I was unimpressed by their pressure tactics and half-assed work, so I consulted Earthquake Construction, who did vastly superior work at a much lower price, without the bull. Call Jim for a quote, or if your inclined to do-it-yourself, check out his book. read more

I recently had the pleasure of working with Jim at Earthquake Construction Company again. He completed seismic retrofitting work on my home nearly two decades ago, and I was reminded of his vast knowledge in this area and his top notch attention to detail. I remember his quality workmanship impressing the city building inspector. Besides getting a quality job, he's a pleasure to work with. read more

Of the many contractors my wife an I interviewed, only Jim from Earthquake Construction Service treated our house as something special. While other contractors were eager to do a cookie-cutter retrofit, Jim did a thorough inspection and designed the project to meet the specific needs of our particular house. For instance, he noticed that previous repairs to the exterior walls meant that extra bracing needed to be installed to strengthen the floors. In addition, he was very punctual, and eagerly communicated the daily status of the work. In a world where many contractors can't wait to get to the next job, Jim took his time and stayed until he was completely satisfied that he had done the best job possible. And, despite doing a more complete job, his price was very very competitive. He is a true iconoclast, and clearly loves his work. read more