First: I have not used Troy Construction. So why am I reviewing them? Because out of half a dozen…read morecontractors we met, Bulent was my favorite. We did not choose Troy Construction due mainly due to timing (he couldn't start our project for 3-4 months due to his busy schedule). So why was he my favorite? He was down to earth, was very enthusiastic, clearly understood what we wanted to do, and had a lot of useful advice for us. Even though he had a busy schedule (which we didn't know until we asked him when he could start the project), he spent over an hour with us discussing our project. While we ultimately chose another contractor, we already know we want to use Troy Construction for our next big house project...

We had Bulent and his crew install a new bedroom and 2 bathrooms to our existing home in Richmond…read more It was quite a undertaking! Bulent and his crew were awesome to work with! They were polite, efficient and made the disruption as minimal as possible. Bulent kept us informed every step of the way. He is professional, personable and very easy to work with. Can't say enough good things about Troy construction!

We are very happy we used Tinka Construction to remodel our small bathroom and update our kitchen…read more George and his crew are super friendly, clean, and creative at solving transitions between spaces. His team is resourceful and they did not generate excessive work to add cost. For our kitchen / laundry facelift, we updated the flooring, backsplash, lighting, and reconfigured our laundry area. George's crew helped to side vent the dryer which the big box store was unable to do. George gave valuable input on our bathroom design to optimize the small space. He had suggestions for an in-wall toilet, a corner sink, window ledge niche, and talked us out of a doorless shower (thank you!). He knows small spaces very well and was able to place the fixtures in their best locations. George would give us a heads up on our requests that were going to cost more than ~1k. He had some subcontractors come in to help with varying degrees of quality and cleanliness. We are glad he managed the plumbing contractor who had to come back 3 times. His paint jobs varied quite a bit in consistency depending on who was painting. The best part of working with George was that we were expecting our first child, and he worked very hard to complete the project before her due date. To our surprise and delight he totally finished it before she arrived!

George helped us with a complete remodel for our home in Berkeley. He and his crew (Oni, Enrique,…read moreMarvin, Wuillian) are extremely smart, honest, professional and creative. His pricing is also reasonable and transparent. We started with an awkward layout (even no room for fridge in the kitchen!) and ended with a tastefully transformed home: open, modern and feels much more spacious than before. George is patient, transparent, detail oriented (with a special eye for safety!) and always a clever problem solver on behalf of his clients. What he did for our project was too much to list, but I'm attaching a few photos where the end results can speak for itself! Contractors like George is hard to come by and highly sought after in the current environment, we would recommend him to any one who values craftsmanship and quality!

I've had Damon & his crew (Carlos, Carlitos, Marcos, Samuel) do a couple jobs for me now (these…read morethings tend to snowball, ugh, lol) & they've always done top-notch work. I had a fan in my master bathroom crap out on me, which was weird, since I only bought my place 4 years ago, it was newly remodeled, & I even remodeled some more on top of that. My wife pointed out it wasn't working, but it looked new to me, so I popped the cover to find out...not new at all. New COVER over a fan that was a year younger than the missus. Uh oh. The old "lipstick on a pig" boogie from the prior owners/ seller. Damn. Hate getting hoodwinked. So, I think "well, better check the 'new' fan in the guest bath too." Pop THAT shiny, nice cover & ...same drill but even OLDER. Some mid-80's (I think) giant 13" circular fan they don't even make anymore. Double ugh. Last stop: laundry room. Final fan, pop the cover...whew, it's actually a new-ish fan. 1 outta 3 ain't bad, right? /sigh So I put out the feelers for an electrician (I had 2 dead outlets, 1 indoor, 1 outdoor as well) & after doing the "online quote" thing w/ Yelp, I got in touch w/ Damon @ Berkeley Home Repair. Funny dude, super helpful, quick & responsive. He schedules his electrician, Carlitos, to come out ASAP, for what I think is gonna just be a basic fan install & outlet fix job. Nope. Carlitos goes into the attic & discovers the ducts are all wrong. 3 fans running thru 2 ducts, both bathrooms on the same 4" line, & laundry room on some weird 3" duct. Now, you can get away with 4", but 6" is code & preferred, & every fan has to be on its own dedicated/ independent duct, or you're just blowing moisture from room to room & into the attic. Not good. We crawl the attic together & confirm I need a 3rd roof penetration & new ducts. So much for cheap & easy. Damn. Damon adjusts the bid (as gently as possible, considering my costs just went up almost 10x) & I wind up with 2 brand new Panasonic Whisper Quiet fans (amazing. Almost TOO quiet), a new roof penetration & cap, new independent 6" ducts for each fan, an excellent sheetrock patch & paintjob on my guest bath ceiling (prior, old-timey fan was just way too huge compared to current models) AND Carlitos fixed both dead power outlets (one of which turned out to be an arcing short/ broken wire inside the wall, which we were lucky to catch before a fire). All the workers were amazing to work with & did great on their specific parts of the now much larger order. Everyone worked quickly &, despite the gig snowballing far beyond the expected, Damon priced fairly & had the work done as fast as possible with minimal intrusion & inconvenience (crucial during these pandemic "work from home" times) Tho it was obviously a bummer to have a small job turn into a much bigger & more expensive one, I always felt like I was in good hands with Damon, his communication was clear, direct, quick & honest, & the outcome was excellent. I'll definitely be using Berkeley Home Repair for future work, since homeownership often means nasty surprises like the one I got ain't all that rare, unfortunately. Heh. At least now I know who to call to get sorted fairly & quickly. Thanks fellas! Will try to post pics when I get a chance...but most of this was "behind the scenes" work, or what my buddy likes to call "invisible money", heh.

I called this company and spoke to a guy named Damon who asked me to text him photos of the project…read moreI had in mind as well as a diagram with measurements. I did that. In fact, on the call he said I could text or email him and I asked specifically which mode he preferred - he said that text would get the fastest response. So I texted. No response. Called a couple times. No reply. This place has either closed or has awful customer service and communication. I'm grateful that I didn't spend long on this company but I still wish I could get my time and energy back spent schmoozing this guy who would end up ghosting me Edit: I got a notification 35 minutes after posting this review that he commented and I couldn't be happier that I left one star. Bro wrote an actual essay on yelp instead of doing good business

Very responsive and detail about what he was going to do throughout the project. They also offer…read morethe right price for the work being done. I was very happy how my kitchen came out! Perfect with no issues at all.

Gilberto and his team did a fantastic job redoing my tiled porch, which has an iron railing with a…read morelarge bougainvillea interwoven through it. It was a tricky job, and his price was reasonable and he finished the work on time. He values high quality work and doing things the right way, and uses excellent subcontractors. He is very sensitive to the desires and needs of the client, easy to reach, and communicates proactively.

The Great (+2 stars) ==========…read more * The structural work: Our home is on a great, new, solid foundation (with shear walls), so we feel as safe as we can be in our home for an earthquake! * Our basement is also now more usable. * Drainage: There is now drainage around the foundation and under the basement slab, so we are no longer worried about our basement flooding! * The working crew were very friendly and considerate. The Bad (-1 star): ========== * The electrical subcontractor was quite bad. The electricians didn't install the dryer outlet properly (one conductor came loose before I first used it), most outlets they installed are loose (they give when pushing in a plug), and they installed a used, old (not LED compatible) dimmer for the LED lights they installed. Also, the owner yelled at his team a lot. * The plumbing subcontractor was bad, too. They misdrilled several holes, damaging the interior of the home. They didn't seal around exterior penetrations into the house. They didn't put a cover over the branch of a wye that was no longer needed. They wouldn't do anything about the loss of hot water pressure in a bathroom faucet that occurred after they moved some plumbing around (I ended up having to disconnect and disassemble the hot water valve myself and I found a piece of silicone clogged in there). They over-glued the drain of the laundry supply box making it nearly impossible to remove the cap, and they lost the o-rings on my faucet aerator. The Ugly (-2 stars): ========== * They overlooked details in the plans about where walls and doors should go, and denied responsibility since they weren't in the structural engineer's plans, which they opted to not have updated with the revisions I told them about. This lead to a sewer pipe being installed in an inconvenient location (it went through the foundation, so it can't be moved), a structural wall that was almost built in the wrong place (I caught it while they were digging the footing), and a room that was built with no doorway (they had to cut some framing to make the opening). * The pricing/scope was negligent at best, but I'd put it closer to misleading or deceptive. During the initial visits, they talked about all the things they would do (including putting up framing, drywall, and insulation), and then sent over an estimate that I accepted. I didn't realize until halfway through the project that the estimate didn't include many of the things they talked about (including the framing, drywall, and insulation); those apparently would be part of "Phase 2," not included in the price of the first estimate. I had chosen E&F over another estimate that was less expensive even though it did explicitly contain the "additional" scope. I was also surprised that the electrical and plumbing (most of which was necessary to get them out of the way for the structural work) was billed separately; i.e., an unexpected additional expense. * They chose to rebuild a segment of stairs (rather than just adding two steps at the bottom, per the plans), which ended up having insufficient clearance with an overhang halfway down. They tried to convince me there was no new problem because they built them the same as before (but the run of the new stairs was one inch longer, causing the 4th step down to be 4 inches closer to the overhang) and resisted remedying the issue. They just ended up taking a sawzall to trim the overhang -- a joist -- which I just have to hope doesn't compromise any structural integrity! Further, they didn't even finish the stairs (sand and seal); "Test your staining skills," they said. * They ghosted before Phase 2. As the structural work was reaching completion, we were going back and forth on scope for Phase 2. However, when the structural work was actually completed, they just stopped communicating, left dirt and demo debris they left on our driveway for a month, then disappeared. There were lots of things they removed to get out of the way (like several segments of fence) but didn't put back. I could easily add 3x more issues and details, but this review is already too long.

We used E&F for a foundation replacement as well as seismic retrofit, including brace and bolt…read more They finished on time and under-budget, with good communication from both the owner and site foreman. I'm definitely planning to have them quote the next phase of our remodel!

Tried twice to schedule a site visit over text for a small project after speaking with Jesse over…read morethe phone. First time, no response. Second time, a time was scheduled but no one showed up.

Ethos saved me a lot of money by educating me on exactly what I needed for a drawer. Very nice!…read more I'm very thankful.

We approached contractors cautiously - the two jobs we had were relatively small and we weren't…read moresure if a contractor would take them on - but we had a feeling they were too big for a typical handyman. Eli was willing to take a look and we immediately knew we had our person when he came out to see the job. Affable, kind, generous with his time, Eli explained things thoroughly, understood our intent, brought a ton of experience to the table, was conscientious of our budget, had good ideas about how to achieve what we wanted within that budget, presenting us with good, workable solutions. He was incredibly responsive to text and email, thorough and professional with his transparent estimates, and started and finished when he said he would. Once going, his crew was terrific. Professional, yes, but also impeccably clean and with an amazing attention to detail. Romero and Giovanni took great care in their craft and were just a pleasure to have in the house. Everyday the jobsite was left spotless, all the tools and materials neatly arranged in the garage at the end of the day, doors and gates locked. In the end, the work was finished exactly to our intent, the fit and finish of everything was top notch, and everything was done on time and on budget. So rare these days! The job is done, but we find ourselves looking for other opportunities to work with him. We'd go to Eli again in a heartbeat.

Used Eli at SYR electric a few years ago - he fixed some circuits and old wiring. Would definitely…read moreuse him again for electric and wiring needs in Berkeley.

When we decided to remodel our tiny San Francisco bathroom into a walk-in curbless shower, we met…read morewith five highly rated contractors. Only one stood out from the rest. ProModeling earned our business through their strong reputation and high ratings -- but what truly won us over was the trust we built through personal, intelligent interactions with their team: project manager Alexandra Asaftei, designer Andrea Estalayo, and construction foreman Christian Mendoza. Anyone who has worked with contractors knows the anxiety of wondering whether things will be done right and on time. From our very first conversations, that anxiety was gone. Alexandra was friendly, organized, and thorough in explaining their entire process. Andrea used visualization technology to help us explore different textures, colors, and finishes, making it easy to imagine what our small space could become. Once we felt confident in the design, we gave the green light -- and the project moved forward without a hitch. From demolition to completion, the team was skilled, efficient, and professional. Christian went above and beyond to ensure everything met our satisfaction, and his attention to detail helped the project sail smoothly through the permitting process. Every aspect of the remodel -- electrical, plumbing, waterproofing, and tiling -- was handled expertly and on schedule. We couldn't be happier with the result or the experience.

Promodeling updated our 1940's old-school tiled bathroom which involved replacing tiled walls and…read morestall shower with cultured marble, texturing and painting the walls and ceiling, retiling the floor, refinishing the tub, and installing a new vanity, medicine cabinet, shower door, trim kits, and fan. Alexandra, the Project Manager, was easy to work with. She communicated clearly, returned calls and texts promptly, took time to answer my questions, and was very personable. Brian, the crew leader, was also easy to work with and was patient and thoughtful in explaining things I asked about. He and the crew were friendly, respectful, and cleaned up well each day. Everyone was very attentive to making sure the job was done the way I wanted it, and when I asked for some wall texturing and painting touch-ups, they were taken care of quickly. I felt good about Promodeling's price. The estimated cost was nearly the same as the final cost. I did authorize a change order to replace an old plumbing part, which was a relatively small cost. I had one bid from another company that was considerably lower, but the estimate was much less detailed and I don't think they anticipated the full scope of the work. Another company's bid was much higher, and the company had their preferred vendors and products, which I felt might limit my input into the materials. I am happy I chose Promodeling. I gave Promodeling a 4, rather than a 5, since I did need to ask for touch-ups the crew hadn't noticed. Also, the trim painting (window frame, and door and frame) was just OK and not as smooth as I might have done myself. I'm sure I could have asked them to redo it, but chose not to. I admit to being a picky painter! If I have another project, I will definitely contact Promodeling again, and I certainly recommend them to others.