We used Daniel at Tako for design services for a K+B renovation for our house in the city. Our…read moreproject was complicated for a variety of reasons, and Daniel spent the time to talk us through the job. Daniel showed up when he said he would, listened to us, was collaborative, and let us know what was possible (and not so much). He knows about budgets. It was a great design (our house is currently under construction) and Daniel delivered the plans and lists quickly and cleanly. We have been really impressed by Daniel's professionalism.

We have been working with Tobeler Design for over three years. John took our home from zero to…read moresixty in a very short time and in a very efficient manner. Unlike some designers, he is open to your input and won't try to stifle your ideas. He will work with you in any way that fits your style. I really appreciated that he did not require that I adhere to his suggestions at every turn. Like all interior designers, he charges the normal mark up when ordering furniture and fabrics and an hourly fee for consultation that is quite reasonable by bay area standards. I never felt that my invoices were out of the norm for anything we did together. Our home turned into a masterpiece, largely due to our combined efforts. Thank you, John!

Do not do business with Tobeler Design. We ended up paying over twenty thousand dollars for 2…read morecouches, a few pillows, and a sofa table. The couches were made of a very poor quality fabric by a local upholsterer that did inferior work. The first time we received the furniture noone could even sit on them. The upholstery was so hard that if felt like you were sitting on plywood. The top made for the table did not fit and Tobeler would not take it back. Tobeler charges 20% mark up plus 200.00 per hour for his time. Wait until the bills start coming in. You will be startled. He is like an attorney with his billing practices. The charges just keep piling up with very little to support them. Be aware of what you are getting yourself into with this firm. He puts on a good show but when the job is finished you will need a second mortgage on your house to pay for it. Update: We were served by a process server yesterday. John Tobeler is taking us to small claims court for 595.00 he says we owe for shipping charges on a table. Talk about adding insult to injury.

We have been working for 4 months now on a new home purchase/renovation with another contractor and…read moresince we were weeks behind schedule and far over budget with many questions about the quality of the work that had been completed (and without adequate personal experience to judge what was acceptable work vs what should be reworked at our GC's expense), we turned to our real estate agent and asked: "can you put us in touch with an experienced, trustworthy contractor who can walk through the project with us and help us understand how we should proceed?" Fortunately, our agent put us in touch with Andrew, and Andrew agreed to come over the next day at 8pm. For over 2 hours, Andrew was incredibly patient and listened to all our concerns/complaints. He made us feel much more confident in addressing the 'real' issues and gave us more comfort with the 'little' things that are just part of the normal renovation process. He was very knowledgeable about codes and in one case pointed out a code violation that our GC was obviously not aware of but would need to be changed prior to final certification. He conveyed both professionalism and understanding the whole time. When we had finished running through our checklist, I asked Andrew how I could compensate him for his time and understanding (and for coming by with such short notice on a weeknight). He said he was simply happy to help out a friend and build good will that might come back in another way...so hopefully this entry and glowing vote of support will convince anyone contemplating using Andrew to push ahead full steam and with great confidence that in Andrew you're getting a trustworthy, capable, knowledgeable, competent guy. Only wish we had found him earlier!

Overall, I would rate my experience as a "D." Poor communication and generally distracted. Drew…read moreis a nice guy, but dropped the ball on managing a project simple and small. Frustrating experience and could not recommend.

I've worked with Tom on several projects involving kitchen remodels. As a designer, i often…read morerecommend contractors to provide demo/installation services and would not settle for anyone less than the best; as my reputation depends on it. Tom and Hammerhouse have been my go to for kitchens because of his dependability, honesty and quality of workmanship. He has the flexibility, know-how and skill to handle anything that comes up. He doesn't run from problems, he tackles them head-on until everyone is happy. Don't look any further. Call these guys right away.

Thom Buchanan-Hammerhouse was referred to us via Ecohaus where we purchased our bamboo flooring and…read moreeco-toilet/sink. We were very impressed with Thom's professionalism and experience from the onset. We also took comfort in knowing that he had years of experience working on turn of the century homes here in San Francisco. Adding in his being a green contractor only solidified our decision to move forward with Hammerhouse. We had some fairly aggressive timelines and a hard completion date we needed to meet--job absolutely needed to be wrapped up on the Wednesday prior to the weekend we were getting married. Thom and his crew worked with us to make smart decisions quickly to keep the project moving without any delays. As a result, fixtures and materials that we ordered arrived ahead of schedule. The collaborative working relationship we had with Thom also enabled us to include a stretch goal we had to completely renovate our water closet in addition to the main bath. So, not only did Thom complete the project on time and on budget, he also was able to include the additional work we wanted to have done and still work with us to meet the hard completion date we had established. In regards to the work, Hammerhouse's attention to detail and the craftsmanship were top notch. The work had some challenges as per our desire to restore the bath and water closet so they matched the period yet infuse some current styling along with keeping the materials green where possible. Again, Thom and team were exceptional in helping us to successfully achieve this goal. We have some new projects spinning up both with our condo and the 3 unit building we live within. Without a doubt, Thom will be the first on our list to call. High fives all around for Thom and the Hammerhouse crew!

I am marveled that Joe Reilly and his team finished not only on time but a WEEK AND A HALF EARLY,…read moreand stayed on budget! My husband is completely type A and anal attentive - Joe was able to respond right away every time proactively. He managed to keep the areas near our neighbors clean and kept good rapport with them as well through our 3 month renovation. There were extra touches (like having the shower glass door that can fold out fully to the wall) that we didn't ask for, but I am SO grateful for. Or the fact that they knew we were expecting twins and mentioned a hot, filtered water faucet at the sink to easily warm up bottles?! (Which I've already fallen in love with for my oatmeals and teas) All the subcontractors he used were professional and I felt comfortable with them whenever I dropped by. If the subcontractors did something wrong, Joe would fix it in a nanosecond. Our house is absolutely stunning, spacious, homey and I couldn't be happier. Thanks Joe and team! * Bonus, my husband and I agreed that the young Irish foreman was quite the looker.

After a few years of having Joe and his crews come out to our house with great results, the last…read moreproject--a full kitchen remodel--showed us he's decided to cut a lot of corners and has basically given up on supervision of his crews. In the past, we've had a great crew for other projects and we saw Joe around almost every day while the work was going on. We felt like he kept the quality of the work at a high level. With our kitchen remodel, Joe seemed nowhere to be found. We had to constantly monitor the crew, correcting blatant sloppiness of the work. As an example, we had to have a painter out 5 times to paint one wall before we finally got it correct. The electrical (done by Kevin, Joe's brother) was passed off to one of his workers. While we did a walk-through on what we needed before the wiring started, none of the information we gave Kevin was passed on to the guy actually doing the work. We had to repeat ourselves constantly to the the man doing the work. Once he had the right info, he did the work adequately, but there was still a lot of re-doing of work throughout the project that should have been common sense: Re-centering a dining room light; placing can lights in kitchen so they're not blocked by cabinets (!!); having to tell them to wire a light already installed in the backyard to the switches in the kitchen (had to tell them 7 times before it happened). The highlight of the whole electrical experience was texting Kevin about an item, then receiving a text (that he obviously thought he was sending to his worker) stating what a "f***ing pain" I was being for asking when he would do something--since he'd stated it would happen two days prior. Other basics had to be repeatedly followed-up on like sealing the front door they installed; getting the door stained and sealed correctly (still never got them to stain around the door knob correctly as they stained around the old lock hardware instead of the new stuff we bought. Was never sure why they didn't stain and seal the door BEFORE the hardware was installed to begin with.); trim around cabinets being installed straight; finishing panels on cabinets being cut straight and without jagged edges; installing cabinet door and drawer handles straight (!!); installing baseboards with some sealant and making them straight with the flooring. During the painting of the entire house interior, they STAPLED floor paper to the hardwood floors. It was 3 months before we think we got the final staple out of the floors. While the floors aren't new, they're not in horrible shape and we weren't replacing them. Staple holes are not an attractive addition to the decor. The painters also re-painted our deck (the one Joe built for us in 2010). Unfortunately, they only scraped the deck, but never power-washed it. The amount of debris and dust from the kitchen remodel on the deck was a lot. After they painted the deck, I had to clean out screws, nails, drywall bits and other debris from between the boards--all of it with sloppy deck paint on it. When I complained, their response was to put another coat on the deck. Less than 6 months later, a good deal of the paint is pealing up since there wasn't a clean base to adhere to. In addition to the painting, we requested Joe replace some boards that were rotting on the deck, as well as closing the back of the stairs for a soon-to-arrive puppy. (We realize this rotting happens living out by the ocean in the Outer Sunset--this is not a reflection of his 2010 build this long afterwards.) He said the boards were fine. Within 3 months after the project, we had to have someone come out to replace the very same boards as they were disintegrating, along with several stair boards. That was an addition $1,300 we had to pay for that. Several of the boards that he installed to close up the stairs are cracked and loose only 6 months later. Again, quality of work was never checked on by him. I think if it had, this type of thing wouldn't happen. I put the review to two stars because the past projects with Joe were great. This one, however, makes us unable to call him again for any project. It's unfortunate. We felt like we were in good hands going into the kitchen remodel. Afterwards, we just hope everything stays together.

Hector and his team completed a long and complicated project for me in SF. He navigated a complex…read moredesign and a long permitting process very well! Additionally the workmanship was outstanding. Communication was excellent and the job was finished on time. I can't say enough good things about Hector and his crew !! I recommend them without reservation!

Worked with Hector and Stew on a load bearing wall removal in my San Francisco home. Team did an…read moreexcellent job and were very easy to work with. Hector uses WhatsApp and google docs to communicate and keep you u to date which is great. Also can't say enough about Stew, so great to work with and his vision and ideas are incredible. Whenever we were unsure of what to do we would always as rely on Stew to guide the way. Great team! Highly recommend. P.s. Miguel is great as well, cant leave him out!!

boby and Joel were super nice on staying late for some screws that I needed ,…read moresuper helpful , great Customer service

Talk about "above and beyond," I am so entirely grateful to Max, who went out of his way to help me…read morewith a repair. I walked in with two compression cylinders from an old rowing machine. The part was an obsolete one, for which I'd purchased a comparable replacement online. However, I hadn't realized that the part didn't come with bushings. When I tried to get the bushings out of the old cylinders, they were stuck. After a tremendous amount of time trying to dislodge them myself, I thought I'd need to find replacement bushings. I'd already struck out at a different hardware store prior to going to Discount Builders. Similarly, Discount Builders also didn't have what was essentially a specialized bushing designed just for the old obsolete cylinder. Most employees would've just stopped at nope we don't have it. However, Max was incredibly resourceful and skilled, and took the cylinders to a work area in the store and spent perhaps the next half hour getting the bushings out. Miraculous! My rowing machine is now reassembled and working great. Thanks to Max! That is truly above and beyond customer service! Love this store!

Attentive, thoughtful and communicative, and no price gouging. Sebastian runs the biz and is great!read more

Purchased windows from Sebastian (one of the owners). he told me they were in perfect condition…read more When my contractor saw them, he noted that the flanges were shot and that they would leak. And the windows had no hardware - before accepting, I called Sebastian and he told me he would mail them. Months later, he still hasnt. So essentially he had me buy windows for $1500 that are trash. If he does this to me, imagine what it must be like spending thousands with the company on construction.