OVERVIEW
We worked with Roberto of REF Builders and his team…read moreon a whole-house remodel from January 2024 through February 2025. Originally, the remodel was going to affect less than half of the house, but as the remodel progressed, we were very happy with the work and this encouraged us to expand the scope and budget of our remodel to include the entire house, and even the exterior.
Roberto is friendly, honest, hardworking, diligent, and holds himself and his team to high-quality standards.
We are proud to show our remodeled house to our friends. Everyone, including multiple friends who work in the construction and remodeling industry, remarks that the attention to detail by Roberto and his subcontractors is excellent.
SCOPE
This section of this review is to comment on the scope of work that REF Builders took on for our remodel. It was not a small job.
REF Builders worked with our architect's design to relocate our kitchen to an entirely different space. This required moving electrical, plumbing, HVAC ducting, and gas lines. One previous double door in the new kitchen area was converted to a window, and another double door was filled in and the exterior wall re-stucco'd to match. Roberto's team installed highly-unique custom kitchen cabinets, all-new appliances, a new island, and countertops with precision.
The remodel also included conversion of the former kitchen space into a new family room, and remodeling of 4 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms (out of 5), and conversion of a living room to an office space. His plumber installed a new tankless water heater with recirculation system. His electrician re-routed multiple electrical circuits to a Tesla PowerWall battery circuit-breaker. His team installed 14 doors with all-new door trim (including front and back doors), 2 sliding barn-doors, 2 windows, and cut new window screens for all windows. They also built a new staircase from the 1st to 2nd floor.
REF Builders also installed new flooring throughout both floors of the house (including installation of new subflooring to fix termite-damaged wood and use of self-leveling concrete to flatten the floors to resolve uneven settling), new floor trim and crown moulding, new drywall throughout half of the house, painted the entire interior of the house (all rooms), and applied new stucco, painted the entire exterior, repaired face-up boards below the gutters, and installed new window trim on the entire exterior of the house and built a new concrete landing/stairs for the back door.
They also installed all-new insulation throughout the walls and ceiling areas, and replaced the ceiling on the first floor and upstairs hallway and installed all-new recessed lighting, ceiling fan, and exhaust fans.
They built an enclosed laundry which involved installation of new lighting, exhaust fan, and moving electrical.
The toughest part of the project was resolution of major ceiling cracks due to settling of the house. Instead of just patching the cracks, a structural engineer was consulted and the sides of the house shored up to address the root-cause of the settling/cracking, then major structural work to reinforce the upper middle parts of the house, and finally the cosmetic patching by replacing the entire affected ceiling.
Roberto handled all necessary permits, and inspections with the City.
QUALITY OF WORK
The quality of work was excellent throughout all of the diverse areas and disciplines of construction. Roberto personally inspected work as it progressed and in some cases, made his subcontractors "re-do" work that was not to his satisfaction. He would have them tear apart work that he considered inadequate and not only have them re-do the work, but in some cases he paid for the materials that were necessary to re-do the work (such as replacement tiles). When we presented him with a "punch list" after each phase of the remodel, he was very conscientious about taking care of each item to our satisfaction.
His employees are hardworking, detail-oriented, and very meticulous about the quality of their work. They never rushed anything they did - it was evident that they had the discipline to always do their work correctly and precisely, rather than quickly but sloppy. They often stayed late, sometimes into the late hours of the evening.
His subcontractors for electrical, plumbing, and especially painting delivered top-notch quality. We would often ask questions or for special modifications and they were always eager to accommodate our requests.
PRICING AND BUSINESS PRACTICES
Quotes (estimates) were always clear, and invoiced amounts always matched exactly. There were never any surprises. If we requested changes, Roberto would provide us with pricing for the "change order" and the eventual invoicing reflected that same amount.
Roberto never exhibited a "nickel and dime" mentality. Sometimes the remodel pushed the boundaries of expected work/effort, but he never complained or tried to charge us extra. He likely built-in some