Get matched with top structural engineers in Apple Valley, CA

"We had already had paid an architect and structural engineer to create blueprints.  My plan was to contact 4 contractors to submit bids for the job.  I found Goodfellas through Angie's List and they had a ton of great reviews, so I went to their website and requested a quote.  In less than 24 hours they contacted me and we scheduled an appointment for the next day.  I met with Danny and showed him the blueprints, and we talked about some other details that we wanted to see from the project.  Danny was very patient and took a lot of time listening to my wants/needs, but also gave some great suggestions on how we could improve the look and feel of the home.  After about an hour and a half, Danny provided me with a detailed quote and was on his way. 
My wife and I continued to interview other contractors, but finally settled on Danny and his team.  Once I let Danny know we were going to go with Goodfellas, he scheduled another appointment with us to go through the contract.  This meeting was substantially longer than the first, but only because Danny is so detail oriented that he wanted to make sure that every possible piece of the project was covered in the contract.  After settling all the details of the contract, we discussed start dates.  Initially, Danny had promised to start about a week after the meeting, however, he called me later that night and said that they could start in a couple days. 
Work started on 11/30/15.  Danny was on-site the first day with his crew walking them through the various aspects of the project.  I was not home at the time to meet all of them, but did get a chance to meet the Foreman, Rudy.  Rudy and his team stayed well past sunset to get some concrete demo work done and were back bright and early the next morning to finish it up.  By the end of the second day they had removed all the old concrete and had dug up the area where the new foundation will eventually be laid.  I am very curious about how this process works and Rudy has been more than willing to take a few minutes to explain things to me. 
The project is still on going, but I know Danny, Rudy and their team are going  to continue to do great work. 
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"2 words.... Smooth ride. I can't express enough truly how great of an experience this was. I have good experiences with previous contractors but not like this one with Meir. I didn't feel pressured into making decisions, he was willing to work with me on the price (because I wanted everything high end), and I was constantly updated with the status of the project. I highly recommend working with this company and Meir. Thank you again for your outstanding work.


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"This is a long review. Please read the whole article to put the ratings in context. To start, we have all plans and permits ready and paid for. We were ready to execute when we sought out contractors for bidding. First contact: Rep did not show up due to miscommunication. Sion personally apologized and arranged to come out himself. He requested electronic copies of the approved plans. When we sat down at our residence, he had printed out his own full size prints from the pdf files we sentand was prepared to discuss the details of the drawings. He is a civil engineer and it reflected in his depth of knowledge beyond what I would expect a GC to know. I had to call the architect to get some clarifications and this is after I have sat down with 3 other contractors already. He submitted a written bid at the sit down and after we had time to review his proposal, he answered my questions within 24 hours. He wasn't the most detailed, but it was sufficient for us to understand and compare with other bids. His initial bid was very competitive and we know where the cost increases will be based upon the quality of finish we are looking at. Reviewing his license, he has a Class B (general contractor) AND a Class A (engineering contractor)!!! His license dates back to 1981 for the B license and 1996 for his A license. Go to cslb.ca.gov license # 407061 to verify yourself. He also looks to be up to date on insurance with no complaints to CSLB. Through the initial discussions, Sion offered up a few suggestions on improving the aesthetics and functionality. We will take those under advisement, but requested the bid against the drawings as-is so we can compare contractors fairly. Upon review of all offerors, we selected Real Construction. 1) They have excellent references in the south bay/culver city area. 2) Sion has a Class A and B license. 3) They were lower priced for the same scope of work (typically a danger sign, but I'll address this more later). It took two iterations to agree to the scope, payment schedule, terms, and final price. Terms included us remaining at the residence during construction. It was a fair and straightforward exercise. No games, no fuss. Since starting, communication has been excellent. They are available via email, text, and phone and are very responsive. Sion explains each step and the following steps so you are well informed. He is patient and willing to work with our desires and needs. The subs he uses have, for the most part, been professional and very knowledgeable. Sion and his subseven have some, I'll call them passionate, discussions... which I find is a good thing. It means everyone cares to do the job right and not blindly do what they are told. Experts in their fields, they include us in the discussions to ensure what they are going to do will meet or exceed our expectations. As a project engineer myself, I totally enjoy this and appreciate the attention to detail. When we started to put down foundation, floor joists, and frames, I walked around with both large and small levels verifying that everything is down, plumb, and level. I found one vertical beam that was 1/4" off over an 8 foot run, which was acceptable and the most out of alignment I could find. Everything else was dead level or plumb. He ordered all his hardware from a lumber yard in Woodland Hills. We wrote checks directly to them and deducted it from our running balance with Sion. Sion also provided the lien waivers. Our first change order occurred when we pulled back a wall and found no foundation under it. It was permitted by the city, so we had all assumed it had a proper foundation. To remedy, Sion charged $11k to tear down necessary walls, dig, and pour a proper raised foundation, re-build the walls, plumbing, electrical, etc. that would not have had to be touched before. Note this area is to support the new second floor, so while the price may seem high, a lot of work went into it. All the rough framing was done well. We had a few issues from the drawings that the architect had put together. For example, the walls were drawn as 8' high, but were actually 8' 4" high. Sion had to return all the 8' sheer wall (with restocking fee) and purchase 12' sheer wall and trim 20" off each one. He wasn't happy, but he did the work without a change order. This also forced a change to the stairs since we were now one step short of the height. It also changed the roof line. Sion discussed several options with us and he found ways to make the whole thing work. I was really impressed. Rough Plumbing and Electrical were done well. We opted to do a change order to increase the water main diameter and put in a recirculating hot water system. We also had to increase the size of the gas lines to accomodate several new appliances. The total change was about $8k for all the work, plus recirculating hardware. I am very happy with the quality of work so far, so I thought it was a fair price. I'm sure I could have gotten it cheaper, but probably not with the same level of integrity and attention to detail that I have seen. Insulation installers were fast and used good quality materials. Dry wall contractors took a few days since there was a lot to put up, plus we have 14' vaulted ceilings in almost every new room. Sion used Milgard for the windows and french doors. Roofers did their job well. The tile work was done by his workers. Good quality overall. My wife saw a 'waterfall' design at Floor and Decor and decided she wanted that pattern of river rocks running up the shower and on the shower floor. Used metal bullnose material. Everything was installed the way she wanted. Sion's shower glass installer came out, and installed what we agreed upon. He tried to upsell us on some things, but he was ok when we politely declined. Sion gave us an allowance for the master bath and we were able to stay within it and ended up with something we like. The flooring was a bit of a different story. He gave us an allowance, but his flooring contractor was going to charge us an absurd amount of money. Sion was OK with us contracting the flooring ourselves. It was a lot of work and time for us, but we did save a lot of money on that aspect. His workers generally work hard, but some of them do have a bit of an attitude. Just deal directly with Sion and let him handle them. For the stucco, Sion only bid stucco color for the addition. It took us a bit of discussion to understand why he wanted a change order to fog the entire house. Fogging is the last step in stucco with the coloring. After a bit of research, we saw what he was telling us was correct and the price was reasonable. Unfortunately, he limited us to the basic colors, but we found one that my wife liked. Should you use Sion, make sure you are very explicit in the painting instructions. He will assume a single color. Sion was present almost 90% of the days throughout the project. He was there before 7am (mostly because he wanted to beat traffic down). Now we are in the final throws of the project. Sion completed the bulk of his contract in 18 weeks, right about when he thought he would be done. So, he held his promised schedule in spite of a few issues along the way. Overall summary: For the rough work, Sion is on top of the game. The detailed work required some arm wrestling and discussion. Communication is generally very good. Though Sion can get stuck on an idea and you have to be patient to let him get it all out before he hears you. After I figured that out, it was easy to deal with him. He is responsive to phone calls, emails, and texts. He can get a little emotional if you don't do exactly what he thought you would do, but hey, he's human and not a machine. I'm ok with that. Integrity: Sion didn't do anything to make me question his integrity. He worked hard and he kept his word. There were a few times when we remembered things differently, but I believe that those are honest differences and not an attempt to mislead or increase the price. The one real complaint I have is that he was on contract to keep the grounds clean each day since we are living through the construction. We called him on it the first week when the worker"

"Construction is hard.  Anthony at FioreBuilt works hard to make the process as easy as possible on his clients.  I had the pleasure of working with Anthony on a full exterior remodel of my Mom's house.  Being that she is handicapped it was very important that the work be completed professionally, quickly, within a strict budget, and with people I could trust.  I found all that and more in Anthony.  He and his crew are very professional.  They arrive on time, work quickly, have great attention to detail, and are incredibly clean.  Plus his entire crew treated my mother with great respect and care throughout the project.  We ended up doing more work than planned because it was going so well.  It is also important to note that Anthony builds smart.  He was full of various ideas whenever a creative solution was needed and was generous with his time in explaining the pros and cons of each.  He understood our underlining goal of improving my mother's quality of life while keeping her finances under control.  Even within her limited budget he never cut corners with building materials, construction or aesthetics.  He devised numerous ways to make sure we got what we wanted while keeping us within our means.  Construction is a moving target.  Things change once you start the process.  We were very fortunate to have Anthony on our side during this project.  We wouldn't have gotten these fantastic results without him."

"I worked with Design Everest (Josh) when I needed to bring to code some unpermitted work on my home that had been altered prior to 1978. Design Everest was prompt to supply drawings of the structural work required. When my contractor found existing conditions that called for the engineers to review their plan, DE was very quick to review those existing conditions, change the plans and write cover letters (twice) to the City inspectors describing and confirming 'as built conditions' met code were sufficient from the original build. I am very happy with the end result, and although I questioned the cost of their bid at the onsite, I believe that what was discovered during construction and with the changes made, the cost turned out to be worth it the expense. I highly recommend using this firm."

"They are hands down the best investment I ever made in my life. I had a very odd shaped area that I needed fenced off, but I have a very modern looking house. He came and took measurements within two days. He then came back with the final measurements with his welder. It was so fast. He had these 9' beautiful fences. They powder coat them to the color you want. His design is awesome. The property line is a little angled, so the fences wouldn't fit because the metal is so tall, so they went overnight and welded a new piece. It is so nice. After that, it was so good, I had them redo my garage door in the same style. That again, took nine business days. It was just perfect. It sounds expensive, but these were big gates. They ran 25' of fencing and then another 7' on one side. They also put in two doors that have deadbolts, with many angles. It's not just an average garage. My house was built in the 1920's, so they went way beyond. It wasn't like putting on a new door, they had to build a new steel frame, and then they had to inset it into the roof line. It was so much more than you could ever expect. I can't stop talking about it. They were just so good. They put two working barn doors on the garage with separate locks. It is very detailed. They were so professional. It's so hard to find in LA people that you want to work with again. They are going to do a 30' fence along the back of my house, so I will be using them again in a couple of months. I don't know how much more I could gush about them. I had been avoiding doing the work because I'm use to people coming up with excuses. They were just problem solvers. They were fixing problems and making them work versus trying to up charge you after the fact. It was very straightforward and the price didn't change. I think they did more work than they initially thought, but there was no haggle on the price or anything."

"To start, Steve Letwinch showed up on-time and has a very professional demeanor.  He has an extensive and impressive building background. 
One thing I really liked about Steve was his willingness to work with me before we ever even entered into contract.  I continued to refine precisely what we wanted in the back yard, to discuss numerous options with him, and in the process had a lot of questions--each time Steve willingly and very patiently priced the cost differences and answered my questions in-detail.   And his responses were extremely timely; I didn't have to wait days for him to get back to me.  This was how it went through the entire construction process--any question that I had throughout construction was usually answered within a couple of hours, and on very rare occasions within no more than twenty-four hours.  Steve has excellent and very timely follow-up skills.
Steve's proposal was detailed and specific, which was a breath of fresh air as surprises can arise if you don't nail down every detail at the time of contract.  His pricing was very competitive as well. 
If you, the reader, are new to construction or remodeling, it's good to know that there are always bumps in the road along the way.  The question is how does a contractor respond--does he repair it or does he let it go and expect you to accept it?  I noted a couple of things, Steve himself noted a couple of things, and he fixed everything to our satisfaction.  The end result?  Beautiful!
For the pricing quoted above, please keep in mind that our patio cover is 14 x 33, has 8 x 8 posts, 4 x 8 rafters, 2 x 4's on the top, and knee braces.  And the rebuilt deck now matches.  So these are very "beefy" and rich looking--not your typical patio cover by any stretch.  The two retaining walls are also each 35 feet long, so roughly 70 lineal feet of retaining walls.  And the fireplace is a full masonry, wood-burning fireplace with a damper--nine feet wide by seven feet tall, so these were all extensive to build.
We're very, very happy with the final result in the back yard.  Steve brought in good subs--the concrete turned out beautifully, the fireplacewas built by a mason who has built masonry fireplaces for many years (why get a pre-fab fireplace when, with Steve's very competitive pricing, you can spend just a few dollars more and get a gorgeous masonry fireplace!), the stucco work is perfect, and the patio cover has made our back yard an oasis.  We've had several friends comment on how lovely everything turned out, and we absolutely agree.
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"From the bigining to the end, the whole processes went very smoothly. SGI will be our contractor for life, thank you for everything."

"Fantastic, the crew was very professional. The job was done in a very clean and precise manner. The crew was always there and on time when promised. Moshe the owner was upfront about everything. the prices he gave us were very reasonable and everything that was promised actually came through. We are very satisfied and definitely recommend Moshe for any home remodeling jobs."

"The good:
Sales and design meeting were professional and they understood my needs and budget. "Free" Design was beautiful.
Custom cabinets of good quality.
Most subcontractors were punctual and professional (carpenter,electritian, plumbing, drywall, paint, counter install).
Returned to resolve unsatisfactory workmanship.

The bad:
Complete lack of attention to detail which caused several call backs during the process.
Project manager visited site Very infrequently to check progress leaving micromanagement up to me the homeowner.
Quoted with 4 week completion- turned into 10 weeks.
Debris left on the job regularly and at completion.
Asked for "warranty" paperwork and proof of counter material weeks ago- I still don't have it."