Get matched with top structural engineers in Santa Paula, CA

"Excellent experience again with Alpha Structural. Charlie Rosenkranz came to see the 3-story apartment building in West Hollywood. We discussed what the soft story retrofit plans will likely include. He's knowledgeable and experienced. We appreciated his professional no-pressure approach and answering our questions. Alpha performed an exploratory investigation of the support structure, as architectural plans were not available. They engineered the plans with city approval. They then consulted with us and provided the approved THP (Tenant Habitability Plan) paperwork. Production Manager Dave Schlaich and Job Supervisor Seth Price met me before construction. Dave went over the approved plans and explained the work that would be performed, and the purpose. They both answered all my questions. Lawrence and Antonio were the main work team. They were very pleasant and answered all our questions. Both had great explanations with Lawrence being very detailed. Seth provided timely progress reports by phone and text. He answered all questions, and provided contacts for automatic shut-off gas valves and stucco work. Despite Covid-19, they scheduled and passed inspections, and completed the work in under a month. We've seen projects by other companies stuck in limbo for months with no progress, so we chose Alpha to avoid complications. They removed all debris, and left the property clean. The tenants and neighbors had no complaints. Daniel Aparicio also explained various issues. Communication with everyone, including the office staff, was excellent. We're very pleased with this experience."

"He was very fair with his business approach and pricing structure."

"Such a pleasant team to work with. They finished my bathroom remodel and I am in love. Mike did a great job and communicated with me through the whole process. I reccomed them for anyone that is interested in any home remodeling. Thank you once again! I am very pleased."

"I have contacted Meir from t.n.l. construction and from the first meeting he show knowledge and professionalism.
Meir referred me to an architect and a structural engineer that t.n.l. works with I hired them and they also were very professional.
After the design was complete and we pull the permit i negotiated with t.n.l I got tow other quotes that not only were higher also the contractors did not show the professionalism that t.n.l showed.
We sign a contract and t.n.l started with the foundation than the rough and the final.
They ordered the long lead time items ahead of time in order not to delay the job.
Only in the last 2 weeks they demo the part that connect the addition with the existing house in order not to inconvenienced me.
The addition look beautiful and an integral part of the house.
T.N.L. were very professional and the kept the yard and the house clean.
All inspections passed the first time we call for."

"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"

At Enginiar Design & Development we are committed to find integral solutions for the construction industry. The wide variety of projects that the company has handled in the past years, from trivial wall repairs to commercial buildings, give its work team the experience and strength to handle any given task.

"The company's owner Erez was outstanding in every way. Very attentive, punctual, responsive, reasonable and enthusiastic. I have no reservations giving him and the company the highest marks. Ours was a complex remodel. He made it essentially painless. Even when we were out an appliance because it was being replaced, he arranged for us to have replacement options.
Everything stayed on schedule and was completed in a timely fashion. It looks amazing. My wife and I are very excited and pleased.
Phillip
"

"Working with Pacific Sands on our basement remodel was a fantastic experience. They really got what we were looking for and brought our vision to life with some super cool design ideas. The whole process was smooth and stress-free. If youâ re looking for great design and engineering work, these are my new go-to guys. Highly recommend!"

"Before remodel, we had 1440sqft of living space; afterward we had 1891sqft, but it made the whole house "work" better and feel bigger.  Also, the roof space increased by 1,000sqft, which enatiled much more work than the additional 450sqft represents.

We feel lucky to have found Anthony Fiore as our contractor. He was recommended to me by a friend at work, and he made the entire project as pain-free as it could be.  He stayed in constant communication with us, worked with us on changes in scope, and helped find reasonable and affordable solutions to unforeseen problems.

We spent a lot of time up front thinking about what we wanted, getting information on materials and other costs, and assessing our financial risk. We even created a 3D model of our house and fiddled with it for a good year so we could see the impacts of the structural changes to the existing house and evaluate approaches to problems. (Here, I have to plug the fabulous FREE modeling app we used, which was Google Sketchup.) 

Maybe that's overkill, but it enabled us to try different things, know the limitations, and do our own rough calc on what we should expect to pay for materials.  But mostly, we figured that since remodelling a house is a huge hassle and a seriuoous expense--and WE were the ones who would have to live witht the results--we wanted to give ourselves every opportunity to explore the potential upsides and the possible downsides.

We then put together a package of dimensioned views and requested bids from 5 contractors.  Each bidder had the EXACT same package to use for their bid, but they still came in with a $50K spread between the highest and lowest bids.

Like most people, we chose the lowest bid, but only after calling all 10 of his references and getting glowing reviews of his attention to detail and his excellent management of the project. He was also the only one who provided references with his initial bid.

After we engaged Fiorebuilt, we modified the scope to include vaulted ceilings, an upgraded electric panel and upgraded roofing materials--all of which increased the price considerably, yet it was still well below the two highest original bids, which did not even include that work. So we were confident that we could tolerate (financially) the remaining uknown risks.

Our final calculation of the cost per sqft, when considering the extra roofing footprint and work done on on walls that went down to studs came in at what we'd expected to pay when we started the project. And what people often forget is that time plays a huge role in how well the project goes.  Anthony's crew showed up every day, on time and worked hard. Between his management of the project and their diligent effort we are one week away from finished after just 11 weeks.  That is a HUGE boon to us!

Because we're pretty handy, we planned to do some parts of the work ourselves to save cost--like running Cat5 wire and coax through the walls, setting the fireplace and stove vents, and similar "detail" work.  We made sure Anthony was always aware of our plans and he worked to accommodate all of our many (many!) reqests. He offered advice and recommended resources as needed.  He even came out on a Sunday to check out some plumbing we'd done to make sure it was up to code and wouldn't interfere with the work he was doing.

In sum, I'm taking the time and trouble to write this review because we've all heard horror stories about bad remodel experiences.  I want people to know that there are some contractors who can make it a worthwhile endeavor.  I think of Fiorebuilt as the "gold standard."  I know that from now on, if we want anything done to our house, Anthony Fiore will be our first phone call--and probably the only call we'll need to make. 

If anyone belongs on the Pages of Happiness, Fiorebuilt Construction certainly DOES!"

"Jessica is very profession in arranging a visit by one of their structural engineer to confirm a wall is non-load bearing. Edward came, observed and confirmed it. He also provided info what city may need for getting a permit for removing it. He is also very professional and very knowledgeable."