California Home Solar

To summarize - DISORGANIZED and AMATEURISH. I guess they are mainly a solar company venturing into home remodeling? I eventually fired them, and I wish I had done so sooner. I am a first-time home owner and renovated my 1300sq ft condo -- I had 2 bathrooms remodeled, all floors replaced, kitchen retiled and replaced countertops, lights updated including a new LED system installation, and repainting the condo. The price was 48k without materials. I consider this to be on the expensive end, so I expected them to be competent, professional, and headache-free but the experience was the opposite. Time Management - very poor. Estimated completion was 2 mos and 1 wk maximum according to them, but by the time we were close to 4 mos and the pace still didn't pick up, I decided to fire them. They have very serious staffing issues. While there was no problem getting my checks for every installment of work, they could hardly provide enough staff (and competent staff) to do the job. It was very stop/go from the start, they would work some, but not finish the current task, then have several days or more of zero activity. On several occasions workers would actually no show. Not honoring deadlines was obviously frustrating and contractor did not seem to care how it affected the customer. I stayed extra hours at night researching materials and would pay extra for expedited shipping, because I was told I had to have materials by a certain dates, only to have them sit for days or weeks untouched. This also meant I was unable to return items I wasn't sure about, by the time we got to installing the return window was well past. Contractor's favorite fallback line when talking about missed deadlines, "well, construction is dynamic." I moved into the unit 2 months into the reno (based on their completion date), but dismayed to see the place was pretty dusty, and the workers failed to clear several piles of construction debris in the unit (this is despite contractor telling me days before unit would be clean before my move-in). It was a joyless, frustrating move-in experience, not what I expected. They were not very clean in terms of picking up after themselves and did not use blankets or plastic covers. Neighbor was complaining of the dust in the hall, and I was surprised when contractor told me they did not have a vacuum cleaner for the project (like isn't that super basic?). Workers/Staffing Quality was very inconsistent. Sometimes was okay (floors were good, most of tiling was good) to downright shabby and unacceptable (e.g., wall underneath the vanity was unfinished and exposed the drywall, baseboard under toilet looked like someone used their teeth instead of tools to cut it, among other examples). In the beginning workers often left the doors unlocked after they left, one time even leaving all the windows and patio door wide open for anyone including animals to just walk in; they also entered through the window (based on footprints I saw) instead of using the key provided. I got the impression that they hired cheaper, less experienced and less professional workers to keep their costs down. I only met the project manager twice, he then disappeared due to a personal emergency, and was not replaced. Management - poor. Contractor was reactive instead of being proactive, was not on top of things and I never felt he was in control of his project, ever. Clearly overstated his abilities. Was often passive-aggressive, sometimes would try to blame me, either subtly or directly, for things that had gone wrong. Had little foresight, poor planning skills (e.g., did not account for height of baseboard and height of side splash touching structures above them, and did not even notice until I saw and pointed it out after the fact; he miscalculated tile requirements repeatedly, causing delays and additional shipping charges; also never mentioned, hence I know he never noticed it before, that an electrical outlet would be in the way of the kitchen backsplash, when I called his attention he said it was because there was a beam behind so he could not move the outlet, if that was the case then why didn't he move it the other direction). Contractor would regularly visit the site (though not as often as I thought he should) so I assumed he was inspecting the work, but would miss a lot of details. It falls on the customer to be hypervigilant about the quality. My project would not allow me to install recessed lights so I decided to install LED light strips instead. The contractor greatly underestimated the complexity of the LED project and despite my repeated attempts to bring him and a competent electrician to discuss it way ahead of time, they did not sit down with me until last minute, which meant I was the one that researched and put together the LED scheme (a big source of headache and grief for me, especially since contractor's specialty is supposed to be an electric related -- solar panels). He kept repeating "just buy the materials and we'll install it," as if it was that simple, considering he clearly had never done LED systems before. And even then still had trouble finding competent workers. Later on, the supposedly experienced LED subcontractor he finally hired and said he paid big money for, was also incompetent and poorly staffed himself. After finally firing them I hired a different electrician, now I'm finding out they really didn't know what they were doing based on how they tried to install the LEDs, and they probably did not have the proper tools. It also seemed the contractor had too many other projects going and could not give them (or at least mine) proper attention. I waited to write this review until I worked with the new guys I hired so I could compare, and what a difference!! They are so much more professional and tightly run from the office end to the workers' end. Photos of things I mentioned are attached. The toilet baseboard and space under the vanity were remedied. The outlet in the backsplash unfortunately looks worse after it was remedied. I do regret going with this overpriced contractor. I give them one star for at least not having a major disaster and not running away with my money (this is a low bar), and another star for putting in effort to please and make things right with the customer. But I cannot recommend them for a major/complex remodeling project. If you hire them, I suggest factoring in penalties for failing to finish on time.

I checked out solar last fall because I desperately needed to replace my rock roof. In the end, I had to pass on the solar at this time but still used California Home Solar for the new roof. I couldn't be happier with the company and its owner, Yanif Madmon. Not only did he and his workers perform as promised, he assisted me in getting a PACE loan to finance the roof as well as obtaining the LADWP rebate for the "cool roof."

Overall everything was great the service and the providers really impressed me. The day's they took were a bit slow but overall everything was good

They did a fantastic job. They accommodated the panels to work with the trees that were next door to my property. Everything was neat, clean, and professional.

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I met with Yanni or did a great presentation and explained about solar. He offered me if you financing options.
Once we got qualified they installed the panels in 3 days. The panel upgrade to call only one day. Yanni scheduled the inspection and we passed the first time. We had to wait for Edison for about two weeks and then they connected us.
The crew was very nice and professional and very clean.
I recommended Yanni and California home solar to 2 of my coworkers, since they were looking to do solar as well. I'm glad to say they have good experience is well.