West Oakland Builders

Jack and his team saw we had two boys...3 and 5. The kids thought they were awesome. The whole thing took about two months, but most of it was waiting for the stuff I ordered to come in.  They took out the walls and basically got the kitchen ALMOST ready for the new cabinets. They left in the appliances, the sink and the base cabinets so we could still cook breakfast and dinner and wash dishes. They didn't actually take out the kitchen sink until the new cabinets had arrived and were ready to be installed. I was only TWO DAYS without a sink. Jacks extensive experience and thoughtfulness showed up over and over.  He left the kitchen safe and clean enough for my 3 year old to walk through every evening. He made lots of suggestions from a builders perspective; some things I did, some things I didn't...either way, he didn't take it personally if I said no.
He installed the sink I ordered, a stainless steel one. I used it for two days, and disliked it more and more. With 2 kids and hard water from our well, it also looked dirty all of the time.  I called Jack and told him I changed my mind and wanted a cast iron sink, like I used to have.  NO PROBLEM! It cost a little extra since I was changing things after they were installed, but Jack didn't make me feel bad at all.

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Woodpeckers are still coming to the house, unfortunately.  But everything else went well.

Contacted Jack through Angie's list for a quote to installed a whole house fan with vents and electrical on our second floor.  Also wanted a front storm door installed, along with some drywall patching.  Jack promptly replied to my request via email and came out to quote the job.  He did not pressure us on the install date, as we were planning to wait until the fall to have the work done (quote was given during the summer).  Worked with us to find the best time for the install.  Work was done promptly and professionally.  Even when small problems arose during the install, they were fixed immediately.  Pricing was very reasonable and I would have no issue using them again for future home improvement projects.  

Started work promptly. Continued daily until completion. On jobs such as this there are many unforeseen details and decisions to make as work proceeds. They communicated well with us and tried to do what we wished. We had additional jobs that were not in the original bid that they were happy to complete to our satisfaction.

Must say we met with Jack and talked about what we wanted done and he quoted us a price and stood by it. He took care of getting everything we needed. from the tiles to the fireplace etc. I forgot he also had concrete stairs onto the front porch. Very neat and eady to talk to. Wanted us to be happy with everything before he left. Came back a few weeks later just to be sure everything was OK. Tweeked what ever was need before he left. Had a problem passing the electrical inspection and Jack took care of it even though it wasn't his work that needed fixing. Passed with flying colors the next time. We thought we got a lot more than we paid for. Everyone admires the work.

We could not have found anyone else who was as intelligent, pleasant, capable, trustworthy, and economical for this ambitious project. (He charged 3/5th of other quotes we got.) The whole work took almost a year, but most of the segments were done in intense spurts, with lull between them necessitated by weather and other external factors. Even though the entire process was long, all the really disruptive parts of the remodeling and construction were done as speedily as humanly possible, and Jack was always super considerate of working around our needs so that our life would be inconvenienced as little as possible. When we said, "Jack, we really need this part to be done by next month because..." he always pulled through. Because of this, we didn't really feel a need to push him in terms of getting everything done ASAP if we really didn't need it. I can't overemphasize the value of feeling trust in a contractor like we did with Jack when going through major remodeling!

HE DOESN'T HAVE TO ADVERTISE BECAUSE HE GETS SO MANY REFERRALS. HE'S THAT GOOD. HE HAS BEEN IN THE BUSINESS FOR MANY YEARS. HE IS EXTREMELY PROFESSIONAL AND DEPENDABLE.