Kearney Building Solutions

Overall, we are very pleased with the final results and the process. When we first interviewed potential contractors, Steve was the most helpful in terms of taking the time to understand what we were trying to accomplish and making suggestions to improve the plan and make cost-effective choices. During pricing, his proposal was sufficiently detailed for us to make informed choices. Construction began at the agreed upon time. During construction, when questions arose, Steve was very helpful with possible solutions and even if we decided to go a route different than his recommendation, he always kept the best interests of the project at heart. When questions or critiques of the work were brought up by us, they were handled quickly and appropriately. Requests for adjustments made during the project were always greeted with 'no problem' and there was no nickel-and-dimming in terms of changes made to the original plan. The project took a little longer than we originally planned, partly due to changes we made and partly due to waiting for materials to arrive. (make sure the windows are ordered early!) and partly due to running into August vacations. The finish cabinetry was very well done. The project was priced fairly and the work provided under KBS was a good value. Change orders were priced very fairly and there we no billing hassles. Steve's recommend electrician, Manuel Galindo, did good work at a good price. HVAC/plumbing was by RAL Mechanical. I am no expert at HVAC pricing, but that cost seemed high to me. However we were pleased with the work Russell and his team provided and he was also fair and reasonable about change orders. My only significant complaint on the whole project was the architect that Steve recommend, Sal Behar. I realize that architects get paid more than contractors, but I think the fees were unnecessarily high for the amount of work required. He did not design the spaces, I have a design background and had done most of that--he just checked code compliance and prepares documents for the city. In addition, most of the problems with the project--delayed window specs, poor coordination with the city about requirements for enclosure of the mechanical area, fill material where the old door to the garage was (2 of which were quite expensive)--were rooted in Sal's work. However, Steve did what could have been done to make those situations better and I only bring this up to make sure that a potential KBS client has a better experience either through a different Steve-recommendation or with their own architect.

From the start KBS was very responsive and fair with their pricing. They started the job on schedule and finished ahead of schedule. They also dealt with local building department personnel to clarify the work being done. Their employees were very professional and easy to deal with. They were very accommodating to any requests I made.

The experience overall was very positive, from the time Steve came to do the estimate until the day he and the crew finished (in time for us to move in, as planned).

They were very clear from the very beginning - price estimates, scheduling, speed of the work to be done. The entire operation took 8 weeks. Our house was originally built in 1910, and has some very distinctive style in the woodwork, and Kearney was able to recreate that throughout the addition (which in all was bigger than the original house). This builder is a perfectionist, and would often come up with better suggestions in the detail than the architect had provided - knowing how we would really use different areas of our home, rather than theoretically imagining how we might use our home. This work was not cheap - but the added value to our home, even in an economic downturn, remains very, very impressive.