Just a few of our 5-star reviews
Otney B.
Oakland, CA
6/15/2011
Love these guys. Doing an awesome job seismically retrofitting our house. Now better chance house won't slide off foundation in case of large quake on Hayward Fault. They are reliable, honest, reasonable, polite, patient, neat, professional and the work they did is stellar.
We changed our minds in the middle about some stuff and they handled it with aplomb. We also had some permit tussles with City of Oakland, nothing big, and even though our architect kinda let us down, Bay Area Retrofit DID NOT LET US DOWN. Also put in a bathroom for us. I am not telling you this is a discount group - it is not. You will pay a lot of money to seismically retrofit your house - that is just the reality of all that work and time and all those supplies. No matter who you hire.
These folks, Jeff Bailey in particular, are just a joy to work with. We have been working with them since about February 2011 and we have not had any issues whatosever re communication, at all. We did NOT experience anything like that other guy here did in any of our interactions. And no one at Bay Area Retrofit even mentioned Yelp or anything like that to us. And trust me, I was not paid to write this review or make it pretty; this is my unsolicited opinion. Come see my basement, if you don't believe me.
The quote we got from them was written and specific and also took into account that once they started on the work, they might find stuff in our 95 year old Craftsman house's basement that would mean more work or less work or more money or less money. It was less, in fact, than we thought it would be.
Look on the web site for the Association of Bay Area Governments, (ABAG) to find out more about seismic issues and your house or other building. And look at the Bay Area Retrofit website for information on the same topic.
Marsha Q.
Berkeley, CA
2/14/2011
Howard Cook & his team (Jeff & Thor) not only have fantastic expertise, they are easy to deal with and do an excellent job....start (inspection, plans) to finish(getting the City of Berkeley permit sign-offs)! I trust them.I also like their easy to understand explanations and informative website. I consider earthquake retrofit a priority for my clients investment, since I'm a real estate agent. I like to refer my clients to Howard because I know he won't rip them off & has solutions to issues with our older homes.
Carl H.
Oakland, CA
1/5/2011
The most positive helpful experience I can remember!
I've been completely renovating an old hillside side house. We have a lot invested in it so putting emphasis on structural strength is important to me. There's more to earthquake retrofitting than just bolting and nailing but that's all my engineer could really tell me. As I gathered bits and pieces from the web I found Bay Area Retrofit's site. They offer a discussion board where the owners answer questions about retrofitting. Long story short, the owners contacted me right away, came to my house and put me back on track with the work I'm doing. I've worked with a lot of contractors and a lot of them don't value and or understand quality work. B.A.R knows the science and cares about making your house safer. Do your homework and that should lead you to them.
Don D.
Berkeley, CA
12/14/2009
I had Jeff Bailey and Bay Area Retrofit perform an earthquake update on my home in November 2009. If you are considering this work, you know it is expensive and complicated. I interviewed multiple organizations and decided to give the job to Jeff. He was on time for all appointments, did the work on schedule, and did several other jobs that needed to be done in my crawl space at the same time. In addition, he prepared all the paperwork for the permits and Berkeley transfer tax partial offset. His prices were fair and the work quality is professional. I give Jeff and Bay Area Retrofit and excellent recommendation.
