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5/5
A great job on a complicated mid-sized ($100,000 range) bath renovation project. I will hire them again.
The project was to gut and completely renovate/rebuild two full baths as well as make cosmetic improvements to two additional baths. This involved relocating walls, floors, electrical and plumbing in addition to extensive finish carpentry and tile work.
I have a large single-family house in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco that was built in 1885 and substantially expanded, modified and renovated over the years. Although the house is in good shape, it is old – floors and walls are not plumb, general construction, plumbing, electrical and seismic standards are from years long past and access to many work areas is difficult. All of this made the project far more complex than a bath renovation in a house built in the last several decades might be.
The scope of the work involved: demolition of bathrooms (including walls, floors and ceilings), roof and exterior wall water damage repairs, seismic upgrades, rough and finish plumbing, rough and finish electrical, extensive Rough and finish carpentry (walls, floors, doors, moldings, etc.), extensive tiling, hardwood floor installation, bathroom fixture installation, painting as well as the city permit and inspection process. Golden Gate handled all of these.
The project took about 4 ½ months with a constant crew of two or three guys as well as specialty sub-contractors coming in from time to time. Although the time frame seemed long, in hindsight I cannot see how it could have moved dramatically faster. Paul (the business owner), Steve (the on-site project manager) and his crew were all reliable, honest and very easy to work with.
The gut renovation of two of the bathrooms (80% of the project) was based on a fairly detailed drawing/plan. Once the demolition occurred and the underlying structure was understood, the original plan had to be modified to reflect these conditions. Steve was very good at understanding both my functional and esthetic visions of the finished space and coming up with sound ways of achieving them. When I compare the initial plans to the finished result, they are remarkably close (no easy feat in a 130-year-old house). Working with Paul to understand and agree upon the cost of these and other changes made to the plan along the way was quite straight forward.
It was easy to work with these guys. I lived in the house while the work was going on. The crew always showed up when they said they would. They were respectful and careful with my property and were reasonably clean. The one isolated mishap (some wallpaper damage) was replaced at Golden Gates expense without argument.
Pros
- Great finished result
- Fair price
- Easy to work with
- Reliable, responsible and professional
- Good communication
- Creative problem solvers
- Managed city permit process very well
Cons
- Not as familiar with San Francisco inspection process as they could be
- Small organization so there is not a lot of backup
Getting contractors to do mid-sized renovations in San Francisco is not easy. I spoke with seven contractors. Five declined to even consider the project because it was too small (under $250,000). Of the two that bid on the project, Golden Gate was less than 70% of the higher bid. This is the third time I have done a significant renovation project (twice in New York City and once in San Francisco). Golden Gate was the fairest and easiest contractor to work with. The project certainly had its frustrations but they were largely with the renovation process and not the renovator. My bathrooms are structurally sound and plumb, they look great, and function perfectly. Every “problem” encountered was resolved reasonably and in a reasonable time frame. And, I feel as though I paid a fair price.
Golden Gate Enterprises has a robust website. It will give you a very accurate sense of Paul Gordon and what to expect from their work (especially the You-Tube videos.
