USA Builders - Woodland Hills, California

joshua B.

My wife and I are new to home construction. We heard a lot of horror stories from other people. So, I can't say that we were super excited about this home project of getting the driveway dig up and concrete laid as well as building of a new garage. However, we did it, thanks to USA Builders, and we survived!

The project manager was lovely. He wasn't forceful or pushy. However, I will say from what he said or the way we interpreted what he said we thought the timeline would be MUCH tighter. However, it was much faster than I expected. He was very clear on the payment schedule and what was expected. He was very helpful with getting the new driveway and garage to the codes of the city, which are confusing and misleading.

Every crew that came out was nice and worked hard. They didn't need a lot from us at all. They did their thing and were respectful.

It wasn’t really hard for my wife and I to get someone from the office to call us back when we ran into a misunderstanding about something. They kept us updated on every change they made to the newly built garage. Even when they were very busy, I mean extremely busy, they took the time to answer all our questions and ever managed to be very patient with us.

All in all, we are very pleased with the product, the service, and the awesome communication mid project. We are happy with USA Builders as the company that conducted our garage conversion.

Mike B.

I'll start off by saying that YES, I would highly recommend working with this company and I'd hire them again. Here were the things I think that led to some issues and things I think that need to be more clear:
1. There was 2 project managers that were no longer with the company that were assigned to my job. The first guy was the salesman that actually sold me on the job. There were things he told me that ended up not being true and told me certain things needed to be done that really didn't. I've got to believe I wasn't alone in this and perhaps the reason he was no longer by the time we broke ground. Then we were assigned another manager and at some point during the project he was let go and we finished the job with Avi overseeing everything.
This turnover led to quite a bit of miscommunication and a bit of frustration.
Avi was great and always made good on things that were told to me that ended up not being needed or true. For example, when we signed the contract, we were told a certain amount of cement needed to be jacked up and that led to an additional $7500 onto the previously agreed amount. Once we realized this was not the case, this rep was gone and Avi made good and deducted that amount from the signed contract. Kudos to him for doing the right thing since I was essentially lied to.
2. The contract- All I can say is that if there is something that you're thinking might or might not be included in the contract, make sure THAT specifically is included in plain English. A contractor's job is to bid the job tight to get the business but then if there is anything that changes, they will charge you to make up their margins. Here were a few things that came up on our job:
a: The construction team made a mistake on where the gas line needed to go. There was A LOT of finger pointing as to who made the mistake and the fix was simply to dig 2 holes and and run the gas line through a different route. All I know is that I had absolutely nothing to do with them messing up where the gas line went and they tried to charge me over $2,000 to dig 2 4 foot deep holes. I hired a local laborer for $120 and got the job done. I was later told that the price was so high because the sud "didn't want to do it". There is NOTHING more frustrating.
b: We removed a wall and when we were doing the plans, we didn't think to realize that the floor was different on both sides of the wall and one of the floors needed to be cut in order for make to floors match seamlessly. All that was needed was an 18" tile cut. Avi wouldn't even tell me the price the sub wanted to charge so I bought the tool online for $60 and did it myself. Again, was told the sub "didn't want to do it".
3. I was on a VERY tight budget and a very tight timeline on this job. We refinanced for a specific amount and we had a baby due (which was just born the day they finished work). The architect I had hired early on was an old school guy and did drawings by hand and not not on CAD. I can't even count the amount of times I heard the sub complain about the quality of the drawings, despite them being approved by the city. Then at one of the inspections, the inspector mentioned something about getting an engineer to look over the job. The sub took this to mean I needed to hire an engineer to redo plans, which would have been almost 3k. We ended up hiring an engineer much later to simply approve how it had been built for $400 and the inspector was satisfied. Perhaps the job could have been done quicker had they just done it all their way with no interference from me but it would have cost me over 10k more.

Christopher L.

The first sales rep we worked with met with us and never followed up, which was unprofessional. We gave them a second chance and met Avi is the Sales rep/president. At first he seemed nice and appeared that he wanted to help. He was mostly a talker and not very good at executing the job properly. I felt that he was mostly out to just increase the price of the job. We were looking to build a patio. We wanted a solid roof, Spanish style patio and was set on it for 6 months. He came in and sold us on an alumawood patio. We agreed and moved forward at $9500. We put a deposit down and when his sub-contractor came (because USA builders does not have any direct employees, all we met were subs) he told us we couldn’t build alumawood at my location. This was a very inexperienced move for Avi, selling me a patio he could not legally build. Needlessly to say, we were disappointed. We asked for our money back and he said he could not. He said we signed a contract and we had to stay with him. At this point, red flags went up when he said he couldn’t return the deposit which was total BS, but he made my wife trust him so…we kept on going. So now, we go with a wood patio, and the price increases to $10,000 and we agreed. When we asked about color and paint, he was like, “oh you wanted it painted, it’s another $2,000.” So…we reluctantly agree. We ask him about another section of our yard and he quotes $4,000. So now our total is $16,000 and we re-sign a docusign and agree to the work and move on. When the sub contractor for the patio and another for the backyard came to scope the work, Avi was not present. He said, whatever you want tell the contractor. The sub contractor asked us questions about what we wanted and we answered his questions. In the end, we all agreed and ended on a positive note. Avi already locked us in for alumawood at $9500, then said he couldn’t do it and sold us a wood patio at $12,000. Then quoted more work for the back at $4,000. So we signed for $16,000. Then he told us the job price has changed and needs to be increased another $8,000. We said no, give us our money back and he said he could not because he has to pay the office and the sub contractors who are supposed to do “free quotes.” We tell him we have no more money and he offers financing, my wife really wants the work done so we agree. Even though we know this will stretch us too far. So the total is now $24,000. Then as we tell him we agree, he says, “Oh yea, it doesn’t include material so its another additional $2000.” So, what originally started at $9,500 is now at $26,000. At this point, I’ve had enough and I tell him, forget it, lets just go back to the original signed contract. $12,000 for a wood patio and $4,000 for the backyard. He quoted, we signed and gave him a deposit. But since we backed down from the $26,000 he got angry and said the patio price now changed to $15,000. I told him, no, we have a signed agreement. Just like he did to me. He locked me in and wouldn’t give me my deposit, so I said, we have a signed contract for a set price so I asked him to just execute that. He responded that he would not do our job and is walking away. We spent a ton of time, resources and heart with USA builders only to be disappointed by Avi. He is not consistent with pricing already agreed and signed. He is constantly trying to get more money and adds costs to the job. In the end, the reason he stated for not continuing the contract was that we were too difficult to work with which is total BS because he just got mad we wouldn’t give him more money. This kind of behavior and sales tactic of locking in a customer and tricking them into more money is predatory and I would highly recommend that you look again and don’t get fooled by USA Builders. Keep looking and BE SURE to get a second opinion!

Colin K.

USA Builders has been one of the hardest working and easiest company’s I have worked with. They did the remodeling of my garage and Entry way to my house, They did an exceptional job and they talked me through the whole way and I could have not done it better myself. I can say this is a great company for anyone who needs work on there house.

breeze B.

I worked with USA builders on my office space and they couldn’t have done a better job. Thank you. Very nice work done on my office room, I will be reaching out again soon.

Ami K.

I love how they remodeled my bedroom and kitchen at the house I just bought. Great quality service and great quality products. I definitely recommend remodeling with USA builders. Thanks so much guys!!!

Italo M.

It was very easy to work with Kenan we hired them to do a kitchen renovation and it came out better than we expected. Thanks again for the great customer service

Jolene S.

great company and excellent service. couldn't have asked for a better team to remodel my kitchen. highly recommend