Keycon, Inc. - Mountain View, California

Matt A.

Oscar, Tiffany and the Keycon team remodeled our Eichler kitchen and master bed/bath in 2020. Overall, we had a good experience. They do quality work and take pride in ‘getting it right’. I’m glad I chose a company that’s caring enough to fix minor issues years later.

Maya K.

We had the pleasure of working with Keycon, Inc. for our kitchen remodel. We are extremely happy with the final remodel! It's both functional and beautiful. Tiffany and Oscar worked closely with us on the design, selecting all the materials and products, timelines and overall construction. They made the remodel as easy as possible for us given that my husband and I work full-time with 2 kids and a dog so we have very little free time to oversee a major remodel. All Keycon's staff were professional, kind and friendly. They all had top quality work, and a lot of attention to detail. I'm definitely going to contact Keycon again when we're ready to remodel different rooms in our house. I highly recommend Keycon for your remodels!!

Cheryl W.

My friend and I we're looking to upgrade our house and get hardwood floors instead of the carpet, to give it a fresh look. We called Sequoia Flooring and got an estimate. The job was done on time, to our pleasant surprise. Joseph was very patient in the process, answering our many questions, and making sure we were involved. His crew was very professional and nice. now our house finally got its fresh new look for the summer. Overall, we are very satisfied with the service and the result. Thank you!

Judy S.

1. One of the primary workers* was a clutz (careless) . He dropped tools, cracked a tile, pierced the base of a shower.
2. They didn't do as promised and we had to discuss many items repeatedly.
3. They pressured us to "up sell" and we agreed to items we really didn't want.
4. The installed bathroom sinks had/have sloppy finishing.
5. And now, two years post the remodel, we learned that the exhaust from both bathrooms was improperly placed to defuse into the attic rather than the outdoors.

*we understand he still works at Keycon.

Jeremy P.

Eichler restoration/infrastructure work.

We had Keycon run much of the infrastructure work for an Eichler we recently purchased.

Overall performance was excellent, and they were our most detail-oriented contractors -- and always provided excellent advice. They were very good at steering us away from mistakes, but also at working with our specific style, budget and timeline.

5 stars overall, but I want to give a little detail on the things that went particular well or that were a little bumpy:

Carpentry work: Excellent, on time, high quality. Great repair to old closets, install new doors, replace or repair a bunch of termite-damaged beams and wood, replace lots of paneling and more. This made a huge difference in the house!

Earthquake safety: We had them open up the walls, add new shear panels, and bolt the foundation much more securely than it had been. Excellent work.

Insulation: They added additional insulation in many of the walls (Eichlers are notorious energy inefficient by default), and helped us make choices around improving efficiency in general.

Roof: They subcontracted most of this work. The price was better than other estimates we got, and it looks pretty good up there. No concerns.

Electrical: They subcontracted to Serge Jullia, who always does excellent work. They coordinated with him quite well. There was a lot of electrical work.

Bathrooms: We didn't fully remodel the bathrooms, but Keycon made them much nicer with the addition of tile floor, grout repair, sink replacements etc.

Plumbing: They did some of the basic plumbing, but I had to bring in a separate contractor for the more complicated work.

HVAC: We asked to have a ductless A/C installed with two head units. They subcontracted the work. This took much longer than expected, and the subcontractor had to return a few times to fix leaks or loud noises in the head unit. The second head unit still needs to be installed (it was backordered). The end result for the first head unit has been good, and the price was fine.

Garage door: We installed a new garage door for better sealing against rodents and such. Keycon subcontracted with Econo Doormaster, and they did a very good job, though it was a little more expensive than we had initially expected.

Coordination with other subcontractors: We had other contractors do painting and glass work, and Keycon coordinated quite well with them as needed.

We will definitely choose Keycon again the next time we need a general contractor.

Matthew J.

I am an Eichler homeowner who recently engaged Keycon to remodel my house. I had an extremely positive experience with Keycon’s entire team during that process, so I decided to put pen to paper to document our collaboration!

I wanted to achieve a number of things with the remodel, not least to justify the cost of the project. My over-arching objective was to be a responsible Eichler owner and to do my part in preserving this small but important element of California post-war architectural history. My design goals were to:

• Restore my Eichler to its midcentury modern roots, by removing some of the 1980-90’s features that had been added subsequent to the original house construction.

• Completely open up the ground floor spaces--to handle more people at the social events I like to organize.

• Expand the bathrooms—to provide more light and space. Eichlers have notoriously small bathrooms, and so I decided to claim some volume to have roomier and airier bathrooms.

• Maximize the use of materials, paint colors, wood paneling and finishes that were used in original Eichler builds.

• Make the kitchen much larger, more functional and aesthetically interesting. That’s where everyone congregates at parties, so I wanted to make loitering in that space inviting!

Thanks to Keycon’s team, all of these goals were achieved on time and on budget.

The Eichler restoration turned out beautifully. In the course of working with Ron Key’s team, three things stood out to me:

• Keycon is extremely proficient at handling midcentury modern remodels, which is a natural outcome for a business that has focused solely on that subject matter for over three decades. They stuck to their knitting, and they thoroughly understand the bones--and all the idiosyncrasies--of Eichlers.

• Keycon has a unique culture that is based on teamwork and fairness. I observed how well Ron Key treats and develops his employees, and how his whole team works hard to do high-quality work.

• Keycon has systems and processes in place that seem to be much more evolved than what is standard in the residential remodel business. I’m not saying their project management tools are as evolved as NASA’s, but I was really impressed at how precisely the overall project was managed.

In short, I learned a lot of interesting things about Eichlers during that process, but it was also a pleasure to experience Keycon’s design creativity, engineering and construction skills, hard work and professionalism.

Colleen F.

After multiple attempts to get a meeting across a two-three month period with this group for home improvement/remodel work, I finally had a meeting set with a date and time. I was excited to meet with this group since they specialize in Eichlers. My experience to this point was not very good, but due to their specialty, I continued to try to work around their schedule to get a meeting. However, after we finally had a meeting time set-up (a time in which my husband and I both could stay home from work to meet with them) I received a phone call 10 minutes from their scheduled arrival time saying that because we had not connected by phone prior to the meeting with the actual contractor, they had cancelled our meeting.

I never received a phone call that this appointment was cancelled, nor was I told that a phone call needed to take place prior to our apt by anyone with Keycon. When I did speak with the contractor who called, the information he referred to on the work we needed to preform was completely incorrect and irrelevant. I do not know if this is the fault of their administrative staff, poor communication on the part of the contractor himself, or the company is disorganized as a whole, but while I didn't ever have any work preformed by this company, I would strongly urge you to consider your other options before getting the run around from this group. I decided after the final no show with no warning, to disqualify them as an option for our remodel.

J. K.

KeyCon is simply the best. The quality of their work is extraordinary and their expertise is outstanding. KeyCon helped us after we were recovering from a fire (caused by a Bosch dishwasher). KeyCon understood everything we needed to do regarding code upgrades and helped us to anticipate and avoid problems. They also helped us prepare all the documents we needed for the insurance company. Their people are great, responsive, talented, and fast. Our new kitchen is beautiful. KeyCon may be the best company i have ever had the privilege to hire. Go with KeyCon!