Some comments (too long) on our recommendation of Bayside Builders group based on repair and renovation work that they did over the past couple months.
We live in a nearly 100-year-old East Bay house, which needed some TLC. Bayside Builders Group did the following work for us: mold remediation; wood flooring repairs; floor refinishing; dry-rot related structural repairs; new-construction replacement of two living room windows; exterior stucco repairs; interior drywall/plaster repairs; and re-painting the entire house exterior.
We were very pleased with the efficiency and quality of all of the work that was performed (all permitted (as needed)), beginning with our initial contacts with Eldar and Tal (our project managers with Bayside) and continuing with the work done by Mattias and his crew. We won't comment on each portion of the work performed, but we'll mention a few things that we were particularly pleased with.
First, we realized we probably had a long-term leak in on corner of our living room. Our initial contacts with Bayside were with Eldar and Tal, who were among a number contractors we considered. We selected Bayside for several reasons. We liked the analytical, stepwise approach suggested by Eldar and Tal (first to address the mold which would then allow us deduce the origin of the leak). We liked that they would be a one-stop shop, therefore able to address new problems that we might encounter as the work progressed, and we liked that they were able to (and did) start the work relatively soon. It turned out that one window had likely been leaking for years, and we decided to replace both of the old living room wondows.
Second, when beginning the window replacements, it became clear that the dry-rot situation below the bad window went down to the foundation sill, which required fairly major structural repairs to proceed. It was great that Eldar, Tal and Mattias were able to pivot fairly quickly to address these repairs! The quality of the window replacements were excellent ... the exterior trim work, the interior moulding work, the stucco repairs, and the interior drywall repairs were great. In particular, the crew did an amazing job of texturing the drywall to match the surrounding texture of the older existing paster, as well as an amazing job of interior painting of the repairs. I should mention that the crew completely covered the wood flooring to preclude any damage to the floors.
Third, with all of the exterior work done, we decided that now wood be the time to paint the entire exterior and to replace our old gutters. The Bayside crew did a great paint job, beginning with a large prep effort to repair cracks in the old stucco and to carefully caulk as needed. Then a coat of Killz2 primer and 2 coats of high quality (sherlock) final paint. At one point, during house prep and priming, I think there might have been 5-6 Bayside crew working on the paint job!
Fourth, all of this work is necessarily somewhat disruptive. Can't be avoided. That said, we were happy that Eldar, Tal and Mattias were able to schedule the work efficiently, such that when a particular portion of the work started, it kept going until completion. We didn't experience the on/off job work that we had sometimes encountered in previous repair/construction work with others.
Lastly, my only other general advice, regardless of what contractor is chosen, would be to find out as much as you can, as early as possible, about the permitting requirements of your particular municipality, so that everyone (customer, contractor, permitting agency) is on the same page. Again, we were very pleased with our experiences with Bayside, and we would choose them again, in our case, especially if we need any further window or painting work.
