Hugo Handyman Remodeling

We had the pleasure of having Hugo as the contractor for our remodel which included kitchen, bathroom, dining room and moulding through the entire house. He worked quickly and would always check in, showing us progress, asking if we were happy with it and making adjustments and suggestions if we wanted something changed. At one point we had some issues because we wanted to adjust the kitchen counter height to work with future plans of updating the flooring, we couldn't figure out what to do but Hugo was a huge help in coming up with idea after idea to help us find the solution that would work best for us when the time came. It is stressful having people in your home for so long but we ended up always looking forward to having him! He and his wife were so patient and kind and we plan to continue to hire him for any future work.

Hugo has been doing work in my old SF apartment for many years: he is very reliable,  honest and easygoing. He is currently doing work on my place after a 6 year absence & am still pleased with his work. He is a busy man and his schedule might be tight but if you get a hold of him you'll be pleased.

He can do painting, repairs... whatever you might need. And he is not the type who will nickel & dime for little things that he sees needs attention.

Thanks Hugo!

Hugo is an amazing handyman. He undertook the remodeling of our 80 year old home, moving walls, ripping up and leveling floors, installing two entire bathrooms, fully remodeling the kitchen and cutting several new doors including through thick concrete.

His work is the best and we will not do another project without him.

Hugo is amazing! He completely transformed our master bathroom after examining all of the damage and not only determining how to fix any issues, but by also ensuring we wouldn't have the same issues again in the future. He put in new floors in our basement last year and because of his hard work and reliability, we gave him the huge task of a huge bathroom repair, and once again he did not disappoint! We'd totally recommend and hire him again!

Over the years, Hugo has completed many projects on our home. No job has been too big or too small:  he rebuilt our deck, re-paved our walkway, added siding to the house, and most recently promptly responded to our call for help and repaired some wood rot. Hugo is proficient and  hardworking. We highly recommend him for your next project.

5 stars!!! Hugo helped my clients and me with a bathroom remodel to prep their house for sale. He was very flexible with helping out when new repairs & unexpected issues came up and he always kept us in the loop with what was going on. Would definitely recommend to anyone who needs any work done as he's also very versatile with what he can do!

Hugo's awesome to work with! He helped us with a recent fence project and painting project and competed both projects on time and with excellent quality.
He made sure to talk through design decisions with us, he's trustworthy and he and his crew kept the work areas super clean after each day of work.
Will be working again with him in the future!

After calling just about 6-8 local handymen in the area and doing my research well I connected with Hugo. He and his team helped install Bamboo Hardwood floors in my staircase and was beyond affordable. He charged me less than the insurance payed me and much less than any other handyman who quoted me. Literally by -40%!

His team ended up doing a fantastic job; my floors look brand new just as they were before so I ended up giving him the full amount my insurance payed me. As a token, he noticed my curtain rod and towel rod was falling apart in my bathroom and ended up fixing that as well at no charge.

He purchased all the materials ahead of time and handed me invoices for proof. He owns all the equipment and cut up the wood in my driveway and made me feel comfortable to have in my home. Very honest man. I will be contacting him soon again for plumbing in my master suite. Thanks Hugo & Sebastian!

Hugo was very responsive and fast in arriving when my roof partially broke in during the storm floods. Let me just say that his quote turned out to be much lower than every other handyman that eventually got back to me. At that time, Hugo and his crew had already finished the job and the roof looked better than before. No more leaks and no visible damage on either side! Hugo has golden hands. Highly recommended!

Hugo is a fantastic person to work with. I couldn't recommend him more for all repair, remodel, and handyman needs. He recently worked with us on closing off an old closet and building a new one in our apartment. He was fast, reasonable, fair, and the work was very high quality. He did a good job setting realistic expectations, and talked through different options at each step of the project. I feel like we have hit gold, given how hard it is to find a good contractor in the bay area when you don't have a major project. We are looking forward to working with him on our bathroom and kitchen.

This review is a bummer to write. I hate to leave a negative review, and I do not like to use Yelp as a forum for complaints.  So I'll try to be fair, thorough, and descriptive in my review.  I had high hopes for Hugo, based on his other handful of reviews and can say that I am happy with some aspects of the work he did...However, I have to be honest in my review as I feel it is only fair to warn others in hopes you won't have the experience.

We decided to remodel our bathroom, and after studying yelp reviews and talking to a few different contractors, chose Hugo Handyman Remodeling. My first impression of Hugo was that he was nice and seemed to have a lot of experience, despite having only five reviews on Yelp. He said the project would take 3-4 days. He offered to go to the tile shops with us to get items we needed, which was nice. However, he was pretty difficult to get a hold of. Often his phone was turned off, and he did not respond to my messages prior to our first scheduled store visit (this happened frequently throughout the project). That was frustrating, as I did not know where we were going or even if we were still meeting. Four hours after the time we had agreed on, he called me and said, ok, want to go now?.  Unfortunately that was kind of the theme of the whole project; me calling and not getting a response and then hours later finally hearing from him. I honestly was pretty apathetic about the poor communication aspect, even when he once did not show up or send anyone to work on a day he was scheduled to work. I figured as long as he got the job done and it looked good, that was the most important thing.

The thing that really pushed me over the edge from mild irritation to anger and disbelief took place after he had finished the project (several days after the date when we had agreed). The problem was after I had paid Hugo (in cash, as he requested), when I realized within a couple of days that the bathroom fan he installed was not working properly.  Not only did it not work to eliminate the steam, but it was also dripping a beige liquid onto the toilet, rug, and floor!! When I called Hugo to let him know and schedule a time for him to come take a look, he outright refused, telling me it is not my problem, it is your problem. He said we installed the fan, and now we are done. I could not believe my ears. He even went beyond that, saying that it was likely my fault, as the fan I chose was bad. So glad he told me that AFTER we had him install the fan (which was brand new). The conversation did not end well, with him essentially refusing to help.  I did tell him that I did not think this was fair and that I was going to write a negative review as he refused to complete the job he had begun. Well, four hours later, he shows up at my house without notice and says, I will unplug the fan and come and look at it later. Perhaps you need to buy a new fan with a heater. We will come back and install it for an extra $200 or more. WHA?!I

I called a different handyman with a lot of good reviews on Yelp and scheduled for him to come and see what was wrong.The experienced, helpful, kind handyman arrived, took one look at the bathroom fan Hugo installed and laughed, telling me that it was a sloppy, sloppy job and that the fan itself was not the problem, but rather that it had not been installed properly. About an hour and $80 later he managed to fix it and yes - it works just fine now!

I do have a few other reservations about Hugo's work that I feel I should pass on.  Hugo asks to be paid in cash. Not check, certainly not credit card, but cold hard cash. And he also would ask for cash prior to being finished with the job. He would come to ask how much cash I had on hand occasionally. I would say maybe like $40?, and he would look irritated and tell me he needed $200-300 right then and there, requesting for me to go to the bank so he would have cash that same day (midway through the project). Also, he frequently told us how busy he was and he often expressed frustration that he was still working on our bathroom. It was weird because he would not show up for a couple of days, and then when he returned, he would act like the delay was somehow caused by us (being one of the many jobs he had decided to book at the same time). It was confusing.  Hugo himself mostly supervised a team of others and was usually not on site himself.  Luckily, my wife speaks Spanish and was therefore able to communicate with the people he hired to work under him, people who were very nice but also often seemed confused about the exact task they were supposed to be doing.
The tile, tub, and paint look good, but after getting the second opinion that the leaky fan had been such a sloppy job we're just hoping the tile is installed properly so we don't have to hire someone to come re-repair that part, as well!!!

Called Hugo for the first time last week to close up a hole in my bathroom wall that plumbers opened to work on pipes.  Hugo was great.  He was easy to reach and did a good job at a reasonable price.  His tile work looks good.  We would call him again for other handyman jobs.

I have used Hugo for several repairs at home from fixing a door, to unclogging my bathroom toilet...he is very funny, yet professional and reliable..I always enjoy when he comes and fixes my stuff!

Hugo is amazing. He and his assistant repaired a hole in our attic from the outside before the big storms came and did it within a few hours. He is also reasonably priced. Would definitely be using his services on future repairs & projects.

On the recommendation of a good friend, we hired Hugo to remodel two baths and our kitchen.  Hugo, Rolando, Luis, Ronnie and Romero did an excellent job at a fair price.  We are completely pleased with the quality and completeness of what turned out to be a slightly more complex project than we originally had planned. His team made several good suggestions, and were willing to work with us on changes as the job progressed.  The finished product turned out better than my wife and I had imagined.

We would definitely recommend Hugo, he is pleasant to work with, knowledgeable  and well qualified.  He has assembled an excellent team and will get the job done.

Excellent contractor!! He was great from the start. He told me if I wanted to see his work to go and check his crew out on a job site. I did. They were jamming and the work was awesome. Hugo came to my place the next day, measured, and gave me a bid, I accepted and we agreed to start in two days. Two days later he and the crew showed up as promised and in one day knocked out repairing and reinforcing an old dry rotted covered porch in my 1903 victorian. I am definitely calling Hugo for any and all future jobs on my home.

A few months ago, Hugo and his crew painted my bathroom and sheetrocked, finished, and painted an alcove in my living room that once had been a Murphy-bed unit.  The work was impeccable and very reasonably priced, so I asked him back to prime and paint the rest of the apartment.  The place is more than 100 years old, filled with windows, crown moldings, bookshelves, and other trim.  Hugo and his crew primed and painted everything, removing kitchen cabinets and doors to spray them with high-gloss white paint, removed hardware as I requested, and made small repairs as he went along.  It took longer than he expected, but this was only because he was doing a job of the highest quality and there was so much by-hand trim to be painted.  Hugo can freehand a straight line with contrasting colors so perfectly that it looks as though it was done with a high-tech spray machine and tape.  His crew was considerate, hard-working, and had great skill.  Hugo is my go-to guy for anything that needs doing at my place.  Great guy, great work, great service.

December 24th: my kitchen sink with garbage disposal starts backing up. I call my home warranty folks, and they tell me I can't get anyone until the 26th. Fine. December 26th: nobody comes, nobody goes. I call the home warranty folks back to find out why. Oops. We forgot to put the order through. Plumber finally comes in on the 27th to fix the garbage disposal and lets me know there's nothing wrong with it, and since the unit does not have a clean-out, the warranty won't cover the unclogging of the pipes under the sink. The plumber has to charge me retail price: $128 an hour for service (times two, he thinks) and $178 for the unclogging part. I tell him I am not prepared to pay over $400 and send him on his way. Instead, I do a search for a local plumber and find Hugo via yelp. He gives me an estimate of $100 max. It sounds too good, but I'm desperate. He comes on a Saturday morning and works for close to two hours on unclogging the pipes. He replaces a cracked pipe that will inevitably start leaking soon enough and another one that's lost all traction (which is why, it turns out, I failed when I tried to fix everything myself the night before). All his labor including going out to buy parts and the parts he bought cost me less than $145. I never thought I'd miss washing dishes in my sink this much. Thanks, Hugo, for putting me at ease and saving the holiday weekend before New Year's Eve!

Hugo Escobar did some extensive work on my property, including remodeling an apartment, painting the outside of a 3-story building, landscaping front and back yards, and a number of miscellaneous jobs.  He can repair anything and knows where to find parts for obsolete items.    He chooses his team of workers carefully and then personally supervises and participates in the work.  He is reliable and shows up when he says he will.  Though very professional, he has a great sense of humor and makes inconveniences necessary by the work to be almost fun.  His prices are  competitive and  you know  the work will be done right.  I never had occasion to question his honesty and integrity.

Hugo came out and fixed my leaky toilet, put chicken wire to prevent bird's nest in my dryer vent, and most importantly re-did the patching of my family room ceiling.  My family room ceiling was previously opened up to fix water damage, but the patch work that was done by someone recommended by the plumber was not good.  Hugo re-did the patchwork and looks as good as new.

Hugo Escobar has helped with a variety of projects at my home.  He is capable and polite and has even improvised solutions to problems no one else would touch.  This is a trustworthy man and a pleasure to be around.  He has been flexible and has answered calls in unexpected situations.