Best Porch Construction/Replacement in San Francisco CA
Electrician
I've had Damon & his crew (Carlos, Carlitos, Marcos, Samuel) do a couple jobs for me now (these things tend to snowball, ugh, lol) & they've always done top-notch work.
I had a fan in my master bathroom crap out on me, which was weird, since I only bought my place 4 years ago, it was newly remodeled, & I even remodeled some more on top of that. My wife pointed out it wasn't working, but it looked new to me, so I popped the cover to find out...not new at all. New COVER over a fan that was a year younger than the missus. Uh oh. The old lipstick on a pig boogie from the prior owners/ seller. Damn. Hate getting hoodwinked.
So, I think well, better check the 'new' fan in the guest bath too. Pop THAT shiny, nice cover & ...same drill but even OLDER. Some mid-80's (I think) giant 13 circular fan they don't even make anymore. Double ugh.
Last stop: laundry room. Final fan, pop the cover...whew, it's actually a new-ish fan. 1 outta 3 ain't bad, right? /sigh
So I put out the feelers for an electrician (I had 2 dead outlets, 1 indoor, 1 outdoor as well) & after doing the online quote thing w/ Yelp, I got in touch w/ Damon @ Berkeley Home Repair. Funny dude, super helpful, quick & responsive. He schedules his electrician, Carlitos, to come out ASAP, for what I think is gonna just be a basic fan install & outlet fix job. Nope.
Carlitos goes into the attic & discovers the ducts are all wrong. 3 fans running thru 2 ducts, both bathrooms on the same 4 line, & laundry room on some weird 3 duct. Now, you can get away with 4, but 6 is code & preferred, & every fan has to be on its own dedicated/ independent duct, or you're just blowing moisture from room to room & into the attic. Not good. We crawl the attic together & confirm I need a 3rd roof penetration & new ducts. So much for cheap & easy. Damn.
Damon adjusts the bid (as gently as possible, considering my costs just went up almost 10x) & I wind up with 2 brand new Panasonic Whisper Quiet fans (amazing. Almost TOO quiet), a new roof penetration & cap, new independent 6 ducts for each fan, an excellent sheetrock patch & paintjob on my guest bath ceiling (prior, old-timey fan was just way too huge compared to current models) AND Carlitos fixed both dead power outlets (one of which turned out to be an arcing short/ broken wire inside the wall, which we were lucky to catch before a fire).
All the workers were amazing to work with & did great on their specific parts of the now much larger order. Everyone worked quickly &, despite the gig snowballing far beyond the expected, Damon priced fairly & had the work done as fast as possible with minimal intrusion & inconvenience (crucial during these pandemic work from home times)
Tho it was obviously a bummer to have a small job turn into a much bigger & more expensive one, I always felt like I was in good hands with Damon, his communication was clear, direct, quick & honest, & the outcome was excellent.
I'll definitely be using Berkeley Home Repair for future work, since homeownership often means nasty surprises like the one I got ain't all that rare, unfortunately. Heh. At least now I know who to call to get sorted fairly & quickly. Thanks fellas!
Will try to post pics when I get a chance...but most of this was behind the scenes work, or what my buddy likes to call invisible money, heh.
I had a fan in my master bathroom crap out on me, which was weird, since I only bought my place 4 years ago, it was newly remodeled, & I even remodeled some more on top of that. My wife pointed out it wasn't working, but it looked new to me, so I popped the cover to find out...not new at all. New COVER over a fan that was a year younger than the missus. Uh oh. The old lipstick on a pig boogie from the prior owners/ seller. Damn. Hate getting hoodwinked.
So, I think well, better check the 'new' fan in the guest bath too. Pop THAT shiny, nice cover & ...same drill but even OLDER. Some mid-80's (I think) giant 13 circular fan they don't even make anymore. Double ugh.
Last stop: laundry room. Final fan, pop the cover...whew, it's actually a new-ish fan. 1 outta 3 ain't bad, right? /sigh
So I put out the feelers for an electrician (I had 2 dead outlets, 1 indoor, 1 outdoor as well) & after doing the online quote thing w/ Yelp, I got in touch w/ Damon @ Berkeley Home Repair. Funny dude, super helpful, quick & responsive. He schedules his electrician, Carlitos, to come out ASAP, for what I think is gonna just be a basic fan install & outlet fix job. Nope.
Carlitos goes into the attic & discovers the ducts are all wrong. 3 fans running thru 2 ducts, both bathrooms on the same 4 line, & laundry room on some weird 3 duct. Now, you can get away with 4, but 6 is code & preferred, & every fan has to be on its own dedicated/ independent duct, or you're just blowing moisture from room to room & into the attic. Not good. We crawl the attic together & confirm I need a 3rd roof penetration & new ducts. So much for cheap & easy. Damn.
Damon adjusts the bid (as gently as possible, considering my costs just went up almost 10x) & I wind up with 2 brand new Panasonic Whisper Quiet fans (amazing. Almost TOO quiet), a new roof penetration & cap, new independent 6 ducts for each fan, an excellent sheetrock patch & paintjob on my guest bath ceiling (prior, old-timey fan was just way too huge compared to current models) AND Carlitos fixed both dead power outlets (one of which turned out to be an arcing short/ broken wire inside the wall, which we were lucky to catch before a fire).
All the workers were amazing to work with & did great on their specific parts of the now much larger order. Everyone worked quickly &, despite the gig snowballing far beyond the expected, Damon priced fairly & had the work done as fast as possible with minimal intrusion & inconvenience (crucial during these pandemic work from home times)
Tho it was obviously a bummer to have a small job turn into a much bigger & more expensive one, I always felt like I was in good hands with Damon, his communication was clear, direct, quick & honest, & the outcome was excellent.
I'll definitely be using Berkeley Home Repair for future work, since homeownership often means nasty surprises like the one I got ain't all that rare, unfortunately. Heh. At least now I know who to call to get sorted fairly & quickly. Thanks fellas!
Will try to post pics when I get a chance...but most of this was behind the scenes work, or what my buddy likes to call invisible money, heh.
Richmond, CA 94806