Bay Area Contractor Referral

Information may not be reliable

Call Today! 1.888.98BUILD — 1.888.982.8453Serving the Greater Bay Area since 1991

We are a Contractor Referral Service for the Greater Bay Area, CA. We refer qualified State Licensed General Building and Engineering Contractors, and Subcontractors.
Our scope of work is anything listed on the "license classification" tab, plus kitchens, baths, decks, foundations, dry-rot, plumbing, electrical, roofing, painting, etc.
We have contractors who specialize in seismic retrofit (earthquake).
Consider retrofitting your home to help protect your family and property before the next earthquake strikes the Bay Area. The San Francisco Bay Area is transected by a series of subparallel faults. There are several significant fault zones present in the Bay Area: San Andreas Fault, the Calaveras, Concord-Green Valley, Greenville, Hayward, Rodgers Creek, and San Gregorio Faults.
Our Contractors are Licensed, Bonded, and Insured.
View the menu tab "Contractor License Classifications" to get an idea of what class type contractor you may need.
Also, if you have presently hired a contractor, be sure and check our "Contractor License Classifications" page to verify that the appropriate license is held for the scope of work to be performed.
Call today for all your needs or contact us using our form.

*C-61: Limited Specialty is for a specialty contractor whose operations as such are the performance of construction work requiring a special skill not included in the other specialty classifications or only a part of a specialty classification.

Contractor State License Board
Information for Consumers, Applicants, Contractors, Building Officials.
Law and regulations, services and publications, news and events, contractor education seminars, free consumer information.
Valuable information may be found at "Contractors State License Board."
The "Contractor License Status" is a good reference to verify if a contractor is in good standing with the CSLB.

Contractors Board Warns Bay Area Consumers About Unlicensed Contractors

Contractors Board Warns Consumers About Unlicensed Contractors After Disasters
Unscrupulous, unlicensed contractors often prey on victims of natural disasters. It is a felony to contract without a license in a declared disaster area. Consumers can protect themselves by using CSLB's resources to check a contractor's license status and history.
After a Disaster Don't Get Scammed Pamphlet
Excerpts from the 02/05/04 Press Release
The Contractors State License Board is warning consumers about the dangers of hiring unlicensed contractors during National Consumer Protection Week (February 1-7, 2004). A blitz of CSLB undercover sting operations conducted in the San Francisco Bay Area during the last month underscores the risk of hiring unlicensed contractors.
At stings in San Rafael (January 15), Sunnyvale (January 21-22), San Francisco (January 28), and Burlingame (February 4), a total of 81 suspected unlicensed contractors were cited for contracting without a license.
The CSLB undercover operatives invited suspected unlicensed contractors to secret sting houses. When they bid on jobs -- ranging from kitchen and bathroom remodels, painting and plumbing to landscaping, flooring and electrical -- and were found to be unlicensed, 67 were issued Notice to Appear (NTA) misdemeanor citations and ordered to appear in municipal court.
Fifteen of the NTA's were issued to unlicensed contractors at the San Rafael sting; 32 were issued at the Sunnyvale sting, seven went to suspects at the San Francisco sting, and 13 were issued in Burlingame. Twenty-nine unlicensed contractors received administrative citations. (Some of the phony contractors received only an NTA or administrative citation; some received both, depending on the alleged violation.)
The stings were held in cooperation with local law enforcement. Officers from the San Rafael, Burlingame, and San Francisco Police Departments and a Deputy District Attorney from the Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office provided backup at the stings.
Because of their non-compliance with workers' compensation guidelines, unlicensed contractors often submit lower bids on jobs, and District Attorney's Offices that partnered with CSLB in the stings will prosecute illegal contractors. Consequently, nine separate NTAs were issued by the Santa Clara District Attorney's Office at the Sunnyvale sting for violations of workers' compensation requirements.
By law, all contractors who perform work that totals $500 or more (labor and materials) must be licensed by the CSLB.
Don't pay more than 10 percent down or $1,000, whichever is less.
Visit CSLB site

Improving the Value of Your Home
Appraising experts say home-owners can expect their best return from investing in kitchens, bathrooms, basements and additions.
Almost everything else — landscaping, fireplaces, gutters, pools — is considered an amenity and won't likely add instant value to the house unless a buyer is looking for such items.
The best returns are in the bathroom, where money spent on additions and renovations is likely to increase values the most, according to Remodeling Magazine.
The magazine puts the best national return on a mid-range bathroom addition costing $15,058, estimating that it would earn about 94 percent back in a resale. A major kitchen remodeling that cost $70,368 would earn about 80 percent in a resale, the magazine said.
"It's the best remodeling market that there has ever been," said Walt Stoeppelwerth, publisher and partner of Hometech Information Systms Inc., a Bethesda, Md., software company that studies contractor costs and helped perform the market analysis for the magazine...
Remember the Three P's of Kitchen Remodels

Patience, preparedness and planning will pay off in a kitchen remodel. Here are a few things to consider:

A kitchen remodel, like most remodels, usually takes longer than estimated. This is not always the contractor's fault. A late shipment of supplies to the contractor (or the home-owner), the wrong materials delivered (or chosen by the home-owner), an injury on the job — these are just a few of the things that can delay a remodel. Always plan for it to take longer than estimated.
Plan to have extra money on hand. Remodels usually cost more than you budget, especially kitchen remodels. It's not unusual for the final cost to be 15 percent to 20 percent more than budgeted.
Often this is because of unforeseen problems, but it is also because many people decide that they want better appliances or cabinets during the process than they budgeted for.
Workers will usually get to your home very early. They're used to starting at 7 a.m. or even earlier if they can work inside. Plan on getting up each day much earlier than usual so you can be ready for them.
Don't try to hurry workers near the end of the job. That's when the finishing touches are put on, the things that you and others will see.

Excerpts from article in San Francisco Chronicle — Wednesday, April 2, 2003
by Trif Alatzas - Baltimore Sun