Constraction reviews in Martinez, California

We've used Dobson Construction on three significant projects over the past number of years (kitchen, entertainment room, and backyard overhaul and pool house construction). If our decision to send them repeat business isn't enough of an endorsement, we have always found them detail-oriented, punctual, collaborative, and courteous. They provide excellent craftsmanship, follow through and rectify any issues, and problem solve as needed. Highly recommend.

We've been working with Dobson Construction for a couple of years, and it's now been a full year after our remodel finished. We're still extremely happy with how things came out! The pic is of the main room just right before we moved in.

We wanted a more open-plan space and to remove some walls so our home would feel more spacious. We ended up with something that feels absolutely luxurious. They pay attention to all the small things so the final result is very polished.

Chris is also easy to talk to, very straightforward, and extremely detail-oriented. During the remodel, we had weekly walkthroughs and the communication was excellent. He kept us in the loop at all points, with no surprises.

He also honors his warranty. A year after the remodel he still happily came out and did some touchups following normal house settling.

The entire process working with Dobson Construction was seamless, and it went so smoothly that we're starting some additional projects with Chris! Highly recommended!

Working with Dobson Construction on our kitchen remodel was a very positive experience. Construction is never easy and there is always something that turns up, but their organization, flexibility and care for detail made it pretty painless. Chris is very easy to work with - calm, honest and focused, and he has an equally hardworking and reliable team. I would trust them to execute any house project with care and excellence.

I have done multiple major projects with Dobson Construction. The first was a kitchen and great room remodel. I had a time limit because I needed it done while I sent my wife and kids on a two months vacation. Hard to live for a whole family with no kitchen. Stripped down the kitchen to the studs, Custom everything, cabinets, tile, counters, amazing kitchen work. custom wainscoting around the great room and built in entertainment center. All Designer custom lights. Amazing craftmanship, great price and on time! Wife came home and everything was perfect. Second job was adding a butler pantry, a bedroom and a new laundry room. We live on a cliff so they dug out like 70 tons of dirt. Picture multiple excavating on a hillside with conveyor belts bringing out dirt. We gained 700 square feet of living space. Laundry home, bedroom and butler pantry are beautiful. Major job, again great craftmanship, fair price and done when he said it would be done. Chris Dobson is the only contractor I will ever work with again. It would be impossible for any other company to top the service and excellence I have received from them repeatedly.

Went here to get my blinds cut and was helped by Robert. He gave the best customer service and even helped with getting me a rug. He went above and beyond and I am so grateful!

Awful experience all around and ended-up paying an extra $50 for an installation service that we never received. Four issues:

1. Charging upfront without service: We sign-up for window blind installation and were charged the entire cost ($120) upfront. (I in my naivete should have tagged this as a red flag, but didn't).

2. Installer up-sold more blinds during measurement: Although, we had taken window measurements and brought the blinds, the installer insisted to come for measurement and asked us to return our blinds and asked us to purchase more blinds (i.e. incur more costs).

3. No installer coordination: The installer coordinator at Home Depot was apparently on vacation for 2 weeks and didn't schedule our blind installation for up to a week. We called up the store close to 5 times with no resolution.

4. No money back: When the installer didn't show-up for a week, we called the store to cancel the installation. At that time, we weren't told that we wouldn't get the full refund back. When no credit showed up on my credit card the next day, I called the store manager and was told that we would be getting on a partial refund of $70. In the meantime, we already paid another installer $120 (the original cost charged by Home depot) for installing the blinds.

Bottom-line, avoid this store like plague unless you are game for some pathetic service, poor communication, and rip-off tactics.

I had long deferred upgrading my ranch-style home for better energy efficiency and I knew I had a lot to do. My house was built in 1952, and still had its original single-pane aluminum windows and no ceiling or wall insulation. The house was always as cold or as warm as the outside air, and living in the hills near San Francisco Bay, the outside is chilly much of the year – so was the house. I attended a seminar sponsored by Contra Costa County and was fortunate that one of the speakers was Lowell Mason, president-owner of Mason BPP (Building Performance Professionals). That was my lucky day.

I was able to hire Lowell and his company to perform an energy audit, weigh the benefits of various energy upgrades, and watch them proceed upgrade windows and HVAC, doing excellent, on-time work. I worked primarily with Lowell, the owner, or Curtis Wineteer, Mason BPP's HVAC specialist. They advised on window replacement, a replacement heater, and other details to support energy savings, including small items such as a fireplace door that seals and a double-flap, energy-efficient dog door design. Planning upgrades in stages, I was delighted to have them make substantial, but selective energy upgrades to everything the audit indicated might help. Each job they completed made me eager to take on another; this was due to their unflagging courtesy and consideration of me and my comfort throughout the job. All pricing was up-front and clear and did not change as the job progressed. This was obviously because they really know their products and can accurately anticipate costs. Their charges on all materials and equipment were consistently fair. They returned when I called to request adding an air conditioner.

I hope to have another job for Mason BPP, Inc. in the future, as I cannot imagine finding more experienced, on-time, courteous, professional workers.

I contracted with Mason BPP to replace an ancient gravity furnace with a ducted heat pump system and a mini-split. The objective was to improve energy efficiency and better heat the house. They did a good job. They showed up on time, explained issues to me, and returned without extra charge to fix a few problems that became evident after the work was completed. I recommend Mason BPP for HVAC work and general energy efficiency improvements.

I would reccomend Mason BPP to anyone and all who require new or renovated construction. Their customer service, professionalism and pure scientific knowledge on energy efficiency will surpass anything you can find in this area.

Our 20-25 year old AC broke in the middle of a heat wave. Finding HVAC techs and companies to take on new clients can always be tight in the middle of summer but Mason BPP came out for a service call the next day. Unfortunately our units were not salvagable but I was expecting this. I wasn't surprist that additional diagnostic on the system showed severe damage to our compresson, furnace, and duct work considering the ducting is original and the units have not been serviced properly in many, many years.

Curtis + BPP team did the following:

- Thoroughly explained the science behind the HVAC work, showed us pictures of damage, explained some of the dangers and then presented multiple feasible options of repair/replacement. He did not jump to an expensive repair or replacement but followed my lead to let me decide what was best for my family.
- Presented an extremely low interest rate home loan (3.9%) geared towards energy efficient upgrades (and you can even use 30% towards other upgrades, like flooring!)
- Re-routed estimates several times to make sure we were getting the best quality products, best price for products, best technological upgrades for our system, all while making sure we could do the cosmetic upgrades to the floors we wanted within our budget.
-Began/completed project within a week after budget confirmation, left areas cleaner than they began, and was consistently open with all lines of communication

One of the most important and valuable experiences to me is that I could trust Mason BPP in my home. The on-site team, is notably kind, genuine, friendly, and happy! Lando, the lead worker on-site was seriously a dream to be around.

Curtis and his crew were amazing! When we initially reached out, Curtis got back to us promptly to schedule a site visit. Once the site visit was completed and his recommendations discussed, he provided us with a detailed quote. He completed all the work needed to make our home safe (upgrade our old 100amp panel to 200amp) within the scheduled timeline and he also walked us through each step of the way. 10/10 and would definitely work with Curtis again in the future!

After carefully reviewing three different estimates and making sure to understand what we were purchasing when replacing our HVAC system a couple of years ago, we were most impressed with Mason BPP and Curtis' knowledge and patience in explaining and guiding our purchase. We are so happy we hired them, the product is top notch as expected, the whole installation crew was very professional and respectful of our space, it was an overall very pleasant experience. Fast forward two years, and last Sunday our AC decided to keep running uncontrollably, turning the house into an iceberg. After shutting off the breaker we called Curtis, who called us back an hour later (on a Sunday!!), came over on Monday, and solved the problem on Tuesday- a faulty Nest thermostat that needed to be replaced- all under warranty. We so appreciate Curtis/Mason BPP's continued help, and figured the best way to thank them is to encourage anyone looking for their services to hire them without reserve!

I did not contract their services or was ever a customer. However, one of their drivers ran a red light and I had to slam my breaks to avoid a crash today. Their employees represent the company so if one of them displays this level of gross negligence to the general public, I would not recommend anyone do business with them. I only got the license plate of their trailer on my dash cam because it was blocking the van license plate.

Curtis and the entire BPP crew did an awesome job installing an entirely new ducted mini split system in our home as well as a ductless system in our loft room. They removed old attic insulation and sprayed in new insulation along with foam air sealing. They even went above & beyond by removing our old wall furnace and used the space to run refrigerant lines there instead of making new holes in our walls for access.

The crew was very personable, worked very neatly and were considerate of our home throughout the job. Curtis was great at explaining things and answering all of our questions. They were always on time in the morning and had the whole house cleaned up by the time we got home from work. *and very important to us, the loved on our dogs when they were around :)

AC / furnace upgrade, new Ducting, sealed entire house, added bath fan.
Mason BPP was a great company to work with, they are professional, punctual, and overall the work performed was excellent. After having three bids we decided to use Mason BPP based on Curtis overall knowledge, assessment and pricing of work to be performed. We thought that he gave us an honest price and was also very helpful in locating some key problems in our home that would make the comfort of our living situation much better. Curtis did an overall assessment and actually gave us multiple options in multiple price ranges which was very helpful and letting us decide which one to choose for our budget.
I want to do a longer-term review based on how the changes have affected our home. 10 months have passed and we are just thrilled with the results, the house stays much cooler in the summer and much warmer in the winter, also with the sealing of the house our power bills have been significantly lower than the previous years. I would definitely recommend Mason BPP to our friends and family and look forward to doing work with them in the future.

We have been very impressed with Curtis and BPP and have recommended them to friends. They installed our heat pump 5 years ago, and we were very pleased with the people and the efficiency of the installation. The system has worked perfectly since being installed.
We recently had a very minor issue come up with the heat pump connection to the house being chewed by an animal.
We called BPP and Curtis responded by coming out the same day and fixing the problem. He is very knowledgeable and a pleasure to do business with.
We highly recommend using BPP!!

Curtis is the best!! We completed a whole house mini split system with him in our major home renovation (8 units replacing an old HVAC ducted system). He is very knowledgeable, honest, friendly, and hard working. We had many bumps along the road with existing conditions but he helped us problem solve solutions until everything was just right. Thank you Curtis!