Constraction reviews in San Leandro, California

Avant Garde helped us complete an earthquake retrofit for our early 1970s house under the EBB program. Matthew and team were great partners and are very familiar with the rebate program.

The process started with a paid inspection and we were glad we did this. Their tradesperson will go inside the crawlspace and perform a detailed inspection for the scope of work that needs to be done. In our case they even reported a plumbing leak that we were not aware about. They also identified additional work needed related to our pier and beam foundation. At the end of the process the inspection fee will be credited back.

Once inspection is completed, they submitted a proposal which in our case was very competitive. It was also accurate because of the inspection, rather than ballpark estimate by others. Last but not least, Matthew is very familiar with the process and requirements of foundational work.

Once the project started, the crew were very professional and tried their best to keep the work area clean. Concrete damage (common for retrofit) were patched and painted like new. They also cleaned up after themselves and took care to remove materials from the crawl space.

At the end of the process, they also timed the city inspection perfectly and we passed with no issue. Matthew then provided exact instructions on claiming the EBB rebate check, which came promptly.

With the EBB part complete, we were also able to get a discount for our earthquake insurance.

Finally, they also sent lots of pictures of their work.

In summary we are very happy to have worked with Matthew and Avant Garde for our EBB earthquake retrofit and foundation work.

Avant-Garde did the earthquake retrofit for our house. We are very happy and impressed with their work and highly recommend them to anyone. Matthew's email responses were phenomenal, almost 24x7, and he handheld us in the application process when we ran into issues. His crew was punctual, courteous, efficient, and professional. We are so happy that we pick Avant-Garde for our earthquake EBB project!

AVANT-GARDE was the perfect choice for our brace and bolt project. Very helpful with the application process and all work was completed on time. Excellent work, Great service and all was as promised!

Matt and his team installed French Drains and a pump system at our home seven years ago and did a great job. He has helped us upgrade the pump when needed. Very responsive and efficient! Highly recommended.

Matthew and his team was very professional and helpful. He charged some $$ to give the quote but his team actually went to crawl space and come up with diagram about where concrete columns are and which beams have problems. His quote was little on higher side but he used URFP (instead of L bracket) and when I had questions about which bolts to use he compares the strength of different screws and recommended me the right size. He also took care of all the hard work to be done on EBB web site. I am happy with all the work he and his team performed and confident that my house will have better probability to survive the earthquake.

Just completed EBB Earthquake retrofit by Avant-Garde. Very happy with the whole process. Very easy to communicate using email. Although I never met or spoke to Matthew, he was very responsive and helpful with instructions and answers to my questions using email. His team were also very clean. They did a great job covering the access path to the crawl space and clean after themselves when finished the job. All in all, highly recommend Avant-Garde. Oh, BTW, their pricing was also reasonable, as I got bids from 3 different contractors.

This company won't even speak to you without you agreeing to pay a minimum $450 inspection fee. Our inquiry via email was met with a multi page copy/paste of information, most of which was inapplicable to our query. It also included ominous threats about how you can't trust most contractors - and you're putting your family's lives at risk if you do. Of course you need to be careful selecting a contractor, but these scare tactics combined with someone who won't answer questions until you've agreed to hire them has my warning bells going off. Since contacting them, we've acquired 2 bids from different contractors with more experience and higher ratings (both of whom were happy to hop on a call to answer questions).
**posting a screenshot of one piece of this conversation below. Libel??

Easy to work with, responsive and knowledgeable staff. Performed Earthquake brace and bolt Retrofitting on a very old house. Took about 8 hours for two guys to finish the job. URFPs, L90s and LTP5s were used per Plant set A minimum requirements. They provided several options as an add on apart from regular retrofitting work. They met our expectation for the contracted work. I would recommend Avant-Garde to anyone looking for a trustworthy, knowledgeable contractor.

Avant-Garde was excellent throughout the whole retrofit process. They had excellent communication. The team who did the work did a great job.

Avant-Garde was the perfect choice to perform the earthquake brace-and-bolt work on our house. Not only was Matthew's assessment of our house structure and foundation thorough and knowledgeable, he helped me through the whole process with the EBB program folks. He was always responsive to my many questions and requests, both in terms of time and thoroughness of his responses to my emails. And when the time came to actually perform the work, Matthew and his crew did superb work. And fast! Four days of A-G's 2-3 man crew's hard work, and it was done. I cannot recommend Avant-Garde highly enough.

We have had the pleasure of working alongside Avant-Garde for many years now.
They are extremely competent in everything from retrofits to complete additions of homes.
Matt is a 2nd generation, skilled contractor who can quickly understanding plans and is able to understand structural issues and the ways to repair or reinforce.
Any question I have ever had regarding structural load to retrofitting, Matt has always had an answerer and been able to help guide me in the correct direction.
Highly recommend Avant-Garde to anyone interested in retrofitting or general construction.

Excellent customer service. Very professional,
Contractor answered all my questions and concerns I had for my seismic retrofit project. We are grateful to come across Avant-Garde! Highly Recommend.

We used Avant-Garde based on our friends recommendation. We where very happy with their service. Mathew helped us through the process (emails). One thing we appreciated was when the time was set to start, 7am, their crew was on time, finished on time, and cleaned up like they never had been there. We feel their pricing was fair. We would highly recommend them for any retrofitting job.

this is the second home we have had a seismic in the past 10 years and both were done by Matthew Gatterman and Avant Garde, he has done over 3000 of these retrofit upgrades since we first used his service
extremely professionally and knowledgeable and the only contractor that took the time in the crawl space to do a complete assessment, his crew, David, Josh,Jose and Matthew were prompt and took the time to prepare a dust tunnel and the process was both clean to code, The building inspector even commented about how thorough and complete the job was done! Highly recommend this company!

I used this company for EBB grant based on a thorough search, for an honestly reviewed contractor, through multiple forums. I usually do not make positive reviews unless service excels. In this case, service expectations were exceeded. Matthew was responsive to emails, thoroughly informative about processes, and his crew was professional during work performed. The process with EBB can be a little much and Matthew pretty much connected the pieces. Thank you Matthew and crew!

Was awarded by county for Earthquake Brace and Bolt (EBB) program through Alameda. I've called a few contractors but only requested 1 inspection and it was with these folks because they've provided confidence from initial contact. Extremely patient, answered all of my questions and thorough at every step of the process. Timeline for scope of work was accurate. Price felt fair for the work, thoroughness, and confidence. Highly recommend.

Avant-Garde was the perfect choice to perform the earthquake brace-and-bolt (EBB) work on our house. Matthew is knowledgeable with the EBB requirements and very helpful through the whole process. He was very responsive to my inquiries - both in terms of time and thoroughness of his responses. The project was completed in a day and they did a superb work. As a retired Structural Engineer, I cannot recommend Avant-Garde highly enough.

It is with great enthusiasm that I write this review for Avant-Garde Construction. They performed a seismic retrofit to our home. Their customer service and responsiveness was fantastic. The crew arrived on time, finished early and cleaned up when the job was finished. I would highly recommend Avant-Garde.

Professional. Excellent work. Patient. Compassionate. Job completed on budget.

Great people great service

Excellent service and response time!