BGGC, Inc.

You don’t normally put erudite and general contractor together in a sentence but Blake Gilmore managed to embody both in his management of a seismic retrofit job for us. He’s a quality guy and his crew is fantastic. The work began with an exacting engineer who I also recommend by the name of Ralph Kratz. He did a detailed engineered plan which requires an exacting crew to decode and implement. In this regard, Blake’s lead carpenter Neville is a horse whisperer, bringing to life the drawings with care, managing the reality of electrical outlets, ducting and all the things that aren’t in the plan, but you have to account for.
But this attention to detail starts at the top with Blake. Beyond the retrofit job, he also took care of a number of improvements that were screaming for help. He replaced French doors in the living room that were so rotten daylight streamed through them. He not only recommended a quality replacement, but had the good design sense to recommend a style of panes that worked with the aesthetic of the room. We replaced a portion of the wood siding with newly milled redwood. This was preceded by a discussion of the grain of redwood, the difference between today’s woods and those when he was coming into the business and the indifference of the industry as these giants were begin clearcut nearly to extinction. I appreciated his expertise and his environmental sensitivities.
As for cost, while none of the above was cheap, it was completely in-​line with other estimates. But more importantly, Blake really took care to explain the detail billing and gave very clear guidance on change orders.
We had a great experience with Blake and would engage again without hesitation for a home renovation project.

blake and his crew did a fair sized re-​model for us in our oakland (redwood heights) home, including a bathroom. they did seismic work as well. they were professional and detail oriented. it was a cost plus job that ended up slightly over the original estimate, but that’s not unreasonable considering the complexity of the project. when we found a minor problem a few months after the job was completed, blake sent over one of his guys to fix it. overall, we were extremely pleased with the quality of the work.

A brilliant eye, and a great guy to boot.