White Castle Construction

Extremely unprofessional. I e-mailed them about the Earthquake Brace + Bolt program, asking if the process could be handled strictly using the grant money and not paying anything out of pocket. How does the owner respond? "So keeping you and family alive is not important if you can't get it for free?" I rarely write negative reviews but I need to let potential customers know to steer clear of anyone who is so rude to a complete stranger. If he replies negatively to this review, it will probably only demonstrate my point. I can see from the other reviews that I'm not alone. What a disgrace to the profession.

I thought they were great. My insurance was heavily discounted because I had it done. The reason I like them is because when I received my California earthquake bill and it said on the bill that I could apply for certain discounts if I’d had certain work done. And I had to supply evidence. And I couldn’t find the bill from way back when at the time. I called the company and they asked “what’s your address?” and I gave it to them, and they said “oh yeah, we got it right here, we’ll send it to them, we’ll take care of it for you.” They were very helpful, very quick in responding and taking care of the issue for me. And sure enough, I get my bill from the California Earthquake insurance, they had already marked it down and sent me a rebate for a previous bill I that had paid. Because I already had this work done. They were very good. They do a great job. I like the company. I like the people who work there. They helped me, here it was 2016 when I got that bill from my California Earthquake coverage. Look maybe I can get a discount, I was like how am I going to do this, I don’t even know where my receipt was. Called them up and the fact that they had records from that long ago and hadn’t been purged and were still able and willing to help me. I thought they were terrific! I don’t use them for other construction, but I used them for this. I have recommended them to others. I didn’t know what to compare the price to, I presumed it was probably a reasonable price because I knew what they were going to have to do. I didn’t have to provide supplies. I know that drilling into cement is no easy task. That’s fine, it’s worth it. I know I’m doing it for a good reason. They were very clean and on time.

They did the work but when it came to follow-up questions about the work and other issues related to the house bolting, their response was terrible and the follow-up was even worse.

Michael Goldberg is absolutely one of the best in the business. We just bought a house, and needed simple foundation repairs and serious retrofitting. Our house is at the top of the hill, so if and when the big one hits, we wanted to be prepared. Michael came over and gave us a very detailed presentation. It might seem salesy to some people to see before and after photos of houses, but we live in California. The risks are real, as is his recognition for outstanding work by FEMA. Michael created a plan for our retrofitting that not only meet today's standards, but will also meet stricter standards starting in 2019. He came in with a very fair price, worked with our schedule and got the job done. We had a perfect experience, passed inspection, and now feel truly confident that the foundation of our house will survive a quake and stand the test of time. Thank you, Michael. You're the best. My fiancé and I are so happy we found you guys!

Appointment set for March 19, 2013 for 9:00 Initially I had asked for a courtesy call to let me know he was on his way. He stated that he is an engineer and that if he says he is going to be there at certain time he will be there at that time Well I waited for more than 2 hrs this morning. I get a call around 4p that his workers are in area. I tell him that I not available. He then verifies my address and somehow he has a different address He then states that his workers were at the different address and couldn't get in. He then states and quot; You gave me the wrong address and I just don't want to do business with youand quot; No apology for wasting my morning waiting and checking for his workers arrival. Well in this day of cell phones, I guess and quot;engineersand quot; can't make a simple phone call. If his workers were at wrong address in the morning, why he didn't call? ( The address he gave me was my next door neighbor's which I can see from my office window where I was waiting for him). Why would I give him the wrong address? I have lived at this address for 20+ years. Its obvious that with the recent earthquake, he was busy and doing business with me wasn't convenient. I guess he can take his ball and go play somewhere else. Disrespectful and unprofessional

Great experience overall. 30-40% less expensive than other companies and they let me pay over 6 months (I gave them 6 checks post dated).

I can't say enough great things about Michael (the owner). I should have written this review last August but got busy with my construction and yatta yatta. Finally sitting down to write a long overdue review. I want everyone to know what an great job White Castle does, how honest they are, how informative they are ... just an overall great company. Michael's bid was lower then other bids AND he gave me a contract with a solid price (the other companies that gave bids had and quot;the price could change once the work startsand quot; hidden somewhere in the contract). Michael's guys showed up on time, worked hard and did an exceptional job. They even repaired a few cracks in my driveway for free! Michael himself is a wealth of knowledge and just an overall kind person. He really cares about his work and doing things right. I 100% recommend White Castle and if I ever buy another place I'll use them for sure.

I was very pleased with White Castle services. The day of my foundation inspection the owner arrived to personally explain everything after his employee completed the inspection and provided pictures, report, etc. I was happy with the no-nonsense explanation and sales pitch. When I hired them to complete the repairs, the crew showed up on time, was respectful of my property and cleaned up completely after each of the 2 days of work. One week later, the city inspector signed off on the work. I feel better having the work completed and would recommend them to my neighbors.

They were horrible. They destroyed a bunch of siding during the process, which was impossible for me to replace. The siding they actually did put back on was put on incorrectly. The foundation was supposed to be repaired but there was already cracks and sinking within a year of them doing the work. They said it was because of our fireplace, which was there from the beginning. They offered to fix the damage if we removed our fireplace. They did correct the repairs, but we had to pay an additional $1000. The owner of the company screamed at both me and my husband. Even though I had mentioned that I had issues with smoking under the house, a worker continued to smoke. They were supposed to be lifetime guaranteed, and I am not confident it will last.

The owner of the company came out directly and was able to provide a quote on the spot. He obtained the permits needed to do the work and once they were received did the work as planned. The city inspector came out and confirmed that the work was done correctly. Overall very easy to work with and the whole process went smoothly. Would recommend them to all of our neighbors.

The quote was exceptionally high. I wasn't impressed and I would use somebody else. Their price was about $5,000 more than the company I went with.

Best to hire someone who does this work for a living not as a Hobby

They did a tremendous job both times. I would give them the highest ratings on all counts. I have recommended them to a friend for some work. I would definitely use them again if needed.

Very organized. Told us what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. They were in and outout any problems.

The inspector was in and out. They did the job very efficiently. I really trusted them and trusted that they did the job right.

They did a very good job. We are going to use them to rebuild the basement later in the year.

Be careful! VERY High pressure and scare tactics. I make sure none of my Real Estate clients/friends/neighbors ever use White Castle. I am sure the job was fine (?) but Mike called screaming for money (he had our post-dated checks) and did not have the job signed off by the city. They also placed another ad sign on my lawn months after the job was over. Run don't walk.

I am very happy with the work that Whitecastle completed to seismic retrofit and level my house. The level floors are so much nicer now and stiffer, too, with the addition of the new beam. And I went into the crawlspace with my fiancé to check up on their work, always a good idea. I saw that all the posts on piers had been strapped, as well as the foundation. I did notice some piers that had been skipped. When I brought this to their attention, they fixed those, too. It looked as if they had replaced many of the wood posts as well. The leveling caused huge cracks in the stucco and plaster, as if an earthquake had hit. We did not expect that they would stucco the outside of the house after the leveling. I know the inspector insisted on the stucco work. I do appreciate that it got done, and the additional $500 is a token of my gratitude. Now I am ready to remodel on a firmer foundation. Whitecastle gave us a very informative introduction to the seismic retrofitting process and the actual work was great.

They underbid the job, but stood by their contract, and did a very through job without complaint. The crew was accommodating of other contractors on the site, which was important.

They were very professional, fast, and clean. They did a great job.

Very disappointing. Terrible customer service, an extremely high estimate when compared to 2 other professional companies, and a very extreme scope of work that 2 other professional companies verified as not needed. I am a high end professional estate manager for multiple properties in Beverly Hills and Malibu and deal with contractors in every trade, every day. I have a great respect for contractors and as a result have never written a bad review on angieslist. I normally write a great review if i had a good experience and don't write anything if I had a bad experience as I am not out to hurt anyone's livelihood. However, in my opinion Michael from Whitecastle was so out of line during my experience with him and his company that I feel it's more of a duty I have as an Angieslist member to explain my experience in the hopes that it helps save someone else my headaches and help to promote the good foundation companies that are out there. I personally do not put Whitecastle in the category of good companies, but that is my opinion and I'll explain my reasons below for you to decide for yourself. I am planning a remodel of my home which is to include an exterior addition and retro fitting of my existing foundation for earthquake safety and correcting of a small dip in the center of my homes foundation, as well as planning of the new, additional foundation. I put out calls/bids to 3 foundation companies. Michael from Whitecastle initially sent a tech out to my house on a day that had not been agreed on, but apparently the tech just happened to be in the area and had time to come over, so after an unexpected call I granted them access to my property without me there. No big deal, happy to get the estimate done. The tech proceeded to report to Michael that I had SEVERE foundation issues which Michael reported to me. He said this would be upward of $10,000 in repairs. He was confident the damage had been developing over 5-10 years time. Serious damage. I had just had a professional house inspection done about 12 months ago and the foundation passed great. I could see an inspector missing small foundation problems that were just developing, but a major foundation problem as big as the one that Michael was describing seems odd for any inspector to miss. Michael said inspectors miss this all the time so I then thought well, ok, I should contact insurance then. He quickly advised against that and said they won't really help and as soon as I inquire about it, it will be a claim. The way it sounded I actually thought $10,000 was a great price because it sounded as if the foundation basically needed to be replaced. This is a small 2 bedroom home, so not much foundation to replace. Then I realized Michael had not even actually seen it himself but had made the estimate, I was a bit concerned, but still ok to proceed with the process, so we agreed to an appointment at 7pm which believe it or not required me to leave work early to meet him. However, it was a good time for him so I did it. Not that it should have mattered to Michael, but I had also arranged for the architect doing the remodel addition to be there to meet with us so that he could ask Michael any questions he had. Michael then called the day of the appointment late in the afternoon as I was leaving to go meet him to say that he suddenly had to teach a class in the morning and was canceling the appointment. I told him, very kindly, that that was fine, but I was just disappointed as it was a big thing for me to arrange this meeting and I had an architect coming. He then began to get,what I felt was a very aggressive tone, which really struck me as odd because I was not mean about it at all. He would not even allow me to get a word in as he basically, in so many words, just said tough luck and that was it. He stated he has 6 appointments a day and is 65 years old and wasn't going to stay up late and then wake up early. Again, he agreed to this appointment time, I did not demand it and worked with him on his schedule every step of the way. i would never demand an unreasonable appointment time for a contractor and would never speak to one rudely, definitely not as rudely as Michael spoke to me, not allowing me to talk. Again i have a great respect for all contractors and work with many of them daily. He continually said if I had told him I had an architect coming he would have considered coming. I just felt insulted thinking that me, the paying client, was not enough to get him out, but an architect he had never met was enough. After the call was over I really just felt a bit shocked as no contractor had ever canceled an appointment with me and then actually gotten agressive with me on the phone after canceling for no real reason. Very odd and very unprofessional at the very least. I immediately dismissed Michael and Whitecastle from the bidding process. Then the other 2 bids came in from the other companies at less than half his price and both assured me that there was NO severe damage to my foundation and that all that was needed was to do the bolt retro fitting and to replace two old block and shim foundation piers with 2 newer/stronger concrete post systems to correct the minor dip in the center of the house. Both of these bidding companies were completely professional and they both told me several times that I did not have severe foundation issues, only minor ones that could be corrected at a very reasonable price and they were not at all worried to put that in writing and take liability for the claim of no severe issues. I chose one of the 2 companies to go with and they start work this week. I highly recommend either one, Alpha Structural and Avlin Design Company, both can be found on Angieslist. Very good companies. Therefore, I do feel it's important for all to know that in my experience, Whitecastle and Michael in particular displayed really bad customer service and what I feel was a bad estimate of scope of work needed along with pricing numbers much higher than it should have been. This of course is just my experience, but I would really advise being cautious if you decide to proceed with this company for something as important as the foundation of your home. This is just my experience for whatever thats worth and even after my disappointment in White castle i still do not mean to hurt them or their business, I only mean to help protect other angieslist members because I believe in the website and I feel my info may be useful to others. Maybe they do quality work, I do not know because their poor customer service, high prices, and what I felt were over exaggerated scope of work estimates prevented me from ever wanting to use them. Update to this review, I see that Mike has responded. Please note the work was performed in the Southbay at a rental home i own in Gardena. Mike i think you are assuming because i said i manage properties in Beverly Hills and Malibu that this is where the work was done. Please re-read, the work was done in the Southbay, which is White Castle area and i spoke directly to you mike, the owner, who is the same person others have mentioned in their reports. Would be a strange coincidence if i called a company named White Castle that also had a man named mike as the owner in this area. This report is not a mistake and unfortunately the experience was so poor that i still remember it nearly a year and a half later. You can make your own decisions about using this company, but please be aware that dealing with Mike was not a good experience in my case and everything i said is accurate and correct.

They came out to take a look at my foundation and see what the problems were and what their recommendations were. The first gentleman recommended that if I fixed the drainage problem in my yard that I would not have to do anything under the home, but that I should so an earthquake retrofit. The second gentleman recommended that some work be done under the home to reinforce the supports.

The story begins with our purchase of an old house, a 1916 California Craftsman bungalow, in July of 2009. The foundation clearly needed some work, as discovered in the home physical inspection during escrow and as evidenced by some unlevel, slanty floors. Mike Goldberg, owner, president, and engineer, came over to give us the pitch and describe the work. He laid out a detailed contract that included repairing the crumbling bits of foundation, sealing the whole thing in a layer of fresh concrete (much like crowning a tooth, as he described), replacing the breaking piers (center of floor supports) that were causing the floors and interior walls to go all out of level, doing a seismic retrofit (bolting the house to the foundation), reinforcing the cripple walls in accordance with the new California construction code due out in 2010, and obtaining City of Long Beach permits for the work. The whole estimate came to around $11,500. A $400 discount is included if we let Whitecastle put up a sign in our front yard for 90 days. We got an additional $400 off for letting them put a second sign in front of my parents' house in LA. As soon as the contract was signed it took a bit of effort to get a call back to schedule the work. Once it was scheduled, their guys showed up on time and ready to go. It took about 4 days of work, but those 4 days were not necessarily all in a row. It was more like 4 days over a week and a half. With the job "done," the documentation was left for the City inspector and the workers left. After about two or three weeks, the inspector turned up to have a look. At this time, I was informed that the job was not completed as I had expected. Many of the old brick-supported piers were still in place with only 4 to 6 of them having been replaced with reinforced concrete footings. The inspector did not sign off on the work, and I had to call Whitecastle back out to finish the job. It took another week or so to get them out to the house, but they replaced all the brick footings with prefabricated concrete (not poured reinforced concrete) footings in a single day. Again, I called to ask about the discrepancy between the contract and the work done, but the inspector had already signed off on the permits. Rather than press the issue, I asked for the difference in cost between installing reinforced concrete and prefab concrete to be taken off the final invoice (around $700). After all the work was completed, it took a couple weeks of bugging them before we got final copies of the City permits. It's not that I mind holding on to about $10k for them, but I needed the approved permit to give to my insurance company in order to reduce premiums. Overall, Whitecastle seems to have the experience and the technical ability, and they are amenable to negotiation and accommodating their clients' needs, however they could use some improvement in the responsiveness and turnaround time categories as well as finishing the job according to the contract specifications the first time instead of mobilizing back to a job site to finish at the request of the client. I would only use this contractor again if I could get a more detailed scope of work and schedule of work written into the original contract. I'm not sure that I would recommend them otherwise.

Very well. They do seismic retrofit "above and beyond" in terms of bolt size, plywood quality, and some other factors. They're probably more expensive but Earthquake retrofit can mean vastly different things among companies, and they do thorough, high quality work. The price was exactly as quoted. Workers were courteous and did good work. It passed inspection no problem.

Called for a quote, Mike Goldburg came over, explained in detail about retrofitting and earthquake zones. Work started promptly, ran into unexpected problems, more rotten boards than the estimator had seen. Finished work, they called for inspector, everything passed. No extra charge over original estimate!