SOD Home Group

I purchased a roofing deal for $5,500 after first confirming with the profile on Angie's List that I was in their service area. I did not hear back from them for over a week, so I called / messaged them. I was told "we currently have a number of big projects in your area which have the next four months booked." I reminded them that I had already purchased their services, and would like someone to come out and inspect the project. They then told me that in spite of the "number of big projects in [my] area", and in spite of their profile that included my county in their service area, they will not honor my Angie's list coupon because my home was outside their service area. $5,500 tied up on my credit card. I had already turned down some other estimates because of this purchase.

SOD was conscious of our budget, found ways to save us money and in the end we love the work they did. Our home is exactly what we set out to achieve. We had to do a ton of sourcing for materials and also make arrangements for delivery of materials. I can understand picking out the materials and posting payment, but we literally had to go pick up a truck load of ceramic tile flooring. It wasn't even an option they offered to have us pay to have SOD manage the delivery. We also had to order materials which we had no clue on quantity or specifications on hardware etc. We felt this was the contractors area of expertise so this was a pain point for us. Having said that, I've worked with contractors before and SOD is no worse on some of the issues we had. Construction projects are very detailed and need to be carefully orchestrated with a ton of variables impacting the timeline so keep that in mind before embarking on any construction project. It will never go as smoothly or as quickly as you think. We completely moved out of the house so it was easier for us than for those who choose to live in a construction zone. I HIGHLY recommend vacating during construction. SOD was true to their quotes and we didn't have any unexpected expenses pop up. Change orders reflected what we wanted done with no surprises. The payment structure was fair and we never felt like they were using funds from our job to pay for other jobs...a common occurrence with contractors. If you choose SOD, take the time to have a lengthy discussion on who is expected to do what and when. Put it in writing so you understand what you will do and what they will do and this will make the process a little less frustrating. Address who will be your point of contract throughout the job. Overall, we're happy.

SOD is the best choice when you expect a job done correctly and timely! I have used SOD before for gut renovation projects and had really great experiences. This time I bought some new floor for about 850 sqft area from Home Depot thinking it will be a simple small job to install them so I didn't call SOD at first. However, after calling multiple contractors/handyman and scheduling appointments, one even started working on removing part of the old carpet, I kept getting excuses for delays and rescheduling. After more than a month of delay and frustration, it still seemed like there is no end to when the floor was going to be done, I finally had it and called Oren to ask for help and he sent 3 people in just 2 days after I called and finished everything in 3 days. The team came out and explain to me in detail what they planned to do, gave me ideas on how to finish the floor on some tricky parts in the kitchen and answered all my questions. They were pleasant, polite and professional. They kept the house clean after each day of work and touched up on all the paints that might have been scratched during the installation. The floor was done beautifully and I learn my lesson that I should have called Oren the first place - SOD provides the same high quality and professionalism no matter how small the project is. I will definitely keep going back to them for my future projects.

They never called or emailed back. No response whatsoever. Perhaps they are out of business?

Prior to this project, I had no experience with remodeling, nor interacted with contractors for this long a period. As my first experience, I was really cautious and concerned going in. Before the start of the process, I had consulted with my friends for referrals for contractors. I heard all kinds of horror stories and many weren't willing to recommend their contractor. The friends who were willing to recommend, had contractors that were too busy to take on new work. One of the busy contractors recommended Angie's List, form where I found SoD Builders. Because I was new to the process, I decided to get my own material and my own interior designer. I got 4 bids for the project, and SoD builders was between the mid-range and high range. For the Bay Area, the price is pretty shocking, but it is competitive for the area for licensed contracting. The pricing also comes within range of online cost estimates for Bay Area. FYI -- As a cautious, first-timer, I bought all the external, user-facing hardware (faucets, tiles, shower, toilets, sinks). SoD Builders really came through. They honored their original quotation, and the baths look awesome, and compliant with city inspections, and I have a permit. From the stories I have heard, I really appreciated the straightforwardness in dealing with SoD. On my side, I like to be fair as well, and did what I could to trust their expertise, than micro-manage what I didn't understand in the first place. I lived in the house, while they were remodeling, so I had daily interactions with all the crew. I am really a hands-on person, so this long review is just cause I lived through it. Every crew member from the lead for the particular specialization (plumber, electrician, tiler etc) to their assistants were very professional, made efforts to understand my requests, and concerns, and explain what they were doing, or sync up with head office. The house was properly covered, and any damage outside the bathrooms were repaired to my satisfaction. The project managers deploy their workers as an efficient,well-oiled machine, where each specialization hits the nail on the head before the next one is sent over. Every night I reviewed what was done, and (over) communicated with the project managers. The project managers were very responsive over emails, sometimes till late night. I had to leave for a family emergency for a week, and they stepped up and put in a lockbox the very morning, i was to leave. They made trips to the tile shop and to Home Depot to pick up the material I bought. They said this was unusual, as they expected home deliveries. When the project was all completed, house cleared, punch list complete, final inspection completed, there was a blocked sewer line, and they fixed it as part of their warranty. Then, I found 2 lights over the sink were misaligned, and they sent their electrician the next day. Overall, I liked their flexibility and willingness to work with the customer, and really stay within budget. So, was everything just perfect? No, but pretty good given that I was bracing myself for horror, in spite of their excellent online reputation. The final result matters most, and I am having a blast with the new city-rules-compliant, bathrooms. Primarily, since I brought the material and had my own interior designer, some hiccups in transitioning that over to the project managers created delay. So, what are some things to keep in mind, if you hire them. I still give them an A, so this is just nitpicking. 1. They started 1-2 weeks after the date they proposed in the quotation. This might have been good thing after all, because some of the material hadn't arrived. Also, given how busy contractors are chasing expensive Silicon Valley projects, I was ok with it, and they say they did their best to start early. They roughly completed it in the time period they estimated, barring delays due to material availability. 2. Because I bought the material, they preferred if the countertop providers also installed it, with the sinks. This seemed unusual. Some of that may also be because my countertop is huge, and required special handling as it wouldn't have fit the stairwell. 3. Because they are an efficient machine, once they get started, they will err on finishing the work, rather consult the owner on fine points. This created some friction, but all was professional resolved by the project manager. I'd recommend you provide rough sketches, rather than verbal communication. Draw these, and paste them somewhere for the project manager and crew to see. 4. The project managers didn't review the material I bought, in detail. So, at the last moment, we realized that the medicine cabinets I bought were to small for the existing space in the walls. That requires some rushing around on my part, and created some delay. 5. They provided this cool iPhone app to keep me updated. However, it was used superficially, and sometimes the changes after original plans were not updated till the very day. I think to stay efficient, the project managers are juggling a lot. Overall, I'd hire them in the future, while I'll always get counter bids for price reference. Work is great. The people who actually do the hands-on work, did very good, timely work.

My husband could not make the appointment, therefore, I met with Lesmi to go over what we wanted to do for the remodel of the existing home and what and what we wanted for the addition. Lesmi was rude, condensending, and listened to nothing I said. One example - relocate windows, he stated no you don't want to do that, you will need additional work for header, require permits and patch siding. I told him we were fine with that. As he was leaving I requested a scetch of the addition to show my husband how it would tie into the existing struction, basic drawing, no detail. Lesmi turned to me and stated "we don't do that, but watch me, tell your husband the addition goes from here to here to here, you got that or do you need me to explain it to you again." I was somewhat shocked and said, no thank you, i got it. The reason I requested the schetch is because the addition Lesmi was explaining had no inside access to the addition (master suite), the existing bathroom was in the way and Lesmi ignored me when i asked him how the master suite would be accessed. Although SOD Builders has a great reputation on Angie's List, due to this experience and Lesmi's rudeness, I would not use or recommend them.

I would have preferred more detail in the initial contact with the Project Manager/Consultant, but Lesmi in the front office was sincere and persistent in getting me any additional information I needed. Unfortunately I haven't had the time to pursue additional remodeling. I will reach out to them again when I start looking again.

Promptly came out to inspect the premise, and provided an estimate. We easily negotiated a final scope of work, and work began on time. There was about a one-week delay waiting for inspections, but otherwise the project finished on time and on budget. The contractor showed excellent flexibility as the requirements evolved, and really tried to meet my needs.

SODs work and craftsmanship on the wood work they did was excellent. Their communication process both with me and with their own team was painful to deal with. We had a gas line installed and often workers would show up either before we were notified they were coming or after they were supposed to. Then we had to go for the inspection on the gas line which took 4 visits before we got sign-off. Some of that may have been due to strict inspectors. But some of it was certainly due to SOD not being properly prepared to answer the questions of the inspector satisfactorily. I lost count of how may days I had to stay home from work for someone to come out and do something small, then wait for an inspector, then be disappointed when the work wasn't good enough. For the final inspection, they told me they were coming out for a little bit of work to prepare for the inspection, so I decided to go into work late. They then proceeded to replace the whole gas line they had installed with a different material over the next three hours before the inspector finally came and passed it. Needless to say I was more then a little late to work that day. I don't want to take away from the work they did repairing our bookcases after removing a cabinet. That work was beautiful and cleaner then I thought could have been done, but the rest was a tiring ordeal.

They were excellent. The crew worked flat out, including Saturday and Sunday, to get the job done. Cheerful, pleasant and polite, they were very professional. Lance Cohen, the project manager, was great and answered all our questions. We are delighted with the work that was done - the ceilings have been transformed. We were also impressed by how well they protected our hardwood floors, cheerfully moved any heavy furniture to get it out of the way, and cleaned up at the end of every day. They even installed some extra insulation at no additional cost. The clean-up on the final day was specially impressive - they worked really h****** what was a very hot day, and made sure we were happy with everything. I would have no hesitation in recommending them.

Overall, SOD was outstanding to work with. We bought our house last year (May 2014) and knew right away we wanted to do a remodel to make a master suite. This being our first home and first experience doing a remodel we were a little nervous about the whole process, but SOD made it pretty painless and the outcome is beautiful. We used our own designer for the design of of our remodel, but we have no doubt SOD would have designed something beautiful as well. We bid out our project to 3 contractors total and SOD came in right in the middle (everyone was very close to each other though). We ultimately decided to go with SOD because we really liked their responsiveness to all our questions during the bidding process and their customer portal they have where you can see pics of your project along the way, do change orders online, and communicate with all their staff very easily. We are busy people who both work full time so we knew we needed a contractor who was going to be really great with communication (email, text, etc.) and SOD 100% delivered on that. We also really liked that they didn't sub out a lot of the work/that they had their own crews for plumbing, electrical, painting, foundation, demo., etc. We saw this really made a difference compared to friends who used contractors who subcontracted a lot of the work out because it allowed us to stay on schedule and not wait for anyone for the next step in the remodel/construction. Our project took about 3- 3/12 months, which was right on schedule and often times we were way ahead of schedule. Eran was our project manager and was fantastic and very helpful along the way. Oren, the owner, is 100% committed to customer service and always wants you to be happy. Their office staff is also great and much more organized than others we have heard about from friends who have done big construction projects although there were some coordination issues at times, but not a big deal overall. Now, this is all not to say that everything went perfectly smoothly. There were hiccups along the way, but they were minor and SOD always listened to our concerns and complaints, addressed them pretty immediately, and worked with us for a solution. We truly believe that with any good contractor you will have problems along the way, but how they respond and how they deal with those problem is the real way to judge a company. SOD prides itself on customer service and we can attest to the fact that they live up to their word. At the end of the day, they want you to be happy with the work and will work tirelessly to make that happen. All of the crews were wonderful, respectful, and the hardest workers we have ever seen. It was not uncommon for them to start their day at 8 am at our house and not leave until 7-8 pm. They also came on weekends (they always made sure this was OK for us) and they were all a true pleasure to work with. In the end, we went just 8-10 K over the bid price due to unforeseen issues that were no fault to SOD or upgrades we decided on later. We are extremely happy with SOD and plan to use them in the future for other remodel projects that we have planned. We have recommended them to others and would do so in a heartbeat for anyone looking for a great company to work on their house!

SOD was responsive at first. However, after the initial estimate was made it seemed they were reluctant to work with me on discussing details and options. After many questions have gone unanswered, I've decided to look for a more professional service.

Very well. The service was very good. Project managers were very responsive to questions/issues. There was always someone to pick up the phone when I called. Someone always responded to email within a day. The onsite staff were polite and did a professional job. No hitches. They have an online website to track all conversations, issues, etc... so there is always a record of change requests, issues, etc... and a way to make sure someone is following up on all issues. I would use them again for future remodeling.

From our first meeting with Eran Drori, we were impressed by his level of professionalism, honesty and knowledge. As we walked through the project we had in mind, Eran was able to answer all of our questions honestly and also provided great ideas that ultimately saved us a lot of time and money. The end result surpassed our expectations, and we are very particular when it comes to craftsmanship and attention to detail. The job took about 6 weeks, and came in on budget and on time. Some punch list items took a while longer after that, but we expected that. The first thing they do is to cover all the floors to minimize the amount of construction dirt, and isolate the work area to keep the dust contained. SOD Builders commitment to customer satisfaction, and Eran's attention to detail are both attributes we highly valued and appreciated. If we weren't happy with something (not very often!), the issue was dealt with quickly. Communication is top notch - emails, texts and phone calls are answered very quickly. All of the trades people are highly skilled in their specific areas of expertise. They were all very respectful, genuinely cheerful, hard working and often stayed late to finish the daily task. You could tell they loved what they do. We set very high expectations for the entire project, and on the master bath finishes, in particular. We were impressed with the tile work in the shower and floor, but all the guys did a great job, and we are very happy with the end result. We have recommended SOD Builders to several of our friends without reservation, which is something that we only do if the end result meets/exceeds our expectations for what we paid.

SOS had canceled the appointment. They left a message to confirm the appointment with less than 12 hours to confirm. SOS came out, took pictures of the work to be done with a promise that I will be contacted from their experts to do a real quote for the patio and stucco work. No contact from the company ever happened.

I had to wait 6 weeks to get an appointment- and I was contacted twice by their scheduler to confirm. I spent at least 5-10 minutes on the phone with her each time detailing the project, answering questions, etc. I was called on the Saturday before the Wednesday to confirm the appointment and answer more questions. The day of the appointment- no one showed up. It was completely a waste of time and disrespectful. Why make me wait 6 weeks for an appointment- pepper me with questions all not to show up? I received an apology from SOD- but no reason. Just an ask for another chance. I will not be giving these guys another chance.

Never received a reply back to my original inquiry!

The consultant was very informative and friendly. The measurer was very professional and punctual. The installment was done in 5 hours. Great service.

We could not be happier with how our master bathroom turned out. SOD Builders original quote was very reasonable, their crew was all very professional, and they were very flexible when we had changes during the project. A construction project like this can get very stressful, and they made it about as low stress as it's going to get. We were very satisfied with the quality of their work and will not hesitate to use them again in the future.

While these larger jobs are rarely without hiccups here and there, I am overall very happy with the work of SOD Builders. This wasn't necessarily the largest renovation we had ever done but, due to being the Bay Area, it was the most expensive both in labor and materials. We were initially going to do a larger renovation but the costs came in too high. Overall, SOD's costs were roughly in the middle of those we spoke with and I ultimately chose them because the reviews I read on Angie's List and elsewhere. For the kitchen, we were removing a wall to the living/dining room and completely reconfiguring the kitchen. This included a large island, new windows, quartz countertops, custom cabinets and blending in the floors from the living room. We had a fairly clear idea of what we were looking to do and SOD's design staff helped turn that into 3D models and ultimately a great new floorplan. Since we were taking out a large wall, structural engineers were also involved. We've been using the kitchen for a few months now with no problems and we absolutely love it. I was expecting to have a few issues pop up after inspection but the work was nearly flawless. We also completely redid the guest bath. This involved moving a closet to get more space and reconfiguring the bathroom itself. Truth be told, there were a few frustrating moments during this part of the renovation since the crew often didn't understand what the plan was with the tile and the use of the quartz around the bathtub. We had to settle for a few shortcuts on the tile that we can live with and there was some repair work that needed to be done after the inspection but, overall, we're very happy with the bathroom and no one besides us has ever noticed the quirks with the tile. My only real negative was that I didn't feel like I was ever working with a good project manager, which I think is important for a project this size. The sales guy was helpful at first (after some misunderstandings about the quote) but he wasn't on site very often and didn't like to communicate over email, which was much easier for my work schedule. There were many days where people would show up and ask me what needed to be done or had questions about what was finished the day before and I often didn't know. Because of this, I found that I had to repeat some instructions many times before all the people that needed to know got the picture. If there was one area to improve, I would say that they should hire a project manager for jobs of this size. Here's my assessment of the crew as a whole: - Daily crew - The crew who was there just about every day and did the demolition, drywall and all other non specialty work was top notch. They were always on time, put in long days (often even weekends), were quick to fix mistakes and were very clean and respectful of our property. Those guys were great. - Electrical - I didn't have a lot of confidence in the electrical crew but they were fairly quick to fix their mistakes. There are a couple strange lingering issues, like a switch in the garage that, for some reason, turns off the electrical to the lighting in the kitchen, but the work has held up. - Painting - Maybe it's because I was a painter when I was younger but I'd rate the interior painting crew as a C+. It's tough to make things look very clean with textured walls but I've had to go back and touch up a few things to get the lines straight. - Exterior/Stucco - Again, it's tough to match stucco 100% but the areas around the new windows are visibly different from the outside. I don't think it's a huge issue but it's something I notice almost every day. - Floor - The flooring guys are spectacular. We went away for a weekend and let them refinish the floors in the entire house and came home to what looked like brand new floors. The area in the kitchen that had to be blended in was completely flawless and it's impossible to see where the old floor ends and new floor begins. Just great work here. - Cabinets - The cabinets themselves are beautiful. The only problem I had was that only one set of doors had the slow-close hinges and I expected it to be on all of them. The drawers all had them but only the doors over the fridge had the slow-close mechanism, which I thought was odd. As you can see, most of the issues are minor considering the size of the job so I can still say that I recommend SOD Builders for just about any project. We plan on getting a bid from them again when we finish the next phase of our remodel and I won't hesitate to use them if their price is competitive.

This is the second time I hired SOD Builders for my home renovation projects. I decided to use them again because I had a great experience working with Oren and his team last year. This time SOD Builders did a gut renovation of a full floor including a family room, one bathroom, laundry room and finish the garage. The finished house looks just like I envisioned and better! Everyone on Oren’s crew was friendly and helpful - everyone was willing to answer my questions and provide their expert opinions. Every time I had issues, I would email or call Oren directly or his office and they would respond right away to address the issues. The best part about working with Oren is that he is very accommodating to your needs. He will make sure things are done to your liking even if he had to redo parts of the job. For example, I chose some large 40"x12" tiles for an accent wall, a couple of days after the wall was finished, I told Oren that one of the tile felt to be slightly higher than the rest of the tiles when I run my hand over the wall even though it's not obvious from just looking at it, he immediately sent the tile person back to pull out the piece and level it without any questions. Oren stuck to the budget that he gave me on the contract from the beginning - the only time he would charge me more was when I added additional work that I didn't asked for originally (such as updating the electrical panel), but he would give me a quote before any new work is started so I always knew exactly where my budget was. Oren is always very pleasant and professional to work with. I highly recommend SOD Builders and I would hire them again for my future projects.

I would definitely use SOD again for any future remodeling projects. During the initial process of getting bids from various vendors, they were not the cheapest or the most expensive, but they had the best customer service and that is what won me over. This being the first time I've ever done a remodel, I went over every detail of the bid and checked their referrals, licenses, insurance coverage, etc. I even had my cousin (who is a contractor) review the bid and he even commented that they provided an excellent, detailed proposal. My HOA also echoed the same comments, so getting approval was a breeze because everything was provided in the proposal. Even before I committed, Daniel was super great at responding and answering all of my questions and putting me at ease. The process was painless and "pressure free" and I very much appreciate their approach. Daniel was an absolute pleasure to work with and his team did a wonderful job. They were polite, courteous, considerate (they made sure to cover areas that they would be walking through, cleaned up the area daily, etc), and very accommodating during the entire process, especially with changes along the way. They remodeled both bathrooms at the same time from demolition to finish. It was hard living with both bathrooms being done simultaneously, so it helped that I was traveling for a portion of the time. However, seeing as how these were my only bathrooms in my home, my "must-have" was to have a working toilet during the remodel (showering could be done elsewhere, but a working toilet was deal breaker for me!). They not only finished ahead of schedule (total time: about 5 weeks), but they also did a few extra's for me i.e. installing a ceiling fan, replacing hallway ceiling lights. The results were remarkable and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. I've received many compliments on the work and have referred them to several friends and co-workers and will continue to do so. I do not have a good eye for interior design, so I was initially going to go with a design/build firm so that I didn't have to bother with picking out decor, fixtures and had preferred to have someone else bring me ideas. But, I'm so glad that I didn't go this route. I learned so much about the quality of materials, functionality of fixtures, and got comfortable with the design of each bathroom. Again, Daniel was very helpful and supportive in answering my questions and providing me options to consider or factor into my final decisions. I would not hesitate to use them again. When I remodel my kitchen, I plan on using them again.

I met with Eran from SOD last Spring and he had a lot of great ideas for my kitchen and bath remodel. Their bid was very competitive and I selected SOD to do the project. One of the key differentiation was that Eran did 3D renderings of the space and we went through several rounds before finalizing the scope of work. This was a great way to finalize all of the details in a visual way, which saved me on hiring a designer and undoubtedly saved a lot of rounds of changes once construction began. Throughout the project, everyone from SOD was incredibly responsive and Eran was my point of contact throughout the entire project. He's easy to work with, highly service-oriented, and always available by phone/text or email. SOD has a large team with plumbers, electricians and provides full services - from counters to flooring and shower doors. The quality of the work was very high and they were also receptive to getting the smallest details just right. I was most impressed after the job finished when Eran and team went above and beyond to make sure that every last detail was taken care of. SOD is an entrepreneurial, modern construction company and I would use them again.

SOD was accommodating to requests for changes; the work was completed in a timely manner considering the changes we requested; the workers were extremely courteous and capable; the project manager, Eran, and the supervisors, Mario and Efren, are true professionals and were intent on the work being completed to our satisfaction; the work performed was excellent and we will consider SOD for future projects

He gave me a quote for removal of a soffet, drywall, installation of new lighting, texturing, and painting. I was very impressed with him. This was our first quote for the work and my pre-conceive idea of the cost was totally unrealistic, which I realized when I got the quote. I know that contactor quotes can be all over the map but I was way off, At that point we realized we would have to wait to have the work done. When we have saved enough to have the work done, I will contact them again.