Long Beach CA Area - Contractor Recommendations Please

[Colin Len]

This may be a long shot, and forgive me if this isn't the right forum but none of the others seemed more appropriate. My wife and I are starting to think about remodeling our kitchen and bathroom. I've also been wanting to rehab my small 2 car garage (insulation, drywall, vault the ceiling) or possibly do an addition to make the garage larger (maybe set it up so it could be converted to an ADU in the distant future). We aren't looking for absolute luxury, we live in a nice middle class neighborhood, not Bel Air. But we are picky about quality and craftsmanship. I have absolutely NO idea what to expect for costs so we're not sure how much we can afford to do. We haven't set our budget yet because in our mind it's not so much about how much we can spend but more about how best to get the most for our money.

The problem is that we don't have a contractor we know and trust. I haven't been able to get any recommendations from local friends and it's overwhelming trying to look thru Google, Houzz, Yelp... as there are tons and tons of businesses out there.

I was kinda hoping to talk to some contractors about the garage projects as a way to help vet them for possible work on the house. Right now I just need to get some guys over to the garage to take a look, talk options and get some ballpark pricing.

I'd prefer to hire someone as local as possible. If anyone has some recommended contractors in the Long Beach CA area I'd appreciate the info.

Thanks!

 

[turbowoodworker]

PM Zeke. He’s sort of in the business in your area and might know somebody who knows somebody.

 

[rharman]

We're doing a master bath remodel. Contacted 5 designers that we found on Houzz.
One responded right away but wanted to do everything via Zoom (she's 40 minutes away by fwy)
Two responded a few days later
One of those two came out pretty quickly
The other was pretty busy and came out a little later
Two just never responded

Why is it so hard to give people money??

 

[LXCam]

PM Zeke. He’s sort of in the business in your area and might know somebody who knows somebody.

Another vote for contacting zeke

 

[Colin Len]

PM Zeke. He’s sort of in the business in your area and might know somebody who knows somebody.

Thanks for the tip, I'll do that. I have seen him posting on here so I'm sorta familiar with him.

We're doing a master bath remodel. Contacted 5 designers that we found on Houzz.
One responded right away but wanted to do everything via Zoom (she's 40 minutes away by fwy)
Two responded a few days later
One of those two came out pretty quickly
The other was pretty busy and came out a little later
Two just never responded

Why is it so hard to give people money??

EXACTLY. That's exactly what happens every time I look for someone to do work on the house (garage doors, rain gutters, electrical, plumbing...). It's a time consuming PITA. Figured it's going to be even worse looking for a good general contractor for these bigger projects we're now thinking about.

Another vote for contacting zeke

Thanks!

 

[Zeke]

Yeah, we talked once and you didn't follow through.

Anyway, I retired from contracting and am doing antiques repair. See my sig line.

Thanks to you guys that recognize that my comments have merit. I spent 50 years in home improvement.

FWIW, I'm developing a water based bondo system for repairing wood rot. The original material was brought here from Europe and the UK.
But it is not a complete system yet. I'm in the beta stage and then will train others in the method. Living in CA, non toxic approaches to common problems is popular. This is not a replacement for cut out and replace. This is a system to arrest a big problem potential that could lead to cut out and replace. I've been doing this with epoxy for 30 years. Great stuff. Hard to work with and slow.

I've eliminated those 2 problems.

Good luck with the remodel. When my stepson was considering this I said sell and move to what you want. He did and that was best. This was 15 years ago, so that may not be viable now.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Zeke, thanks for the update on your activities. I tossed your name out there knowing you live in Long Beach and were at least peripherally related to the topic. But mostly because I have followed you on GJ and have come to respect your opinion, through your level headed posts.
Best wishes on your developing endeavor.
Rick

 

[Colin Len]

Yeah, we talked once and you didn't follow through.

Anyway, I retired from contracting and am doing antiques repair. See my sig line.

Thanks to you guys that recognize that my comments have merit. I spent 50 years in home improvement.

FWIW, I'm developing a water based bondo system for repairing wood rot. The original material was brought here from Europe and the UK.
But it is not a complete system yet. I'm in the beta stage and then will train others in the method. Living in CA, non toxic approaches to common problems is popular. This is not a replacement for cut out and replace. This is a system to arrest a big problem potential that could lead to cut out and replace. I've been doing this with epoxy for 30 years. Great stuff. Hard to work with and slow.

I've eliminated those 2 problems.

Good luck with the remodel. When my stepson was considering this I said sell and move to what you want. He did and that was best. This was 15 years ago, so that may not be viable now.

Not sure if that lack of follow thru was referenced towards me or not. I do recall us speaking a long while ago, you gave me some recommendations for buying windows locally which was helpful. I don't recall trying to hire you for any projects though as it sounded like you were slowing down and of course, now retired. Apologies if there was some confusion about any of that, definitely didn't mean to put you off or anything.

If you happen to have any recommendations for local guys you know do good work, I'm all ears.

As for moving instead of remodeling... Yeah, that's a constant conversation here between my wife and I. There are a lot of reasons we really DO NOT want to move but I (more than she) realize the benefits that can be had by just starting with something closer to your end goal rather than modifying what you have. I could spew a novel of pros/cons and my thought process here but I doubt anyone wants to read all that gibberish. Long story short, this isn't our forever house and it's likely our "forever" house will not be in this area anyway, and for a handful of reasons we cannot yet relocate. Between current house prices and current interest rates the numbers just don't look great to sell and buy something else. Especially since I think we can pay cash for a remodel without taking on more debt. Plus, my long term goal is to keep this house as a rental when we do relocate in ~10-15yrs. OK, enough rambling...

 

[Zeke]

PM sent 2 days ago.