Bay Area Retrofit

Mr Howard Cook is very knowledgeable and confident in what he stands for. He gave very honest opinions, not trying to be bluffing like some of other foundation contractors would do. He is a decent man. He helped us save thousands of dollars for the foundation of our over 100 years house in San Jose. We have around 50 email exchanges during the process. He was very busy but always found time to address my questions in time. It has been a very good experience working with Mr Howard Cook.

After a full 16 emails back and forth trying to request a bid and schedule an appointment (most reminding them that I’m waiting for a response), after attempting to answer a number of questions that would be self-​evident with as little as a drive-​by, after accepting that a meeting at 5:00pm was not possible because the contractor would be «exhausted,» I finally got confirmation of an inspection appointment. The time committed to came and went long ago and there has been no knock on my door, no email, nary a phone call. I’ve built my schedule today around their visit and I don’t appreciate being disrespected. If the job is too small or they’re too busy, just say so.
Bay Area Retrofit may do great work and they may do it at great prices, but they’ll never have a chance to prove it by me. Their website is very slick and informative and I have no doubt that their knowledge-​base is extensive. That said, their customer service and reliability leaves much to be desired. I’m familiar with contractors who become unreliable as the job is finishing up — they are being pulled to start the next one — but it’s unusual to get blown off before the job even begins. Really?
Unless you’re ok with discourtesy and professional irresponsibility, steer clear.

Long overdue review of Bay Area Retrofit. We purchased a home in northern Marin in 2013. Having lived through the Loma Prieta earthquake (which wasn’t even «that» big) we are well aware of the damage that an earthquake can cause a home. We are also familiar with the astronomical cost of earthquake insurance, which has VERY high deductibles. We were told by our insurance agent that one either needs insurance OR a good retrofit. After watching the many informative videos on Bay Area Retrofit’s website, we contacted them for an estimate. They came out promptly, and provided a clear, easy to understand estimate of the work that needed to be done, the time frame for doing it, and the cost. Extremely professional and courteous. They performed the work exactly as they promised, and left the premises as clean as a whistle. The work cost us exactly what they said it would. about 1.25% of the purchase price of the home, and about 2 – 3 years worth of earthquake insurance premiums. I feel very confident that we have now done all that we can to protect our home against the inevitable earthquakes that happen in our area.

These guys were a pleasure to work with:
1. They got us a plan quickly and easily and got us scheduled without hassle
2. They came and completed the work on schedule (a rarity for contractors)
3. They dealt very well with the building inspector, who others in our area have said is a particularly challenging one. All of the inspections went seamlessly, which I have come to learn is VERY important. Another contractor of ours was not as careful in following the instructions of the building inspector and it ended up being a time-​consuming hassle for all of us.
4. Why not 5 stars? I need to see how the house holds up in a quake. I know this isn’t fool-​proof stuff, but I need to see real results to give 5 stars! (and hopefully I don’t get to see them anytime soon)

These one star reviews seem undeserved. Bay Area Retrofit did a great job on our house in Piedmont. The engineering techniques and equipment used made complete sense and Dave worked hard for a week straight. We completed work well before the Napa quake and I was very glad that we had made the investment after feeling the 6.1 quake. This is not a tech company and should not be rated based on instant output. Their emphasis and knowledge is on retrofitting older homes. Try using email to communicate with them instead of leaving a bunch of messages. Jeff, Rachel and Dave all returned my emails quickly. They handled the plans with the city of Piedmont and made themselves available for multiple inspections.
My house is 80 years old and this was a critical investment from my perspective.

I left 3 messages for these folks over the course of two weeks, and never even got a return call. Frustrating for me, and not a great business practice for them.

As a real estate agent, I deal with a lot of service providers and especially retrofitting companies. This is the top retrofitting company I recommend to my clients. They are a paragon of excellence. Not only do they provide the very best and most detailed bids, when they do the work they keep my client’s budget and safety first and foremost. I consistently get thank you notes from my folks after they’ve had a Bay Area Retrofit. And let’s be real — a retrofit isn’t the most fun place to put your money, but it is a great investment in your safety and resale value. Bay Area Retrofit is the best possible choice. They know their stuff.

A friend who is a civil engineer working on commercial properties and high end homes recommended Bay Area Retrofit after he had a good experience with them. He really loved how knowledgeable the company was when it comes to retrofitting.
Hearing the glowing review from my friend I called Howard and since then I have had the opportunity to work with Howard from Bay Area Retrofit on a number of occasions.
Like my friend was impressed with Howard and Bay Area Retrofit, I also have been very impressed with his dedication, follow through and knowledge on projects. It is very clear from their educational company website that they understand ideal retrofitting for SF Bay Area homes and commercial properties by keeping up-​to-​date with building codes, policies and industry recommendations. That same knowledge shows when speaking and working with them in person. I would not hesitate recommending Howard and Bay Area Retrofit to others.

I spoke with all of the leading retro fitters in the SF Bay Area before picking Bay Area Retrofit to do the job. Why did I pick them?
* Jeff at BAR responded quickly and clearly to all of my emails. I just counted that I received 23 emails from Jeff. All came within 24 hours of my email to him.
* BAR not only offered the best price, they seemed to offer the clearest reasoning for the work that needed to be done.
* The work was started on time and finished on time. I asked for, and received some photos of the work.
After the work was done, one of the other contractors who i had been discussing with contacted me and asked how it went. I told him, if he liked, I could send him some photos. This was the other guy’s response:
«the few photos of the work show excellent layout and workmanship. The spacing of the shear clips is even over kill as they are spaced closer together than code requires for a one story house. By the work I will guess the contractor was Jeff Bailey/​Howard Cook of Bay Area Retrofit!»
I do not know how he figured that out, unless it was the brand of the shear clips that were used. But that meant alot to me, and BAR was 20% less expensive. Retrofitting is a new and evolving ‘science’. I have come to understand that no one really knows what is required to prepare a house to survive a major earthquake. They simply learn about what works by looking at what happened during the last big earthquake. But as the bay area is a hot bed of seismic activity, not to retrofit, is similar to living in tornado country and not having a storm shelter to escape to. Retrofitting is expensive. But if you are going to own property in the bay area, speak to the guys at BAR. Usually, they can look at photos of your property on Google Maps and give a rough estimate of the cost.

Jeff came out & inspected our home in fall 2009 ($ 400). At that time, we weren’t ready yet to do the work; we just wanted an idea of what we were looking at time and $wise. It took a while to get his report back (fine as we were in no hurry). When it came it was thorough & clear, with a rationale written for each proposal. Jeff told us we could do the work in stages, but we chose instead to save until we could do it all in one fell swoop. Fast-​forward to 2013. We contacted another retrofit company for an inspection for comparison’s sake. They came in about the same price-​wise (doing a proper retrofit is not cheap!!) but with a much less extensive plan; we were surprised that they didn’t even ask to see the back of the house (mostly windows & door) & only focused on the garage. We chose BAR based on the thoroughness & thoughtfulness of their plan & the depth of their knowledge & experience; when I phoned to ask about a few details Howard picked up the phone & was able to quickly locate our report & clarify things to our satisfaction. We got the job scheduled in 2 weeks; Jeff came by with two BAR employees the Friday before the workers started to do a pre-​work walk-​through/​work plan/​answer questions/​get keys; the workers themselves were highly professional & efficient, 4 workers most days! working 9 – 3 (commuting to SF) M-​F. They came in under the estimated time (11 days not the estimated 3 weeks) and $ 1000 under budget & did a great job cleaning up before leaving each day. All in all the retrofit with BAR was a much more painless process than we’d anticipated. A word of caution: retrofitting is extremely loud & dusty! — yet another reason that it helped that the workers’ schedule was so predictable. These guys really are the best. If your main priority is the assurance that your retrofit was done right, I highly recommend Bay Area Retrofit.

I got three bids for my retrofitting. One included most — but not all — of what Bay Area Retrofit did for me… but was about 30 percent higher. One was about the same price but the approach was laughable (all bolting, no cripple wall reinforcement, etc.).
I actually took a class in earthquake retrofit (thinking maybe I could do it myself). So I had a bit to go on when I looked the bids over. Bay Area Retrofit recommended exactly what my hotshot engineer instruction would have.
I put off doing it for about four years but just went through with it last month. The two guys who did the work did a great job — and even rebuilt a crawlspace shelf that I had assumed I’d just have to lose. It was a great experience. (Very loud, though. Glad it’s over…)

I have used this company for two houses near the Hayward fault. And I am going to call them for my latest acquisition in San Francisco. I have a lot of faith in engineering and they base their work on sound engineering practices. I am very happy with their work and the education that I have received from them over the years. I highly recommend their work.

Thumbs down here. These guys do shoddy work. You need a firm that you can literally trust your life with and this is not it.
Keep looking and pass these guys by.

I have read the three reviews of Bay Area Retrofit (BAR), and have to agree with the two good reviews (now three, with my review). BAR did a great job of retrofitting my single-​story, wood frame, no cripple walls home in Sonoma.
Having decided to have my 1983-​vintage house foundation retrofitted, my research showed BAR to have an excellent BBB rating, their Contractor’s License showed up as valid and as having current Worker’s Comp insurance, and no complaints. Plus, their web site was far more detailed and credible than any of the other structural retrofitting web sites I looked at. So it was an easy decision to select BAR.
My e-​mails were promptly responded to. I elected to have BAR obtain a Building Permit, which added about $ 600 to the job cost. On the scheduled install date their crew called me in the morning to confirm they were on their way, which was appreciated. When they arrived it was a two-​person crew that was polite and not scruffy looking.
Now here’s what really impressed me: They taped heavy protective paper over my carpet and closest with the trap door access to my foundation, and when they were done thoroughly cleaned everything up.
The job took about four hours, and I could hear and feel the vibration as they worked their way around my house, under the floor, installing the Simpson UFP10 and L90 plates. I had asked that they use my camera to take «before» and «after» pictures, which they did, and that story is now a Webshots album, at
. Feel free to take a look, it’s a public album.
The BAR crew asked if I needed them to call to schedule a Sonoma County Building Department inspection of the completed job, but I decided to do that. The Building Inspector came out the next day, liked what he saw, and signed off on the job.
I have learned a lot about seismic retrofitting from the BAR site; it turns out that the owner, Howard Cook, has literally written the book on how to do seismic retrofitting. And the examples of bad (ineffective) retrofits, and WHY they were ineffective, were an eye-​opener. It became clear that having a seismic retrofit done is very much caveat emptor, even if you elect to have a Building Permit obtained.
So I am giving BAR a well-​deserved five stars; it was a pleasure doing business with them.
Update: 12-​19-​2011. Just discovered that Unilocal has suppressed my review. It speaks poorly to Unilocal’s brain-​dead filtering algorithm. This was a legitimate review, which anyone visiting my Webshots album showing the project would see.
Further update: 6-​02-​2012. Looks like my review has been un-​suppressed; good. I still think that Unilocal’s suppressing of reviews sucks. I would rather have the option of making my own judgment on reviews, without having to do the two-​step process to see suppressed reviews.
Further updated: 12-​15-​2012. Well, my review is back to a «filtered» review; i.e., suppressed by Unilocal.I have read reports of Unilocal filtering favorable reviews if a business doesn’t buy advertising from Unilocal; I call it «Yelportion.» You be the judge of whether Unilocal is doing this. And no, I am not a business owner, or have any financial ties with BAR, nor was I asked to write a favorable review or offered any incentive for doing so. It just galls me to see the time I spent writing up a detailed Unilocal review wasted.
Update: 8-​30-​2014. Well, it’s been almost a week since the 6.1 August 24, 2014, Napa/​American Canyon quake, which was much too close for comfort. Worse than the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, when I was in Alameda. Wow, the Napa quake was violent and LOUD. No structural damage, although some items knocked off my shelves. Other houses in my neighborhood in Sonoma came through without obvious damage, though, so the real test would be seismically retrofitted houses in Napa. I saw a few pictures of houses off their foundations and failed cripple walls.
Still, no regrets with having my house voluntarily seismically retrofitted in 2011. It was a much better investment than paying premiums for earthquake insurance, with its ridiculously high deductible. There is also the benefit of sleeping better at night, knowing this work has been done. Well done by your crew, Howard Cook.

Love these guys. Doing an awesome job seismically retrofitting our house. Now better chance house won’t slide off foundation in case of large quake on Hayward Fault. They are reliable, honest, reasonable, polite, patient, neat, professional and the work they did is stellar.
We changed our minds in the middle about some stuff and they handled it with aplomb. We also had some permit tussles with City of Oakland, nothing big, and even though our architect kinda let us down, Bay Area Retrofit DID NOT LET US DOWN. Also put in a bathroom for us. I am not telling you this is a discount group — it is not. You will pay a lot of money to seismically retrofit your house — that is just the reality of all that work and time and all those supplies. No matter who you hire.
These folks, Jeff Bailey in particular, are just a joy to work with. We have been working with them since about February 2011 and we have not had any issues whatosever re communication, at all. We did NOT experience anything like that other guy here did in any of our interactions. And no one at Bay Area Retrofit even mentioned Unilocal or anything like that to us. And trust me, I was not paid to write this review or make it pretty; this is my unsolicited opinion. Come see my basement, if you don’t believe me.
The quote we got from them was written and specific and also took into account that once they started on the work, they might find stuff in our 95 year old Craftsman house’s basement that would mean more work or less work or more money or less money. It was less, in fact, than we thought it would be.
Look on the web site for the Association of Bay Area Governments, (ABAG) to find out more about seismic issues and your house or other building. And look at the Bay Area Retrofit website for information on the same topic.

Even though my structural engineer friend looked over their work and said it would be very effective and the workmanship was excellent, I got a call from the owner Howard Cook and he said he was not quite sure they had put enough bolts in one section in light of some research he had done. He came back over and installed a couple of more bolts. I was impressed with this conscientiousness. Not many companies would do this.
I went to this company because they had the most informative web site of all the sites I saw and I also looked at their filtered reviews and they had a lot of good things to say. I encourage anyone thinking of retrofitting to at least inform themselves from this site before hiring anyone..
They looked at my house and told me about things that did not need to be done while I heard elsewhere that I needed these things. They were able to show me with illustrations and a crawl under my house why these things were not necessary. I got three bids and what each contractor wanted to do something different. I really recommend you educate yourself. A structural engineer friend came and looked at the job and he had nothing but stellar things to say. I was able to pay with a credit card and got some miles.

My original post stated:
1. Poor/​slow communication.
2. They missed their appointment — with no phone call.
3. After they missed the appointment, when I contacted them, guy #1 mistakenly emailed me instead of their guy #2 (who was supposed to have come out).
4. When I asked guy #1 if his email was meant for me, his response was to give me guy #2’s contact info and suggest I follow up with him.
Wow. How much more screwed up can they get.
If they can’t make an appointment, can’t get email straight between their internal people and their customers, you gotta wonder what kind of retrofit job they might do.
Do they know the difference between a shear wall and sheer stupidity?
Here’s an update:
Howard did try and bribe, er contact me to remove my post. But I stand behind my post. I have emails documenting Howard’s mis-​communication with Jeff, missing the appointment, and completely open-​ended «quote» for the work proposed. Their quote stated that the project would probably not look like the drawing and that they couldn’t commit to the amount. Huh? So what’s the point of the drawing and the quote? Now, they claim that it wasn’t even them, it was another company. Wow! Let’s be clear, it was Bay Area Retrofit represented by Howard Cook. Enough said.

I had Jeff Bailey and Bay Area Retrofit perform an earthquake update on my home in November 2009. If you are considering this work, you know it is expensive and complicated. I interviewed multiple organizations and decided to give the job to Jeff. He was on time for all appointments, did the work on schedule, and did several other jobs that needed to be done in my crawl space at the same time. In addition, he prepared all the paperwork for the permits and Berkeley transfer tax partial offset. His prices were fair and the work quality is professional. I give Jeff and Bay Area Retrofit and excellent recommendation.

Hot damn is retrofitting expensive. But inevitably less so than ongoing earthquake insurance or house-​rebuilding, so we talked with three contractors and were most impressed with Bay Area Retrofit’s proposal and quote. We hired them this past summer for a foundation retrofit — they were responsive, showed up on time, cleaned up very well at the end — no complaints from us. Re: quality, can’t speak to that until tremblers occurs… so let’s hope we won’t have to find out. Play nice Hayward fault, play nice.
Noticed there’s little contact info listed above — here’s more:
Howard Cook: 510−418−1676