Doty Plastering and Drywall

Doty Plastering did a big job for us — removing old stucco, replacing several windows, installing new insulation, plywood, new stucco and trims. I have no complains, everything was excellent.
The job was done absolutely according to the initial schedule and budget. Contractors were friendly and careful (I am so grateful they didn’t damage my vegetables garden). Perfect communications (via email only as I requested).
Definitely 5-​stars. Thank you!

I found Doty Plastering on Unilocal,and was impressed with all the good reviews. The short version of my own review: definitely 5-​stars! The owner, Sheldon Doty, came over to give an estimate (appointment one) and I was impressed with his prompt arrival and impressive knowledge. He’s obviously been in the business a long time and knows a lot. He urged us to do a «destructive test» to determine where water was leaking into our stucco, which entailed removing some stucco around the suspect window, and applying water above that window and above another window on the second floor. Others had just guessed based on eyeballing the situation. Their test (appointment two) showed that the flashing around our transom window on the ground floor was of poor quality and applied badly. Instead of doing a fix just of the flashing at the top of the transom window as others had recommended, they advised taking out the window and reflashing all around. For this test, the crew arrived just when they said they would. Sheldon Doty’s estimate for the more extensive job was actually less than other bids to do a partial fix. The repair (appointment three) happened today, and again the crew was right on time, did a great job, and cleaned up well before leaving. We had to pay extra for the testing, but it was well worth it, since I feel confident the leak has been fixed.

Called to make an appointment for an estimate on stucco work for my house. I made the appointment but was called a day before saying they needed to reschedule which I had no problem with, things happen. We rescheduled and they had the owner (I believe) come out to give me an estimate. He said it would be ready the following week and he would email me. The estimate never came; I didn’t bother calling to follow up as I don’t want to give anybody work if they can’t even get me an estimate when they say they will. They wasted my time, and their time which I can’t understand, why bother coming if you’re not going to follow through? Anyways my experience looks to be similar to others, seems like an unreliable company.

Overall grade is 4.5 and the breakdown is as follows (work done was removing old wood trim, removing and reinstalling windows, and applying new stucco to match existing walls):
1) Sheldon — founder and co-​owner. Sheldon was exactly on time for the estimate appointment and did not disappoint from that point on. He was punctual, professional and knowledgeable. He was responsive to my questions and displayed a great working knowledge of his trade. Highly recommended.
2) The crew — really friendly and did an outstanding job with matching the new stucco to our existing walls. I have received compliments from several other unrelated contractors on the finished work. At times they were not able to properly answer some of my concerns, but that’s when Sheldon came through.
3) Area for improvement — I really wished that the crew was more thorough with their clean up. After I had time to get a look at a landscaping around the work area I found chunks of stucco in the flower beds and several nails on the driveway. The one part that bugged me the most was the powder residue from the stucco that stained the roofing tiles. I thought it would come off with a quick rinse but it did not. Luckily my painting contractor was great and did a power rinse and even hand scrubbed the residue off.

Doty Plastering and Drywall — the Best and Honest contractor indeed!!!
Not only Sheldon and his people done superior work to finish our stucco for entire house rebuild after fire loss but also took care problems left by previous stucco contractor and all for reasonable price!
Thank You very much — Doty Plastering and Drywall!!!

Run from this business!
I called and left a message. The next day they returned my call and we made an appointment for the following week @ 9AM to come out and look at the jobs I need done.
10AM came (ie one hour late) and I called and left a message that I had another meeting so we’d need to reschedule if they weren’t going to be there any time soon. No call.
UNRELIABLE.
AVOID these people.

I decided to have the wood siding which was on front half of house removed and have stucco installed. I got three bids, Exteria Construction & Consulting (General Contractor), SOD Builders, and DOTY plastering and drywall. Steve at Exteria was knowledgeable and answered questions, SOD just gave a quote which was way to high. Sheldon of DOTY was also extremely knowledgeable and answered all my questions.
I decided to go with Sheldon due to the sheer number of positive Unilocal reviews, feedback from one of his customers (Negar) and his patience and knowledge on stucco. I also decided on Einswell Rapid Set
(where the scratch and brown is done in one coat and final finish coat in two steps) vs. traditional scratch, brown and finish conventional stucco 3 step method. Sheldon’s was quote was also competitive. He itemized so if I did not need plywood or insulation installed, I would not have to pay.
For install Salvador Sr and his crew showed up. The DOTY plastering and drywall business is co-​owned by Sheldon (who seems to be the sales guy writing the bids) and Salvador Sr who co-​ordinates the actual work. Salvador and his team is also friendly, easy to talk to, answers questions and all his team members take great pride in their work and it shows in their finish results.
His team quickly mobilized, started covering areas where wood, stucco debris would fall. They managed to get the wood siding off and also took off about 6″ of stucco from side and bottom, so they could tie in the lathe. The put up two layers of Bituthene (black tar paper) over the plywood which they stapled. Then they put up 16 – 18 gauge wire mesh to install metal lathe and used 2″ nails to secure. They also put some caulk over the nails. They completed teardown, and prep (Bituthene, wire mesh, lathe) in the same day, took about 7 hours and then cleaned up after themselves to pickup nails, wood boards, etc and also washed driveway clean.
They came the following day, taped off all the windows, covered the door, removed the light fixture and covered the mailbox. Salvador Jr, Salvador Sr son was also on hand to help out, nice way to see family tradition and business being carried on and passed down. The team started mixing the einsenwall rapid set cement with sand (23 shovels of sand to one bag of einsenwall mix) and 3 – 4 gallons of water on the street so as not to get my driveway dirty. They carried up the stucco mortar up by bucket. They had put up some scaffolding on the side of the house as they had to get up to the second story of the house. Started to apply the stucco about ¾″ thick with a nice smooth finish. I asked Salvador how they know how to get the stucco to ¾″ thick and he showed his Darby tool which lets them get a smooth finish and gauge the thickness, also the distance from metal wire mesh to window edge when measured is near ¾″.
Salvador also installed two small control joints to avoid stucco from cracking, so the stucco was split into three sections. I had read CTS Cement datasheet who recommend control joints be placed every 12 feet. The datasheet also said to keep stucco fog misted wet for 90mins after final application. I asked Salvador to keep fog misting the stucco as it dries through hydration for 90 minutes. He had brought a handheld sprayer which puts out a fine water spray mist and diligently kept the stucco wet so it could cure properly. They cleaned up after themselves and said they would return in about a week to do the final finish coat with color and texture.
I conversed with Angelica over email and occasionally by phone to get invoice/​receipts for payments. She was pleasant and prompt in following up.
Dennis and another co-​worker showed up for the finish coat, they taped off the windows, covered the roof and front door. Mixed up the color, showed me a sample which was way off! He skimmed on a thin layer then later realized they had to mix two bags to get the color I wanted which they did. The final color is a lot closer to what Dunne Edwards paint color I will have painted later. Dennis did a fantastic job matching the existing texture of stucco on the rest of the house. He also reattached the gutters they had taken off and cleaned up after themselves. They finished the final finish coat in around six hours.
In summary, DOTY plastering and drywall did a superb job in removing wood siding, putting on Bituthene, metal wire mesh, lathe and eisenwall rapid set stucco with final texture match. They also put the gutters back up that they took down. They were courteous enough to add color to the final finish coat which was close to my final paint selection, while not a perfect match its close. I also liked the water table they put on, as the stucco they applied was thicker than the stucco I already had but this really adds a little pizazz to the final stucco look, the water table can be painted same as the trim color to really add some flair to the house. 5 stars

They may be good in work, but suck in presales and keeping appt. I had set appt. to meet them after reading Unilocal reviews. I set appt. for 9.30 a.m. that was pushed to 11.30 same day. I was fine with that as my meeting at work was scheduled at 12.30. However I waited till 11.45, no show.
When I called their office up, they mentioned that person will be arriving in another 15 minutes. I left as I didnot want to miss my work meeting. While on way to work, my wife called and mentioned that contractor had arrived and was stating that he was on time as schedule was between 11.30 and 12.00. Now that was outrageous — first of not informing that he is running 25 minutes late, secondly thinking it to be ok to spin around tardiness. That was it, I decided not to talk to them. If they are so unprofessional and don’t respect time, how will they complete their work on time.
Like I said, they might be good in their work, but I was not impressed by their professionalism.

We have had issues with our wood siding for years– I was sick of it and was looking up different places– I stumbled upon Doty Plastering Co on Unilocal and was so surprised at all the reviews– I was nervous though– Do I really trust a company only on their Unilocal reviews?
I called them– the owner came out– looked around gave me a bid– (lower than the other 2 companies I had previously) and I stressed the urgency of the issue, (we were due for more rain and I was scared the leaks through the siding would get worse), he understood and fit me in the very next day–
They said it will take 3 days– it did
They said they had to remove my 10′ by 6′ foot window to do the work right– they did
They even fixed the insulation and door latch so that everything would look good and match–
Everything they said they would do– they did– they exceeded my expectations– they cleaned each day– they were gracious and nice– It was fantastic– we could only afford to do one side of the house– but the goal is each year we will save up enough to do each side one by one– they will be the only company I will call– trust them– trust Unilocal– it works.

I needed an exterior wall fixed (stucco) where the plumber had installed a clean-​out and left behind a big hole in the wall. Sheldon responded quickly, and showed up to provide a quote the same day. The quote was reasonable and I scheduled the work. The workers were efficient and cleaned up after themselves. My only complaint is that he didn’t tell me what time they’d be coming (only that it wasn’t a full day job), so I had to call and ask in the morning, so that I knew whether I had to wait at the house or not. But otherwise, totally great and I’d use them again.

We needed a number of stucco repairs done, and called in a number of different contractors. Sheldon gave us the lowest bid, and I am glad we went with them. Doty performed the stucco repairs in 2 days, and did a great job matching the existing stucco pattern (the matching is their obvious strong point). There was a minor issue with the clean up (hence one less star), but we would nevertheless hire Doty to perform work again if the price is right.
Also, be aware that they will not accept credit cards. Not a big deal if you have the cash in your account.

I had a leak in my recently remodelled bathroom, and the contractor that did it told me it was a leak in the stucco coming from the outside (it was raining a lot).
I contacted Doty and Sheldon came by and looked at it, and found the problem to be a pipe leaking in the bathroom that the contractor who did it did not find.
I ended up not using their services and they did not charge me anything at all. he even gave me some pointers on how to fix some stucco cracks on the outside.
These guys are great, extremely professional and competent, and friendly.
I would not hesitate in calling them for any drywall and stucco needs in the future.

We hired Sheldon to fill in the missing drywall and stucco outside from where we recently removed our fireplace and chimney. He got a perfect match for both the texture outside and the orange peel texture inside, you cant even tell where it used to be. His price came in under what we were expecting and was able to do it right away. Great experience, I will recommend him to anyone!

I hired Sheldon and his excellent team to stucco the basement and retaining wall of my new modern house in Pacifica. He was able to get the dark grey color I wanted, and the results are quite spectacular. He was always prompt, very reliable, reasonably priced, highly professional and competent, and always willing to help me out with other little jobs around the new construction.
I echo what Mario wrote below: recommended to anyone who wants a high quality job done for a good price.

I have been using Doty Plastering for the past 10 years. They have always been great to work with. From large projects to small, they are always on time, on budget and most of all courteous to my clients and my other sub contractors and employees. I would recommend them to everyone who wants to have excellent quality at fair prices.
Mario
President
Rodi Construction Inc.

I hired Doty to repair and re-​plaster a wall. They did a great job, were on time and on budget and did exactly what they said they were going to do. The only reason I didn’t give them a 5 star review was due to cost. We had two quotes for the job. Doty was a third more expensive; however, I just had a feeling they would do top quality work and I was right. They did excellent work and was worth the extra $$.

We hired Sheldon Doty to do the stucco in our building on 500 Miller Avenue, South San Francisco. It was big job since the building had been destroyed due to a fire. Doty Stucco came in and did a superb job. The building is beautiful and everyone who looks at it is amazed at the great job.
I recommend Doty Sutucco to anyone.
Pastor Fernando Carvalho/​Message of Peace Church

We recently used Doty for the interior of our restaurant. We always triple bid any major work. Doty wasn’t the cheapest and they definitely weren’t the most expensive either. Variance on bids was high. He had a thorough understanding of our walls where some contractors didn’t thoroughly know what they were applying too. We had a planned closure and we discussed a schedule which they stuck to and finished a great job within the time period.

I haven’t used Doty Stucco (yet) but wanted to post my thoughts.
I got a referral from a friend as I was having a frustrating issue with water leaks/​windows/​stucco, etc. and needed an opinion.
I called one morning, and Sheldon (the owner) said he could be here in SF in just 20 minutes.
He wasn’t kidding.
He promptly showed up at my front door, not a minute late. Very friendly, engaging, confident, and obviously knows his stuff.
He eyeballed the situation, poked around a bit, and offered his suggestions.
I’m currently trying to work out this problem with my original contractor, but am grateful for Sheldon’s time & expertise. I wouldn’t hesitate to use him based on my gut feeling. And if this problem of mine isn’t resolved, the very 1^st thing I’ll be doing is to call Doty Stucco & Construction.

Thank God Sheldon Doty left his business card on a ledge of our house. About a couple months earlier we contracted with Hargens, Inc. to tear off the stucco and roof tiles to inspect for the extent of dry rot. We were unhappy with the way Hargens charged (by time and material) so we decided to look around for another contractor to complete the work. At first, I thought Sheldon was a subcontractor for Hargens. As it turned out he is an independent contractor and was working on a home up the street. He knew we needed help since our house was left exposed for several weeks.
Out of all the contractors we interviewed, Sheldon, aka «Keg,» was the only person who poked the joists with a screwdriver and said: «Your dry rot is not that bad and you don’t have to cut into the garage ceiling (as suggested by Hargens) to replace the joists.» I decided to hire him on the spot if he can get the inspector to agree with him. One of the contractors I interviewed before I met Keg suggested I sweep away the blown-​in grey powdery insulation which could be mistaken for mold. Once I did that it looked 100% better and when the inspector saw it he agreed with Keg.
Keg has a good sense of humor and laughs at my jokes. He must be pretty bright because he invented and is marketing a fishing lure. He also hunts bear, deer, and duck. His forte however is stucco work. He subcontracted the dry rot repair and carpentry work to a contractor and friend named Mo (Tectonics Construction 650−557−1422). He also owns a scaffolding company in partnership with Salvadore (aka «Muscles») and agreed to allow the roofers to use it at no additional charge. His crew did an excellent job reapplying the stucco and it was completed in approx. 10 days. I highly recommend him and his crew.