Govers Sidewall Shingling

There is a very good reason (actually many good reasons!) that all the people who have used Govers Sidewall Shingling give him 5 stars, as do I.
We contracted with Govers Sidewall Shingling to re-​shingle our entire house; the work was completed ⁵⁄₂₀₁₅. Oliver and the shinglers that work for him, Danilo, Jarol, and Killo, are really artisans and take great care and pride (rightfully so!) in their work; they are also genuinely nice people and were easy to work with. I am very, very detail-​oriented which has previously been a major source of conflict with contractors. This is the first time I have found no flaws in work I have contracted out. The whole organization is detail-​oriented, professional, and knowledgable about the art of shingling.
Regarding cost: I had three quotes for shingle replacement and found Oliver’s pricing to be similar to the other quotes; I find this truly amazing considering the quality of the work and materials.
Regarding Materials: Oliver buys his shingles in bulk from a small mill in Washington state that fabricates shingles from reclaimed cedar. If you are interested /​concerned about sustainable forestry this is a unique benefit that Oliver provides. The quality of the shingles is top notch, too.
Regarding the shingles: They are beautiful, and so much better looking than about 95% of the shingled houses around this area.
Most contractors don’t know how to properly shingle. Shingling is expensive and uses a lot of wood; you should do it right so it will look good and last a long time. I wholeheartedly recommend Oliver and his whole crew!

Govers Sidewall Shingling was worth the find after extensively searching the Internet for a specialist in sidewall shingling. The shingles on our very old house in San Francisco had curled at the edges and some had gone with the wind.
Browsing Govers’ website, the projects listed under the «Our Projects» tab were impressive and showed the quality craftsmanship that we were looking for. We wanted our shingles siding done correctly by an expert, and Govers grew on us the more we studied the website. We were completely sold when we drove to one of his projects and spoke to the owner
Oliver Govers, owner, was one of the easiest contractors we worked with. He was very professional, listened attentively, and made suggestions that eased our concerns re: cost. His staff knew what they were doing, and the workmanship showed when the project was finished. Our neighbors were glowing with praise on how good the house looked.
If you need an excellent house doctor to fix your shingles, we highly recommend Oliver Govers.

I used Oliver to redo the shingles on my home 2.5 years ago. The experience was top notch from start to finish. Everything was done as promised and as scheduled. The work is beautiful.
I found Oliver and his crew to be thoughtful and interested in working out optimal solutions to the nuances of the project. They even did a few extra things (fixing some anomalies) that they noticed, which I hadn’t, without extra charge.
In the intervening time period, Oliver has been available to answer followup questions and has made a few useful recommendations.
He’s «the man.» Hire him.
Michael B.

Oliver and company did a beautiful job replacing our old ugly shake siding with lovely cedar shingles. They removed the old shake siding cleanly, cleaning up every day which was important since I have young kids running around. He even alerted us to some potential water damage and leaking that they discovered during the removal process — catching what could have been a potential big problem down the road. The shingles were placed by hand, with great attention to detail. We got 3 quotes on our project and his was the middle price, very competitive and a great value compared to the other quotes. Oliver is a very nice guy, and very easy to work with — very trustworthy and you can tell he cares greatly about his work and your project. We are very pleased with our new exterior and the work he did!

So a couple years ago, we bought this rambling old Berkeley cedar-​shingle house. The shingles were in bad shape, mostly original, with a few poor repairs patched on here and there. It was looking pretty bad when we bought it. The house is listed on the Berkeley Historic Register and we wanted to bring back its former glory.
We settled on Oliver Govers’ company after getting estimates from a few sources. At all points during the estimation process he was prompt, responsive, and flexible. He came up with multiple options for replacing some of the shingles versus all of them if we wanted to space out the cost. We were even a little bit flaky on our end because we’d just had a baby, but he was patient and worked around our schedules at all times. (I’m surprised to read that other review and can’t help but think there was some miscommunications — Oliver was SO consistent in replying to us no matter what.)
The work itself was meticulous. For example, the visible nails on the corners are perfectly patterned and symmetrical. Also, our house is very, very strangely shaped and there are many corners of the siding that are only visible from a specific angle out of a specific window. Those odd bits were just as perfect as the most prominent front facing portions of the siding.
Oliver and his crew also proactively fixed many minor things as they worked — gutters, funky flashing around the chimney, etc. — even though that wasn’t part of the job. Since we purchased our house we have had many people working on it… it needed a lot of TLC. Contractors, plumbers, electricians, landscape folk, etc. In terms of both the quality of work and how easy it was to work WITH them, Oliver’s company was by far and away the best person we have yet hired to work on the house.
Since we had the house re-​done I’ve become a bit of a cedar shingle nerd, and I’ve gotta say… the other companies installing most of the shingle siding around Berkeley just aren’t doing work that’s in Oliver’s league. The bottom line is, if you have a shingled home needing siding replacement, you would be doing yourself a huge disservice not to call Oliver and get him on board.

Govers Sidewall Shingling has installed sidewall shingles on several of our projects over the last few years. He and his crews are always pleasant and their work perfect, they leave a clean job site at the end of the day, every day. The finished product is always outstanding.
Oliver is a hands guy, he is involved on every project personally.
Robert L.
Owner
Capo Mastro Group

I am the owner of a local high quality remodeling company that has been using Govers Sidewall Shingling for over 20 years. He is one subcontractor that I do not have to worry about. He is on the job himself, has high standards, uses top quality shingles, and once he starts completes the work without interruptions. If the job is large, he can bring in skilled shinglers to help. If the job requires unusual layout or patterns, he can handle that as well.
If there are details to work out –and there usually are in remodeling– he has good ideas and is willing to spend the time to arrive at a good solution.
I recommend him highly.

I was very surprised to read the one less-​than-​stellar review about Govers Shingling, especially considering that Oliver Govers is considered to be the premier sidewall shingler in the Bay Area and San Francisco. I should know — I’m a painting contractor in the East Bay and ALL of the local builders use and recommend Oliver for their clients and friends, without exception. Oliver is one of those old-​fashioned contractors that handles most of the work himself with a few long-​term employees helping with the demolition and larger projects. He is quite popular and the wait for availability can become an issue for some potential clients — this is always the downside of popular contractors. I’m not sure what happened with «Nancy H.» in the previous review, but I do know that Oliver is an exceptional contractor that sets the standard (among all the builders and contractors I know) for shingle replacement, attention to detail and workmanship.
Last note: As far as I can tell, he doesn’t advertise (unbelievable) other than his own website. His long-​standing relationships with most of the larger local builders, contractors, previous clients and architects (+ word of mouth referrals) seem to always keep him busy.
Dean B.

i have been trying to get someone out to give me an estimate since the middle of april. after waiting about a month between each of the two phone calls i made, i got an email saying someone could come out two weeks ago. friday came, and no call for a meetup time or call/​email saying no one would show.
look, i know im not going to be your highest paying customer… but i am still a potential paying customer, and i don’t appreciate being ignored. it’s not like i want to shingle a bungalow. i’ve got a substantial piece of property, which i explained to the man on the phone. if you can’t or don’t want to come out, just tell me! i don’t like wasting time like this.
i love the work they did for other buildings in my last neighborhood. it’s a shame and kind of embarrassing that this business is being run this way. they’re making me feel like an idiot for attempting to… well…pay them.
:(