Geological Design

I am so shocked by the previous one star review of Geological Design. My husband and I recently remodeled our kitchen and family room and could not have been happier. They went beyond our expectations. All went extremely smooth and the entire job was done in 5 weeks. My husband and I were expecting the many challenges and hidden costs that we have heard come with remodels and in the end we were very pleasantly surprised at how well everything went and how great it all looks. They were easy to work with and stuck to the budget. We couldn’t be happier with the results. My husband and I would both highly recommend using Geological Design.

We hired James to build our media center built-​ins and a bathroom vanity. He was referred to us by our interior designer who said he did great work and had tight turn around times. We hired him without checking references. Mistake #1. In late May, James came to our home and within a few days gave us a bid, which we accepted. In early June, his crew came to do the framing. He said he’d be able to fit us in between two projects he was working on. More than two months passed. He became unreachable. Each time we called to see what the status was, he acted like we were bothering him. We came to his shop in Oakland (disgusting, trash everywhere!) to pick out stone for the vanity and he seemed bothered that I asked to see the whole slab because it would require him moving the slabs. I felt like I was imposing on him. (We should have gone to granite expo, where they are helpful!) Also, his phone rings all the time when he is meeting with a client. It’s so distracting. He is clearly over extended or not organized or something. He finally came to deliver the vanity in early August, but not completed (no face frames) and also the stone top. However, he had cut it to the wrong size. My husband is an architect and gave him all the drawings he needed. His excuse: there were too many drawings! But whenever my husband tried to reach him, he never had any files with him. He is literally all over the place. So, back to square one with the vanity top. And rather than go over there again, I chose to pick one sight unseen. He sent me a picture but only after I asked for it 5 times!!! Also, the cabinets in the living room were cut to the wrong size and they became dented very easily. There are already 3 dents in them and so clearly the wood is not up to par. On top of the mistakes, the 2+ months to have the work done, he never replied to us and rarely showed when he was scheduled to be here. He told us he’d arrive on wednesday afternoon. We cancelled plans and he never showed. He came on Thursday but seemed irritated. We finally got him to commit, through his business partner/​wife for completion of the job on Friday August 15^th. This was 10 weeks after the contracts were signed! He shows up at 1 p.m. With his 12 year old son. No crew. Just him and his kid. They work together for 2 hours and then he leaves! I was beside myself. Then, he comes back at 6 at night to finish up. My husband had to stay there and miss an important family dinner we had planned that night. We have done a lot of remodeling to our house and never have my husband or I seen such unprofessional and unorganized work. I would have fired him weeks ago but my husband talked me out of it since he had already started the work and it would have been tough to move it to someone else. My gut was always off. I spoke to my brother in law about it the night of our family dinner, as he owns a highly successful construction company and turns out he had met him and confirmed what I knew: Stay away unless you like someone to make multiple mistakes, give you the constant run around, take zero responsibility, never apologize and then try to make you feel bad about being upset that your house has been a mess for two months and nothing is being delivered on time or correctly!

My Oakland condo building hired James to install a marble countertop in our lobby, and he also custom-​fabricated a fabric bulletin board with a painted wood frame. We’re really happy with the quality of the work and he and his crew were professional and easy to deal with. My only quibble is that it took him a while to get the job done, but I take part of the blame for that because my homeowner’s association was slow in OK’ing the job, returning his signed contract, etc. We found him on the recommendation of a friend of mine who does high-​end residential projects, so my guess is that he’s a good choice for your kitchen or bath remodel too.