TESTIMONIALS
Some of our past clients; the entire list is being added gradually:
Avant-Garde was timely, professional, effective, and fairly priced in their work on my earthquake retrofit. During the quoting stage, they were the only contractor to take the work seriously (take photos, show up on time, clear communication, etc). Some might be put off by them asking for an initial deposit for the quoting stage, but this was well worth it for their final output. Would recommend to others.
EBB/ESS Review
5/23/25
Very responsive, most thorough initial inspection, and reasonable overall price. Great experience!
EBB/ESS Review
3/18/25
It was a pleasure working with Avant-Garde. They were consistently reliable, helpful, clear, professional, and communicative! The work was done on-time and easily passed the inspection. I highly recommend them.
EBB/ESS Review
3/5/25
Avant-Garde recently completed a seismic retrofit (plan set A) of my house. This company is top notch. Matthew is extremely knowledgeable, and his employees are experienced. They completed the job in 2 days. Their work was high quality and their price was competitive. Matthew handled the permit and assisted me with navigating the brace and bolt program. I highly recommend Avante-Garde.
Phil ..
Central LA, Los Angeles, CA
I reviewed bids from a few companies for soft-story earthquake retrofit plus additional finishing work that would make our garage space usable. Matthew thoughtfully drafted a few solution that met FEMA requirements and my needs. His team was efficient, punctual and took care of my house as if it was their own. Throughout the project Matt was great with communication and he helped walked us through the EBB grant process. I highly recommend Matthew and the Avant-Garde team.
Nick S.
Oakland, CA
My mom needed to find a contractor authorizedunder the Earthquake Bolt and Brace progam: Matthew was among the first to submit a thorough proposal. Not easy for me and my sister to manage this remotely for my mom, but he was very responsive, thoroughly explained the process and demonstrated his knowledge of the program. His crew arrived on time and completed the job as expected; they also noticed a small thing that the inspector would have picked up on and fixed it for my mom instead of pointing it out for us to get someone else to take care of. Afterwards, I was anxious to complete the paperwork so my mom could qualify for a reduction in premiums – within 15 minutes of asking for help. Matthew had the form filled out and ready to go. I rarely give 5 star reviews because it means someone has gone above and beyond what is contracted. In this case, ! would have LOVED to give Avant-Garde SIX stars for Matthew’s timeliness, attention to detail and finishing up all of the paperwork. I deal with a lot of contractors and Matthew is among the top tier. Most especially, I feel like Matthew took care of my mom as he would his own mom. That means a lot to me. THANK YOU !!
J.D.
Santa Cruz, CA
Avant-Garde was the perfect choice to perform the earthquake brace-and-bolt work on our house. Not only was Matthew’s assessment of our house structure and foundation thorough and knowledgeable, he helped me through the whole process with the EBB program folks. He was always responsive to my many questions and requests, both in terms of time and thoroughness of his responses to my emails. And when the time came to actually perform the work, Matthew and his crew did superb work. And fast! Four days of A-G’s 2-3 man crew’s hard work, and it was done. I cannot recommend Avant-Garde highly enough.
Fel J.
San Francisco, CA
After being on the Earthquake Brace + Bolt (EBB) program wait list for about a year, I received the good news that I was finally accepted in the program. Since it’s a lengthy process with many steps involved, I chose Avant-Garde for the retrofit based on their many outstanding customer reviews.
I sent an email inquiry to get a quote, and Matthew got back to me in a few hours to set up a day and time for someone to come out and quote the job. The guy came out right on time, taking photos of the house exterior, crawl space and water heater. Matthew shared the photos along with other relevant information with me in a Google drive folder, as well as uploading the photos to my EBB web based dashboard.
I went with the standard Plan A retrofit. When the installation day came, the crew arrived on time and put down tarps to protect the flooring and walls from any dust. It took less than a day to complete, and post-retrofit pictures were taken and uploaded to the EBB dashboard. They also took care of getting the building permit, and scheduling the city inspection on the same day after the work was completed.
Even though it’s a quality job and I’m now prepared for an earthquake, I just hope the bracing never needs the opportunity to be tested.
August M.
Newark, CA
We had a basic retrofit and duct work done. From start to finish we were kept updated and the guys were quick and efficient.
Terri P.
Dublin, CA
First class company – they helped when I got stuck in this application – completed the work in one day. The person Mat sent around was wonderful to work with – would highly recommend Avant Garde Construction for this type of work.
EBB/ESS Review
2/3/25
Just completed EBB Earthquake retrofit by Avant-Garde. Very happy with the whole process. Very easy to communicate using email. Although I never met or spoke to Matthew, he was very responsive and helpful with instructions and answers to my questions using email. His team were also very clean. They did a great job covering the access path to the crawl space and clean after themselves when finished the job. All in all, highly recommend Avant-Garde. Oh, BTW, their pricing was also reasonable, as I got bids from 3 different contractors.
EBB/ESS Review
1/21/25
My friend used Avant Garde when they had their retrofit and recommended it for my father’s house retrofit. It was obvious I could rely on them to complete my project. always ready to answer questions and always helpful with filling in info and uploading photos and documents to the EBB. Would definitely use them again.
EBB/ESS Review
10/29/24
Avant Garde did an excellent job. They are very experienced and do good work. Matt is extremely knowledgeable and very helpful. I would highly recommend Avant Garde to my friends and neighbors.
EBB/ESS Review
10/27/24
Avant Garde did an excellent job. They are very experienced and do good work. Matt is extremely knowledgeable and very helpful. I would highly recommend Avant Garde to my friends and neighbors.
EBB/ESS Review
10/27/24
Avant Garde did an excellent job. They are very experienced and do good work. Matt is extremely knowledgeable and very helpful. I would highly recommend Avant Garde to my friends and neighbors.
EBB/ESS Review
10/27/24
