Peters Design-Build

Over the past months, we have watched Peters Design Build transform a 1950s home with unique architecture from a veritable haunted house into a place that feels modern, open, and clean. Not only that but they designed creative solutions for correcting major structural and seismic deficiencies, as well as addressing gnarly electrical and plumbing issues - but were able to do so without the total tear-down we had feared.

I manage a large tech manufacturing team, and have enough technical and process knowledge to appreciate the complexity of the problems this house presented, and the elegance of the solutions. I think before and after photos only go so far (although they look great!) in telling the story. More importantly, PDB is doing high quality work that will stand the test of time, and doing it efficiently and wisely.

Great experience.

As a former carpenter, I really appreciate the attention to detail and craftsmanship of the PDB team. They are close to finished with the remodel of the older home my wife grew up in and I have been very pleased with how it's shaping up. They've transformed a badly dated and dim old house into a bright, open, inviting place that will be great for family gatherings. They have gone above and beyond in helping us find ways to stretch our limited funds and have been very good at listening to suggestions as well as giving them. They obviously know what they're doing and are very knowledgeable with regard to finishes, fixtures, lighting, and style. All while being sticklers that the various codes are being complied with. I Highly recommend them.

Having driven past one of their sites for the past year I was impressed by the transformation of this particular Sunset house. They then came up on Yelp and based on reviews here, I decided to get in touch with them about a project at my elderly mothers house in the Sunset. Unfortunately, I haven't had so much as a 'thanks for your enquiry' message from them. I can appreciate that everyone is busy but think this is extremely poor form.

As a construction manager I've seen all types of contractors in my career. Peter's Design Build is exactly what I think of when someone asks "what makes a contractor GREAT?" From day one on our backyard renovation they were responsive, trustworthy, transparent, professional and efficient. They understand what it takes to work in residential construction in San Francisco, and were able to design and build our deck and retaining wall WITH a permit and passed inspection with flying colors. I literally can't say enough about Andrew, Michael, James, John and the entire team.

It truly was an enjoyable and pain free experience from initial design to budgeting, contracts and construction. Michael and team had great design concepts and listened to what we needed. Andrew has an easily understood budgeting process so there were never any surprises on costs - their contract is fair and they follow it to the letter, and they never asked for any additional funds beyond those they were owed. During construction the crew was clean and considerate, and they managed themselves professionally onsite. They always cleaned up at the end of each day and coordinated with my neighbors on parking and deliveries to be sure they didn't block them.

I found them on Yelp after looking for a design build contractor that worked with permit and was not disappointed. As a long time professional in the construction industry who regularly represents client's interests - take it from me: You can't go wrong with Peter's Design Build!

We weren't able to engage Peters Design-Build for our bathroom renovations because they were booked out too far for our already demoed bathroom but I cannot speak more highly of Andrew and his team. He spent significant time walking me through considerations related to our two bathroom renovation, including permitting considerations, scope of project and expectations, material costs and decisions, etc. Andrew was clear and honest up front, set realistic expectations, and is obviously an expert in his field and a pleasure to work with.

I found Andrew Peters via Yelp after networking and other ways of finding a contractor to replace our 2 story back deck & staircase had failed to yield any contractors with the combination of willingness to work with us on a "low value" project (about $60,000), good communication, honest business practices, a clear understanding of the city planning process, and a professional network including engineers who would happily draw up the plans we needed for the deck rebuild.

Peters Design-Build had all of that. One expediter we almost hired on a friend's recommendation really didn't have a viable plan, and nor did she have any engineers willing to work with her again to draw up plans, so we would have had to find our own even though she was pushing her husband as the deck contractor. Peters arranged for new professional engineering plans to be drawn up that conformed to updated fire code requirements and submitted to the city.

When it came back that the deck would be too large a change from the prior one and need a variance with up to 2 years of hearings delays, he proposed an alternate path. He arranged a "pre-inspection" from the neighborhood city inspector to show them the urgency of replacing the deck from a safety perspective sooner than the expected variance delay. The inspector agreed, and suggested we do a 50% replace in kind permit, replacing all the structural members and the bare minimum of rotted wood for the rest of the structure. In the end, we weren't much over 50% replaced, we saved a lot of money over doing a more thorough redesign, we got a new structure and new upper deck, and he managed to accomplish all this by fitting in time for his workers during delays on his other projects in town.

We had one mishap with a new piece of wrought iron for a gate that the vendor provided at the wrong dimension, but when I discovered the mistake Peters Design-Build worked with the vendor to make it right and finalize everything they had said they would do. Great work, really wonderful communication, and we will happily hire them again in the future if we need more design/build construction work done.

In the end, he came in about 15% under budget, even with a bit of money wasted on engineering work due to the city's labyrinthine permitting & variance processes.

To preface, I did not actually use Peters D-B to renovate my place BUT if you are looking for a great process with solid ideas, you need to definitely try and at least get a quote with this firm!

I worked with Andrew Peters who was extremely easy and pleasant to work with. He came over and went through the house carefully, making sure to point out ideas as well as potential limitations. There was no rushing of things. I could also tell he is not only solid in his business, but a real artist/designer with vision.

The best part of this was just how detailed he was in giving a proposal/quote. I understand that unless you sign a contract, firms don't have any obligation to give you exact #s. However, Andrew's was the most detailed of the ones I received. I truly appreciate just how much time + effort he put into this.

At minimum, ask for a quote!

We just purchased a house in Novato. My husband is an architect himself, so he had planned to modify many areas of the house. Ben Peters had re-framing the wall, add and removed the wall, rebuild two staircases. His estimation was very accurate. He gave us good advice.
Ben got the job done quick and neat and exactly what we wanted. He made sure that the place was clean every time before he left the job site. Ben is a very honest, skillful person and good personality.

Our renovation plan was not simple. We wanted to remodel an entire floor of an old San Francisco house: turn 3 rooms into a single large one, expend a bedroom, move the bathroom from one side of the house to the other, and install a completely new heating system. Everything under a tight budget.

We had a lot of difficulties finding the right company to work with. all architect firms were way too expensive for us, and dealing with all contractors, permitting and admin items was too much for us to handle. fortunately we found Peters Design-Build on Yelp, and we feel VERY LUCKY to have had the chance to work with them.

First they are very professional and very pleasant to work with. I think they liked the challenge of working under a tight budget while creating a very comfortable space using smart trade offs. For example they sourced for us an amazing redwood slab for our kitchen island through a wood dealer in Oakland for almost half the price of a normal one. Before starting any work they spend a lot of time designing, discussing with us what we exactly wanted and detailing the budget. They are very good at staying on budget and they always gave us advice on what was possible and what was not. The whole process was very transparent from how the money was spent to very clear explanation of the different phases of the project, and the work progress was reviewed on site every week.
The second aspect is that they delivered very good work quality. Their engineering work was very well done, the material chosen was optimal between cost and quality, and the finish work was impeccable. During the project they kept the work place clean and in order which was also a plus for us.
Now we live in our house and we are pleased every day to have a luminous, comfortable living space which integrates the charm of the old house with a modern touch. in a sentence, Peters Design-build are very good designers, who delivered creative solutions of the best quality and at a more affordable cost than any architect firm. Thank you guys!

We just finished a major remodel with PDB involving taking down walls and combining a side patio, dining room and existing kitchen to create a master kitchen, taking 8 months total (and in the process of making the kitchen we did a new roof to allow for skylights, new floors, etc so it was more than just the kitchen that they ultimately did or oversaw). It came out PERFECTLY with every detail attended to and the craftsmanship visibly there and top notch. The crew were awesome and I was comfortable with them around my kids, which is important since we were often cohabiting space. Andrew is honest and professional. We would use them again.