J. David Ford Construction

THIS REVIEW IS FOR COMMUNICATION /​SCHEDULING ONLY (I never had the opportunity for them to perform any work)
I called J. David Ford and spoke with the receptionist and I was told to send over an email with the Engineering Report I had and my contact info, and I would be called back. That call never came. I called again multiple times with no answer before I finally got the receptionist again who again, said I would receive a call back (and that the delay is because they are very busy). However, again, no call back.
I understand these guys are very busy, but so am I. I take time during my work day to make these calls, to draft and send emails, to follow up … and it amounts to lost time on my part. Again, I get it if you’re busy but a simple «I’m sorry, we’re currently booked with business through (insert date)» is all you need to say.

Given that a recent review has been posted, perhaps (maybe?) this contractor is still in business. Completely unsure as I recieved no call back (left two messages) or response from email (twice submitted through website) over the span of four weeks at the beginning of the year. J David Ford Construction was enthusiastically recommended a few years ago by a past neighbor. Would have liked to have had a discussion over some remodel and seismic repairs for my new home in Hayward but… nothing. No response. Nada.
Do you exist, J David Ford? Maybe you lost your phone, email password, website address, homework, your dog ate your construction plans, your hammer shattered… Maybe you’re walking listlessly through lumber yards while the world is constructed around you.
Dunno. You never picked up.

We had David Ford do our seismic retrofit for our new house in Berkeley. We were very pleased, everything worked smoothly. Great crew, great boss, highly recommended.

Did good job with our seismic retrofit and made sure needs were met through the permit process. I’d definitely consult with and probably hire again for other needs for our house. Had friend who had been in the industry seismic retrofit industry come by to check out his work — he said top notch.

Superb: We highly recommend and are grateful for the excellent work David Ford did to structurally reinforce and earthquake –proof our home. Not only was the job done on time, on budget, with integrity and professionalism but communicaton was sterling. David is a pleasure to work with and he had a great working relationship with the structural engineer so that problem solving and execution were topnotch. His crew were so considerate of our family, they actually cleaned up daily — not the case with many contractors we’ve worked with. David’s breadth of knowledge, experience and work ethic is why he is highly sought after and recommended. Bonus: he’s a fascinating fun guy too. We happily add to the list of fans.
Basha and Tony in Oakland

David came out and spent a considerable amount of time helping us to understand a basement drainage issue. Other contractors had charged us to come out and look and provide little help, but David was thorough and smart and really helpful and he didn’t charge us for his time which is unusual these days. I will definitely be recommending or using him in the future — he clearly has tons of experience and a great attitude!

Service with integrity: I’ll second all these favorable reviews. Dave Ford is extremely experienced, hard working, and a great communicator. We did a soft story retrofit in a very tight spot (in a garage with little room to encroach onto). He was patient and able to work with the city permitting process and the engineer (Dan Szumski) through some changes required by the city. I would highly recommend him!

Dave Ford is by far the best contractor I have ever worked with. I hired him to do a seismic upgrade of our Oakland Hills home. Besides being very knowledgeable about what needed to be done, he was key in getting the engineer (Monty Stott) to finish the plans before the next big one hits the east bay! Dave is a real gentleman with tons of integrity, way beyond you see in most people much less in contractors. His crew is the same way… very skilled, very interested in doing the job right, very friendly and trustworthy, and just really nice people. I wish I could Dave 10 or 20 stars because 5 just does not seem like enough for Dave and his crew. They are in a league of their own. I highly recommend you hire Dave for any of your seismic upgrades, or any other contracting work that he does. You will not be disappointed.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I, too, cannot recommend Dave Ford highly enough. He’s the kind of contractor you usually only dream about: knowledgable, accountable, involved in the details, easy to reach, willing to explore multiple options and truly enjoys sharing and helping the customer through what can be some upsetting and confusing situations: drainage and foundation problems.
Dave installed a drain system around and under my house several years ago, as well as shored up some of the foundation. All along the way, he kept me in the loop. The work wasn’t cheap, but nor was the workmanship, and the water problems that had been plaguing my house went away. Fast forward several years and I notice a couple of new issues, unrelated to those that Dave addressed previously. Because I am now an absentee landlord and not an occupant of the house, I wanted to be sure that the source of the problems were being correctly identified by my maintenance team. I called Dave, with whom I haven’t spoken since he worked on my house, thinking I’d never connect, but lucky for me, that wasn’t the case. He called right back and met the next day with my maintenance guy. Dave reviewed the problem and explained to the maintenance guy how to best alleviate the new drainage issues. He even took the time to call me to review everything he saw and what he recommended for a fix. Thanks, Dave. You’re the best!

Having done a number of retrofit projects in the East Bay, getting to work with Dave and his crew was a treat. Dave is incredibly knowledgeable and consistent with regards to his assessments and what gets done. Also, Dave was infinitely helpful in navigating the rules and processes associated the City of Berkeley retrofit program. We look forward to referring Dave and to working with him again.

I also can’t say enough good things about Dave Ford & his crew– we just finished a retrofit on our home (split level, built in 1928 which is 1 mile from the Hayward fault) and I’m already sleeping better at night. We received numerous quotes from other well recommended contractors, but Dave came in the lowest and had the best references. He worked around our schedule and did the job quickly and left our house not only structurally in better shape, but looking better than before. Everyone on his crew was great to work with and very respectful of our home (and my family). Dave explained everything we needed to do at every step of the way. Everyone living in the bay area should retrofit their homes (the big one could happen at any minute) I really highly recommend having Dave do it for you!

Dave Ford and his crew did a major seismic retrofit project on our house which was stucco over line wire — a major hazard in earthquake country. When I was talking to Dave as we were considering who to use, I was really impressed that he knew his stuff and the way he explained everything. He took a lot of time talking and gave advice that was helpful generally even if we hadn’t gone with him. Of course, people can be all talk and no action, but Dave walks the talk and is a class act through and through and worked so hard to get our project done so we could move in asap. My dad was on site a lot, sort of helping us with different contractors. He’s pretty knowledgeable about these things and he was impressed and took pictures along the way and showed us all the steps Dave’s crew took to really make our house as strong as possible for an earthquake. Oscar and the other guys did a great job and were very nice to boot. The cleaned up and went above and beyond to make us happy. Dave’s prices were good but not the cheapest out there but after getting screwed over by another contractor who bid too low and then backed out leaving us in the lurch, and after seeing the quality of the work, if we had to do it again, I’d go to Dave no question, and we have already recommended him to friends. It is hard to find honest contractors who go the extra mile, but that is Dave and his hard working crew. I should note that our realtor was the one who recommended Dave and said he’s the best in the business in her view.

J David Ford was a great choice for our retrofit work. We interviewed a few contractors, but easily David was the most informed and helpful. And he and his team are just great people, good to work with. I felt 100% satisfied with the work they did.
His depth of experience was clear as he walked us through the different options, and at every step of the way he was right on top of the job, what would happen next, everything. His teams were top-​notch, working politely and efficiently with as little disruption as possible. They always left the site clean, and structured the work so the disruption to our living space was minimal.
David helped us anticipate what we might find inside one wall where we weren’t sure what would be in there, and every step of the way he kept us up to date.
Finally, David Ford and team’s knowledge of the Berkeley planning department and frequent experience with them ensured our job passed the inspections with no trouble. One inspectior thanked them for always doing it right, and making it easy.
Two thumbs up – I’d hire them again in a heartbeat.

Dave did some seismic retrofit work for our house’s foundation, a small 2BR bungalow in Berkeley, and did an amazing job. After one fear-​mongering foundation guy came in and said we needed to replace the whole thing and others suggested various walls to replace (but never the same ones!), Dave came in and helped us figure out a sensible and very safe option at a very fair price. He told us what needed to be done, but made sure we spoke with a good engineer before we started the work to help us rest easy and to make sure that we’d qualify for all possible rebate money. Dave and the engineer agreed that the concrete didn’t need replacing, but proper bolting, and bracketing would do more than enough. His competitors never suggested such a thing: They just wanted to get paid and do work that didn’t need to be done. Dave also has been very helpful with tips on who to talk to for other household projects. I trust Dave’s judgment and you will too.

J. David Ford Construction is rated 5-​star, A+ in our book! My husband and I recently purchased a home and my father was very concerned about the possibility of extraordinary damage if/​when there is a major earthquake, especially because there is living space above the garage. The house was also built in 1960 and the bolting and whatnot was therefore also from 1960! Even with an earthquake insurance policy paid in full, we decided to consider the idea of retrofitting our home. While this work may not 100% save your home in an earthquake, we have been told by many people that at the very least there will be less damage, than say the neighbor who hasn’t retro-​fitted will have.
In our search for a contractor, Dave provided a wealth of information about the process and actually recommended bringing in an engineer to ensure the appropriate plans and only the necessary work was completed. This ended up being cost-​saving in the long run. Dave also oversaw the process of obtaining permits and stayed in touch with us along the entire process. I was impressed with his committment to coming on-​site himself several times to examine the work and to also bring in as many staff as needed to meet inspection deadlines. I always found him to be extremely personable and willing to take as much time as needed to fully explain all of the work being done on our home. I like to ask a lot of questions and he is the first contractor who didn’t make me feel like the questions were a bother to him.
We were also having an issue with our deck which his team did some superb work on for us. He offered to come back in a year or two to take another look at it to assess how many years might be left in it before it actually needs replacing. He also suggested that in the meantime we research decking materials to really choose a product that works best for us. Dave always provides great suggestions, but I appreciate the lack of pressuring to do it his way only. I was so impressed by his assistance because when I originally called another contractor to look at the deck that person told me it needed to be taken out immediately. Even after the retro-​fitting work and deck work were completed, I mentioned the need for a few other smaller contractor jobs in our home, and within just a few days’ time frame, Dave had set up the staff to come by (at my schedule’s convenience) to do the work.
During all interactions with Dave and his staff, everyone was extremely nice and professional. So much so, I baked chocolate chip cookies for them several times! The workmanship is fantastic and Dave strives to ensure the customer is 100% satisfied with the work. And, I think at the end of the day one thing that is very, very special about J. David Ford Construction is that it is a family-​run business. Dave’s wife, Lynne, often picks up the phone and is a delight to speak to. Dave provides his cell phone number imemdiately and answers at all times of the day (I work late and often called him at 7:30pm at night expecting voicemail, but he answered, it was great!) Lynne and Dave are a great pair and make you feel like part of their family in the sense that they are going to take care of your home as if it were their home. And that trust and confidence in my opinion is a major factor that sets them apart from the competition.
Thanks again Dave & Lynne!!!

We interviewed a few earthquake retrofitting contractors before we chose David. He was by far the most knowledgable and the best recommended of the contractors we considered. He referred us to a great engineer who was reasonably priced, professional, and prompt. David’s team came and did the work as promised, on time and within budget. All of the work was reviewed with us and explained in detail. We have a complex situation with our house because there is a two car garage with two stories above (soft story). David spent extra time interacting with the engineer to make sure everything was done properly. We were very happy with the service that we received and would recommend him to anyone considering getting this type of work done.

I cannot say enough good things about David Ford. I was a first time home owner about 14 years ago and after purchasing my home was surprised with a major drainage problem that produced a serious flood in my home. Both my realtor and the listing realtor had worked with David for years and he was the first person they recommended. With his right hand person, Rick and the amazing crew, the work was done thoroughly and within the estimated time and budget. As a result of my satisfaction, I then hired him to do the seismic retro-​fitting on my home.
Thirteen years later, I encountered another water leak during the rainy season and the workers who had performed some separate plumbing work told me it was because my house was on a slope. I contacted Dave and he came out and spent the time to identify the cause of the leak which in fact was due to the previous workers who had blamed it on the slope. Fortunately they took responsibility and fixed the problem but had it not been for Dave’s knowledge, and willingness to spend the time, I would not have had this situation resolved so well.
Dave is extremely knowledgeable of his vast field, reasonable, reliable and a pleasure to work with. He may not be the most inexpensive contractor but he’s also not the most expensive. And most importantly as a result his work is worth the price.

After considering bids from a number of contractors, my wife and I hired David Ford to help us out when we discovered water seeping into our finished basement during the rainy season two winters ago. David Ford’s team came in, diagnosed the problem (inferior construction work done during a previous renovation) and proposed a thorough and effective solution. The work required digging up a walkway and cutting into the side of our house to properly run a french drain and seal up our foundation. After completing the fix, their finish work covered up what they had done, leaving the side of the house looking better than before.
There was no way to know for certain if the effort would solve the problem, but two years later we are very pleased that our basement has remained 100% dry, even after heavy rains. If we should be unfortunate enough to develop drainage issues in another location, we wouldn’t hesitate to contact David Ford again to assist us.
David and his team also performed an earthquake retrofit project for us including the installation of anchor bolts, UFP connectors, hold downs, shear panels, and seismic hardware. David connected us to an engineer to design the retrofit plan, which ultimately required cutting into an interior wall to access the foundation and then refinishing to restore it to its original state. David’s team was efficient and professional and the finish work looks great. We happily recommend him to other home owners with seismic work projects to do.