Gilmans Kitchens And Bath

Quick update to say the owner responded here and was helpful when contacted. Set up an appointment for the following weekend but it turned out my wife had already made alternate plans so I’ll never know how their actual screen installation service is but an extra star for responding quickly once the review went up.

Rich at Gilmans delivered the most perfect customer service imaginable. He is extremely knowledgeable about bathroom design, and, just as important, he is amazingly patient. I was a very difficult customer — I knew exactly what I wanted, even if it didn’t exist. However, Rich managed to bring together all my requirements, and design a perfect solution. I should add that Gilmans has great selection for kitchen and bath, and reasonable prices. But it was Rich’s skills that impressed me most. I will certainly return to Gilmans — this was the third time I have used them in about 15 years — and I will definitely ask for Rich.

Glad this place still makes screens! We took our broken ones in. They measured for us and the new screens were ready in 2 days!

I ordered a replacement screen for my window, as they had done a great job for me about 10 years ago. This time, I brought in the exact screen that they needed to make. They said that they didn’t have the same type of clips but that it would work nonetheless. They never asked what kind of window it was, nor the type of installation (exterior vs interior) and I never thought to question this, since they are the experts, not me. Not so fast forward to 6 weeks later, they finally have the screen ready and I bring it home. It’s the wrong size, is poorly made, and in fact would never work with my casement windows (interior installation) since it’s meant for a double hung (exterior installation). I told them that they had to remake it so that it would work and they said that it was not possible. So I asked for my money back, and they said they couldn’t give it back because it was a custom made screen and they had «made what I ordered.» Not so. They are unprofessional and not standing by their product. Do not go there.

My experience with Kai at Gilmans was wonderful. Kai helped us with a garbage disposal replacement, and on another occasion, with new window screens. He is super reliable, easy to talk to and he’s really good at explaining what he will be doing/​what the situation is. His estimates have always been on target and his work high-​quality. There’s no dilly-​dallying, he takes a reasonable amount of time to get the work done and is outta there!
It’s important to like and trust the people you let into your home. Kai at Gilmans will always be the first person we call when we have any issues at the house.

I worked with Ken Rose of Gilman’s many years ago on a kitchen, which turned out well (he then owned his own business). This year I hired him for a master bath remodel, and had a very different experience.
I hire designers for 2 reasons: 1) their taste and style, and 2) their experience in thinking through remodeling decisions, explaining the reasons, and foreseeing potential consequences. Ken did NOT do the latter. Furthermore, he made many mistakes, some large, some small, and failed to take responsibility for them. I had to pay others to fix his mistakes (hundreds of dollars so far, may run into the thousands).
Ken strongly recommended I hire the contractor of his choice, and I did. But then neither Ken nor the contractor took charge of the job or agreed to be the final authority; when any miscommunication took place between them, each would blame the other. Whenever I asked a question about Ken’s recommendations, he became offended, as if I were challenging his wisdom and experience. Once I presumed to ask questions while he and the contractor were discussing my bathroom; Ken rebuked me sharply with raised voice. (He was all smiles when he accepted the checks, though.)
«Form over function» is Ken’s mantra: the «look» trumps the customer’s needs or convenience. That, for example, is why the soap niche in my shower couldn’t be placed at an appropriate height on the large wall (it would ruin the look!), but had to be low and out of view on a half wall, making me bend down to pick up the soap (I’m a senior citizen with back and neck issues).
Attention to detail was sorely lacking. Some examples:
1. Ken incorrectly measured for the new doors and doorframe being placed on my existing linen cabinet. When they were delivered and fell INCHES short of the space, he said he’d had no way of knowing what the correct measurement should have been! When I asked him to make things right and reorder the correct size door piece, he said, «I won’t,» and instead he got (and charged me for) some wood trim pieces to fill in the gaps. Not only were these pieces still too narrow to completely fill the gaps, but they were then incorrectly installed by the contractor, due to lack of direction from Ken. In the end I had to pay for yet another set of trim, PLUS a re-​installation by someone else I had to hire. (It’s better now, but still doesn’t look the way a custom installation should.)
2. Ken sent me out looking for wall sconces for above the vanity. After I spent hours at lighting stores and looking through catalogs, he realized that — oops! — the space didn’t allow for sconces on each side of the mirror, and I should start over, looking for an overhead light instead.
3. Even though we’d discussed it several times, he «forgot» to include in the tile estimate the adjoining closet floor, causing the contractor to grossly underestimate the cost of the flooring.
4. He specified that a wall be cut back to make a bigger opening between the vanity and shower areas, but didn’t think ahead to realize that it would be cut too far back to accommodate a louvered door we planned to install. The contractor had to add back a couple of 2x4s to make the wall bigger again. Again, wasted time and effort due to not seeing the consequences of decisions.
5. He advised me to remove a half wall, but didn’t warn me of the domino effect it would cause to the placement of towel bars, electric outlets, and the stone backsplash (which ended up out of scale with the rest of the design). When he realized the problem, he actually suggested I put the towel bar above the toilet — effectively in the next room — and just walk over there from the sink whenever I needed a hand towel. Another consequence of the abbreviated wall: the toilet tissue holder had to be positioned in such a way that I now have turn and crank my back around to the left to reach it (again, not good for someone with back problems). If these consequences of a design decision had been pointed out to me beforehand, I would have made different decisions.
6. He ordered a stone slab to top off the half wall next to the shower, specifying that it overhang the half wall by ¼ inch on all three sides — including the side where the shower door would be fitted. This meant a ¼-​inch notch would have to be cut into the shower door. Fortunately, the workers installing the stone saw that this wouldn’t work and were able to re-​cut the stone on site to fit properly and avoid the unsightly notch.
7. He ordered the plumbing fixtures, including toilet, but forgot to order a toilet seat; I had to go shopping for one the day the plumber came. In addition, we went through catalogs in Gilman’s showroom and chose a very specific showerhead; Ken then decided to substitute a different one without ever asking/​telling me.
There’s so much more. As I mentioned, Ken did quite a good job on my kitchen in the late 1990s. But all these years later, the care, meticulousness and attention to detail are missing.

Our initial experience in ordering kitchen counters from Gilman’s was positive, with attentive service from John, one of the designers. Unfortunately, the experience quickly soured as we moved from estimate to contract.
1) A day after I wrote a check for the 50% deposit, I received an email from John saying that the fabricators would be closed for 2 weeks at the holidays, and this was going to push the delivery back considerably and delay the completion of the project. When I asked why he told me this only AFTER I had signed the contract, he apologized for it as «an oversight.» Frustrating, but forgivable.
2) The templaters came to measure the kitchen. Promptly after, I received a PDF of the drawings, and was asked to confirm the measurements. While my contractor raised an eyebrow, asking «what’s the point of having a templater come out if you have to confirm the measurements?» I’m glad I did, because I found that on one of the measurements, the numbers had been flipped, which meant instead of a 153″ long counter, they were going to make one that was 135″ long!
In addition, I was told that they would require payment of the balance before they would begin to fabricate the countertops (I understand from my contractor that the industry standard was payment of balance on delivery). After finding this error in their measurements, I certainly did not want to assume full liability for any future errors by paying in full, but offered, in good faith, to pay half of the remaining balance now, and the remaining balance on delivery.
When I told them I had no confidence in their measurements after finding this gross error, and that I wanted the job re-​templated, this concern was minimized, saying that they would simply flip the numbers and «that should be fine.» My offer of paying half of the balance was flat out refused by the owner, who insisted on payment in full.
At this point, I decided that I had enough, and cancelled my contract, and am taking my business to one of their competitors. My only reason for not giving one star is that they promptly cut a check to refund my deposit and for the prompt responses to my phone calls and emails from John.
This business would do better to realize that trust is easily lost when you don’t communicate clearly about limitations before money is paid, don’t do accurate work, and then try to minimize your shortcomings, and then try to put all the risk onto the customer.
When you’re paying thousands of dollars for countertops, you want them to fit right. I would suggest you go elsewhere.

One of two places where I had quotes for screens. Gilmans charges less and provided fine service. Let’s see how they hold up!

We used Gilmans to have window screens installed in our house. James came by and measured the windows. A few weeks later, he installed them. The process was painless and hassle free and the screens look great.

Multiple bad experiences. It is not to my credit that I would come back for more, but, as of yet, I haven’t found another local place that makes and modifies custom window screens. These guys promise the goods and then fail, sometimes for weeks at a time, to deliver. The last time, I was told the screens would be ready «early next week.» So I call on Tuesday and they say to come and pick them up. Screens were not there, and no work had been done to them. Come back in another week. Same b.s. story again. The only reason they don’t get one star is that they refunded my money without much complaint.

I had an excellent experience working with Alan Clement at Gilmans for my kitchen cabinets. Highly recommend.
I’m doing a full-​house renovation and dealing with tons of architects, designers, consultants, contractors, etc. Alan really stands out from the crowd in terms of ease of working with him, professionalism, and attention to detail. Alan is extremely thorough, always responsive, and unflappable. He came up with great ideas for our kitchen design and made it all come together with very little effort. And the end product looks great, we couldn’t be happier.
Alan was such a pleasure to work with, I would recommend him to anyone who is looking for a new kitchen. He knows his stuff and made our kitchen look great at a reasonable cost.

I was really impressed with Gilman’s. They had a large showroom and the staff was very attentive. We worked with John Keplar who was so great to work with. He came to our house a couple of times and gave us such great ideas on how to better organize what has become out dream kitchen. He made up easy to understand designs so we didn’t have to. And all the pieces came in when expected which was very important. Our experience with Gilman’s and John was far and away, so much better then going to HomeDepot/​Lowes. I’ve recommended them to friends and neighbors who always ask where our beautiful cabinets came from!

Pros:
Awesome customer service! These guys are truly the screen experts of San Francisco. A couple years ago when I was getting bit up by mosquitos at night – and worst of all, they would keep me up at night by buzzing around my ear – I went looking for window screens. The problem is, it was very hard to find screens that are an exact fit if you have large windows, so you have to find somewhere to come out and make custom ones, unless you want to guess the size (and probably get it wrong). If you get the size even a little bit off, guess what: little mosquitos will buzz in!
Now I’m very happy with my screens, and recently I needed an update to the fitting, and they were very nice and professional about it: Lucas who was the actual guy who came to my apartment was fantastic, and James was very helpful on the phone setting it up.
Cons:
Takes a while to get the screens made (couple weeks for the whole process of having them come/​measure, then build and bring screens), but if you want full protection against those bugs, that’s what you need!
Fun:
I’ve never actually been to their location, nor will I ever. They can exist in the ether for all I care, they’ve got a great mobile screen operation.

I feel really lucky that I found Gilmans on the computer because at first I only wanted to look for knobs and pulls for my custom cabinets. I’m doing a Victorian remodel here in San Francisco. It’s a very extensive remodel with many, many details to be addressed everyday. While I was browsing the hardware selection I was approached by John, one of the kitchen designers. By the way, the hardware was Hafele, but they also have Top Knobs and some Siro.
John was extremely knowledgeable and very professional with me. He told me about one of the custom manufacturers they work with called Woodmode. I liked that he really discussed the quality of the cabinet line and was interested to see my drawings (which I had worked on a very very long time). He thought it could all be done at a reasonable cost. I didn’t feel pushed. I left my plans with him and in a few days we met and went over the cost breakdown. John paid attention to every detail I had hoped for and his quoted price was way under what I had been quoted by my custom builder.
The advantage of buying from Gilmans is that they offer a 10 year warranty on all their cabinets. I decided then to place my order with. They used a moving company to deliver them and now that they’re installed, I absolutely love these cabinets. Other than a cracked door (which was replaced quickly) there were no problems. I highly recommend Gilmans for any remodel project.

Since my last review, we have had 2 occasions on which Gilman’s needed to come back to the house for repairs (first time the medicine cabinet fell off the wall, second time the tile grouting had come out).
On both occasions, the team was very prompt and courteous in addressing the issues quickly and thoroughly. I do appreciate their professionalism and service.
Additionally, I learned that the project manager (who was the sole cause for 5 of the 11 issues I listed in my initial review, as well as a great number of headaches during the 5-​month bathroom remodel project) had been fired after our project finished. This is GREAT news for anyone who is now considering using Gilman’s; had she not been part of their management team last year, I might never have written my complaint from the start.
Based on service in post-​construction issue-​resolution alone, I’d give them 5 stars. But my rating takes into account the 5 months of misery we endured during the course of our remodel and because of that I just can’t give more then 2.

This place is awful. I’m in the market for a very expensive screen — a 12ft wide X 8ft high opening. There are high end aftermarket screen companies that do make these products for NanaWalls or La Cantina doors. Anyway, they knew nothing about these but instead of just stating that, the arrogant rep proceeds to tell me that I just need to hire a carpenter and build my own. He was totally ignorant yet he had major attitude and proceeded to tell me how to do things — I hate people like that. They should not be in sales.

I am a General Contractor in SF since 1989. They might be nice people but total Mickey Mouse in my opinion. I dont know how they have stayed in business so long. (must own the building). Bad design with cheap prefab cabinets. That they charge top dollar for. Better places you can get custom cabs for the same price. Like City Cabinets. NO STARS IF POSSIBLE. Great place for re screening if you need that. Big difference from kitchen cabs

«Be suspicious of sales people who wink at you before you’ve even been introduced.» — Roger C.
We recently purchased kitchen cabinets from Gilman Screens. The purchase process was relatively painless. After making a number of trips to their location on Bayshore, receiving two visits to our apartment for measurements and providing them with the specifications for the appliances we made the purchase of Dura-​Supreme cabinets.
The troubles started as our contractor began installation. The refrigerator cabinet was not sized properly, we received the wrong style doors, the molding was measured incorrectly so there was not enough to complete the job and we were told we could only order a small washer when there would have been room for a full size. These issues all reflect a failure to pay attention to detail by the staff at Gilman. They did make good faith efforts to resolve the problems otherwise this rating would have been lower.
In addition some of the cabinets came with quality problems such as incorrect paint color or quality. Again, most of these were resolved by Gilman. There were also simple design issues with the Dura-​Supreme cabinets themselves such as shelves not lining up properly with mullions in the glass windows.
For this level of price and quality there is an expectation of design and quality, done right the first time, that was not met.

Is there anyone in the world nicer than Bill Stokes of Gilman Screens? I challenge you to show me.
We live near the ballpark and you’ve just got to have screens, but our building has INSANE rules about what you can and cannot do to your windows.
We called up Bill, he came over, and together we figured out a system that worked well for us and put in an order. He’s an extremely nice guy to be around and his prices were great.
Then today we found out that our building, after saying No repeatedly, is going to provide screens to us at no charge. We called Bill to see if our screens had been made yet and explained the situation.
They actually had been made but he decided to still let us cancel the order. He only asked that we think of him in the future and have a happy holidays.
Seriously, you just don’t get customrer service like this in the city anymore. I was blown away.
Can’t recommend Bill enough. Shoot me a Unilocal message if you have more questions.

I made it last year without window screens, living close to the ball park. I only got attacked by mosquitoes once, but that was pretty bad. My neighbors swear on a system of opening and shutting windows and turning on and off lights, based on a lot of complicated factors. This didn’t work for me.
So this year, I’m going for the screens. Gilman’s will custom make them for you to fit. Takes about 2 – 3 weeks to make the screens after you order by your measurements. This seemed about standard for other places I called, and this place is right in the city. Just picked them up, and they fit as advertised.
BRING IT ON, MOSQUITOES!