Benjamin Shaw

Ben just completed a partial remodel of our tiny 1936 bathroom in the Inner Sunset. Working with him and his team was a pleasure and we couldn’t be happier with how the bathroom turned out. At Ben’s very first visit, he immediately took in the scope of the issues (barely functional shower etc) & communicated a clear vision of what would be involved in fixing things. We didn’t fully understand at the outset what a big job even a «small» remodel can be, so we appreciated Ben’s orchestration of his excellent subs (and sub-​subs) — electrical, plumbing, drywall, tile, painting. Ben was extremely responsive throughout the project whenever needed via short emails and texts. His calmness, competence & integrity allowed us to go about our busy lives (work, kids, pets) during the project without feeling we needed to get bogged down in the details of the work. Ben is extremely busy so in our case it turned out that he wasn’t able to start our project until several months after we first met. That worked out just fine for us, and it was definitely worth the wait.

He has replaced a door for us in the past and helped us fix a broken handle on another old door that we’re trying to salvage. Really nice, professional, and responsive. Highly recommended.

Ben did not actually do any work for us. However, I am compelled to write a review because of his professionalism. We searched endlessly for a contractor to do a roof deck for us. Over a 5 month period, contractors did not either bother to respond or, worse, promised us bids never to be heard from again. It was extremely frustrating. Ben had responded to me (within 24 hours no less) and told me flat out he was too busy for additional work. However, he took the time to continue to answer my e-​mails AND recommend other people. This is rare in the contractor community. So, if you get the chance, I think he would be great to work with.

We recently finished the condo conversion work that the city required our 3 unit building to do. All 3 units are owner occupied and the work included plumbing, electrical, HVAC, drywall, etc. work while we were all living in them. Benjamin Shaw was the contractor that we used. He was one of only two contractors (from the many we met) that clearly had had this type of experience and knew what he was talking about. Many others were pretending to know all about but were clearly bluffing. He took care of all the permits and associated nightmares
Ben was very responsive from the get go. Working on this project meant having to deal with 3 different set of owners and four different subcontractors, having them adapt to our schedules, needs, and personalities. Frankly, not an easy feat! Ben was always courteous and very easy to deal with. Any issues/​questions we raised were addressed right away. He was always calm and professional.
The subcontractors all did great work, their employees were friendly, professional and cleaned after themselves very thoroughly. The complicated project was finished on time to comply with the city’s deadline. I would highly recommend Ben (and any of his subs) for any kind of contracting job.

Ben did a project for us about 10 years ago (rebuilt our staircase and a few other things). The staircase to this day still looks amazing and i think would hold up the walls :). he had to reconfigure it, since it was not up to code and as remodels go was way more broken, then we hoped for. he is a great honest man and easy to work with.

I did my research and found out about Mr. Shaw here on Unilocal,and went to his website, and appreciated all I read about him. So, of course, I went ahead and contacted him with a general inquiry about his services, and how he might be able to assist me with a very small project.
But the only time that I’d received any sort of response from Benjamin Shaw was after I’d posted a poor review on Unilocal,in regards to never getting any response from him within two weeks of me reaching out to him. But even then, at the end of the few emails we’d exchanged, he said he was not able to take on the project that I’d wanted done. He said he may know someone that could do it, but on a larger scale than the small corner of my closet that I needed adjusted, and with a larger price tag along with it. He thought it’d be too much work and pain, than the gain I’d get from the finished product.
I turned to youtube, watched a few DIY vids, and performed the work myself, with a small cost of $ 50-​$ 70 for materials. It only took me about 4 days, to finish something I’m sure a trained contractor/​carpenter could have done in half the time… but at quadruple the cost.
First impressions are lasting impressions, and if he can’t even take out the time to respond to a potential customer without being prompted by a detrimental review, it does not paint a pretty picture of his initial level of service and ethics.

Ben is really great. Smart, honest, very knowledgable and a nice guy. I have done a lot of remodeling, and have worked with many contractors. Ben is one of the best.

This review was filtered by Unilocal’s awesome, magical, mystical algorithm.
The review below was for work Ben completed in Jan 2012. He is working on a major remodel of my home now — new steel I-​beam, new staircase, all new plumbing, electrical, etc. — and it is going as swimmingly as my bathroom remodel.
Shame on Unilocal for taking down my review. Seriously — this is how businesses live and die.
Review from Jan 2012:
Ben just completed work on a bathroom remodel in my very old and quixotic home, and I could not possibly be more happy. From my first interaction with Ben (when he told me the most important aspect of the client/​customer relationship was communication) to the day the job was complete, he took care of me and every aspect of the job with aplomb.
When looking over the other reviews on his work, I could not agree more with what his other clients are saying: he’s honest, communicative, knows his stuff and his subs know their stuff, and I plan to work with him again the first chance I get.
If you choose to work with Ben, you will be the lucky one.

It’s been 11 years now since Ben renovated my house. Everything has stood the test of time. Still have it, still love it, still works!

Wow did we talk to a lot of contractors before we chose Ben. It turned out to be the best decision we made during our renovation phase. We used him for 2 projects, a kitchen and a drywall/​closet-​making project. He and his team did a stellar job at both and I have no complaints.
What sets Ben apart from other contractors (and pretty much any service provider in the construction/​renovation industry) is his attention to communication. It seems like he’s constantly checking his phone/​email and most of the time he was waiting on us to respond to him rather than the other way around.
Ben also has a really good design sense, which means that you don’t have to micro-​manage him. Like with any renovation, we discovered unexpected limitations that forced us to change plans and Ben always had good (and code-​compliant) suggestions.

Ben and his team lead a major renovation on our townhouse up in Diamond Heights, which involved the complete renovation of our dated kitchen, two bathrooms and major structural work (multiple beams, posts and shear walls). We had met with several contractors who were clearly afraid of our project, due to the complexity… we finally found Ben after reading his glowing reviews on Unilocal!
Ben came over and was very confident in what needed to be done, brought in an expert structural engineer and we agreed on a plan. We could tell immediately that Ben was very different from every other contractor we had ever worked with and found him to be very trustworthy and honest from the beginning to end of the project (which is very very rare for this industry!!!).
The subcontractors (plumber, electrician, tile artist, etc…) Ben hires are all excellent, prompt, polite and professional and all really enjoy working for Ben and on his projects (we got to know everyone who worked on our project and really enjoyed meeting everyone that came through).
The kitchen and bathrooms came out amazing! We are very happy with Ben’s work and his creative suggestions along the way! We will definitely be calling Ben and his team when we are ready to do our next project! Thanks!

Ben did a lot of work for me when I first moved into my home 15 years ago. When I decided to change my slider to french doors I gave him a call.
The greatest thing for me is that he can seriously manage his time. If he says he will be somewhere or call you at a specific time, he follows through. This is invaluable.
Besides that his pricing is reasonable and competitive and his work top notch.

Ben just completed work on a bathroom remodel in my very old and quixotic home, and I could not possibly be more happy. From my first interaction with Ben (when he told me the most important aspect of the client/​customer relationship was communication) to the day the job was complete, he took care of me and every aspect of the job with aplomb.
When looking over the other reviews on his work, I could not agree more with what his other clients are saying: he’s honest, communicative, knows his stuff and his subs know their stuff, and I plan to work with him again the first chance I get.
If you choose to work with Ben, you will be the lucky one.

Ben goes above and beyond what you would normally expect from a general contractor. He not only does the work you need but also comes up with design suggestions that are within your budget. Many times he showed me interesting alternatives to what I was trying to achieve and he was right! He listens to you attentively and comes up with the right solutions. Does a clean job, finishes on time and the results are always functional and beautiful.

Ben worked on our huge home remodel project and was awesome. He has a great eye for design and utilizing space well and he is a true artisan when it comes to finish details– he built beautiful interior moulding and external deck posts that were just gorgeous. I highly recommend him!

There are not superlatives enough to adequately describe Ben, both as an individual as a contractor. He is absolutely fantastic: from helping design your project, to helping you consider budget constraints/​parameters and solve around those issues, to creative problem solving when unforseen issues arise, to offering you access to some of the bay area’s best resources, Ben is the absolutely highest quality GC I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with, and look forward to working with him again in the future.

Here’s some of the reasons that make Ben the best contractor I’ve ever worked with (and I’ve done several big renovation projects in Echo Park’s Historical District in Los Angeles):
1) Ben estimates a job, then keeps you abreast of that estimate throughout the job and delivers on budget. In the past, I’ve received $ 30K estimates that I watched balloon to $ 65K and felt powerless. Ben delivered virtually exactly where he estimated and I always felt I could scale back or expand the project if I felt it was necessary.
2) Ben is respectful of time. If he says a task will take a week, it will take a week. If he says he’s going to arrive at 9:00, he arrives at 9:00. I always felt he was aware of my timing, my deadline and my schedule.
3) Ben is a great resource for specialized contractors on a job. Even when there was a problem with one of his suggested guys, he helped mediate the communication process and everything worked out fine.
4) He brings great ideas to a project to make it significantly better than what was originally specified. In a situation where I wanted a material that he was unfamiliar with, he researched it and arrived ready to install it, armed with solid knowledge.
5) Clean! The first thing Ben did on our job was calculate how to keep the mess from impacting our daily lives. Everyday before he left, he swept and vacuumed. Let me repeat that: He cleaned up after himself everyday.
And that’s just a few things I can think of off the top of my head.
I chose Ben on a major renovation project two weeks after arriving to San Francisco, where I felt I had limited knowledge of the city’s resources and was sure I’d be ripped-​off. Looking back, he was my single, five-​star blind choice. Throughout our project with Ben – which was massive and lasted several months – I never forgot how lucky I was to have him at the helm.
I would recommend him to anyone without any reservations.

Benjamin Shaw did the complete overhaul of my Victorian cottage 10 years ago, so when we needed some work done recently, he was the first contractor who came to mind — and I’m so glad I called him. His company is everything most general contractors are not — honest, prompt, courteous, thorough, and comprehensive, in addition to doing outstanding construction work at a very reasonable price.
One of Ben’s greatest strengths as a GC, in my opinion, is that he can clearly articulate all of your options and their pros and cons in a way that empowers you to make good decisions about your project. If there is something that you really *should* do, he will tell you so. But he will also be straightforward about which parts of the project are «nice to haves» but which are not strictly required — or which can be deferred to a later stage. This means that your remodel gets done on time AND within budget.
How many general contractors can you say THAT about?
Because of these excellent business practices, Ben enabled me to prioritize the work on our house in ways that both fit my budget and made our house a showpiece on our block. At least 3 or 4 times a year, some random new neighbor will ring our doorbell to ask who did our construction work. I always send them to Ben.
I cannot recommend his company and his work highly enough.