Sonoma Contracting

We got four quotes on renovating our basement. Each contracting company had its own and different Basement Lowering Contractors. Sonoma's was True North. What allowed me to make the easiest decision was a combination of Sonoma's boss Mike with his creative instincts and True North's Otto the estimator for his decisiveness. When Mike came, he looked at our simple drawing of what we thought how the finished basement would be laid out with Living Space being least important, bathroom, laundry room and storage space being tantamount. Mike looked at our narrow basement and completely changed the layout we had in mind. He was the only one of the four contractors to do this and it impressed me. We ended up with moving our HVAC to a corner, having a great living space along with gorgeous WC, Laundry and storage area. By the simple act of re-arranging what we thought was the most economical and logical layout, we had our eyes opened up to new possibilities. Before True North's estimator arrived one evening, I had explored online, the possibility of Benching our basement instead of Underpinning. Otto had me do a test hole in the basement floor and we discovered 4 1/2" footings going around the whole perimeter. Knowing Underpinning costs were in the high 40Ks and up, I chose Benching which came in with plumbing work at 20K. Benching took three weeks to do with Daniel at the helm and Josh as crew boss. Those kids worked hard and long and gained us 7" overall in height to our original 6'3" basement. The benching was originally to be 8" in and 8" down, but our soil underneath was too beach-sand-like it was thought safer to go 12" in and down (5 inches loss to rock and concrete floor). The benching was the right thing for us. Sonoma came in during this work to move my HVAC and young Paul did a tremendous job getting us a new RUDD furnace and high quality hot water tank. His brother Marco the electrician also had to come in and lower our electrical panel from being surrounded by heating ducts; these two brothers, Paul and Marco are young and very smart guys who managed to solve all sorts of mechanical difficulties (ie. Cold Air return on Main Floor had to be moved and go against floor joists + electrical panel replaced and inspected by Hydro) and both jobs done at reasonable prices. Sonoma's tradesmen, i discovered as the work progressed over three months, are the best. That is Mike's trick and probably trademark: to use the best workers for each job of transforming a dank and dirty space into a beautiful and joyous playroom. His framers, Tony and Luigi, old school Italian craftsmen were fantastic. Tony did the finishing trims, shelvings, doors, etc. and proved to be a genius carpenter. Both Mike and Aldo have such fine taste in finishing, as they chose shoe or door molds instead of 3/4 round which gave the over-all finish of the basement a modern and sleek look. So with a combination of old school talent and new school high tech (plumbers, dry-waller, tilers and painter) did terrific work. Mike even has a specialist tradesman to install glass shower doors! And that is because Mike wants the best job done at each and every stage.
Now, caveat emptor (buyer beware): it is most crucial to keep watch on every stage of a renovation. Sonoma provides a budget for amenities like toilet, bathtub, sink, potlights, laminate floor, tiles and new staircase. For much of these it is basic stuff and if you need to upgrade to better materials, be ready to do your own shopping. Sonoma's part of the budget did not include the toilet suite we bought, some shelvings and the floor and wall tiles for the WC. Mike discounted those and charged us a very reasonable amount for the extras we had Sonoma do. In the end, the product was of such high quality that our Friend Danielle, who is herself quite talented at renovating and the harshest critic a contractor would ever want to face, admired Sonoma's work and attention to details (door stops, library shelving, shoe molds, etc.) that she will recommend as we will Sonoma to all and sundry.