Synapse Construction

• Construction company
• Siding contractor
• Window installation service

"We had the pleasure of using Synapse Construction for all new siding, replacing windows and four sliding glass doors, adding a th new window, and then painting the exterior once that was all done. Whew. We initially met with a few companies, but when Kyle, the president of Synapse, showed up for our initial consult and spent the time talking through the entire process with us, we knew they were the right choice. Kyle answered hundreds of questions from us, both during the initial consultation and through email for several weeks after that first consult just to help us feel at ease with the process. This was all before we paid anything - Kyle didn't need to spend as much time with us as he did, but it really showed how much he and his team care about making sure his customers are ultimately happy with what they get. We also used Synapse's Custom Design process, where Kyle and his team meticulously detailed our home into a 3D model and walked us through several revisions - which was a good thing because what we originally thought we wanted ended up morphing into something even better by the end. Kyle offered suggestions based off our budget, and used his expertise to help make sure we felt good about how the house would look in the end. He also helped us understand where we could save some money. For example, he encouraged us to demo the old siding ourselves, which allowed us to refocus the budget on better windows, or higher quality siding which ultimately is what matters in the end. Now - for the actual work. Some companies will tell you exactly what you want to hear, then fail to deliver on that promise and shrug it off because they got paid. That was NOT the case for Synapse. From the very first day, I could not believe the level of professionalism, courteousness, skill, and communication that we received from the siders. Luke, the lead sider, provided us progress updates when requested, and was extremely courteous when needing to come into the home to install windows and doors. The entire team abided by covid guidelines, wearing masks and staying six feet from each other, and from us, and the quality of their work was absolutely amazing. For some background, I've been around construction most of my life - have renovated previous homes, and helped my parents build my childhood home literally from the ground up. Each day, I'd look for any corners cut, or anything less than perfect, and each day, I came up empty with fixes, and instead was completely blown away at their install skill. Once the siding and windows were complete, we got the pleasure of working with Paul, the paint foreman and Carlos for painting. Again - the level of detail and professionalism shown by Paul and Carlos was incredible. They took their time to do an amazing job - again, every day once they were done I'd go look at the work to find issues, and every day I'd be impressed with how perfect their work was. TL;DR: Go with Synapse. They sincerely CARE about their work and doing the job possible, every time. They are an incredible group of true professionals that take pride in their craft, and I couldn't be happier with the results (if you couldn't tell by the length of this review)."

"Job cost double the original estimate; took 4x the amount of time estimated; several parts never completed; lots of loose ends left unfinished and ignored; at least one window can't even be closed. Some of the subs were of mediocre quality. In particular sheetrock. Some of the siding was installed such that there was substantial earth wood contact. One of the photos shows the retaining wall that I had to dig in order to remedy this. Note that the response from the "owner" is essentially just a to make it look like they're going to address things. They were never willing or able to make things right."

"Overall my experience with Synapse has been very positive. The highlight is the work itself. The small bumps along the way had to do with administration/communication frustrations, but in general I found the team extremely professional and committed to quality work. I appreciated Kyle the very first time he came to look at the house, when he encouraged me to keep my old growth cedar shingles, explaining that I needed paint but not new siding. I hired Synapse to do some spot repairs. Unfortunately, an hour into the job, it was like a cliché of house construction—they found an unexpected second layer of siding under the shingles, and said they could no longer do the partial repairs without removing everything. So, with the siding gone from one side of my house, I had to decide whether to have the entire thing re-sided after all. The project almost tripled in price and number of weeks. Now, you always wonder when there’s a major switch like this, but I have no reason to mistrust them. Once I realized they were removing the old siding, it occurred to me it was a great opportunity to do earthquake retrofitting. Synapse worked with me to add in shear panels. I have nothing but good things to say about the crew itself. The foreman, Darren, was fabulous. He was careful, attentive to detail, reliable, thorough, and a pleasure to work with. Whenever he found something unexpected, or if there were a decision to make, he contacted me. Sometimes I heard him coaching a new guy in training, and he was a great teacher—overseeing everything, precise, kind. It’s clear Synapse takes care with hiring— I found the rest of the crew also knowledgeable and conscientious as well, a pleasure to have around. Aside from the somewhat shocking expansion of the job, my only less than glowing remarks have to do with communication with the office. There were times in the beginning as I was needing to make decisions that it was hard to get Kyle on the phone. I found the billing system extremely confusing—since there were so many change orders the invoices were especially hard to track. There were some little scheduling changes on the front and back end. From everything I’ve heard about contractors, however, this is normal, or much better than normal, and my experience was far better than most. The final thing to note is that their recommendation for a roofer was awful. Completely unprofessional, rude, and did poor work. No idea why they work with them, and I hope they have found a better company. It was completely out of sync with everything else I experienced from Synapse. In sum, I highly recommend Synapse. I believe they do quality work, hire a very well trained and professional staff, and are good people. It’s only been a few months, but so far everything looks great."

"We have received exceptional service and results from Synapse, and have actually used them multiple times. My wife and I have hired a variety of contractors over the years. Having gone cheap to high-end, we have a good understanding of what's available in the market. Synapse consistently shows great value and high quality work. There are 3 main areas to note. (1) They are clean, show up in logo shirts so neighbors know who they are, friendly and easy to have at your home. They hire quality people. (2) There is real project management and continual communication, so we felt clear at every step what was happening. Everything is well documented. (3) They have a lot of experience and have been honest when anything is outside of their area of expertise. We would recommend their services."

"To set the stage: We interviewed multiple contractors to rebuild the whole exterior of our home. This included removing poorly constructed s siding, windows, doors, and a sunroom, and rebuilding the exterior to be both beautiful and extremely weather-proof. My wife is a construction management professional, so we were definitely picky about who we’d work with from the outset. The moment I knew that I wanted to work with Kyle and Synapse was the day we sat down in our kitchen to talk through how we would keep our house water-tight at every window. This was one of the major inherited problems with the house, and we have a *lot* of windows, so it was extremely important to us. As Kyle talked us through the approach, and hand sketched a complex, custom solution from window assembly, to rain-screen, to house, I knew we were with the right contractor. Add to that some very professional attention to detail, willingness to partner with us in decisions and process, and Kyle’s own written notes from every single meeting, and you ended up feeling really good about Synapse at every step. Our work with Synapse included: - Design and 3D modeling - Hiring a structural engineer - Handling all permits - Demolition & clean-up - Constructing new sun-room with large custom windows, and new roofing - Purchase and install of all exterior elements (windows, doors, flashing, siding, etc.) - Exterior electrical and plumbing (as-needed) - Existing roof repairs Even before we started our full remodel, Kyle and Synapse were ready & willing to help us with a smaller project of a leaking skylight. It’s tough for me to say what I appreciated most about working with Kyle and the Synapse team on the design & build of our exterior remodel. But I’ll say this: when friends come to our house now, they ask things like “Can you believe you actually live here?” Trying to share more of what it was like to work with Synapse over several months into a few paragraphs: When we had specific questions about the construction process or how we were tracking to schedule, the team had roadmap and plans in place, as well as documentation of what had already been tackled. While our schedule definitely increased over the course of the remodel, Kyle and his team were amazing at making sure that we kept within the budget. That included both helping us to make tradeoffs on the scope, as well as being more efficient with Synapse’s own labor costs. And for that we are *truly* grateful. When we hit a critical time-crunch on a particular day, and there was no extra labor available for that task, Kyle literally picked up a hammer and dug in with his crew. (He broke the hammer too. Good story.) When we had off-hours water issues come up with the house while it was under construction, Kyle and Alex were on-scene at the house on very short notice. It didn’t matter if it was a weekend or an early morning. When we had products from suppliers that were defective in any way (door & window), Kyle owned it immediately, and went to bat for us with those vendors, positively but with our satisfaction front & center in the conversation. You could tell this was a combination of doing business consistently with the right vendors, the right way, but also knowing when to push for your customer. I’ll end with this. It’s one thing to see pride in your work and quality from a company owner. But over the months since we finished the project with Synapse, we’ve needed to fix the occasional thing as the dust settles. When those things bring Alex (interior foreman), and Ever (exterior foreman) back to our house along with members of the original crew, you can literally see the pride in their work on every single face. This company designs and builds well, they hire well, and they care about how you get to the end result. We would strongly recommend them."