PEACE OF MIND AT EVERY STAGE
Awarded since 2010
Dupont Circle, DC
Mason completed a huge job for us with our rental property in DC. Complete renovation of 2 units on 2 separate floors (kitchen, bathroom, floors, walls, fireplaces, etc. all appliances installed), help with waterproofing the basement, re-pointing the front facade as well as the back of the building, power-washing the front facade, new floors wall-repair of the main floor art gallery, replacing the wood on the main stairwell of the building, as well as installing new windows throughout the entire building. We worked with Mason in the past on one unit renovation, and we liked the quality of his work, as well as the relationship that we developed while working with him, so we decided to go with Mason again on a much larger project renovating the rest of our townhouse in DC.
There are many great things about Mason: he is responsive, he always takes the time to explain things to you (why something is the way it is, or why/how something is happening, etc.), he is flexible and always provides different options for accomplishing the same goal, and he helps you think about your project (sometimes in ways you haven't thought of yourself). Mason is willing to work with you and that makes him a fantastic person to have in your corner when you're thinking about doing a renovation.
We were coordinating the renovation of 2 separate units within our townhouse, along with the 1st floor gallery and a whole slew of common area items, and with Mason, we were able to complete all the jobs on time and on budget. The quality of the units (as well as all of the other work) was great. When we had water intrusion issues, Mason was instrumental in helping us identify where the issue was coming from and what to do about it. It is almost always our preference to solve the long term issue rather than go with the short-term patch job, and Mason understands our preference and is always able to provide us with a reasonable solution.
I work in the real estate industry and having gone through quite a bit of renovation work, I wholeheartedly recommend Mason and his teams for any general contracting needs.
Mason and his crew repaired significant structural damage to the floor joists in the front of our house, completely redesigned and rebuilt our front porch, relocated the front door of our house, and created a bright and spacious home office out of what had been an underutilized front entry hall. Due to joists that had been cut years ago when air conditioning was added to our 1930s Cape Cod, the floor in the front of our house was sagging considerably. Other contractors told us they would have to pull up and replace our hardwood floor, but Mason and his crew were able to tear out a wall in our basement and work in the crawl space - harder for them but less expensive and disruptive for us. They also did a great job creating a new roof and columns for our front porch that blended seamlessly with the existing roof lines of the house. Finally, inside they expertly repaired our damaged old plaster walls and created a bright and spacious office out of what had been an underutilized entrance hall. We had a great experience working with Mason and his crews of expert craftsmen. Mason is extremely customer-focused and always aims to please. Some reviewers have noted that he can be hard to connect with during the initial consultation and bidding phase. However, once he takes the job, the customer service is excellent. Mason stayed in constant touch with us, visiting the job site most days and texting or calling us whenever questions or issues arose. I work at home full-time, so I was concerned about noise, dust and dirt, etc. While the job did have its noisy and dirty days, the crew went out of its way to keep the job site clean and the disruptions to my work minimal. Further, we always knew when workers would be on site and they were always extremely punctual and professional.
The quality of the work was excellent. Mason has very high standards. For example, when we were willing to live with a less-than-ideal flooring solution near our front door, Mason had the work torn out and redone. He is also creative at solving the inevitable problems that arise during a renovation project on an older home. Finally, he was patient with us as we debated and researched different options and always took time to carefully explained the pros and cons of the various choices.
We have owned our home for 10 years and have done several smaller projects. We have never had such a positive experience with a contractor. In fact, when the job was completed, we decided to give Mason a thank you gift. We are planning further renovations to our home and have no doubt that we will work with Mason again.
Bethesda, MD
Mt. Pleasant, DC
I have used Sino-American GC for two major basement renovations at two different houses. We used them at our house in DC and then again when we moved to MD. Both projects turned out beautifully. Mason (the owner) is a great guy, and is a very good communicator via phone/email/text, so that’s a huge plus. We’ve been very pleased with the aesthetics of his work. He’s pretty close to a perfectionist, which I really like because so am I. There was at least one case where he proactively noticed and decided to re-do something b/c it was not symmetrical and he was convinced he could make it look better (which he did). I really appreciated that kind of attention to detail.
Mason is good about working with you to get things the way you want them. I showed him a picture of a built-in (admittedly a comparatively simple one) he opted out of doing something much more sophisticated involving custom drawers that would require a true cabinet maker’s expertise and his guys replicated it. And he seemed psyched to do that and pleased with how it turned out, I think he likes to expand his repertoire and portfolio. Since he is a general contractor, I’ve found through experience that everything goes much more smoothly if you have his teams do essentially all the work. And in my experience that's fine because I do think his guys are great and they do really good work. If you find any slip-ups, he is great about fixing them promptly and without complaint. Sometimes when problems crop up he can come up with good solutions, although once in a while I thought of things he didn’t think of, and we used my solution.
All in all I've had great experiences with Sino-American GC and would definitely recommend them.
I have used Sino-American GC for two major basement renovations at two different houses. We used them at our house in DC and then again when we moved to MD. Both projects turned out beautifully. Mason (the owner) is a great guy, and is a very good communicator via phone/email/text, so that’s a huge plus. We’ve been very pleased with the aesthetics of his work. He’s pretty close to a perfectionist, which I really like because so am I. There was at least one case where he proactively noticed and decided to re-do something b/c it was not symmetrical and he was convinced he could make it look better (which he did). I really appreciated that kind of attention to detail.
Mason is good about working with you to get things the way you want them. I showed him a picture of a built-in (admittedly a comparatively simple one) he opted out of doing something much more sophisticated involving custom drawers that would require a true cabinet maker’s expertise and his guys replicated it. And he seemed psyched to do that and pleased with how it turned out, I think he likes to expand his repertoire and portfolio. Since he is a general contractor, I’ve found through experience that everything goes much more smoothly if you have his teams do essentially all the work. And in my experience that's fine because I do think his guys are great and they do really good work. If you find any slip-ups, he is great about fixing them promptly and without complaint. Sometimes when problems crop up he can come up with good solutions, although once in a while I thought of things he didn’t think of, and we used my solution.
All in all I've had great experiences with Sino-American GC and would definitely recommend them.
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Mt. Pleasant, DC
Chevy Chase Village, MD
Sino-American General Contracting did a fabulous job of completely renovating the basement of our 1948 Colonial with a great deal of creativity. They carved a nice playroom, full bath, workroom, laundry room, and storage room out of a space that probably hadn't been fixed since the 1950s. While doing the basement, they also spruced up our kitchen with a new sink, counter, and backsplash.
The basement is now a bright, airy space with excellent lighting, heating, cooling, and storage. The job required doing a heavy-up on the electrical and some fancy work on ducts to allow for the height of a tall member of our family. The best thing about working with Mason and his crews is how carefully they listened to us and delivered much more than we had hoped for. Every lead craftsman on the project was meticulously neat and took pride in doing a good job.
The project went quite smoothly and was done within a couple of weeks of the expected finish date, a remarkable feat given that we asked for extra work along the way. We appreciated that Mason and his crews also tried to time the messiest work in the kitchen for when we were on vacation, so our family experienced relatively little disruption over the span of the project.
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Sino-American General Contracting renovated our basement into a guestroom/playroom. Previously, it was an unfinished basement with a basic bathroom. The floor was leveled, the washing machine was moved, framing, drywall, insulation and paint was added, tiling and carpet was installed, the staircase was re-laid and a handrail added, electrical was replaced and cable for the TV installed. In the end, the bathroom floor was replaced, the old radiator heating removed, the ceiling pipes replaced or repositioned the old vent chimney was demolished, the bathroom was repainted, and the chimney cavity was repurposed as useable space (a bar/storage on the main floor and further storage/shelving on the upper floor). The exterior wall of the house was also waterproofed on one side. It all went fabulously. We had used Sino-American General Contracting previously to rebuild our garden wall, add a fence and level the backyard, so we knew they were professional, competent, timely and did outstanding work. We started in mid-March and the project was finished in May. In our previous project, I had been impressed by the owner, Mason, and his frequent communication regarding the status of the project, his suggestions to improve the outcome and the professionalism of his team, and this project was no different. His workers turned up on time and worked very hard until the entire project was finished. Mason was also very patient regarding all the other chaos in our house at the time - I gave birth to our son the same time as the project was getting started, my mother visited for 2 weeks, we were going through the DC schools lottery/visits for our daughter, and we planned an overseas trip for our baby's christening at the end of the project.
His team were very attentive to the fact that we were living in the house during the basement renovation, being very careful to minimize noise and dirt, and always laying drop cloths and cleaning up at the end of every day. Mason and his teams are perfectionists and every little detail was attended to. The basement was immaculately painted, the drywall edges were a perfect 90 degrees (even when the original basement was very uneven) and little touches such as child safety features were added even without me asking. I am still impressed with the workmanship when using the basement. My daughter loves the new space and I love the fact that all her toys can be put in one place!
Brentwood, DC
