Testimonials

Arthur Fligo, Piedmont

"Over the years Mircea Ilie has remodeled our kitchen and four bathrooms, repaired our back yard, repaved our front entrance, changed all our plumbing and upgraded the entire electrical system of our house. He's the finest. He is outstanding and all of his men are outstanding. He is very trustworthy. I have total confidence in him and his men. His prices are fair and his work is top-notch."

David Leinbach, Oakland hills

"I would like to recommend Mircea Ilie Construction for any kind of remodeling or construction work. A few years ago Mircea did extensive work on my house and several building I own. The work included, among other things, strengthening the foundation, doing a full bathroom and kitchen remodel, painting the exterior walls and replacing several roofs. A year or so later he rebuilt a staircase and built a new deck for me. Recently I hired him again to install a 2-story elevator in my house. I keep calling Mircea back for all of my construction projects because he is responsible, trustworthy and does high quality work at a competetive price. I also appreciate the fact that he always finishes his work in a timely manner, and often ahead of schedule."

Marinie Curry, Alameda

"We have been pleased with his work and feel he has done everything to our specifications. We would definitely hire him again. We've found Mircea easy to work with and when we did encounter problems, he corrected them without lots of quibbling or negotiation. When we opened up parts of our 100+ year old home and discovered antiquated materials (e.g. lead pipes) or slow leaks in plumbing or the roof, he helped us to resolve them at a reasonable cost. He's used very good sub-contractors. He or his crew have been on the job daily including lots of Saturdays...and we're on budget and on schedule. This is my second major remodel in ten years and I'd say the last six months of working with him have been very good. From our experience, he's honest, earnest, reasonably priced, and skilled. "

Diana and Ben, Oakland

"We have just completed a two-month series of home improvement projects: retrofitting, french drains, and the remodeling of a completely raw basement space into a home office and half bath. I never thought we'd say this, but we miss our contractor -- Mircea Ilie and his crew! Mircea's bid was very reasonable and he'd done lots of work for some friends of ours -- so we took the leap with him. We couldn't be happier with the results, and the process was generally agreeable. I work at home and have a young baby, and the sometimes 10 plus men who were in and around my house all day could not have been more courteous. A number of unforeseen needs came up during the course of the project -- a broken, ceramic sewer pipe that needed to be replaced and a front porch in dire need of reinforcement, to name two examples. In all cases Mircea was willing to do the work at very low additional cost. He accompanied us to Home Depot to pick out various items, toting our four year old around on his shoulders while my husband and I struggled with indecision. A few very small projects that came up during the course of their tenure here (a kitchen tap and porch light fixture that needed to be replaced, for example) he attended to for only the cost of materials. He does both large and small jobs (recently remodeled a closet and did minor roof repairs and electrical work for some friends). We recommend him highly. "

Anushka Drescher, Ph.D., Berkeley

"For people wanting to do environmentally sensitive building and remodeling projects, I'd like to recommend Mircea Ilie Construction. Mircea recently completed a whole-house remodeling project for me, in which I wanted to make everything as 'green' as possible. Mircea helped me find no-VOC paints, sustainably grown hardwood flooring, low-VOC varnishes, insulating windows at a great price, and energy efficient appliances. I recommended him to another potential client (who did end up hiring him) in Palo Alto, who had even more stringent requirements than I did. For this client Mircea found and installed salvaged hardwood flooring, roof shingles made from salvaged tires, and tiles made from reused materials. Mircea Ilie has also been a most outstanding, thoughtful and hardworking contractor. He always was promptly available for any questions or concerns. His workers are all extremely courteous, as well as helpful and professional. Mircea offered us excellent suggestions at each stage of the project and has excellent choice in materials and colors."

Patty Monahan and Larry Miller

"We hired Mr. Ilie to convert our downtrodden garage into a bedroom for our daughter. With vague plans and a tight budget we hired Mr. Ilie and his crew in November 2003 and by the end of January 2004 the project was completed ahead of time and on budget. Mircea accomodated all of our special requests with his trademark comment "no problem, what else?". We also hired him to do a number of additional projects ranging from installing a french drain to removing a wood burning stove to building a new closet. All these tasks were completed quickly and professionally. His crew were extremely hardworking and nice. He seemed to have a crew member able to accomplish any task we could think of. Now that the work is done we are thrilled with the room. It is a beautiful and bright space. We would highly recommend Mircea Ilie and his crew."

Rick Stinson, Berkeley

"Mircea has done lots of work for me: plumbing, electrical, painting, remodeling. He knows what he's doing and he does it in a professional manner. He's very trustworthy. He really cares about the job he does. He wants people to be satisfied with his work. Any project, he'd be the first person I'd talk to."

Berry, Berkeley

Gunther, Albany

"Mircea and his extensive crew was great. The most notable thing was how fast the job got done; it was started the last week of September 2005 and we were back in the middle of February 2006. Just five and a half months. Considering that it rained almost as much that year as it did last winter, that was a feat in and of itself, but when you factor in the extent of the work, it was really incredible. Our house was taken down to the studs almost everywhere and in some places even those were replaced. The roof was taken off and the back wall removed. You could literally look right trough the whole house from the sidewalk and see the backyard. I think the job went so fast because Mircea has a massive number of guys on his crew. At times I would be walking through the house and see framers, electricians, plumbers, and tilers all crawling over each other in a frenzy of activity. I counted more than 13 people on site one day. My family moved into my Mom's house across the street during the work, because it was too extensive to occupy the home, so the speed at getting us back into the house was really appreciated. We turned my Mom's garage into a bedroom and slept there with our 3 month old son while our 2 year old son slept in another bedroom. Mircea's bid came in the lowest of the four we got at about $25k under the next lowest bid. Sure the costs went up the standard 20% over the course of the project, but that would have happened with any one of the contractors, so I'm glad we started at a lower estimate from the get-go. Mircea was very communicative during the project and his foreman on site had great attention to detail; often calling out potential layout issues and getting feedback from us on aesthetic issues which may not have been considered. Issues were quickly addressed, so that inspections could move along at a rapid clip and the end result was very good. Mircea's team installed all our new kitchen cabinets and readied them for the counter-top subcontractors I hired. The counter-top guys remarked and the exceptional installation job of the cabinets and the level surfaces. At the end of the project I hired a subset of Mircea's crew on an hourly basis to paint the interior and add more crown moulding and baseboards to the entire house. They did a really good job and cost me a lot less than what you would normally pay for this type of work.Mircea's crew also took care to not trash our backyard (although the stucco subcontractor did a number on the front yard, but that's kind of to be expected), and removed construction debris on a very regular basis during the project. So, to sum up, Mircea did a great job on our house and my Mom's as well. He was fast, provided quality work, and was less expensive than the other folks I looked at. I would definitely use him again for a remodel. "

Carol Adrienne, Ph.D., El Cerrito

"I hired Mircea Ilie for a two-story remodel to my El Cerrito bungalow. I now have a beautiful new family room off the kitchen, a deck, and a master bathroom and bedroom. I cannot speak highly enough of Mircea and his Romanian crew. They are all excellent craftsmen, punctual, hard-working, courteous and friendly. Mircea offered a lower bid than other contractors and got the job done very quickly from Dec 1 to March 1. He has a great eye for detail and ensures that the new construction matches the old style of the house. He was more than fair financially, and it was a true pleasure to have him and his crew create my vision (despite a lack of planning on my part!)."

Ann Marie Frasco, Piedmont

"Dear Mircea, I would like to express my appreciation for all of the help you have provided me over the last several years in the remodeling of my apartment buildings as well as with my home remodeling projects: ranging from simple window replacements to pouring concrete on and tiling a 1700 square foot penthouse deck to a major kitchen and bath remodel. You and your wonderful crew are always polite and cheerful in addition to being very skilled and efficient workers. I especially want to commend you for your reliability and ability to do such quality work for such a fair price. Please feel free to use me as a reference at any time. I look forward to working with you on many more successful projects."

Nathan Ogle, AIA, Berkeley

"Myself and my family are very pleased with the work Mircea Ilie Construction has performed on our single family residence located in Berkeley, California. We hired Mircea to complete a project started by another contractor that was terminated due to non-performance. He provided a contract scope and budget commiserate with our needs. He finished the work as follows: Concrete front yard retaining wall; new seismic foundation retrofit with new footings, shear walls and bolting; new front porch wood landing and stairs; new shiplap siding on all sides; new custom exterior carpentry work; new underfloor joist insulation throughout; new full concrete driveway; new concrete setting bed for cobblestone pavers; finish landscape grading. All of the above work was performed during the rainy season from December to January and was scheduled with skill and very little impact to our family life. His workers were thorough, competent and addressed all concerns. Without hesitation, I would recommend Mircea Ilie Construction for any residential type project."