Shear Construction

Shear Construction has done several projects for my family. Andrew and Scott make a great team. We renovated an 80’s mountain home in Big Bear and added a second story bedroom, bathroom and walk in closet. We are planning to build a pool and casita that they are designing now. This will be the 4th project for us.

Shear construction is the worst. Their demo crew hit my fence with their backhoe and broke my fence posts as well as tore a hole in my fence. I notified the homeowner and Shear. They never fixed the damage even though the demo crew admitted to the damage. It has been over one year and now the fence has completely deteriorated an blown over. Now the owner wants to fix it and charge me 50%. This is so unacceptable. Oh and I paid 100% for this fence in the first place.

Shear Construction entirely invaded the privacy of my daughter, husband and 2 young boys. They gave them access to their newly moved into home to finish work they left uncompleted and rather than focus on finishing an extensive list of unfinished items & fixing failures, they brought in a professional photographer to expose the privacy of their home for the benefit of their business, which is work they have not earned to promote. Would you want these untrusting men in your home?

Shear Construction is full of MISTAKES, FAILURES, LIES. For starters, I am appalled about finding out from a friend that SHEAR CONSTRUCTION intruded into our privacy by taking pictures of our entire home including inside our closets WITHOUT permission. We had told them pictures of our home for marketing purposes were not allowed to maintain the safety & privacy of our family, and because of our experience working with them was so HORRIFIC! Not only did they sneak into our home to take pictures, but they even included our street name on their website, which HOUZZ had emailed to their database about a new newport beach home showcased. SO SHADY of SHEAR CONSTRUCTION, yet not surprising and totally expected! Thankful for my friends who are aware of their shadiness sharing this info with me. My husband has an extensive background in construction & real estate development. My family business is building materials. We have built a home ground up prior to this remodel. We have a very very strong bench mark regarding what is standard/normal and what is not. If you could give Shear Construction a grade they would not even earn an F. I continue to run into past clients of SHEAR and we all share our dismay for this company and their incompetencies for building/remodeling homes. More than a handful of families have spoken about roof failures, floor failures, window installation failures, mechanical failures for custom built appliances, water damage, cut corners, lies, MOLD issues from their mistakes, toilet pipes installed poorly & needing redo, duck tape instead of fully finished work, lost materials, missing plumbing fixtures, the list goes on! I understand why no one spent the time writing a negative review, we are all SO drained from dealing with them and fixing their mistakes & failures that it's hard to use the energy & bandwidth to waste more time on them. Seeing the pictures of my home, really wants me to make sure no family has to endure what we did. It is NOT FAIR. We could start a support group with the number of families affected by their incompetencies. When you invest a lot of your time, money, and life into your new home, the last thing you want is to work with a company that you cannot trust! Scott Macmaster & Andrew Desurra seemed to not care about the extensive paper trail I have catching them in their lies to each other, to us, to their subs, and consequently mistakes. Every time I would call out their discrepancies nothing would change. We hired an interior & exterior architect to elevate areas so all they had to do was build it. The most simple elevations, for example our fireplace, took many rounds of revisions. Nearly everything we did included some redo bc of their mistakes and not following plans, making decisions of their own without asking us, not managing their subs, not communicating with us. There are some mistakes I decided to just live with and not bother arguing over. They LOVED to blame their subs, but isn't that why you hire a builder, in part to manage the subs, so what were we paying them for? They would even blame their own internal staff, I felt sorry for the guys! I asked their in house electrician why he was never at our home, and he looked at me clueless, I told him that Scott had told me they couldn't get a hold of him. He told me that was a lie he never heard from Scott to come finish our home. We waited months & weeks for him to start/finish our home (which never finished). Their tile/stone installer, installed stone & tile against our plans (wrong shapes, wrong cuts, wrong pattern direction, wrong sealers used - which of course I was lied to and said that the sealer I purchased was used while I found it all in the crate unused), everything was "that's what Scott told me to do". He wasn't even shown the plans! Another two internal staff members, one who we were concerned about from him saying he fell off a ladder (as this staff member said), expressing our concern to Scott with Scott's response that this staff member of his company was a former addict so probably walked off the job because he relapsed. This staff member came back after surgery. Another guy I stopped seeing, Scott told us he quit. A few weeks later I saw him and said I heard you quit? He said that's not true, I had a death in the family. Why was Scott bringing his team down? Not professional! We kept trying to stop the mistakes every time it would happen, and this horrific process continued into the end. We spent way too much of our time & money having extra meetings, detailed reviews, trying to make things right - even hiring our own people to help get the job done & the job right. We were afraid if we fired them when we wanted to, that the transition would be horrific and we were not in a position to take that risk. The delay of our remodel caused the delay of selling our home and a missed opportunity selling it at a market high. The only thing I can think of why this continued is that they were trying to steal money from us, by inaccurately invoicing us, hiding expenses that were not obvious to us or easy to prove? Every invoice was an extensive meeting with minimal proof. How do we know how much it truly cost to redo our fireplace 3 times, for example, bc they did not follow plans when we get a general invoice for large amount of ambiguous plaster work? large quantity of dry wall purchased? labor time? When we approved overtime for painting and the painters paint the wrong room, how do we know we truly did not overpay for that mistake? We were specific with certain requirements, for example, zero/low VOC MDF, zero paint and plaster, for some examples. I would reconfirm with them that these specifications were being used and they would confirm back to me yes. I even asked for invoices and product information sheets to confirm they were using the right products, because I had learned I cannot trust them so I had to ask for this information to avoid continuing mistakes. They would email me or text me info and not use it. Lying to me that they were using a product that they in fact were not. Multiple times I would come to the house while under construction and take pictures of the buckets of high VOC wood finish, paint, plaster etc. non approved products. I didn't even have to check the buckets, I could just come inside the house which smelled like a large chemical spill! Of course, everything was the subs fault not theirs. Again, what were we paying them for?! why spend the time sending me lies rather than going to our house to confirm? They never communicated to me any concerns or reasons for not using these products. They damaged the waterproofing of a shower they said the pan could be replaced. That damage resulted in needing to redo the entire bathroom ($$$$$), they said I had to send materials asap otherwise the project would be delayed. That was August 2018, I had to leave a beach day with my kids to run to Floor & Decor to pick whatever to take care of that although they were incorrect about the timing seeing we moved into our incomplete home May 2019. This all started by hiring them with a quick timeline. They promised us that they could do it. We spent a lot of time walking through the home in detail, watching them take extensive notes of every area that would be touched, taking measurements, reviewing our architectural plans with them, they gave me zero indication it could not be done for our move in goal. Nor would they communicate with me along the way of issues. Scott/Andrew did not proactively communicate with me any potential issues or concerns. When I review my emails, and paid for interior elevations, I had given them plans by March 2018 with the goal of moving in by June 2018. Any missing information could have easily been filled with a simple text or phone call to me, and anything missing was not major. We begged, literally begged for a construction schedule. Well fast forward by Sept 2018 we still did not have a schedule from them. Needless to say, we moved into an incomplete home the end of May 2019 with the help of another firm finishing up the work - with many Shear Construction failures we are still working on to correct, now nearly March 2020. I don't want to take more time away from my kids talking about Shear Construction, Scott Macmaster and Andrew Desurra. I was forced to visit our project nearly daily to see what the new mistake was. Many items to mention, discuss, show proof from texts, emails, drawings, pictures. The final straw is seeing how they violated our privacy by exposing our privacy for their marketing & business gain. DO NOT BE FOOLED! They are aware of our dismay. Yet they are lying to all of their viewers as if our home, that we the owners poured so much of our own time & money into without the help from them, as a project they can showcase! That is mismarketing! Do yourself and anyone you know the favor, do not hire Shear Construction nor bother working with Scott Macmaster and/or Andrew Desurra!

We are a family that lives in Newport Beach, and were looking to do a second-story addition to our home. We scheduled an appointment with Andrew from Shear Construction, and he rescheduled twice. When we finally met with him to discuss our project, he told us that he did not do any projects under $200,000, which was fine because our budget was higher than that. We actually really liked him during our meeting, but it was once he left our home that everything went downhill. He said he would pick up our plans to give us an estimate. I texted him multiple times and left him phone messages after I found the plans, no response. A couple of days later he responded and said he would pick them up, but it would take him a week and a half before he can return them and give us an estimate. He was late to pick the. Up, so I sent him a reminder, and he responded that he would send his assistant immediately. She came 2 hours later. I checked in with him a couple of days before he had agreed to return the plans and give us the estimate- no response. I texted agin 2 days later- o response. Finally on the day he was supposed to return them, I texted and called him for a third time- he texted back saying he would return the plans at 2pm, nothing more. We waited. Finally at 2:30pm someone dropped the plans on our doorstep, without even ringing the doorbell, and left. He also dropped off a not, stating that he could not take on our project! I was in shock! After keeping our plans for close to two weeks, this was the final result. It’s a shame, he seemed like a nice guy and it sounds like he has a good company. But with customer service like this, I would never hire him.

Deciding to do a major home remodel /addition can be a difficult one and finding a builder can be even more complex. The experience my husband and I had with Shear Construction is too great to not share… Andrew and Scott both exceeded our expectations from day one of our project and continued to do so through completion. As can be expected, we had many questions and concerns at the start and Andrew patiently listened to our needs over the next several meetings. He took note of what we envisioned our new home to be and enthusiastically presented us with multiple possibilities. Our communication remained open and in tact the entire time. We were given a timeline which informed us of exactly what would be happening week by week. In addition to this, Andrew and Scott were available to us 24/7 via email, phone and or text. They were and are truly amazing. When time came for decisions regarding the many interior and exterior details, Andrew and Scott turned a potentially daunting experience into a great one. The best way I can think of to describe it is that it was like having my hand held. I was supported, given knowledge, given choices and made feel comfortable in decisions concerning color schemes, tile, stone, bathroom fixtures, custom closet, lighting, swimming pool and spa decisions, landscaping… the list goes on. It was thrilling to watch everything progress and we were quite impressed by the talented team that makes Shear so outstanding. My husband and I, two children under the age of three, along with three dogs and a cat all moved out of our home and into a rental for this this to happen. We were told by many to “expect months longer’ than we were told before things would be completed as “builders & contractors” always went over on completion dates. Andrew and Scott had us back in our home not only on time but a few weeks prior to what we had expected. Our close out process proceeded smoothly and we conducted a walk through where we were educated on all new systems, given manuals, and any warranty information. In addition, Shear did not disappear after we moved in. They were available to us and great in making sure we were happy with every detail and quickly correcting anything that needed attention. Lastly, weeks after being back home, Scott swung by with a flash drive containing hundreds of pictures of our project from demolition up to when we moved in. Needless to say, it was a very cool surprise and we could not be happier. Wendy and Isaac Horne

From conception to completion, Shear construction was easy to work with, professional and through. The workmanship is first class and the entire job was done in a timely and efficient manner. The process was so organized that one thing just lead to the next and if there was a problem it was dealt with immediately. We especially appreciated how neat and clean they kept our house while they were working. A total 5 star experience !!!!

Being a subcontractor for Shear construction I can attest to the fact they are always looking for the highest level of quality on all their projects. We have had many conversations about the level of quality and ensuring their customers receive what they pay for. I have recommended Shear Construction to friends and family on several occasions and wouldn't hesitate to personally contract with them given the opportunity.

I hired Shear Construction to repair cracks in the floor of a bedroom. Andrew came to my house to inspect the problem. He explained his recommendation and reasoning, which all made sense. Shear Construction did a great job. They arrived on time and completed the task when they promised.

Shear Construction painted my entire house. They put wood flooring in and tile in the bathrooms and kitchen. They added a ceiling fan in and did the wiring. They completed three build ins which were lovely. Jeff Mercure made those and he was wonderful. They were kind and considerate. They kept to the agreed on time table and kept to the reasonable budget. I would definitely use them again.

Andrew and Scott are a very good team. They balance each other with speed and attention to detail. They have a good blend of offering input and ideas without being pushy. They are very honest and forthcoming. My only critique is that Andrew did not quite discern my wife's expensive taste, so the allowances for items such as "Fridge" were understated. Of course, I knew that going into the project. Their timeframes and estimates have been fair and accurate. I would use them again in a heartbeat.

Shear Construction has been helpful, attentive, accommodating and patient since first meeting to plan our remodel over 18 months ago. Now, nearly two months into our project, I could not be happier with their timeliness, accountability, professionalism and flexibility. They are masters at both budget and time management and will be finishing a great deal of work in a very reasonable amount of time. I have already recommended Shear Construction to several friends and would highly advise meeting with them if you are considering doing improvements on your home.