Murray Lampert Design, Build, Remodel

From our first discussion, the team at Murray Lampert was invested in a successful remodel for our kitchen. From Gregg, to Rachael, to the team that did the whole house measurements, everyone was friendly, punctual, efficient and focused on getting milestones met. My husband and I felt very comfortable sharing our vision and the ML team brought our design to life using advanced computer models. Rachael and Patty made sure we were happy with all the details. I truly appreciated the care and consideration our remodel was given. I strongly recommend Murray Lampert as a San Diego local with a great reputation and a passion for their work to our community.

We worked with Rachel Cantor and Cameron Poeschel of Murray Lampert to remodel a 1,200 square foot house built in 1942 located in Loma Portal. Both Rachel and Cameron were very knowledgeable and very professional. There were several on-site meetings to determine what would need to be accomplished in order to add a second level to the house with a deck that would provide an ocean view. Multiple design meetings were then held in the Murray Lampert conference room where different design ideas were presented and discussed. Rachel expertly used a three-dimensional computer aided program to present the various remodel designs and was able to modify in real-time new designs based upon the discussion at hand. While all this is really neat, I felt the honest presentation of what all was involved in the proposed design was most valuable to me. This included what the various steps were, how long the project would take, what may have to change based on the City of San Diego review of the remodel plans, what could be changed to reduce the overall expense, and what the payment schedule would be. In addition to the professionalism of Rachel and Cameron, it should be noted there was no pressure to hurry up the design process. Working with Rachel Cantor, Cameron Poeschel, and Murray Lampert was great and I would recommend them to anyone planning a remodel.

I met with three different Design/Build companies and went with Murray Lampert because of their amazing team! I was impressed from the very first consultation meeting. Everyone in their company really loves what they do and most importantly, they take extra steps in making sure the customer's ideas and concerns are heard loud and clear. My remodel was a big project, going from an older single level beach cottage, to a two story modern home. It was a fun process working with their architect designer Rachel Cantor, then moving on to their Interior designer, Rachel Bancroft. They both listened to my wild ideas and offered a lot of cool design concepts. It was a partnership for sure. Tying the whole project together was their project manager, Cameron Poeschel. If I could clone him, I would and have him work for me in the film industry. You can tell Cameron loves every aspect of the construction business, and loves what he does. He kept the remodel on schedule, and was always checking in by phone, text and on the site constantly. A total detail oriented manager! What I really liked about Murray Lampert is all their construction crew works so well together and respects each other. If someone in the plumbing dept. sees an issue in a different dept., they bring it up and deal with it. They all work cohesively as a true team does. I will always be so thankful I got to work with Murray Lampert. They built my dream home, my forever home. The owner, Gregg Cantor, was also an integral part of the remodel. He was always available if I needed to ask questions along the way, and was on site many times. I've been living in my new home for several months now and love every single part of it. I would hire them again in a second!

We wholeheartedly recommend Murray Lampert Design-Build-Remodel for any home remodeling needs. We bought our home 18 years ago and just made minor improvements since then, putting off til a later day all the things we wanted to do to make it more livable. Life with two active kids took over and delayed any renovation plans. Now, being empty nesters, the time finally arrived for us to take the big step and do what we've been dreaming of for years: remodel most of our house (including removing walls), going open-concept with a great new kitchen, moving a bathroom, a complete plumbing overhaul, and more. We started our conversation with Murray Lampert knowing they'd done beautiful work in the neighborhood for several friends, and knowing how much they valued their work and relationship with the Cantor family, owners of Murray Lampert. My husband and I met with Rachel Cantor, their Director of Design, and explained what we were hoping to achieve. She returned shortly with a realistic estimate that helped guide our conversation further. Doing our due diligence, we interviewed other construction companies but always came back to Murray Lampert. The detailed information we received, the warmth we felt from the Cantor family, their commitment to our satisfaction (and budget), countless recommendations from friends, their stellar reputation in the design community, combined with the reasonable price, sold us. From the beginning, we knew we were in good hands. Gregg Cantor provided great oversight of his team, always checking in and staying on top of what was happening with our project. The entire team took ownership of our happiness and care of our home and family. They took on managing an overwhelming process and schedule, leading us step by step and keeping us on target. Another Rachel (Bancroft) was our ML designer and she was amazing, providing terrific insight and putting up with constant questions and several changes. The 3D modeling was a fantastic tool, helping clarify the vision and projected outcome. Budget was important to us and the ML team kept us on target, with Lisa Cantor keeping the finances straight. Daily updates on the construction from Don our project manager kept us looped into what was happening. Communication is critical to any big project, and everyone on the ML team was an expert - responding promptly to any questions and keeping us constantly informed. Our beautiful project was finished on time and on budget. In the end, we're so incredibly happy with our remodel! We feel like we live in a brand new home...modern, bright, and completely in line with all our dreams. And we've made some great new connections with the Murray Lampert family - we know who we're calling if we start having any new ideas!

I am only about 20% through my project. Permit application submitted. To date, ML has exceeded my expectations. From their flexibility with my schedule to the fact the my first 4 meetings were at my home with the owner of the company. Their design team has been outstanding and has not told me "no" yet. They always have options and solutions. On top of all this, their quote came in significantly less than the quote I received fro the first company I dealt with.

I came to Murray Lampert with a Companion Flat idea and they have been turning it into a reality. They've been with me every step of the way from architectural design to interior design. The conceptual design is far greater than anything I could have come up with on my own. The owner, Gregg Cantor, has been there every step of the way advising on the current policy and market trends. The entire team at Murray Lampert have been communication with each other and myself to the point where everyone knows the current status of my project. I'm looking forward to the finished 956 square foot companion flat!

We highly recommend Murray Lampert Design, Build, Remodel. From the first meeting with the ML Team, it was clear that they were completely customer focused and offering a product that would meet our needs as we looked to upgrade our kitchen. Their design team, project manager, and company oversight was thorough and complete. They monitored project status regularly, adjusting as required, keeping us informed along the way and ensuring we were satisfied with the remodel. They helped identify issues early so as to mitigate impact and met the time schedule and budget demands exactly. Every new worker who arrived on site was met by the project manager personally, informed of the scope of the project and how each phase and each worker was involved, so that no effort was wasted or work was done without understanding the impact on the overall project. We love our new kitchen.

Murray Lampert turned our 1200 square foot scrapper into an amazing 2200 two story paradise. Frank our architect was amazing and brave enough to deal with the Solana Beach City requirements which is no small thing. Design Build is the only way to go. We had plans from a prior architect but in real time Frank and team modified them to get what we really wanted with a real budget. I appreciate that they worked with us to stay in budget. They were ontime ontop of everything. Also their subcontractors are top notch and polite. Totally fair, totally honest, when we didn't take their suggestions we regretted it later. I recommend them 100%. Our neighbors are remodeling now and hitting tons of snags that ML and team would have anticipated and avoided. ML makes it as easy and painless as it can be.

We were looking to add a bedroom upstairs and add other amenities to upgrade the livability and entertainment value to the house and had a number of grand ideas. Gregg Cantor of Murray Lampert DBR met with us, listened, understood our goals and helped defined our budget. As to be expected, our grand ideas were bigger than our initial budget, however, Gregg came back with ideas and a proposal to meet our overall goals and stay within budget. That discussion and contract then allowed us to move forward with additional improvements to the overall house for a "make over" that I could not have imagined, nor completed, without Murray Lampert and their awesome team of designers, managers and contractors. My wife and I are in the design and construction fields and admittedly are tough clients; Murray Lampert's team was consistently responsive, friendly, enthusiastic and understanding. In the end, improvements included addition of second story bedroom, hallway, closet, second story balcony, interior lighting in new and existing rooms, exterior lighting, wood decking, wood/cable rails, drainage, waterproofing, structural improvements, relocation of existing windows, roofing, solar and stucco. Murray Lampert's experience in construction and dedication to customer service were clearly evident throughout our project and I look forward to another project with Murray Lampert.

As an interior designer, having the right contractor on board is critical to the success of a project. We were so pleased to have worked with Gregg Cantor and his team at Murray Lampert on a full house remodel/ reconstruction of a Rancho Santa Fe home. The construction team worked in close concert with us, respected our input and design direction, assisted and responded promptly to any questions and site issues, and offered options and suggestions with regards to budget. Even when we are not working on a project together, I have often relied on Gregg to answer construction and code related questions we've run into to brainstorm ideas, and he is always happy to help. When asked if we have a GC to recommend to our residential clients - one of the first names that we suggest is to get a bid from Gregg at Murray Lampert.

Original Review (pre service issues): We hired Murray Lampert to design and build a second story addition over our garage. It was a welcomed change having them truly "own" the process start to finish. We didn't ever have to wonder where we were at in the process, worry if people would show up, and it just made for a great experience given the circumstances. We passed inspection every time and are very happy with the results. Updated review: Quality of work: 2 stars Competitive pricing: 2 stars Design: 4 stars Project Management: 4 stars Communication: 3 stars Customers first: 0 stars Overall: 2 stars - would not recommend to family or friends We selected Murray Lampert mostly impart due to their reviews despite the higher price tag we had received for the bid, we moved forward. Overall the execution of the project was fine, what happened following the project was nothing more than mediocre at best. Several issues arose in the months following the completion of work including a leaking pipe in our new vanity, water damage to the base board outside of the shower due to an incorrectly sloped and unsealed shower. On top of all of this we had a complete sewer back up that was caused by a shop rag inadvertently left in the pipes. Murray Lampert agreed to reimburse us for the partial cost of that issue but not without severe heart ache, poor customer service, and a sour attitude. All of this and we had still actually provided them positive reviews that weren't modified until now. Fast forward to now almost a year since the project was completed and out of the blue the sales rep/designer calls to notify us that he's bringing a $4,000 bill by. Apparently they forgot to bill us for something even though we had already received our final paperwork and a statement that said paid in full. This was probably our bad for not doing their job to make sure everything was accounted for, but seems like this would be more appropriate as a hard lesson learned and I call BS on this. Before all of the post build issues we had them bid a new project we would be doing and ultimately the way they handled the service recovery for the quality of work sealed the deal in choosing another contractor. I suggest you save yourself the heart ache and do the same, unless you expect flawless construction with no issues.

Steve, Jon, Frank and Kelly, Wow!!!! I just finished working out and used the new shower, I have never taken a shower with a rain head before and it is soooo relaxing. I just wanted to thank everyone on the team from designing, planning to execution. I have never had any work done on a house with a contractor and all I can say is you made it look easy! I would recommend your company to anyone asking and would not hestitate to use you on future projects. Thanks again from both Stacy and myself, she will be mad as I got to use the shower first, sorry Stacy...... Best regards, Michael and Stacy Zurich

I looked into Murray Lampert because of their good reputation in San Diego. I was hoping they were as good as their radio spots claim, and I am thrilled to say they did not disappoint. From the moment Jon sat down at my kitchen table to show me what comprehensive service they offer to the bitter-sweet day Mr. Cantor and my team came with classy parting gifts to say goodbye and take the "after" photos, I remained very favorably impressed. As a single woman, I was concerned about not being taken seriously, but everyone at Murray Lampert treated me with the utmost kindness, patience and respect. With the help of Frank's cutting edge 3D computer graphics program, I was able to instantly see how various ideas would look from both inside the rooms and a street view! . Steve's impeccable planning ensured there were no "wasted" days of inactivity, with final completion coming weeks ahead of schedule! His on site workers were always on time, very respectful and cleaned up before leaving for the day. Steve even worked with me to decrease costs by allowing me to do as much of my own work as I wanted. My second story addition is every bit the beautiful, functional sanctuary I had imagined. I can honestly say this has been the most satisfying home improvement I've ever experienced.

We hired Gregg and all the folks at Murray Lampert for our remodel and we were extremely pleased with their professionalism, communication, and quality of work. The design process was handled very well. Frank, the architect, and Gregg worked together to come up with plans that were practical and aesthetically pleasing without breaking the bank. They presented the design in a way that made it easy to visualize and to revise as necessary and were very responsive to feedback. After we signed the contract, there was a small delay due to the permitting process (not under their control), but once the work got going everything went incredibly smoothly. Our manager, Steve, was a pleasure to work with. He communicated clearly and frequently through both email and phone messages. He was responsive and flexible about change orders and about scheduling of a sub-contractor that we wanted to bring in. All of the Murray Lampert sub-contractors were also very professional and did high-quality work. They were also respectful of the fact that we were still living in the other part of the house. If anything went wrong, which was very infrequently, Steve immediately got on it and made it right. We were also pleasantly surprised to have the work finished earlier than projected. All in all, we had a great experience working with Murray Lampert on this project and would definitely recommend them to others for remodeling work. We are enjoying our new space and can rest easy knowing that if there are any issues down the line, Gregg and the good folks at Murray Lampert will stand by their work.

Murray Lampert completed the remodel and addition to our 1951 beach cottage and we couldn't be more pleased. His architecht Frank was attentive to our wishes and ideas incorporating them into the design plans and working with us until we were satisfied. The professionalism demonstrated by Greg Cantor and everyone who represented his company while working with us was exemplary. Steve Law"s timely communications were greatly appreciated as our project manager. He was responsive and kept us well informed as to schedules, next steps, and any problem solving that was required The craftsmanship of the subs and attention to detail was top-notch. They demonstrated great pride in their work and all the subs commented to us how much they loved working for Murray Lampert.

Gregg Cantor of Murray Lampert Construction is a true professional in the residential design and remodeling business. I am an architect, designing homes in San Diego for over 15 years. We have worked on several projects with Gregg and would not hesitate to recommend Murray Lampert Construction. Their attention to detail, budget and time frame set them apart in this competitive market. Gregg is hands on with every project to make sure it is done right and to or above the clients expectations.