Synapse Construction

We worked with Synapse Construction beginning in May 2021 after a friend in the construction industry referred the company to us. Synapse helped us primarily with new siding for our home plus initial design, paint, several new windows, insulation and roof repair. The whole process could have been daunting but Synapse made it fairly easy and straight forward, from design all the way to paint and some needed roof repair at the end. We found everyone that worked at the company to be responsive, communicative, professional, and really helpful even with Covid and supply chain shortages and delays. We are thrilled with the final outcome. Our old 1909 house is finally restored.

To set the stage: We interviewed multiple contractors to rebuild the whole exterior of our home. This included removing poorly constructed 1980s 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.

We had the pleasure of using Synapse Construction for all new siding, replacing 12 windows and four sliding glass doors, adding a 13th 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).

Synapse Construction and the whole team were amazing to work with every step of the process. Easy to communicate with. Quick to respond. Showed up when promised. Fausto and crew on the field were punctual, hardworking, had a great attitude and took pride in doing a good job-- AND made sure to communicate any issues that came up and worked with us to quickly resolve them. Thank you Synapse

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.

Update: After communicating the issue below with Synapse, within 24 hours they had someone come out and do the repairs!..Thank You:) I'll leave what I previously wrote as I believe it tells a great story of an excellent company. We received photo documentation of the repairs completed yesterday, which was very helpful. I can now happily recommend Synapse for both new construction and repair. I own two small businesses so I greatly appreciate Synapse's professional response. Thanks Kyle! I really like Synapse and I would most likely hire them again, but for new construction only. I own a condo in a 3 unit condo on Queen Ann. We hired them to do siding repairs in preparation for the building to be painted. They gave us an estimate with a high and low end...and said they would inform us if we were going beyond the high-end estimate. Now that we are having the painting done the painters are having to remove trim around several windows where the trim is completely rotted and these windows are 3' away from windows that Synapse re-did the siding on. So it is disappointing that we paid them the high-end of their estimate but we are now having to have the painters continue their work. My take on it is that Synapse is extremely busy...it took over 6 months to get our repairs scheduled and they should consider whether they really want to take on repair work as it does not seem like they really do....or need to. So, yes I would hire them for new construction, but not repairs.

Our small condominium recently used Synapse to reseal all of our decks. The crew was very professional and polite and did an excellent job. The crew lead, Trevor, was excellent and kept us fully informed even when an occasional scheduling glitch occurred. We were very very pleased with the work that Synapse did for us and will recommend them to others.