Experience

As a contractor, I helped start and run a development/construction company that worked from conception to completion on retail complexes, offices, hotels, motels, multi-family projects, and single-family homes. I’ve participated in all elements of a project: I dug ditches, built foundations, framed buildings, hung doors and windows, and did finish work. I’ve also performed all types of administrative work: preliminary design, value engineering, estimating, and final accounting of job costs.

As a consultant and expert witness, I provide expertise and testimony in builder-owner disputes, real estate disclosure, building settlement, damage and repair estimates, construction defects, value, and real estate disclosure conflicts. I work for plaintiffs, defendants, counsel, and other experts throughout construction issues and legal proceedings. I document construction problems, gather evidence, prepare exhibits, testify in courtrooms, and help solve disputes through mediation, arbitration, trials, and plain negotiation. I work as an expert on cases from houses to multi-billion-dollar transportation systems (in the 1990s and 2000s, I worked on the L.A. Metropolitan Transportation Authority tunnel case, the biggest construction defect case in history). 

During the years I spent working for public insurance adjusters and/or a restoration company, as an estimator and construction expert, I worked with adjusters from the public and insurance sides of the insurance industry, gaining valuable insight into the workings and relationships. I provided estimates and expertise on projects ranging from burned and/or flooded commercial buildings, to small water, fire, and hail claims.I’ve enjoyed being immersed in so many aspects of the industry as they change and evolve; meanwhile, my values—integrity, customer service, and doing a great job—haven’t changed. I’m confident my experience and my values will make me an invaluable member of your team.

Contact me to schedule a complimentary consultation.

Project List

As a general contractor and construction expert, I have dealt with many of the issues discovered in the construction consulting field on a regular basis.

Construction Experience

In the building construction industry, I have developed and worked on hundreds of projects, including:

• Apartments
• Commercial buildings & tenant improvements
• Condominiums
• Entry level homes
• High rise buildings
• Hotels and motels
• Luxury homes
• Parking structures both pre-cast and cast in place.
• Residential remodels
• Subdivisions and minor land divisions
• Zoo

In the construction process, I have done the following for all of the above:

• Construction bookkeeping, accounting, and cost reporting
• Dealing with owners to design, layout, estimate, and construct building interiors for commercial buildings from accountants to doctors and dentists.
• Dealing with public bodies for major and minor subdivisions, use permits and   building permits.
• Estimates for negotiated and competitive bidding as a general contractor for new & renew/remodel construction.
• Handling bids with subcontractors
• Helping to redesign plans when various elements don’t match.
• Managed and supervised all elements of construction as a general contractor. The project load ranged from $1,000,000 to $12,000,000.
• Preliminary design and layout
• Preliminary estimates for dealing with financial institutions.
• Value engineering in the design phase to make projects affordable.

In the construction field, I have done the following hands-on work:

• Carpenter
• Finish Carpenter
• Drywall
• Installed foundations with various elements.
• Installed structural steel – no welding.
• Laborer
• Masons Helper
• Painting
• Roofing
• Surveying
• Tile Setting

Consulting Experience

I’ve worked with property owners, insurance companies, adjusters, plaintiffs, defendants, and counsel to provide solutions to problems faced in dozens of projects in the construction, insurance, and real estate industries. 

I coordinated work with that of other experts, including engineers, surveyors, geologists, accountants, real estate experts, appraisers, inspectors, adjusters, and building officials.

Throughout my career, I’ve consulted on projects of every shape and size, including single-family homes (from smaller homes to those in the seven-figure range), apartments, and a variety of commercial buildings and public works projects.

The biggest case I worked on was the L.A. Metropolitan Transportation Authority subway case. For about 7 years, I worked to develop ways to restore/protect/reinforce hundreds of buildings damaged by poor subway tunneling practices by the L.A. Metropolitan Transportation Authority (my work included approximately $2 billion in estimates). The buildings included homes and small commercial buildings: El Capitan Theater; Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Hollywood Western Building, Hollywood Wax Museum, Pacific Theater Building, and many other historic buildings.  

My crew of professionals and I: 

• Studied hundreds of boxes of construction documents to determine origins of the construction disaster.
• Surveyed and documented ongoing building and street movement over a period of years.
• Field tested damaged sub-grades and foundations with test borings and destructive testing.
• Determined and documented the extensive building damages from building movement caused by ground loss (which resulted from poor tunneling practices).
• Drilled 2’ diameter test caissons up to 80’ deep inside of buildings to help determine repair methods/costs.
• Developed repair methods and estimates for the repairs of hundreds of buildings.
• Built a scale model of a typical tunnel section to demonstrate poor tunneling practices.
• Interviewed precipitant witnesses, building owners, and tenants.
• Testified in legal proceedings about all the above.

Our work was so thorough that attorneys from the other side commended us. And, the judge awarded the plaintiffs (our side) about $2 billion to repair the damage.