If you’re a property owner or manager in the Bay Area staring down a seismic retrofit deadline, you probably have one big question:
“How much is this going to cost me—and how long will it take to find out?”
According to Connor Daly, founder of Connor Daly Construction, that’s always the first question he hears: “Clients always want to know what’s the budget going to be for the project”. Fortunately, his answer is fast, clear, and built from experience: “I’m typically able to come back with a price within a week of first contact with you”.
Here’s how he does it.
“All I need is the property address to get going,” Daly explains. “We’re able to come up with a preliminary budget right away” just from online research and footprint analysis. Before ever visiting your site, Daly and his engineer will have already pulled your plans and drafted a proposed design. When he walks your building, it’s not a discovery mission—it’s to verify assumptions and catch anything that could create unnecessary costs.
“I come out to make sure there’s no utilities or anything expensive in our way that we would have to move,” he says. “We want to spend money retrofitting the building—not relocating pipes”.
That on-site verification is critical to preventing construction change orders, which can delay projects and drive up costs. “In the last 15 retrofits I’ve done in Oakland, we haven’t had a single change order because our assumptions have been correct and our designs have been very efficient”.
It’s not just fast—it’s transparent. Daly provides detailed cost breakdowns for every retrofit: “I break it into the factors of engineering, measuring, permitting, and construction,” and even further into elements like shear walls, collectors, and finishing.
“It’s not a ‘take it or leave it’ number,” he says. “I show every single thing I’m going to do in the scope.” And if something has to change mid-project? “It’s very clearly laid out what the unit prices are and what the differences will be”.
For Bay Area property owners—especially those managing aging multifamily buildings in Oakland or San Francisco—this kind of speed, clarity, and confidence makes the seismic retrofit process less of a burden and more of a strategic upgrade.
Need a fast, transparent seismic retrofit bid? Connor Daly Construction can get you a budget within days—and deliver the project on time, with zero surprises.
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