Urban Home Builders

We hired Gary Zygmont of Urban Home Builders to build our forever-home, and he hit it out of the ballpark. We love our amazing home! It is not only beautiful -- a true urban oasis - but also one solidly built house. Everyone who has walked into our home has simply gone nuts over the place.

Gary impressed us from the first time he communicated with us, which was in the consulting phase. We were not even sure that we wanted to go through the process of a custom build, but Gary willingly met us at the site we were contemplating on purchasing to walk it with us. He provided great constructive comments and picked up issues that we failed to consider to help us make an informed decision on whether to build and what to build.

We visited the construction site regularly, and Gary was always there working. He was hands-on during the entire project. If he had to be away, he kept us informed of his schedule. If we had to be away, he kept us informed of the construction progress. Gary attended to every question and every request of ours. He even managed the pool builder and the landscaper for us.

We worked with Gary during the height of COVID-19 with all its challenges. He managed and planned for supply chain issues, labor shortages, COVID-19, and even kept the residents of our neighborhood happy during construction. We told Gary that we had to be moved into our new home before year's end, and he delivered.

We enjoyed the entire process and outcome with Gary that we're now looking at doing a second construction project with him!

We contracted with Urban Home Builders and Gary Zygmont for a complete renovation of our 1940's cottage. This was no run-of-the-mill job ... Gary and his team took our house down to the studs, destroyed and rebuilt the back 1/3 of the house to replace a crappy patio foundation that had been closed in at some point by previous owners, and added a second level.

From the get-go, we had a stellar experience with Gary. During our introductory meeting, he spent as much time as we needed talking with us about our project, his process, and the way he does business, and did an exceptional job of setting our expectations up front. His ballpark estimate was right in line with the other bid we obtained, which immediately gave us confidence in his estimating. We signed with him without hesitation.

About a month before the project was set to start, I realized I had completely lost my mind ... it was a *terrible* idea to move out of my home for 7 months. I was too chicken to call Gary on the phone, so I sent him an email telling him that I thought we should delay the project for at least 6 months because I just couldn't deal with it. Like the best therapist, Gary listened with compassion and then broke down my monumental, paralyzing mountain of stuff that had to be accomplished into its most basic elements. "I know it doesn't feel like it, but you're almost done with the hard work," he told us. He sent a list of what we needed to do, with deadlines (this is something he did countless times during the project, which was great!), and helped me get a grip. Much to my husband's relief, the project proceeded as planned.

Did I mention that we expected to be out of our home for 7 months? Gary finished almost 2 months early. How? In my opinion, it's because he respects and watches out for his subs, and they return the favor by moving mountains to get stuff done for him. It was truly a joy to watch -- at one point during the project, one of our neighbors remarked that there were almost always people at our house, and they were *always* working.

Speaking of our neighbors, living next to a project like ours can be a nightmare. Gary walked the neighborhood before the project started, talked with our neighbors about what to expect, and left letters with each neighbor with his personal contact information. I know of two times during the project when neighbors had complaints ... in both cases, Gary immediately -- and very diplomatically -- addressed them.

Now that we're back in our gorgeous "new" home and we've paid the last bill, Gary's level of service hasn't faltered a bit. We've reached out to him with a couple questions and issues, and he has responded immediately, reached out to subs or vendors as necessary, and obtained exactly the "fixes" we believe are necessary - at no cost to us. The workmanship throughout our home is absolutely gorgeous, and the materials are of excellent quality and exactly as specified by us and our architect. He even added a number of "Gary-isms," such as rebuilding a fence for us (not in the contract -- we had planned to have him reinstall the old fence) because it faces the street and the old fence would have looked terrible against our shiny house.

I can't recommend Gary and Urban Home Builders enough.

Had the chance to speak with Gary and he was great! Unfortunately where I'm looking to build is outside their area, but Gary took the time to explain thing to me and really what to look. Really knowledgeable.

Gary Zygmont is a great builder and I highly recommend him to anyone building a custom home in Austin. He knows how to navigate the complex city codes. I built a custom home with him in the past and when I had another project to work on, he was the first person I thought of. He is very organized and responsive. We were able to have our house finished on time. I reiterate, if you are looking for a builder, look no further and you won't be sorry!

We worked with Gary Zygmont/Urban Home Builders on our project in 2016. Gary is organized, reliable, detail-oriented, and a great communicator. One of the most comforting things about working with Gary is that there is no question that he is fully engaged on your project - we received regular updates from him throughout the project and he was always available if we had questions. When things came up he worked with us to problem solve and always made sure things were done right. We were very happy with the process from start to finish - our home looks wonderful and was completed on-time and on-budget. We will definitely work with Gary in the future if we have the opportunity to.

I am a part-time buy-and-hold real estate investor / part-time cubicle farm worker who just moved to Austin for a new job. I was looking at the possibility of building a new home construction on some land I was purchasing near my new office location.

I'm well aware that the trend for most home builders these days is towards cheap materials and cheap labor with a limited warranty slapped on it, so I'm very wary of who I chose for a construction project, but since I had no kind of network or trustworthy contacts in Austin, I turned to yelp and a couple other review sites to try find someone to possibly work with, and found Urban Home Builders.

Gary took a LONG time explaining Austin zoning laws and the financial considerations of my different initial construction plans, and is clearly the type of contractor that cares about his work and knows his stuff. However, he unfortunately does not do the type of construction project I finally decided on so I was not able to work with him.

So while I cannot speak to his construction quality yet, I feel that his helpfulness and knowledge alone warranted a review, and I will certainly update this review if I get the chance to work with Gary in future.

I've found Gary to be extremely honest and reliable. I've consulted Urban Home Builders concerning problems with another builder--Gary's been a valuable resource. I'd trust him with any building project, large or small.

My very first impression of Gary Zygmont of Urban Home Builders: "Wow, he actually answered his phone! From an unknown number! Who does that anymore?" That kind of attention and responsiveness has not wavered from that first day.

We hired UHB for an extensive remodel project and worked with Gary for nearly a year (half of that time was actual construction.) Gary is very thorough and incredibly organized. He keeps detailed notes, spreadsheets, and timelines. We appreciated his deliberate, organized system for building homes, and we were very impressed by how well he navigated that. We finished on schedule, even during a time when the construction business in Austin was off-the-charts busy.

Once construction started, his crew was there practically every day. It was incredible. I never felt like they were rushing through things--just not wasting a single second. Gary has considerable stamina and gave our project his full, detail-oriented attention throughout the process, even when I had grown so sick of thinking about our house.

I also appreciated that Gary's peers and staff seem to have a genuine respect for him. Many of the vendors and subcontractors who work with UHB mentioned how much they like working with Gary because he's thorough and always on top of things.

I highly recommend Urban Home Builders. We are so thrilled with our new home that we don't ever plan to remodel again...but if we did I would hire them in a heartbeat.

We worked with Gary at Urban Home Builders from July 2013 to February 2014 on our remodel. From day one he was professional and accommodating, keeping us updated on the progress of our home. We took a two bed/two bath 1930's home and added on a second story and extended the house backward. There were a few bumps along the way- as with any construction project- but Gary dealt with them with ease and grace. He went above and beyond on several occasions to make our house perfect- and even covered things out of his own pocket for the sake of quality. Our house was completed on-time and we couldn't be happier with the end result. We really appreciated his work ethic and look forward to working with him again!

We recently built a home office with Urban Home Builders and could not be more pleased with the whole process and final product. Gary Zygmont was a pleasure to work with and an excellent communicator throughout the build. If he said someone was going to show up on Wednesday, they showed up on Wednesday and the inspector would be out that afternoon to approve the work. There were no hold ups, no unfulfilled promises, no bull. It was such an unbelievably smooth process. I would recommend Urban Home Builders to anyone building in the Austin area. We will definitely use them again!