Experts at Your Fingertips

Does trying to find a reliable contractor who knows how to work on your mid-century modern home make you feel like a stranger in a strange land?

Like no one out there understands the basics of your Eichler?

Don't you wish you could find someone who 'groks' the appeal of your unconventional home?

Fortunately for you, weary soul, there is a 'cookbook' for successful maintenance and remodeling of such homes—and equally fortunate, it's not titled 'To Serve Man.' It's the newly issued 2019 edition of the 'Eichler Network Home Maintenance Directory.'

In short, says veteran single-ply roofer John 'Sonny' Rossi, "It is a list of people that actually do work on that style of house."

It's a long 'list' too, with 34 pages of profiles of more than 40 modern home specialists in 13 different categories of work, plus contact information for another 60-plus contractors in those and other types of services.

The roster ranges from businesses that do most or all their work on Eichlers—like Jeff and Annette Nichols' company, Eichler Siding—to ones like Rossi and his San Mateo-based Cal-Pac Roofing.

"You can't buy that stuff [elsewhere,]" Rossi noted of Eichler Siding, which evolved many years ago to fill a vacuum of sources for grooved exterior siding compatible with this type of home.

"I think they [the Network] get some of most qualified, dedicated contractors in the business, the crème de la crème," said Cheryl Smith, CEO of the firm that bears her husband's name, Los Gatos-based Sean Smith Electric Inc. "It's an honor and a privilege to be part of the [Network's directory] magazine."

Eichlers constitute about 70 percent of the business done by Smith Electric, as opposed to about ten percent for Cal-Pac, but both companies appreciate being affiliated with a consortium of preferred professionals like the Eichler Network.