Remodeling FAQ

Call or text 623-271-4172, or send the form on our contact page. You will get a short conversation with Dan or Jessica about what you want to build, roughly what you want to spend, and when you want it done. If it sounds like a fit, we come out and look at the space. There is no charge for either step.

We listen first. What are you trying to build, what is driving it, what is your timeline, and have you talked to anyone else yet. Then we tell you honestly whether it is the kind of work we do well and roughly where the money lands. It is a conversation, not a pitch. Most of them run fifteen or twenty minutes.

No. We are a two-person company. We do not have a commissioned salesperson whose job is to close you on the phone. Dan estimates and runs the builds himself, so the person you talk to first is the person who will be standing in your house.

No. Consultations, site visits and estimates are free. We do not charge to come look at your project and give you a real number.

Dan walks the space with you, looks at what is actually there (framing, plumbing runs, panel capacity, roofline, lot setbacks) and talks through what is possible and what it will take. That is also where the guesswork drops out of the number, because he is looking at your house instead of a photo of it.

No. Most people call us with a rough idea and a Pinterest board. Sorting out what you actually want, what it costs, and what your house will allow is part of the job. Come with the problem you are trying to solve and we will help you shape the solution.

Yes. We publish real ranges for every service we build on our What Things Cost page: RV garages, casitas, custom homes, whole-home remodels, additions, kitchens and baths. Most Arizona builders will not put a number on a page. We think that is backwards, so ours are up there.

Fast. Calls and texts to 623-271-4172 get you a person or a callback the same business day. If you send the web form and have not heard from us within one business day, call. We would rather you pester us than assume we are not interested.

It depends on the size of the job and what is already on the schedule. A bathroom can often start within a few weeks. An addition, casita or RV garage runs through design, engineering and permitting first, so plan on a couple of months before anyone breaks ground. We will give you a real date, not an optimistic one.

Three things: what you want built, a budget range you are comfortable with, and access to the space. The budget range is the one people hesitate on, and it is the one that saves the most time. It lets us show you what is achievable at your number instead of designing something you were never going to buy.

Because a remodel can be built five different ways at five different prices, and we cannot aim without a target. Telling us a range does not raise your price, we publish our ranges, so you already know roughly what things cost here. It just stops us from wasting three weeks designing the wrong project.

That is fine. Plenty of people call us a year out. We would rather help you plan properly now than rush you into a project you have not thought through. Read the cost pages, call with questions, and reach back out when you are ready.

Dan and Jessica Matson, a husband-and-wife team based in Surprise, Arizona. Dan estimates and runs every build. Jessica handles communication, scheduling and the client side. There is no layer of management between you and the owners, which is the entire point.

Yes. Arizona ROC 336562, a dual residential and small-commercial KB-2 license, plus general liability and workers' compensation coverage. You can verify the license yourself at the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, and we will send certificates of insurance on request before any work starts.

Go to the Arizona Registrar of Contractors website and search license number 336562. It will show the license class, status, bond and complaint history. Do this for every contractor you talk to, not just us. It takes two minutes and it is the single best filter there is.

KB-2 is Arizona's dual building contractor license. It covers general residential and small commercial construction, which means we can legally run the whole job (structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and finishes) rather than pulling permits under someone else's license for the parts we are not licensed for.

Dan has been building in the Valley for more than twenty years, and Matson has been running as its own company for six of them. The trade partners we use, we have used for years.

Same company, same license, same owners. The work moved toward larger custom builds, RV garages and casitas, and "Matson Homes" no longer described it. The legal entity is still Matson Homes LLC and the ROC number is unchanged.

We are based in Surprise, AZ 85379. The core of our work is the West Valley: Surprise, Peoria, Goodyear, Buckeye, Glendale, Litchfield Park, Verrado, Vistancia, Sun City and Sun City West. We also build across the wider Valley including Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Anthem and the East Valley. See areas we serve.

No, and that is deliberate. A showroom is inventory somebody has to sell you. We take you to the suppliers and fabricators that fit your project and your budget, and we are not pushing a particular cabinet line because we bought a truckload of it.

Deliberately few. We cap the number of active jobs so that Dan can actually be on each one and so communication does not fall apart. It is the reason we are not the fastest company to get to you, and the reason we do not disappear once we start.

Yes, openly. Dan and Jessica are Christians and run the company that way: tell the truth about money, do what you said you would do, and treat the house like it belongs to someone you care about. You do not have to share that to hire us. It just explains why we behave the way we do when something goes wrong.

Both. Dan runs the job. The trade work (framing, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, tile, cabinetry) goes to specialty subcontractors we have worked with for years. A tile setter who sets tile every day of his life does better work than a generalist who does it occasionally. We verify licensing and insurance on all of them.

Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm, and Saturdays by appointment. Job-site hours are generally 7am to 4pm on weekdays. If something urgent happens on your project outside those hours, you have Dan's cell.

Custom homes, RV garages, ADUs and casitas, home additions, whole-home remodels, and kitchen and bathroom remodels across the Phoenix Valley. See the full list on our services page.

Yes, and it is some of our favorite work. Two-bay RV garages, drive-through bays, man caves and shop space with lifts, climate control, bathrooms and finished interiors. We publish real pricing on the RV garage cost page, which as far as we can tell nobody else in Arizona does.

Yes. Detached casitas, guest suites, attached ADUs and garage conversions. Arizona's ADU law changed in 2025 and it opened up a lot of lots that were previously off limits. Read the ADU and casita guide before you assume your lot will not work.

Yes. If you own a lot or are looking at one, talk to us before you close on it. Slope, soils, utility runs, septic, well and access can move a build budget by six figures, and that is a lot cheaper to find out before you buy the dirt. Ranges are on the custom home cost page.

Yes. Whole-home is where a single accountable builder matters most, because the trades have to be sequenced across every room in the house at once. Ranges are on the whole-home remodel cost page.

Yes: bedroom and primary-suite additions, great room extensions, second-story additions and garage conversions. Additions need engineering, permits and usually HOA approval, and tying new structure into an existing roof and slab is where most of the skill lives. See the addition cost page.

Yes, and we have done a lot of them. Kitchens run from cabinet-and-counter refreshes to taking walls out and reworking the whole floor plan. Bathrooms run from guest baths to full primary suites. Ranges are on the kitchen and bathroom cost pages.

A full bathroom remodel is about our floor. Below that (a fireplace wall, a single vanity swap, a door) you are better served by a good handyman, and we will happily point you to one. It is not snobbery. Running a small job through a general contractor's overhead just makes you overpay for it.

No. We build and remodel. If your project is a punch list of small fixes, a handyman will do it faster and cheaper than we can.

Sometimes, after we have looked at it hard. We have to be able to stand behind the finished result, and that means inspecting what is already in the walls before we agree to put our name on the outside. If the existing work is sound, yes. If it needs to come out, we will tell you that before you hire us.

Outdoor kitchens, covered patios, ramadas and hardscape are things we build as part of a larger project. We do not take standalone pool or landscape-only jobs. Those belong with a pool builder and a landscape contractor.

Our license covers small commercial, and we take the occasional job. Residential is the focus.

Yes. Older Valley homes hide things: undersized panels, cast iron drains, non-permitted additions from a previous owner, framing that was never right. We open things up early rather than late, show you what is actually there, and price the fix in front of you instead of burying it.

It depends entirely on scope, but here are our published 2026 ranges: bathrooms $15,000–$50,000, kitchens $25,000–$250,000, additions $50,000–$500,000, whole-home remodels $50,000–$1,000,000+, casitas and ADUs $150,000–$1,000,000+, RV garages $200,000–$1,000,000+, and custom homes $750,000–$5,000,000+. Full breakdowns are on What Things Cost.

$25,000 to $250,000 in our 2026 pricing. The single biggest lever is whether the layout stays put. Keeping plumbing, gas and the range wall where they are keeps you in the lower half of that range. Moving them, or taking out a wall, moves you up fast. Detail is on the kitchen cost page.

$15,000 to $50,000 for most of what we build. Bathrooms are small rooms with a dense amount of work in them (waterproofing, tile, glass, plumbing and electrical all in about forty square feet), which is why the per-square-foot number looks alarming compared to the rest of the house. See the bathroom cost page.

$150,000 to $1,000,000+. What drives it is not square footage so much as whether it is a detached new structure with its own foundation, utilities and kitchen, or a conversion of space you already have. See the casita cost page and the ADU guide.

$200,000 to $1,000,000+. Door height and bay depth set the structural cost, and then finish level (insulation, climate control, bathroom, epoxy, lift, living space above) decides the rest. Detail is on the RV garage cost page.

$750,000 to $5,000,000+ in construction cost, not counting the land. Lot conditions matter more than most people expect. See the custom home cost page.

Yes, a range. We will tell you on the first call whether your project is a $60,000 project or a $300,000 project, because that is a question you deserve answered before you spend a month talking to anyone. What we will not do is give you a firm number on a house we have not stood in.

Because two kitchens of identical size can differ by $80,000 depending on whether a wall moves, where the plumbing runs, what the cabinets are, and what is behind the drywall. Square-foot pricing works for production builders putting up the same house forty times. It does not describe remodeling, and anyone who quotes you that way is guessing.

Labor, materials and permitting all went up and have not come back down, and the Valley has not stopped growing. We would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. Waiting a year has generally not made projects cheaper. It has made them cost more.

The ranges on our website are estimates built from projects we have actually completed. Your proposal is a real number for a defined scope. Once the scope is set and the contract is signed, the price does not move unless you change the scope or we find something hidden, and in that case you see it and approve it before we touch it.

A written, priced change to the agreed scope. You add a shower niche, you upgrade the countertop, you decide the island should be a foot longer. We price it, you sign it, then we build it. Nothing gets added to your bill that you did not approve in writing first.

We stop, we show you, we price the fix, and you decide before we go further. You will get a photo and an explanation of what it is and why it matters. We do not fix it quietly and hand you a bigger invoice at the end, and we do not pad every bid with a mystery contingency to cover ourselves.

As few as we can. Allowances are how a low bid stays low on paper: a $4,000 cabinet allowance for a kitchen that needs $18,000 of cabinets. We push to get real selections made during design so the number in your contract reflects the products you are actually getting.

A deposit at signing that secures your place on the schedule and funds material orders and subcontractor deposits, then progress payments tied to defined milestones as the work completes, with a final payment held until after your walkthrough. The exact schedule for your project is written into your agreement, and you will see it before you sign anything.

Yes. Long-lead items (cabinets, windows, doors, specialty fixtures) have to be ordered well before they are installed, and subcontractors take deposits to hold dates. The deposit funds that and holds your slot on the schedule.

Check and bank transfer are standard.

We are not a lender, but we work within renovation and construction financing regularly and can point you toward lenders who do it well in Arizona. If you are financing, tell us early. Draw schedules and inspection requirements affect how the job is sequenced, and we are used to working inside them.

Four things move the number most, in this order: leave the plumbing where it is, leave the load-bearing walls where they are, finalize your selections before we start, and phase the work instead of shrinking the quality. Cutting quality is the one that costs you again in five years.

Consultations, site visits and estimates are free. Projects that need architectural drawings, structural engineering or a full selections package involve real professional work, and we will tell you up front what that costs and what you get for it before anything is billed. There are no surprise charges on the way to a proposal.

We nail down the layout, the scope and the selections, then produce whatever drawings the project needs (floor plans, elevations, structural engineering) and turn all of it into a fixed price and a schedule. Nothing gets built until you have approved the drawings and the number.

A kitchen or bath with no structural change can move in a few weeks. Anything that needs engineering, city plan review and HOA approval (additions, casitas, RV garages, custom homes) realistically runs one to three months before permits are in hand. Jurisdictions in the Valley vary a lot on plan review times.

Yes. We pull permits under our license, schedule the inspections, and are on site for them. If a contractor asks you to pull an owner-builder permit for work they are doing, that is a serious warning sign. It moves the liability off them and onto you.

For anything structural, electrical, plumbing or mechanical, yes. Unpermitted work shows up at resale, in insurance claims, and in appraisals, and the fix is always worse than the permit would have been. We do not do off-the-books work.

Yes. Most of the West Valley communities we build in (Verrado, Vistancia, Sun City, Sun City West, Anthem) have architectural review, and each one wants something slightly different. We prepare and submit the package. Start early: HOA review often takes longer than city review.

Yes, and it works well. We will review their drawings for constructability and cost before we price the job, and flag anything that will be a problem in the field. Bring them in early enough that changes are still cheap.

Bring them. We will tell you honestly whether they are ready to build, what is missing, and what it will take to get them permit-ready in your jurisdiction. Plans drawn for a different lot, a different state, or a different code cycle usually need work. See Already Have Plans?

Yes. Jessica walks clients through cabinetry, counters, tile, plumbing fixtures and lighting, and we send you to suppliers matched to your project rather than whatever is on a showroom floor. Getting selections locked before construction is the single biggest thing that keeps a schedule honest.

Before we start, for anything with a lead time: cabinets, windows, doors, tile, appliances, specialty fixtures. A selection made three weeks late does not delay the job three weeks; it delays it however long that product takes to arrive, which is often much longer.

When the project warrants it and it will genuinely help you decide. For a layout change you cannot picture, a rendering is worth it. For a straightforward bath, drawings and samples usually tell you more.

Change your mind all you want during design. That is what it is for. Changes on paper cost you nothing. The same change after the tile is set costs real money and real time. We would much rather have three rounds of drawings than one change order.

Yes. Drawings you paid for are yours.

Dan. He estimates the job, sequences the trades and is on site through the build. You are not handed off to a project manager you have never met after you sign.

Direct contact (calls, texts and photos from the site) plus regular check-ins on schedule and what is coming next. You will always know what is happening this week and what is happening next week. If you cannot reach us, something has gone wrong and we want to hear about it.

The trades rotate by phase (framers, then rough mechanicals, then drywall, then finish) because that is how construction works. The people running your job do not change, and the subcontractors are the same crews we have used for years, not whoever was available that week.

Roughly: a bathroom, three to six weeks. A kitchen, six to twelve weeks. An addition or casita, four to eight months including design and permitting. A custom home, nine to eighteen months. Your proposal comes with a real schedule for your scope, not a generic one.

Inspections, material deliveries and trade sequencing. You cannot drywall before the rough inspection passes, and you cannot inspect before the city shows up. Some gap days are unavoidable. What is not acceptable is gap days nobody warned you about, so we tell you when they are coming.

Usually yes for a single room, with inconvenience. A kitchen means eating out of a temporary setup for a couple of months. A whole-home remodel or a job that takes out your only bathroom is often worth moving out for. We will tell you straight which one yours is.

No. Plenty of our clients are out of state or at work all day. We arrange access, and you get photos and updates.

Dust barriers on the openings, floor protection on the paths, containment around the work zone, and doors and vents sealed off. Arizona dust gets everywhere on its own; construction dust does not need help. We keep it in the work area.

Every day, not just at the end. The site gets swept and the debris gets contained before the crew leaves. It is a safety issue as much as a courtesy one, and honestly it tells you a lot about a company.

No smoking or vaping on the property, no alcohol or drugs, no foul language, radios kept reasonable, and respect for your family, your neighbors and your things. Our subs know the standard. If somebody misses it, tell us and it gets handled that day.

Parking is arranged so we are not blocking you or your neighbors, this matters a lot in HOA communities with narrow streets. On longer jobs we bring a portable restroom rather than running through your house.

Tell us about them on day one. Gates that must stay closed, a dog that bolts, nap times, a kid's bedroom next to the work. Crews get briefed and we plan around it.

Within reason, yes. If you work nights, host family for a holiday, or need a quiet window for something important, tell us early and we will sequence around it where the trades allow.

Generally 7am to 4pm weekdays. Some phases run longer, a concrete pour or a large tile day does not stop in the middle. We give you notice before any weekend work.

Workers' compensation and general liability coverage are in place, and we verify insurance on every subcontractor before they set foot on your job. That coverage is what protects you as the homeowner, which is exactly why hiring an unlicensed, uninsured contractor is such an expensive risk.

Say it immediately. Do not save it for the end. Almost everything is fixable while the trade is still on site and expensive to fix after they are gone. We are not going to be offended. We would much rather redo something in week four than find out about it in the walkthrough.

The list of small items identified at the end. A paint touch-up, a cabinet door that needs adjusting, a piece of trim, a sticky drawer. Every job has one. The question is not whether there is a punch list; it is whether the builder actually comes back and finishes it.

Because the job is not closed and the final payment is not released until it is. That is the mechanism. Anyone can promise to come back; holding money until they do is what makes it happen, and we structure the contract that way on purpose.

We walk the whole project together, room by room. You point out anything that is not right. We show you how the new systems work and how to care for the finishes, and hand over manuals, warranty documents and paint colors so you are not hunting for them in two years.

When you say it is. Final inspection passed, punch list complete, walkthrough done, and you are satisfied. We have never considered a job complete just because we were ready to leave.

Tell us at the walkthrough and we fix it. That meeting exists specifically so you do not spend the next decade looking at something that bothers you and being too polite to have mentioned it.

Yes. Your written agreement includes a workmanship warranty on our labor and installation, separate from the manufacturer warranties that come with the products themselves. Ask us for the exact term for your scope before you sign. We put it in writing rather than making a verbal promise you cannot hold us to.

Appliances, fixtures, roofing, windows and cabinetry carry their own manufacturer warranties, which are separate from our workmanship coverage and usually longer. We hand you the documentation and registration information at the walkthrough, and we will help you make a claim if something fails.

Call Dan at 623-271-4172. Not a warranty department, not a form. The same number you have had the whole time. We come look at it.

Still call us. If something failed because of how we built it, we are going to want to know about it and make it right whether or not a date on a page says we have to.

Constantly. A large share of our work is repeat clients and their referrals: the bathroom becomes the kitchen, the kitchen becomes the addition, and their neighbor calls two years later. That is the whole business model, and it only works if we do not burn anyone.

Verify, do not vibe. Check the license at the Arizona ROC: status, class, bond and complaint history. Ask for certificates of insurance and confirm them with the carrier. Read reviews across more than one platform. Ask for addresses of finished jobs. Anyone unwilling to hand over that information is telling you something.

Ask these, and compare the answers:

• What is your ROC license number, and what class is it?
• Who is on my job every day, and how many other jobs are they running?
• Is this a fixed price? What is in it, and what is an allowance?
• What happens, specifically, if you open a wall and find a problem?
• Who pulls the permits?
• What is your workmanship warranty, in writing?
• Can I see three finished projects like mine and talk to those owners?

Because bids are rarely comparable. A number that is 30% under everyone else is usually missing scope, running low allowances, skipping permits, using an uninsured crew, or planning to make it up in change orders. Lay the bids side by side line item by line item before you decide anything. The cheapest bid and the cheapest project are frequently not the same project.

Normalize the scope first. Write down every line one has that the other does not, then ask both contractors to price the missing items. Pay particular attention to allowances, permit fees, engineering, demolition, debris haul-off, and who is supplying appliances and fixtures. Once the scope matches, the comparison means something.

No. In Arizona, unlicensed contractors above the handyman exemption have no recovery fund available to you, typically no bond and often no insurance. If the work fails or they walk off, you have essentially no remedy and you own the problem. The savings are never worth that.

A state fund that can compensate homeowners for losses caused by a licensed residential contractor, subject to eligibility rules and caps. It only applies to work performed by properly licensed contractors. Which is one more concrete reason the license check matters.

Large cash deposit demanded up front. Pressure to decide today. No written scope, or a one-page quote with a single number. Asking you to pull the permit. No physical address. No proof of insurance. Bids far below everyone else. Vague answers about who will actually be on site. Any one of these is a reason to slow down.

Five things, in roughly this order: the price creeps because the scope was never fully defined, the schedule slips because selections were made late, communication collapses because the builder took on too many jobs, the crew disappears at 90% complete, and the finished result does not match what the homeowner pictured. Every one of those is preventable in the planning phase, which is why we spend so much time there.

Because it removes the gap. When a designer and a builder are separate companies, anything that does not work in the field becomes an argument, and you are standing in the middle of it holding the bill. One accountable party means the person who drew it is answerable for building it.

Fair question, and you should ask it of everyone. We are owner-operated, we live in the community we build in, most of our work comes from people who already hired us, and our license and bond are current and verifiable. Check the ROC record. A contractor's history is public.