Built the Hard Way, Built to Last: The Story Behind OCBS
OCBS, Inc. is a California general contractor founded in 1982, building, restoring, and rebuilding homes across the state for more than 40 years. The company was never built on a business plan. It was built on trust, one project at a time, and the standards behind that trust are the same ones it works by today.
It Started With Work Done Badly
OCBS didn't start with a strategy. It started with a builder who thought the work being hired out wasn't good enough.
In the early 1980s, Kevin Franklin was a young project manager, already running $30 million worth of construction work, when he and his wife moved into a condominium and he began attending HOA board meetings. What he watched get approved and paid for was rushed, inconsistent, and poorly executed. He believed it could be done better, so he started doing it himself.
Small weekend projects became steady work across dozens of properties. One job led to another. Friends were hired, then his brother, then full-time crews. When a recession cost Kevin his job, with a child on the way, he doubled down instead of retreating.
The company grew for one reason: people trusted the work. Four decades later, that's still the case.
A Standard Set in Other People's Homes
In the early 1990s, OCBS took on work most builders avoided: opening up finished homes, occupied homes, to find out what was failing behind the walls and decks and roofs.
At the time, few firms did that work well, and almost none did it respectfully. The gap wasn't purely technical. It was human. Work like that tears into someone's house, and done carelessly, it damages trust along with the drywall.
So OCBS built its own standard: crews performed the work and left the space cleaner than they found it. Homeowners came home at the end of the day surprised, not by the damage, but by the level of care.
That standard didn't stay in that one corner of the business. It became how the company works on every project, whether it's a full reconstruction, a structural retrofit, or a restoration on a home where the original detailing can't be ordered from a catalog. Knowing exactly how homes come apart is also what makes putting them back together correctly possible.
What OCBS Builds
Today the firm is a full-service general contractor, licensed in California, handling:
Reconstruction and structural restoration
Structural retrofitting and seismic work
Above- and below-grade waterproofing
Historic building restoration
Insurance restoration and repair
Forensic investigation, when the cause of a failure needs to be established before the repair is scoped
That last capability matters more than it sounds. Most high-end homes don't fail dramatically. They fail quietly, at a flashing lap, a deck-to-wall transition, or a window detail, and it shows up years later as a stain, a soft floor, or a room that smells wrong. Water frequently enters in one place and appears in another, which is why repairing the visible symptom is how homeowners end up paying for the same problem twice.
Because OCBS both investigates and builds, the diagnosis and the repair come from the same team, priced by the people who will actually do the work. There's no handoff, no gap between "here's what's wrong" and "here's what it takes to make it right."
The Standards That Carried Forward
Four decades on, OCBS is known for three things:
Impeccable quality. Problems are fixed. Work is redone when it needs to be. Accountability isn't debated.
Professionalism in every detail. Trucks are clean. Crews are presentable. Everyone on a site understands they're representing the client and the trust placed in them, not just themselves. That standard once brought the firm a multi-million Beverly Hills project because a homeowner noticed how a company truck looked at a gas station. The point isn't the project. The point is that the crew held the standard when no one was watching, which is exactly what you're trusting a builder to do inside your home.
Doing the right thing, even when it costs more. OCBS is not the cheapest option and doesn't try to be. Over four decades the company has weathered recessions and industry shifts without being built on shortcuts, and that shows up in what the work costs and in how long it lasts.
The Bottom Line
A home of any real complexity deserves a builder who has seen how these things fail, and who treats the house as a home rather than a job site.
OCBS has spent more than 40 years building, restoring, and rebuilding across Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, the Coachella Valley, and San Francisco. The company was built the hard way, and the standards that built it are the standards it still works by.
Looking for this level of care in your home? Call OCBS at 800-834-2323.
OCBS, Inc. | Forensic Investigation | Litigation Support | Reconstruction. Serving California since 1982. CA License #504676.
This article is provided for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, engineering analysis, or an opinion on any specific property, claim, or dispute. Referenced standards should be confirmed against their current published editions. Readers should consult qualified counsel and appropriate technical experts regarding their specific circumstances.