XinYue Zheng
Founder & Principal
Leads every project from first consultation through handover. Reviews all pricing personally and is the client's single point of contact for the life of the contract.
Eastsouth / About
A builder's firm, run by builders.
Founded in Shoreview in 2009 and still small on purpose — because the thing clients pay for is attention, and attention does not scale.
XinYue Zheng — Founder & Principal
Our Story
Fifteen years of finishing what we started.
Eastsouth began with one carpenter, one truck, and a conviction that most of what goes wrong on a job site is a communication failure wearing a hard hat.
XinYue Zheng started the firm after a decade in the field watching capable crews undone by absentee management — owners who never met the person building their house, budgets that moved quietly, schedules that were optimistic in writing and fictional in practice.
The response was structural rather than cosmetic. Eastsouth runs a limited calendar: a handful of significant renovations at a time, each with a principal attached from first walkthrough to final punch list. Our estimating is done in-house, from real subcontractor pricing, and shown to clients line by line. Our field crews are employees and long-term partners, not a rotating cast.
Fifteen years on, the model has held. Most of our work now comes from clients we have already built for, or from the architects and designers who have watched us do it.
Licensed & Insured MN Contractor
Fully Bonded
EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm
Two-Year Workmanship Warranty
What We Hold To
Three commitments we will not trade away.
I.
Craft over speed
We would rather lose a bid than rush a scope. Every assembly is detailed before it is built, and nothing is closed up until it has been inspected by someone whose name is on the company.
II.
Candour about cost
Allowances are named, not buried. Our fee is stated as a number, not folded into line items. If a decision will cost you more later, you hear it from us the week we learn it — not at closeout.
III.
Stewardship of the house
Most of our projects are homes people are living in. Dust walls, protected floors, daily clean-down and a crew that parks on the street are not extras. They are the job.
The Team
Small firm. Deep bench.
Project Management
Scheduling · Estimating · Permitting
In-house estimators and superintendents who build the schedule, hold the trades to it, and issue the written Friday report that keeps every client ahead of their own project.
Craft & Trade Partners
Carpentry · Millwork · Mechanical
Forty-two vetted partners across framing, mechanical, stone, tile and finish work — most with us for over ten years, several since the first truck.
By the Numbers
Fifteen years, measured honestly.
180+
Residences delivered
96%
Referred or repeat clients
4 days
Average schedule variance
2 yrs
Workmanship warranty, standard
Where we build
We work across the Twin Cities metro and the western lake communities, with most projects within forty-five minutes of our Shoreview office — close enough that a principal can be on your site the same morning you call.
ShoreviewNorth OaksArden HillsSaint PaulMinneapolisWayzataOronoEdinaMinnetonkaDeephavenWhite Bear LakeDellwoodWoodburyEden PrairieGolden ValleyMendota HeightsVadnais HeightsLake Elmo
Begin
Meet the people who will build it.
Every consultation is with a principal — not a salesperson. Bring your drawings, your Pinterest board, or nothing at all.
Or call 763-215-9340 · xgeng780@gmail.com