I am so happy we hired CF Group to handle our four season room expansion over our existing back deck. Carl and his workers were knowledgeable, kind, hard-working and precise. He was fair with his pricing and broke payments out in chunks as steps were completed. From the beginning to the end of the project, Carl was there the whole time, present and approachable. We had lots of questions and he answered them all right away-he's a great communicator. His clever mind and background in engineering came in handy, especially when attaching our existing roof to the new roof. We will be hiring him again for sure as we have a few other smaller construction projects in the near future. In fact he and his worker, just put in new support posts for our front porch within a few short hours. They worked fast and neatly, clean-up for both projects went well. Thanks again! read more

Carl and his guys did a fantastic job remodeling my entire kitchen and repairing and painting the interior of my home. There was not one item that I wanted fixed, painted, adjusted, replaced or rewired that they couldn't handle. Eduardo's painting and repair of my walls was impeccable. Clean lines and not a drop on my news carpet and floors. They showed up on time and got the work done and COMPLETELY cleaned up every spec when they were finished. I thought the pricing was very fair as well. My family and friends just couldn't believe the transformation of my home. I am so happy with everything and wouldn't hesitate to have First Call, Carl and Eduardo back again and I'm planning on it already. read more

Arlington Construction and Repair - General Contractors Near Me

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Many thanks to the crew at First Call Home Repair and Maintenance for their skill and support today. These guys were total pros from initial contact through installation. Solid work at a fair and reasonable rate, with clear communication. We had a new bathroom light and fan installed and it looks absolutely perfect. From now on, whenever we need a hand here at the house, I'll be contacting First Call Home Repair and Maintenance. read more

A previous review written by Marion G. at first gave me pause... however after reading additional reviews I hired Carl Forestieri of First Call (845) 264 2166. I am so glad I did. He came promptly and as promised - performed the task perfectly and charged less than the price range quoted. His 'right hand' man, Eduardo was professional - and they both actually cleaned up after the job. Honestly, be wary of those that write hurtful reviews - generally out of spite. read more

I hired Carl Forestieri, the owner of First Call Home Repair to do a kitchen renovation. Working with Carl Forestieri (a.k.a. the CF Group, CFCM and First Call Home Repair) was by far the worst experience I have had as a homeowner. I hired him for a kitchen renovation. He proved to be totally incompetent, unreliable, unprofessional, abusive, and duplicitous. I have had several contractors in to look at the disaster he left behind in my kitchen, all of whom described his work as "shameful." I am now in the position, after having spent my budget paying Carl for his grossly inadequate work, of having to pay other contractors to fix his mess. I am now out almost $10,000 to repair the damage he caused to my home. I expect to incur many more thousands of dollars before it is done. It is difficult to even catalog the myriad problems with the kitchen as he installed it. This is at best a partial list: the wall cabinets are extremely crooked (off level by over 1/2 inch in one 2 foot span alone); there are sharp nails and holes through the tops of the cabinets; he cracked the bottoms of cabinets (one he tried to cover with an old piece of nicked up plywood); the back splash is unfinished - he left gaping holes through the wallboard above it, and the grout began drying up and falling out (in powder form) just a month after he did it; the floor is unevenly tiled and poorly grouted; the light rail is smeared with dirty caulk (done with dirty fingers); few if any of the corners match up; he gave up on installing the crown molding stating it was impossible (not so, as someone is doing it now). My list could go on and on... Carl Forestieri was extremely difficult to deal with and was prone to fits of yelling and then crying. After one particularly fraught outburst, I took my daughter and left the house. I returned a few hours later and Kurt, his right hand man (he was given the role of good guy on this incompetent crew) said, "we thought you would be afraid to come back." On another occasion when I asked about Carl's refusal to fix something he acknowledged was poorly done, Kurt responded with, "He's trying to get as much money out of you as possible." Carl Forestieri's same trusted friend and employee told me that when Carl opens his mouth it is to lie - but sometimes - if you look at him just right - he tells the truth. Wow, what do his enemies say you might ask. Ultimately, I felt unsafe and uncomfortable having Carl Forestieri in my home and near my family. I actually offered to pay him the amount remaining for the kitchen renovation to stop work and leave. At that point we were treated to a diatribe of insults and threats - and the outrageous claim that we owed him five times the amount we had agreed to for "extra work" which he had not told us about (and which we doubt was done) and to which we had not agreed. Carl talks a good line, and I fell for it. He will walk into your house and brag about his experience and his degrees. Yes, he has an engineering degree. But, what use is that if you cannot hang a cabinet level or miter a corner. He also has an MBA. One would think that with an MBA planning for payroll and managing his small crew (usually three guys) would be no problem. Not so! They rarely showed up when expected - and often did not have the right tools with them. At virtually every step of the way they were behind schedule. On top of that, Thursdays were often met with him in hysterics as he stomped through my house shouting that he could not make payroll. Often this was done after I was treated to "overhearing" that Kurt could not pay his car insurance or that his electricity was cut off, etc. My guess - looking back on it - is that this was a set up all along. If you have read to the very end of this I probably do not need to tell you - DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES hire Carl Forestieri. I will be posting pictures and videos at HudsonValley Farmhouse on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMmEh0lWdQGgqTRebov6MSw) and on hudsonvalleyfarmhouse.home.blog Please note the dates on Carl Forestieri's reviews. The decent ones are many years old. New reviews are essentially non-existent because (as he told me) he insists on non-disparagement clauses from unhappy customers. Something clearly happened to his abilities or work ethic in recent years. read more

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Recently Carl from First Call Home Repair &Maintenance accomplished a beautiful and unique kitchen renovation. We have a very old stone home, 1837, with additions. Our kitchen was quite odd in its original bastardized state with every owner messing with its design and function until it was ugly and no longer functional. It's not a large kitchen and because of an old wet basement and lack of other options, our laundry had become and needed to remain park of this unique kitchen. On top of it all this is also the main entrance to our home for family and guests. Carl helped us take on this challenge contributing his extensive knowledge and experience to assist us and the kitchen designers in what would work and also keep costs under control. Believe me the first few designers really wanted to spend our money. What resulted was a beautiful and functional kitchen. Thanks to Carl's help we were able to salvage some of our old well constructed cabinetry and custom mill work and incorporated new design and materials. We are very happy with the results. Carl's expert installation of our cabinetry was appreciated and recognized by our countertop installers. They commented that they rarely see cabinets installed so well. It made their job so much easier. Carl is a perfectionist and his many years of experience and education are obvious in his work and dedication. Several years prior Carl had also renovated our living room. Much larger than our kitchen and also full of custom cabinetry and mill work, our desire was to vault the ceiling as this was a one story addition to the original home. Carl and his team worked diligently at demo and came across a few unexpected surprises as is typical of old home projects. An old porch roof was concealed in our living room ceiling. A gigantic 24" Steel I-beam running the length of the room. So much for vaulting the ceiling. Instead of saying, sorry guys, were just gonna have to put the ceiling back the way it was, Carl came up with some great ideas. Preserving and enhancing the old porch roof to become an architectural feature of the room and raising the rest of the ceiling to its max, Carl created a room that we and our guests are blown away by. Carl helped us appreciate the quality craftsmanship that went into our homes construction and previous renovations and preserved and enhanced them more than we could have imagined. I would highly recommend Carl and his team. He is an genuine old fashioned carpenter, craftsman and all around handyman for any project. Carl is always there for us, he's our go-to guy. read more

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One Friday night in 2017 I arrived home to a flooded kitchen. We quickly figured out the water was coming from the old refrigerator but had no idea how to fix the problem. Luckily, someone had given me a card for First Call several months earlier. Carl answered the phone, talked me through a quick fix and arranged for a plumber to be at the house first thing Saturday morning. The plumber arrived promptly, had all the necessary parts (!) and fixed the problem immediately. Since that experience I have used First Call on many occasions. Carl and his team of reliable staff have replaced faucets, changed light fixtures, regrouted a bathroom, repaired and repainted a ceiling, adjusted ill-fitting doors and installed a squirrel-proof grate over the chimney. And that is only a partial list. I have always been happy with Carl's responsiveness and professionalism and would highly recommend First Call. read more

In 2015, I hired Carl Forestieri to replace my roof. There were no online reviews available to read, and I had a limited budget to work with, so I went with his low-ish bid. The job seemed okay at the time, though the copper flashing that we had paid extra for blew off the roof in pieces over the next few months. He came out to take a look and said they were "extra pieces" that he had left up there. However, a year or so later, we started noticing that waterfalls occurred over the gutters at two places on the outside of the house whenever it rained. This year, we called in a gutter company. They told us that the problem was not the gutters but the roof itself; it was bowed in spots, and the water was spouting over the gutters as a result. We then called in three reputable roofing companies for estimates on repairs. Two of them told us the roof could not be repaired; it had to be replaced at a cost of $14,000. This was because Forestieri had not noticed that we had Yankee gutters -- old gutters attached to the original roof, which should have required that the roof built be out over them. In addition, he had used plywood that wasn't nearly strong enough to support the roof between the beams. As a result, the plywood, soffits, and fascia had rotted. Forestieri came out to check the problem, and ended up screaming at me in my driveway as he insisted the roof had been done perfectly. We ended up finding a company to repair the damage. It cost us an additional $6000, a mere 5 years after the roof had been completely redone by Forestieri. Don't use this guy unless you want to have to redo your job and pay twice for it. read more