We engaged Chara Construction to rebuild the entranceway to our enclosed front porch, adding two new windows and an all-weather door. Paul and his team did an excellent job. Having had several large indoor projects completed to our older home, I know how to evaluate renovation work. The door and windows are all flush and tightly sealed, the door swings freely, and all the trim looks great. The replacement woodwork is indistinguishable from what was there before (minus the dry rot, of course!) Paul's team also spent a lot of time with me picking exactly the right windows for the job, and we settled on the perfect balance between appearance and ease of maintenance. I would hire Chara Construction for any future renovation jobs on my 100-plus year-old home in a heartbeat. read more

AWSOME CARPENTER - Paul came to look at my project and immediately knew what I had in mind. I wasn't clear on how or what it was going to look like. I was asking for simple shelving above my kitchen island and a bar with shelves in the corner of the dining room. Paul thought about it and did some drawings with me there and I approved of the rough ideas he had. when he came back to do the work, he was always there when he said he would be, worked tirelessly, and always cleaned up nicely for the next day. Paul kept adding ideas and I kept approving and the end result was something I had'nt even imagined. both projects were done within a week, the price was amazing for what I got and I am over the moon with my new bar and kitchen shelving. I highly recommend Chara Construction for your wood projects. Paul is a very creative carpenter that takes great pride in what he does. I'm so happy I found him. read more

Chara Construction - General Contractors Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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We hired Chara Construction to create a walkout exit from our family room to the backyard. Paul and his crew opened up the exterior wall, cut through Hardy board siding, installed new French doors, and built a landing deck with adjoining staircase. Paul helped design the layout and worked with us to choose the right TimberTech decking materials. They trimmed the door on the interior and exterior walls, insulated, taped, drywalled and installed new outdoor lighting. Subsequently, Paul redid some indoor handrails, cutting, resizing, glueing and more, and wow, looks so professional. What's great about these guys is they show up early every morning, communicate status, clean up afterwards, are efficient, trustworthy, and take pride in their work. The entire process from start to finish was seamless. Paul will offer measurement suggestions and ideas if you're not sure what you're doing (me). He will also re-do anything you're not 100 percent happy with. Paul and his team did an incredible job transforming our house. They added dimension and character and it looks beautiful - as if it was original to the house. I took a leap of faith and hired Chara Construction from thier Yelp reviews and it turned out to be a great decision. I would not hesitate to hire Paul for any of your projects, big or small. Before and after pictures attached. read more

Chara Construction - Before - General Contractors Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Paul did a couple of house projects for us. He started with one and did such a great job we had him do another for us. His pricing was accurate and fair, the project finished on time and was excellently done. The bonus was he and his assistant are spectacular humans! I would have given him more stars but only was able to give him 5. Highly recommended. read more

Paul was very easy to work with. He remodeled my pool deck after I installed a new pool. It turned out way better than I thought it would. He came up with some ideas that I would never have thought of and solved numerous problems that were plaguing the soundness of the whole deck. He managed to solve those problems and then focused on making the outside of the deck very sound and beautiful. I love how solid the deck is now and it looks awesome! I am ready for the summer. Thanks Paul! read more

This guy is truly a master carpenter. He can build counter fixer repair just about anything. He built me up beautiful 7 foot Japanese gate in my side yard and people are still pointing at it when they walk by three months later. He has also done various jobs for me around the house and always can figure out a way to make something happen. Highly recommended. read more

Paul and John were amazing. After my son was injured on our strangely built spiral staircase, we knew we had to have it rebuilt. We were approaching the holidays where we would be hosting 5 families with kids, so our timeline was tight. Paul stopped by a couple days after I called him, gave me an on the spot quote that seemed fair ( I had priced out with 3 different people and Paul's was the best). Him and John found a different layout that actually was safer and worked better for our space. They built our new stairs, added a custom bookshelf, closet, and redid all of our spindles. They showed up on time, communicated everything they were doing, and worked over the weekend when we were out of town to make sure they got the work done for our family. I'm so happy I was referred to Paul. Our stairs were rebuilt well and they feel so much safer for my little boy. Thank you guys! read more

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AWFUL. Two months of my time completely wasted. Paul came out to look at my project, paneling for my back stairwell. He gave me a rough estimate of $3,500. A few days later he raised his price by almost 50%. His rationale was "I had time to think." This should have been my first red flag. Then he scheduled the work for a few weeks later. The day of I had to call him to find out why he didn't show up. He said he was still on another project, and just never bothered to tell me. He postponed for 2 weeks. Then postponed another week. Then postponed another 5 days. He finally showed up on the start day, took a look at the project (which he had already seen) and said it was too complicated and wasn't going to do it and then left. I could have had the project done in the time I waited for him. Completely unprofessional and untrustworthy. I DO NOT RECOMMEND unless you like having your time wasted. read more

Paul is a genius when it comes to fixing those doors that just won't close, which is how we first came to know him. When we moved, we had a couple of odd spots that desperately needed some skilled carpentry. Paul came over and took a look and said he could handle it... over the course of 2 weeks, a window seat in my office went from being broken plywood and concrete to a beautiful oak built-in and our front entry's weird benches with pleather seats became oak benches with concealed storage. So happy with the end result! read more

Chara Construction - a living room with a window seat - General Contractors Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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I needed front steps done, my old wooden ones were rotting away and it was time for concrete. His quote was the second-lowest I got, but I went with Paul because he was prepared to get the job done reasonably soon (which is *very fast* in fact for the business). And he did. Despite me being somewhat uncertain on what I wanted (for example. Paul made an extra trip to the brickyard to get me samples, no extra charge) and the pressures of competing jobs, there was never a day he didn't work on it, and within a few days the work was done. Well done, too. One other nice point: no radio noise. (Contractors often play constant loud radio!) read more

Chara Construction - General Contractors Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Chara Carpentry helped us create a great first impression, the most important thing when selling a home. They were able to resize an old oblong wood door that was salvaged from a much older building by removing half a foot from the top and bottom and adding an inch to each of the sides. This beautiful reclaimed door now fits perfectly in the existing frame! Thanks to Chara, this little door has found a new home. read more

Chara Construction - Chara Carpentry creating a great first impression, the most important thing when selling a home! - General Contractors Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

We had Paul for 2 projects on our house and the results were fantastic. Our house is OLD, so it can be difficult to match the wood trims etc. He does great work and doesn't miss a detail. Schedule with confidence. read more

We hired Paul to create a built-in cabinet for our bathroom. He did a great job and it came out beautifully. Paul was very skilled, professional and easy to work with and we would definitely hire him again for future projects. read more

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We needed to bolster the rafter support for our roof. Paul came right over and inspected the current condition and he was very thorough in his assessment. In less than two days, he installed support to all of the roof rafters and added extra beams to strengthen the existing structure. He was quick, efficient, friendly and extremely fair with pricing! read more

(Note: he was not asked to paint or finish anything) I hired Paul to help finish with trimwork in a recently drywall attic playroom. The largest element of finishing the space was creating barn like sliding doors for the toy storage. He made these amazing doors by reclaiming the old attic hatch type door. They were made perfectly square and so it was easy to get some sheet metal cut to size. Paul also worked with some reclaimed wood to create a built-in bookshelf. Additionally, he also helped create a transition between two parts of drywall that were uneven from the previous contractor. He did an amazing job using leftover lumber from a previous house project for that work. He was flexible with my ideas as listened to my concerns as the project developed. It did take long than he expected by a lot. But he is not to blame as in even surface and no right angles and yet the work was outstanding. I paid by the hour. He used my garage as his shop and keep the attic space pretty clean. Rug was already install and was not damaged. read more

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I contacted Chara to hang my mantel and was very happy with the result. On his initial visit Paul also recommended purchasing decorative brackets for additional support and made a second trip out to install them for me. read more

We contracted Paul to do some kitchen repairs, construction and painting. We left him to do the job on our home while we were out of town for a few days. The construction itself consisted of creating a new cupboard space over our refrigerator, installing an above-the-stove microwave, patching a 3'x3'ceiling spot (leaking from attic) and painting. We had complete confidence in him and his price was competitive (even a little lower than other estimates that we had gotten.) Upon our return, everything was completed to our specifications. The microwave and cupboard construction and installation were seamless within the constraints of our existing kitchen. The patching work was done very well and invisible beneath the fresh coat of paint. There were a couple of issues with some of the painting. Paul was responsive to the issues that we brought to him and despite him being active on other projects, he provided another painter to come in and complete the work to our satisfaction. The additional "fix-up" work was addressed immediately and done at no cost to us (as we expected). My only issue is partially our responsibility and partially Paul's. I wish we had been in town during the process so we could have provided him immediate feedback on the problem areas we had. If that had been the case, we would have been able to resolve everything up front without having to have someone return to our home. In my opinion, Chara Construction's abilities to do the work requested was very good. His responsiveness in dealing with our issues was also very good. His price is competitive. Also we appreciated the opportunity to offer our work to a small business owner. That was one of the deciding factors in our initial decision. Paul is a professional and takes pride in the work he does. read more

I had a great experience with Paul and Chara Construction. I saw a flyer that came in the mail and called to inquire about a custom built-in cabinet for my dining room. He came over the next day, took measurements and drew out a quick design based on what I explained I wanted. He showed me some pictures of other cabinets he's done as examples for the design. He also came back a 2nd time with sample moldings for the top as well as wood types. He took a second set of measurements to be exact. Very professional. He built the cabinet at his shop and brought it to my home in 2 pieces to assemble and secure into the wall. He finished it on-time as promised within 2 weeks. I am very pleased with the final project and my friends can't believe the great price he gave for such custom work! Would highly recommend Paul and Chara Construction. read more

When we decided to have a closet built in our kitchen, we called a few carpenters around the city. When we contacted Paul at Chara Construction, he came out right away, quoted us a price that was lower than anywhere else, and built us a great closet! You can't even tell that it wasn't in the original floor plan. We thought Paul was so great we had him design us a built-in entertainment center for our living room. We just showed Paul a few pictures of what we wanted, told him how much we had to spend, and he did great! We have our condo on the market, and our agent tells us that there have been numerous positive comments on the entertainment center. We have a pretty small living room, so it's a great space saver. read more