James Brolly is an extremely knowledgeable build that has been doing renovation and new…read moreconstruction for over 40 years. He has built the largest thatched roof home in the United States and has been written up in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune. He also has many clients that count on him to remodel kitchens, bathrooms, build patios and one take antique homes down to the studs and redo.He is honest and fair and has [remodeled 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, family room and paver patio for me and all have been amazing. You'd be hard pressed to find a better contractor with as much knowledge and experience.

My wife and I purchased our 2-family home in 2005, and to say it needed renovating would be an…read moreunderstatement! The house was in dire need of repair and required a total gut job. After speaking with a number of contractors, we eventually settled on giving the project to Brolly Construction. We were so glad that we did! James came in with a budget and explained everything that would be done, and how long each step of the process would take. They kept to the budget and even finished a little ahead of schedule. We were actually able to rent out our first floor apartment a month earlier than we expected! James and his crew were always very approachable and open to any and all ideas we had. Some of our neighbors have had them do work on their own properties as a result of the great job they did with our house. We would highly recommend Brolly Construction to anybody who is looking.

This contractor Paul demands to be paid up front before he starts the work, then follows with false…read morepromises, starts the job, leaves material at the site then never returns, nor does he return the money he already received for the unfinished job. Then, he refuses to answer your calls or emails. The limited work performed was poor. Posts installed were not straight, handrail caps were spliced together with leftover wood scraps, new glass doors were improperly hung. If you like getting screwed then disregard.

Paul was wonderful to work with...I wanted to extend my deck and early into the project it was…read morediscovered I needed to go through the zoning board...this was a long process and took over 3 months but Paul did not back out and agreed to be available when the process was completed! Paul was a great communicator and always reponded to my questions and updates, he met with me immediately when I had questions about the project and in the end it was completely beautifully and I am very happy with the final project...his prices are also very reasonable and I had a lot of estimates prior to choosing Paul...I would highly recommend him for this type of project!

I was introduced to Ian through a friend, during the peak of pandemic where it's such a struggle to…read morefind good contractors with availability. I cant say enough about IDR and his crew, they are extremely easy to work with, honest and hardworking, and delivered beautiful results. They helped to fit our project in their timeline, including moving and reinstalling cabinets, configuring layout, *absolutely beautiful piece of art* backsplash, and change of a back exterior door. His crew helped me realize my vision with many custom configurations and designs professionally! He's currently helping us with our second home with a larger project of bathroom addition and kitchen island addition, and I think we will hire him without a doubt for any future projects too!

My husband and I bought a new home in Cambridge in need of a kitchen renovation. We found IDR…read moreConstruction via Google and Yelp reviews and we were very impressed with the reviews and pictures of IDR's work. Ian took the time to talk on the phone when I first reached out about the project and the scope of work. He even reviewed some drawings I had done of the space and pointed out some things to think about for the layout (such as if we moved the fridge, we'd have to make sure we could access a water line for the ice maker). Ian met with us at the house to talk about the project, and we engaged Ian and IDR shortly thereafter. All told, the renovation took about 4 weeks, which was a great timeline and we are very pleased with how it came out. Ian was responsive, polite, and overall a pleasure to work with, and his subcontractors were polite, unobtrusive and cleaned up each day. We were fortunate in that we had a clear vision of what we wanted (which made the design process easy), but Ian truly helped bring that vision to life and thought of ways to make it better that we hadn't thought of, all while never being pushy or disrespectful. We highly recommend Ian and the IDR team and we look forward to the opportunity to work with him again.

STAY AWAY! Hired this guy to to repair a septic rack and D…read morebox in Upton. He tried to tell the town inspector that my system failed Title V and needed a new system even though a different licensed inspected the system. I walked outside to see how the workers were during during the repair and saw that his guys had the garden hose on and were flooding the furthest leach field tube with water. They also had installed the D Box at an angle so it directed all the liquids to the furthest leach field tube. This guy was doing everything to upsell the repairs directed by a MA state licensed Title V inspector!! Stay away from this guy is the best advice I can offer

Worked with us on a septic for our new home. Previous owners were less than forward with him about…read morethe payment method for the job (sellers holdback). Instead of backing out of the job, which I wouldn't have blamed him for, he worked with us on solutions and delivered for us. Nothing but good things to say!

What a gem! I own a couple of properties, so I deal with a lot of contractors. As a rule, I'm…read moreshort on time, so if I can get a job done without babysitting the workers, I'm happy. Niall and his crew are as good as it gets. Niall got me a quote for rebuilding my back porches within a couple of days. The quote was significantly less than the other guys. They said they would start on Monday morning and they did. They said they'd finish on Friday afternoon and they were done by noon on Friday. The new porch is beautiful, well build and sturdy (they actually went a little overboard on sturdy). And they went the extra mile -- extending a cement step when they saw that the new porch stairs were going to hit in an awkward way, completely cleaning up the back yard when they were done. The whole project took up less of my time than I spent getting my front door replaced. The crew are fantastic -- professional, polite, cheerful. Niall responds to phone calls and emails promptly. This was one of the easiest home-improvement experiences I've ever had. Yay!

Hanley Carpentry is a perfect example of a general contractor that puts getting paid and moving on…read moreto the next job ahead of his reputation and having pride in his work. Niall comes off as a nice guy and is undoubtedly a good salesman, but once the work begins things change fast, especially when issues and challenges come up, with which any decent size remodel, they usually do. Here is a top ten list of things that I had to deal with while working with Niall. 1. Niall sold himself as a "premier renovator of Boston Back Bay condos", but it turns out Niall was not even aware of the fact that many condo associations have by-laws that relate to qualifying or restricting renovations. It was his assumption that I could do whatever I wanted in my condo without getting permission from anyone. In fact, after work began and complaints began to roll in, he told me to tell the trustee of the condo association to f*** off and to mind their own business. He also threatened to pull his team out if things got difficult for him. To make matters worse, the trustee is an elderly women that lives right below me, who happens to be recovering from cancer, all of which Niall knew, and didn't care, about. 2. Niall has absolutely ZERO project management skills. The project lasted three months and Niall showed up on the job site at most 8 times, four of which were only to pick up checks. In fact, the first three weeks of the job, which I considered the most important, Niall was laying on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean. Niall conveniently forgot to tell me about this planned vacation before the job started. Niall also promised weekly status reports along with a weekly invoice. This promise was not kept. 3. During the course of the engagement, FOUR of his employees literally walked off the job, just got up and quit midday. Despite that, Niall expected me to pay their day rates as if they worked a full day. 4. Most of Niall's workers are capable and hard-working. However they are given virtually ZERO direction on what needs to be done. Not surprisingly this resulted in quite a few mistakes, which naturally require redoing the work twice and sometimes three times, all of which Niall expects you to pay for. 5. Niall refused to pay for significant damage that his crew caused to a neighbor's apartment, so those repairs ended up being my responsibility which I had to pay for. 6. Whenever something would go wrong, which was quite often, Niall was quick to blame the other contractors that were working on the project. Niall never once accepted responsibility for a mistake that he or his crew made. 7. Niall conveniently and consistently forgot agreed to scope of work. He then tries billing you extra for things that are already included in a project based fee. 8. Niall does not treat his workers well. This manifests itself with some workers moping around, kicking boards, and generally being inefficient. Regardless, Niall expects you to pay for these inefficiencies. 9. Shortly after receiving the last payment from me, which totaled over $70,000, I emailed Niall a punch list of things that I expected to be fixed. Not surprisingly, Niall never responded to that email, never called, never texted, in fact I never heard from him again. Essentially he took the money and ran without finishing the job. 10. I had to call in additional contractors to fix his shoddy work. Each of them commented on the poor craftsmanship and could not believe that another GC could act so irresponsibly. Fortunately I was able to find a few qualified contractors that were able to repair his sloppy work and loose ends. This is the first review I have written in my life. I am normally so busy with work that I wouldn't take the time to go through the trouble of writing something like this, but I think people need to know that there are some really bad, disingenuous contractors out there. I will be posting this review on Angie's list and Yelp. Hopefully it helps spare someone all the trouble that I went through.

Working with Atlantic Abatement was quite literally one of the easiest experiences I've ever had…read morewith a contractor. Jared, Alexa and their entire crew day of were kind, responsive and efficient. They worked with me to get my 1920s house abated, and provided a letter for my records easily. Highly recommend!

Atlantic Abatement was so helpful! We were installing flooring and the installation team stopped…read morethe job upon discovering asbestos. We had a torn up house, building materials everywhere, and a ton of uncertainty. The team at Atlantic Abatement was able to provide an estimate, schedule the removal, and get everything removed and our project back on track. They were very knowledgeable about materials, testing, requirements, and helped me through a process I was very unfamiliar with. The team that did the removal was courteous, clean, & efficient. Despite hearing the dreaded word 'Asbestos' - the Atlantic Abatement team made much easier.

We have used Kevin and his team for two bathrooms and our kitchen. Before we were ready to do any…read morework, Kevin came to our condo to advise us on the possible renovations - before we even purchased the unit. His quotes were detailed and clear, he provided recommendations on where to select tiles and cabinetry, he was helpful with money-saving ideas, he was willing to chase down my crazy ideas to see if they were feasible. His crew is amazing - respectful, on-time and clean. Kevin was also completely invaluable when we had to work with our insurance company to file claims - he was critical in helping us justify certain parts/expenses of the renovation. I have more projects in the queue - and we will use Kevin and his crew again.

We had Kevin and his subcontractors remodel our South End kitchen during the summer of 2012, and…read morecouldn't be more happy with the results. Kevin was the consummate professional -- with him and his staff always showing up on time and cleaning up after themselves. The original estimate that Kevin proposed was completely accurate, too, with Kevin coming in slightly under budget with no surprises whatsoever. Even better, his proposed timeline was right on target, too, with the project being finished to the day on the exact schedule he had proposed. I truly recommend Kevin and his staff without reservation.

We hired Mark to do a complete bathroom remodeling. Very early on, Mark committed to a timeline (4…read moreweeks) that he respected. He advised us where we could choose the bathroom features (Frank Webb), and tiles. We gave him the list, he ordered and picked up everything. Mark and his crew showed up on time for the demolition, and the schedule of the Tiles, electrician, plumber, painter, and inspector was all organized. He took care of everything. We only had to be around to answer some simple layout questions. We had a couple of minor bumps during the project (as expected), and Mark quickly found solutions and took care of them. Mark's crew is very competent and the quality of their work is impressive. Moreover, they are very polite and respectful, making the whole experience painless and pleasant. I recommend Mark's team, they are a bit more expensive but the quality of the work and the stress-free experience for a renovation is well worth it.