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.

Denis possess the exact qualities we were looking for in a contractor: highly skilled, honest,…read moretrustworthy dependable, and fairly priced. In addition, Denis is also very personable and likable which makes for a pleasant overall experience. We had a very complex full-basement renovation and Denis exceeded our expectations and completed on-time and budget. The project turned a 500 sq dirt basement into a tv room, kids play room, office nooks, full bath, closets, storage, etc Denis was there every day (very cold winter) and he subcontracted with excellent plumbers and electricians so we didn't have to worry about any details...a welcome change from some disastrous experiences with other contractors. We continue to call-on Denis for jobs both large and small and feel very fortunate to have found him for our home improvement needs. Very highly recommended!

Denis is great. I recently had him in to address some weakened beams in my basement. Denis shored…read moreup the area with some jack posts. After doing some great work in the basement, I had Denis come back to install crown moulding in my dining room. Again, fantastic work. Then I had Denis back to do some repair work on my roof deck. After all that, Denis came back to my house just this past weekend to help me fix a GFI outlet on my roof, which, of course, he accomplished quickly. After all this work, I recommended him to my neighbor who also had some work done, and now I am here to recommend him to you. Call DK Remodeling for whatever issue you need addressed in your home, and they'll be sure to help you out.

The review by Keiki is totally false. We are very happy to provide the strongest endorsement for…read moreKarl Aghassi Jr. We have known and worked with him for many decades, and he always provided us with the highest quality work. Karl is one of the most knowledgeable, experienced, scrupulously honest, and responsive contractors with whom we have worked. He is a man of impeccable integrity, with a keen eye for detail. We have lived in our 1912 house for over 40 years, and over that time it has needed an enormous amount of repair and maintenance. Karl and his workers proved that it was possible to work cleanly and quietly and still have beautiful results. Karl has recently decided to change his career path, and we fully support his decision since he has such a strong background in construction and design. Whatever he decides to do, we know that it will be done with the utmost intelligence, responsibility, and dignity. He has our highest recommendation.

Avoid at all cost. Terrible experience, still in court. Run away!!!! Lied constantly, never…read morefinished, BOUNCED check to his subs who came after us. Scam Artist. UPDATE: After his subs came after him, he filed for bankruptcy. Several of his subcontractors will never see their money. We had to hire another contractor for thousands of dollars to finish the job we had already paid in full and then some, Karl for. He even lied to the bankruptcy judge on record, I have the transcript and I was there, about the value his property. After doing research I also found out he did this to another homeowner and Newton. A doctor, who when the contractor came after him had to make a separate settlement with that contractor. Happy to provide back up information, court documents etc.

We asked Oliver to completely remodel our kitchen, we are so thankful that he was available for the…read morejob! The kitchen came out beautifully, I can't believe it is the same space. From day one, Oliver was mindful of our budget, communicative/easy to reach, kept us up to speed with each step of the project, involved us in all decisions, and guided us when we didn't know what to do. We also wanted to work with a contractor who could design and make suggestions on how the space should look, aesthetically - Oliver has impeccable taste! When issues arrived with two of our vendors, Oliver always had alternative solutions or pulled a rabbit of a hat and simply made it happen. He and his team arrived on time each day, were respectful of our space and treated it like their own home. I have to give a special nod to Oliver's team as well, Eddie and Jamie. Jamie has such a pleasant demeanor, worked alongside Oliver and Eddie on everything, and no job was too small. Eddie is truly a master carpenter, and gave our kitchen a magazine worthy finish - not to mention he had a smile on his face every morning (even at 7:00am). We can't stop singing their praises to our friends and family and we are excited to have Downtown Abbeys work on our next project (and hopefully more after that). Do not hesitate working with Oliver and his team - you will not regret it!

Unresponsive. Oliver came by to give an estimate for a bathroom renovation, but never sent a…read moreproposal for the work as we had agreed as the next step. I followed up several times. On one occasion, I followed-up and was told he would send a proposal later that night, but I still never received anything. After following up a few more times with no response, I sent a message asking if they were interested in the project; and if not, to just let me know. I never received a response.

Our experience was wonderful. Glenn really spent time with us understanding our needs and vision…read morefor the space. He comes with many years of experience and insights. He had a fastidious attention to detail and a keen artistic eye. Everything was on budget and on time.

Honestly, I had no idea doing a home improvement project could be this easy. Acton Woodworks earned…read moremy trust from the get-go with straight talk about the challenges our project presented. It only got better from there. A fair quote, a well-run and responsive office, thoughtful planning of the project, employees that were respectful of my family, home and time, and high-quality workmanship all mean I will be hiring them straight away for my next reno. Thanks Acton Woodworks!! You were awesome!

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.

Hired Irish Contracting to do a bathroom remodel and some other work. I paid him in full when the…read morejob was done, because he asked for full payment at that time. I trusted him that he would complete the job as promised, however, he didn't. I ended up having buy some of the bathroom items again from the supplier as he never came to deliver or install the items that I had already purchased, which of course increased the overall cost of the project. My calls and emails were ignored and I never saw him again. I would not recommend.

Excellent contractor. Licensed and insured. Great job. Left…read moreeverything clean . Was done as scheduled.

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.