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.

We bought our home last summer, and we've been living with the work done by D.S. Brody for a year…read morenow, and it's holding up beautifully. When our house was inspected, the inspector told us nearly everything looked fine-- except when he looked into the bathrooms. He peered his head into the downstairs bathroom, turned to us with a distressing grin, and just asked, "You're gutting these, right? To the studs?" The bathrooms had been basically destroyed by water damage and general neglect, so we hired D.S. Brody to gut the bathrooms to the studs, and rebuilt from scratch. Long story short, they did a superb job, came in at just about the price we were quoted despite some "surprises," and were flexible and professional. A year in, I still couldn't be happier with how the work turned out. Specifics: on top of being entirely gutted, the downstairs bathroom needed the toilet and the vanity switched, the upstairs bathroom needed to be extended into a hall closet, and both bathrooms required somewhat finicky tile work to be completed. Furthermore, we discovered that the pipes going from the basement into both bathrooms and the kitchen were not up to date and needed to be replaced in their entirety. We also had Dominique and her crew replace our back door and put in some small shelves in the kitchen. The icing on the cake was that we were out of state for more than three weeks of the work; due to some poor scheduling, first we were in Japan during demolition and early rebuilding, and then we were in Florida during much of the tiling process. Dominique kept in touch regularly and dealt beautifully with our absence, including through the discovery of the bad pipes, a (briefly horrifying) realization that the upstairs of our house was not actually built on a perfect 90 degree angle, and a multi-week delay of our tile shipment. The finished work looks and functions wonderfully, and we've had no problems whatsoever during this past year. I want to commend not only Dominique but also her crew, particularly foreman Obel, who continuously went above and beyond to get things looking and working just right for us. We would absolutely hire D.S. Brody for any further construction we might need, and strongly recommend them to anyone else in the area.

Although the representative of the first roofing service company was very professional and his…read moreproposal very detailed, the estimate from D S Brody & Associate was a little more than half the other price. (Two other companies never responded to my e-mail with needs.) Despite language about my responsibility for additional charges to resolve potential discovery of wood rot, the manager of D S Brody did not charge extra for carpentry in three damaged areas. The team did a great job. Based on a recommendation from a heating service that recently cleaned our heating chimney, I was prepared to have Brody install a metal chimney cap until: that team re-assessed, informed me with a picture of the crumbling top, then the manager recommended two flue pipes embedded with cement as the optimal long term solution. In response to my request, Brody gave a reasonable fixed-price and completed that task within two weeks of the first.

Great company. Highly recommend their service. Danny is honest and their prices are very fair…read more You're in good hands with Refine Construction.

I recently decided to refinish my basement as it was very old and outdated. When I called Refine…read morethey were very helpful over the phone, and showed up the next day to give me a quote. I mentioned wanting to keep my hot tub room, but I was unsure because of all the water damage in my basement. Danny recommended waterproofing the whole basement to give it longevity and I was very pleased with the idea. When they were finished, I was amazed with the job they did and I will be recommending them to all my friends.

We renovated our home and added a substantial wrap around porch. We worked with an architect to…read moredesign the porch, and had a really hard time finding a contractor that was responsive and seemed to want the job. Leader was a little more expensive than some bids we got, but I honestly think when changing the face of your house, you get what you pay for. Leader dealt with the City, the permits, the architect, and managed every detail of the project. Lauren dealt with permits and the front end of the project (because I knew nothing when we started all this), and Kaitlyn (construction manager) managed all the contractors and worked with us to deal with contingencies as they arose. We replaced the windows and door on the front of the house. We excavated 14,000 pounds of concrete stairs (layered for over 100 years), we replaced the siding on the front. We had roofers and electricians to deal with. The carpenters that built the porch (Zenon!!!) were masterful and executed the architectural plans perfectly. The structure and roof were completed in 6 weeks start to finish. I appreciate how communicative Leader is, I appreciate how carefully and neatly their contractors worked, I appreciate that every single person who worked on our property was incredibly professional. We absolutely adore our porch. It looks like a totally different house. We couldn't be more pleased with the work of this excellent company.

We are doing our first remodel and called them to see if they are interested and can provide us an…read moreestimate. Apparently, before calling them, you need to know how much your construction project will cost. Since we didn't (gasp) and perhaps because our initial estimate was lower than their over the phone estimate, they didn't even bother offering to come out to give an estimate. I guess our money is not good enough for these people.

I would absolutely recommend Steve and Stella Roofing Services. I have to say after the job they…read moredid today, I am not surprised seeing so many 5 star reviews about his work ethic and most importantly, his communication. When I decided it was time to replace my 40+ year-old roof after consulting with Steve, he told me truthfully that he would do everything he can as a local owner and a friendly neighbor (literally one street over) to help me in any way he could to take care of my need for a new roof under my financial limits. He made sure to address any potential issues, he assessed the inside attic space and made sure he didn't see any serious concerns before making any knee jerk assumptions like some do from a visual standpoint. Whether it be from the delivery of the shingles (which he communicated with me immediately to take care of a shipment error on the warehouse side before the job started) so that the job didn't start with the wrong shingle we selected !! His price was fair compared to a couple other companies who he competes against, because he truly wanted the business so he can continue to grow to compete against the other big name companies that upsell from a commissions perspective. Everything happened as he had scheduled. His team arrived in the early morning and finished in 7 hours. Shane assisted with taking care of boarding up the existing Gable vents and cleaning up everything inside the house as well as assisting the rest of the team so that there was no trail of a mess left behind. In echoing another reviewer, after the job finished, "his entire team cleaned up so you wouldn't even know they were there." I am thankful I went with Steve and Stella Roofing Services, and will consider for any future home improvement projects.

I honestly don't understand how anyone could give more than one star, I would have given zero if…read morethat were an option. I've completed previously several projects on my property with half a dozen different contractors, and I've never had an experience as poor as the one I had with Stella. 1. Subcontracted Work: Stella subcontracted 100% of the work to third-party contractors except for trash removal, which I'll address later. They likely hired cheap subcontractors and added a 20-30% markup for their own profit. 2. Lack of Communication: Communication was minimal. I was rarely informed about the next steps or timelines. Initially, I thought this was just one person's oversight, but after interacting with other employees, I realized it's systemic. The company seems to operate with a policy of minimal customer engagement unless absolutely necessary. 3. Unannounced Workers: Subcontractors (painters, electricians, carpenters, etc.) frequently showed up without notice and began working without even a greeting. On multiple occasions, I nearly called the police, thinking someone was trespassing. Most didn't wear uniforms, spoke little or no English, and simply said "talk to boss," making it impossible to understand what they were doing. Stella never communicated these details, and one of their employees even scolded me for asking the workers what they were doing. Ironically, Stella charged a "management fee" despite me having to coordinate with the subcontractors myself. These workers came sporadically one or two days at a time, then disappeared for weeks. This dragged the project out for several months. 4. No Shoe Covers: None of the subcontractors wore shoe covers, so I had to clean up after them daily. 5. Billing Issues: Stella issued invoices for partially completed work and expected immediate payment. If not paid right away, they charged interest even though the work wasn't finished. 6. Trash Removal: The only physical work done by a Stella employee was trash removal. My property was surrounded by piles of debris for months. They sent one person every 2-3 weeks, only when the trash had accumulated substantially. I had to constantly watch for loose nails and other hazards. 7. Final Advice: Save yourself 20-30% of the cost and a lot of headaches, hire a reliable local contractor instead.

Anthony did a great job with out siding and roof - can't recommend him highly enough!read more

We had A.Adam insulate our attic with spray foam. He was on…read moretime for his initial appointment and provided a quote via email quickly. His pricing was great. Scheduling and communication were a bit tricky as he had some issues with his equipment but he updated us regularly and got the job done on time, which was very important and greatly appreciated. The insulation crew was as professional as possible and did a GREAT job. Work looks great and they even cleaned up the job site very well. Highly recommended.

Chris and Adam were very professional in our initial discussions and Adam was friendly throughout…read morethe project, showing exactly the plan, pivots where needed, and very quick and efficient. I intend to utilize for future service when needed at my home.

I would avoid this company. I used them this past December to replace the fascia boards at my house…read moreand it's been a nightmare. The guys they sent to do the demo work were unqualified and made a mess of my yard and the drip edge of my roof issue mangled in many places (Chris said it would be straightened then just hid it behind the gutters). Luckily the roofing crew finished the work they started, but it still didn't come out great. I've got multiple gaps that have formed around the fascia boards and gutters that are all messed up now, with water getting behind them in multiple places. There are wasps currently building nests in the gaps they left. I've called, texted and sent messages to Chris (the owner) through Yelp and he hasn't responded once and apparently doesn't stand behind his work. They also found a roof issue while they were doing the fascia boards that required them to remove a section of the roof and repair it, and while I haven't noticed any issues with it yet I'm nervous about the quality of it after seeing how the fascia boards turned out. They were supposed to replace the soffit reveal where they replaced the roof but never did, and I found a piece where they were supposed to install pvc fascia material is actually just a piece of tin cut to that shape. The soffit reveals all around the house are also uneven in a lot of places. I ended up having to buy a roofing magnet to pick up the hundreds of nails they left behind in my yard. I tried to give Chris the opportunity to make this right, but he won't answer or return any of my calls or messages. I would not recommend using Oakwood Roofing.

Walsh construction did a number of projects in my home - built a new pantry, a new back deck, and…read moreadded several custom built ins throughout the kitchen and bathrooms. I couldn't be happier with the results and process. Mike and his team are expert craftsmen and deliver stunning work products. They are one of the few construction firms I've encountered that still have that old school sense of work ethic, quality, and transparency. I highly recommend them for a project of any size.

The men from Walsh construction were amazing-- they truly bailed us out of a horrible situation. We…read morediscovered severe rot and they very carefully and quickly removed the rot and replaced a major support beam. They worked tirelessly and they were very reasonably priced, especially given the quick time frame and the extent of the work. We liked them so much that we later hired them to build custom bookshelves, which look gorgeous. That project was also completed quickly, with zero mess or stress on my part. I very highly recommend the company.