Boston, MA Basement Remodeling Professionals

“Our home was built in 1958 and was badly out of date. Our challenge to RIKB was to renovate and expand our kitchen, add a new bath, and renovate two master bathrooms and a half bath -- all while retaining its original beach cottage charm. They succeeded magnificently! Prudence Stoddard came up with a truly original design for our tight galley kitchen that makes it a wonderful place to cook and gather. She also designed two beautiful master bathrooms, a half bath, and created a new guest bath out of a storage room. The RIKB operations group made her designs come to life while dealing with the typical "old house" challenges of uneven floors, and outdated plumbing and electrical. To give you an idea of their dedication, the operations team was back at work the day after Superstorm Sandy using portable generators for the next five days. They even pumped out our flooded basement! Again, we would highly recommend RIKB without hesitation.”

“When we first talked about remodeling our fifteen year old kitchen to update and customize it to our current style and needs, we had the same reservations that every homeowner experiences – will we get value for our money; how can we avoid making costly mistakes; and will the results end up being what we really want? Well, you quickly turned our concerns into confidence that we chose the right person to help guide us through this process. You shared your knowledge and experiences on design layout and product choices while always keeping focused on optimizing functional work areas. You listened to what we wanted and occasionally you challenged us to rethink our needs and plans. What most people consider to be a somewhat difficult and at times painful experience, you made fun and exciting! We are so pleased with the kitchen that there is not one decision that we would have done differently, thanks to your advice and guidance. We have had several months now to enjoy the collaboration of our dream and your vision –every time we cook a meal, sip coffee or just walk through – we really do say thanks, Jodi. We could not have done it without you! - DB, Sudbury, MA, project: Kitchen with European elegance”

“We hired Fresh Start to rebuild a set of basement stairs and to install some vinyl windows (also in our basement). Communication was excellent, and the project was completed within time and monetary estimates. We would gladly hire them again.”

“Glenn Travis and I have been a working team for about a decade. I have been in the remodeling field for over 30 years and have worked with many design and architectural firms. None have compared to the kind of professional design service that I receive from GMT. His attention to detail and focus on the clients individual needs has made the experience astonishing. All of my clients are spoiled after they have work us and the GMT Home Design Team.”

“We just completed several home improvement projects with JP Hoffman Inc, and we could not be more pleased with the experience we've had. From the design to completion, Jay and his crew have proved extraordinarily professional, conscientious, helpful and detail-oriented. When we first got in touch with Jay, we wanted to finish our basement and were considering possibly adding a front porch to our home. My husband wanted a portico, I wanted a full farmer's porch, and neither of us could see the others' vision. After talking all of this over with Jay, we were thrilled to receive a rendering of a porch that not only fit both our criteria, but looked exponentially better than anything either of us had imagined. The finished porch is genuinely a work of art! We assumed the basement would be very straightforward, with the end result looking much like any other finished basement in New England, but what we received instead is another living space in our house. As the work progressed, we could see little touches of the details Jay puts into every project he undertakes. Our beams have a beautiful beaded edge that add such a finished look to the space. And instead of leaving our basement sashes as they were, Jay thought to add window casing around each of them, giving them the appearance of a much fuller window. A friend who was visiting yesterday said she wasn't surprised at all that our daughters wanted to play down there all day long since it was one of the warmest, coziest rooms in our house. The last project Jay completed for us was a new mudroom to the entryway from our garage. We'd talked a few times about my frustration with the lack of good space for kids coming in and out of the house, and we were thrilled with the plans Jay drew up for us. Not only do we have the added functionality I've been hoping for, but the room adds such wonderful character to our first floor. Jay took a hallway that did nothing more than serve it's purpose of allowing you to move from the kitchen to the garage, and turned it into a beautiful little room. Almost as important as the actual projects that we contracted for, we found that working with Jay was such a pleasure. When he said he would be at the house at 7:30, he was there at 7:30. Our property at the end of each workday was left in better shape than when he arrived. While the basement was in the early phases, I was surprised at how clean everything looked before they left each night. Any tools, sawdust, debris that was there during the workday was completely cleaned up by the time they left. The driveway was swept and washed down and floors were vacuumed, all a demonstration of the respect I felt Jay had for my home. Another thing we were pleased to find was that our projects were kept to the budget we had set aside for each. We didn't encounter any surprise bills or add-ons, again, a mark of Jay's professionalism and integrity as a small business owner. From the design and build phase through the budgeting and the full completion of all three projects, we could not be more pleased with Jay and his team. I have been highly recommending JP Hoffman to friends and neighbors since he began working with us, and look forward to many years of home improvement projects with them.”

“Dennis at DM did an excellent job remodeling our kitchen. I would recommend! Completed the job in a timely manner and stands behind his work. I will use again!”

“We hired Tom Curren to do a master bath remodel and master bedroom painting job (2012). The remodel was most complicated and involved several moving parts: we wanted to hire most of the subs (plumbers and shower glass, vanities, etc.) ourselves and then Tom Curren did the rest - demo, install shower, new window, drywall, paint, install fixtures, etc. They also provided subs (eg installing river stone in shower) for when we didn't have a particular sub we wanted to use. The remodeling was slightly delayed because of scheduling with the subs, etc., but everything came out really well and looks great! They also fixed a wall that was knocked out during the demo process at no charge to us (patched drywall and painted). I also note that the cost was about $10K lower than the other full-service contractors who quoted the job. We also used them for painting our foyer, vestibule, and breakfast room in our house (2011) and for painting the exterior trim (2009?). Painting is a particular strength of theirs - they do a ton of prep work, patching, etc. and our very old plaster walls look GREAT. They also double checked all the colors with us before starting (we had leftover paint that we had them use) to confirm that they were correct. On the exterior job, they put down giant drop cloths to protect our plants from paint chips. They were also cognizant of keeping the dust, etc. down since we had young kids and a baby in the house during the interior jobs - they vacuumed after every day of work and had a plastic sealing door to keep the dust out of the rest of the house as much as possible.”

“We hired CustomWorks to refinish our basement and they did an excellent job from start to finish. Custom Works worked with us from the beginning to ensure our basement turned out completely as planned and the professionals were proactive in suggesting alternatives and solutions. They also did an great job of referring the appropriate tradesmen to tackle the various tasks including a plumber, electrician, bathroom tile installation and ceiling tile installation. The overall cost was very reasonable and competitive. With CustomWorks we felt comfortable that we were receiving a fair price for materials and labor and that the firm was dedicated to producing a high quality product and service. We were extremely pleased with the end product and happy the work was done in a timely manner. We would definitely recommend CustomWorks (and have) to any of our family and friends.”

“This company designed and remodeled my kitchen, incorporating all the details that I specified. Additionally, David Supple and his team made recommendations for other improvements which were an added bonus to the outcome of my new kitchen. The time spent with me talking and advising me on the plans for my kitchen were invaluable to me, and I was so impressed with David's creativity, patience in working with me, and his follow through in producing a kitchen that exceeded my expectations. I would highly recommend this company to other home owners who want a first rate remodeling and expansion job.”

““Steve’s work is excellent. The work that he did for us involved having insulation blown into the walls, a complete stripping of the existing shakes, sealing the exterior of the house with solid foam insulation followed by Hardie Board clapboards. In addition to that work, we had new windows installed on the ground floor (with the old sash weight cavities filled in with foam). We also had an existing (and quite horrible) concrete porch removed and a new mahogany deck put on, including new stairs and railings, and we had a new basement bulkhead built. We learned some ‘interesting things’ about our 100 year old house as the work progressed, as one might expect. For example, there had been a fire (probably around 1930 or so) that involved the front of the house. This likely was the root cause of the concrete porch that had been added around that time. In the 1950s or 60s, when a new top pad was poured, however, the drainage was neglected. Over the next 50 years this caused the sill across the front of the house to rot away. We discovered this during the demolition for the new deck. Steve’s solution for replacing the sill was very effective, and saved us the considerable extra expense that would have ensued from needing to jack up the house. These sorts of surprises always come up with old houses – but Steve was completely up front about any extras (such as the new sill), and we never had any problems with negotiations over the costs. We used our yard for the material, and Steve was quite gentle with the landscaping around the house. We expected some damage to the front lawn – and had our expectations met :) It’s recovered this year and is equally as bad as it was before the construction. The work took slightly longer to complete than we originally thought, but some of this was due to the weather (which will not be a problem for an indoor job), and such things as the sill. We stayed in the house throughout the project (with one 10 day vacation) and there were no problems. The house looks great (we just had it reappraised for a re-fi and it came in higher than we had thought). Our heating bills this past winter were just a bit over half of what they were last year. Overall the quality of the work was very high. The work- site was always cleaned at the end of every day. Steve was very easy to contact when he wasn’t on site. His crew always showed up as scheduled and did a thorough job. We relocated to California about three years after Steve did the work. Our house was on the market for less than 36 hours and sold over the asking price. I'm sure that the work that Steve did was a major factor in the appeal of the house. I recommend him unconditionally! Steve & Ann, Newton MA”