Alan F Hayes Carpenter Builder

Fifty-one permits and one review. Alan Hayes has been pulling building permits across the North Shore for years — Beverly, Marblehead, Middleton, Topsfield, Rowley — and almost none of that work has left a public trace beyond the permit office. The permits themselves say a lot. They are not punch-list carpentry: gut kitchen rebuilds, second-floor bathrooms demolished to the frame and reframed, a rear dormer with new siding and roof, decks torn out and rebuilt, a brick chimney taken to the foundation and rebuilt, clapboards and trim replaced. The typical permit runs around $82,000, with several past $100,000 and one above $250,000. This is a carpenter who runs whole renovations, filed under his own name rather than a construction-company brand. BuildZoom lists the services as finish carpentry, framing, cabinets, deck repair and other carpentry, and Houzz files him under woodworkers and carpenters — a description that undersells what the permit record actually describes. The written record from customers is thin and dated. The one review, left on Houzz in May 2021, came from someone who said they had worked with Alan on projects large and small over the previous 14 years and called him hard-working and detail-oriented, with another big renovation lined up. Five stars, and five across work quality, communication and value. That is one voice from five years ago, so treat it as history rather than a current read. What to settle before calling: the licensing. BuildZoom lists two separate Massachusetts credentials for him — a construction supervisor licence for one- and two-family homes and a home improvement contractor registration — which is the normal shape for a builder who runs his own jobs, but those entries are the directory's claims, not confirmation. Ask for both numbers and check them yourself with the Board of Building Regulations and Standards and the Office of Consumer Affairs. Also ask for recent references directly, since the public review trail stops in 2021 and cannot tell you how the last few years have gone. A reasonable call for a Marblehead or Beverly homeowner planning a serious kitchen or bathroom rebuild — the kind with plans, demolition and permits — who wants one experienced carpenter running it rather than a large firm, and who is willing to do the reference and licence checking the sparse public record leaves undone.