All Phase Contracting - Winchester, MA - Porch

My wife and I drove around our area looking at porticos and taking pictures of those we liked. We also looked at hundreds of pictures of poticos on the web. For several weeks I worked on prepaing a set of scale drawings of a protico shape we liked which matched the dimensions of our garrison colonial house and front porch. I also prepared a detailed cost estimate of materials for the job. I reproduced 8 sets of drawings and list of cost of materials and then called about 15 finish carpenters, mostly from Angie's List. (Unfortunately, there were hundreds of choices of finish carpenters within 10 miles of my house, but none listed the word "portico" in their write up.) All of my initial phone calls connected me with an answering machine where I left a detailed message about my planned portico project. Over the next 3 weeks only about half the carpenters called back and came to look at the job site, discuss my set of drawings and estimate of cost of materials. All took a copy of the materials to study and said they would give me a price for the job. It took another four weeks before I eventually go 5 bids for the job. Frank Azaro of All Phase Contracting in Winchester was the lowest bidder. The bid was more than I expected to pay but was also less than half of the highest bidder's price. Frank and another carpenter worked for 4 days to complete the job. I watched Frank closely during the whole job because I wanted the end result to look as much as possible like my drawings. We referred to my drawings often to discuss how Frank planned to accomplish the next steps especially when he had different ideas about how to do certain things. Frank had some innovative ideas that minimized the disruption to the house where the new construction connected to the house. This saved construction time and reduced the cost of the job. I let the carpenters store their tools and materials in the garage overnight and Frank always set up my "supervisor's lawn chair" the next morning as they started to work. We worked together to make sure the curve of the ceiling was to my full satisfaction. We worked together to do whatever was necessary to reroute the wire from the house wall light to a box in the ceiling of the portico. We developed a good working relationship and everything turned out very well. My wife and I are pleased with the end result and would not hesitate to let Frank tackle other jobs around the house.

Got done, but with much stress due to staff crew not speaking English (and probably not legal!). Contractor was doing other jobs, so project was extended over period 2-3 times actual work time. Contractor not clear about painting sub-contractor costs.

We are very particular and interviewed a lot of contractors for this project. We chose All Phase because Frank (owner of All Phase) provided good answers to all our questions, had good ideas for the project, and offered a competitive price. The project went extremely well. Frank was on site every day both working and supervising two very competent workers. When not on site or if I had a question during off hours, Frank was always readily available by phone. We will most definitely use All Phase for future projects.

We paid for 8 hours, 2 workers. We received 8 hours, 1 worker. We could have had more painting completed – trim, hallway, but with only 1 worker it wasn't possible. We didn't "push the issue." Job was done satisfactorily, but feel more could have been done.

All Phase Contracting was excellent throughout the process. Pricing was fair, work was very professional, and everything was on-time. When our driveway was accidentally damaged from an overweight dumpster loader on a warm and wet day, APC also repaired the driveway free-of-charge. Would recommend them highly.