Burke Brothers Building Contractors

Two written accounts, six years apart, pulling opposite ways — and the platform averages side with the unhappy one. On Google the business sits at 2.3 stars across three ratings; on Houzz it is 2.0 from a single review. That Houzz review, posted in December 2015, is the only one carrying any detail: the homeowner said they hired Burke Brothers for renovations, found them unprofessional, and that the work was not completed on time — and that they would not use them again. The counterweight is a September 2021 Google comment one line long, warm but with nothing specific in it. The business itself is small and has been around a while. The Better Business Bureau lists it at 202 Forest Ave in Swampscott as a sole proprietorship with one employee, run by Joseph Burke and operating since 2014 — twelve years — categorized as a general contractor, with BBB explicitly Not Rated for want of information. Its Houzz page, filed to the North Shore, presents a design-build outfit doing home remodeling, additions, accessory dwelling units, basement work and universal design, and states plainly: 'our business is owner/contractor. WE do all work in house.' Schedule is the thing to press on. The single specific complaint on file is about a job that ran past its date and a crew the homeowner found unprofessional. That was a decade ago, so ask for two or three clients from the past year, ask when their jobs actually finished, and get milestone dates written into the contract. For a small renovation where you want the owner on the tools rather than a project manager, that in-house pitch is the appeal. Do the reference-calling yourself, though — there is very little written down, and what exists skews low.