Busy Beavers

Busy Beavers is a family-owned fencing company based in North Billerica that says it's been operating for 17 years, with owner Jim working directly with clients on every job. It's a Better Business Bureau A+ accredited business, and its listed services cover wood, vinyl, aluminum, and chain-link fencing. When the work actually happens, it's consistently well reviewed. Reviewers across nearly a decade describe Jim listening carefully to what they wanted, offering better materials or pricing than competitors, and completing fence installations and repairs on time and within budget — cedar fences, chain-link replacements, and repair work after storm damage all come up favorably, with several customers specifically praising his hands-on, solo approach and thorough cleanup. But there's a real and recurring problem on the other side of that record: getting Jim to actually show up and follow through. A 2022 review described being ghosted repeatedly after months of back-and-forth on an estimate. A 2023 review simply said he doesn't return calls or texts. And a 2024 review went further, describing trouble getting the original work done, and then even more trouble getting him to come back and fix it. These aren't isolated — they span three separate years, and they're the kind of complaint (unresponsiveness, no-shows) that's especially frustrating once you've already committed to a contractor. There's also a real gap between platforms: Google shows 3.5 stars from 13 ratings, while Angi and HomeAdvisor both show 4.7 from 34 ratings each — a wider split than usual, worth keeping in mind when weighing any single source. For fence work in the North Billerica area, the craftsmanship reviews here are genuinely strong when the job gets done — but confirm a firm start date and communication expectations up front, given the repeated pattern of no-shows and unreturned calls.