Cambridgeport Construction

Cambridgeport Construction is a Boston-based (Milton-rooted) firm that specializes in the kind of work most contractors shy away from: gut-renovating and restoring homes built well over a century ago while blending in additions and new construction that don't look out of place next to the original. Boston Magazine has named it to its 'Best of Boston Home' list more than once, and its own site says the team has been at this for about 20 years, founded by Randy Milburn -- whose background, oddly enough, includes restoring pipe organs in historic cathedrals -- with Boston Globe reporting that business partner Jim Burke joined him to form the company in 2010. The written record is thin in volume but strong in detail, even if it's dated. In a 2017 Houzz review, an architect described the firm tackling a gut renovation and addition on a house from the late 1800s -- deteriorated exterior millwork, a bat problem, the works -- and called out its ability to keep the schedule moving and the costs in check on a historically sensitive project. Another 2017 reviewer, who hired the company for a 6,000-square-foot gut renovation in Brookline, singled out communication above everything else: Cambridgeport was the only contractor that picked up the phone during her search, and two years after the job wrapped -- on the promised 8-month timeline -- they were still answering her maintenance calls promptly. Press coverage since then, from a Georgian-style Brookline remodel with a cedar-clad dry sauna to a Cambridge Victorian redo and a New England Home feature on turning a mudroom into a butler's pantry, tells a consistent story: high-end residential work, done with restraint. What's worth asking about directly: the company's Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration (#174299) is expired according to the state registry. That's a real gap to raise before signing anything, given the business rests on residential remodeling work. It's also worth noting the written reviews on file are both from 2017 -- there's no more recent customer account to check the current team and pricing against, so ask for a reference from a project completed in the last couple of years. For a homeowner weighing a serious historic renovation or a high-end addition, Cambridgeport's specialty is clearly restoration and custom work, backed by real press recognition and detailed praise -- just confirm the license situation and get a current reference before committing.