Custom Building Solutions Inc

Custom Building Solutions is a Newton, MA design/build outfit that says it's been doing custom renovations, additions, and historic renovation work since 1986, when John Buckley — a third-generation Boston-area contractor — started the company. Buckley still owns and runs it, and the company points to a 2013 Cambridge Preservation Award as its calling card on older homes. Its Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor license (118478) is active, and BBB gives it an A+ letter grade, though the business hasn't sought BBB accreditation. Online ratings are thin enough that they're hard to read much into: Google shows 3 stars from just two ratings, while Houzz shows a perfect 5.0 from a single review — not enough on either site to say much about consistency, and the two don't agree with each other. There's no pricing or project-level detail to check against, and the founding story has a wrinkle: the company's own site puts its start at 1986, while BBB's business-started date is 1993 — worth a quick question about which history applies to the entity actually holding the license. This is a long-tenured, owner-run shop with a real, current license and a preservation-award credential, best suited to someone weighing reputation and licensing over a deep bench of reviews. Given how few ratings exist online, ask for references directly before booking.