Excel Carpentry, Inc.

Excel Carpentry, run by Emmett Doonan, is a Malden-based finish carpentry shop known for the kind of precise, smaller jobs a homeowner doesn't want to trust to just anyone — replacing a run of interior doors, matching custom hardware, hanging cabinets in a house where none of the walls are quite square. The reviews, all posted between 2018 and early 2020 on Angi and HomeAdvisor, describe the same person doing the work each time rather than a company sending out whoever's free: on time, often finishing early, and willing to pick up extra tasks mid-job instead of treating them as separate charges. A 2018 reviewer who said he's usually lucky to get two of thoughtfulness, professionalism, and communication out of three called Emmett a rare case of getting all three; another homeowner in an "old quirky home" recalled him showing up prepared for whatever an older structure threw at him. The doors-and-cabinets thread runs through most of it: seven interior doors replaced in one Angi review, custom hardware sourced from a manufacturer for a specific piece in another, a bathroom cabinet installed cleanly in a third. Two things are worth confirming before booking. BuildZoom lists an active Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration (#190323, issued January 2026) for the company, though that's the directory's own listing rather than a state verification. And the company's own listings don't fully agree with each other — BuildZoom shows a Melrose, MA address while Angi, HomeAdvisor, and its Procore Network profile all point to Columbia Street in Malden, and HomeAdvisor's page separately lists two different lengths of time in business — worth clarifying both before signing anything. The written reviews are now more than five years old, with nothing newer on file, so a phone call is the best way to confirm what a current job looks like. For interior doors, trim, and cabinet work around Malden and Melrose, though, what's on file points to a carpenter who shows up, finishes clean, and does more than asked.