FL Deschenes Construction

Fifteen permitted projects and not a single customer review anywhere. That is the odd shape of FL Deschenes Construction — a Marblehead builder with a long paper trail at town hall and an empty comment section. The company says it was established in 1992 and specializes in residential construction on the North Shore, run by Fred Deschenes as the general contractor with a crew of employees. Its own description is a small design-build shop: kitchens, bathrooms, interior renovations, additions and new construction. Houzz lists the same mix plus custom houses, decks and porches, and custom millwork. The permit history is the most concrete thing here. BuildZoom's file lists 15 permitted jobs from 2010 through 2024, clustered in Marblehead, Danvers and Beverly — second-floor bathroom remodels, a kitchen remodel with new windows and doors, a one-story addition, a finished basement, deck work at the harbor, skylight replacement. It is the profile of a builder doing steady mid-size residential work in a tight radius, not a high-volume operation. What there isn't is any independent read on how those jobs went. Neither BuildZoom nor Houzz has a single review, and Houzz shows 6 followers and three Marblehead project galleries. BuildZoom's 97 score is calculated from permit records, not from customers — it says nothing about whether homeowners were happy. On credentials: BuildZoom lists two Massachusetts home improvement contractor registrations for the company, #138262 which it describes as active and #123355 which it says was at one point cancelled. Those are the directory's claims, not confirmations. Anyone hiring for a renovation should look up the current HIC registration directly with the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, and ask which number the contract will be written under. Worth noting too: both directories file the company at an Essex, MA address while the business itself gives 52 Atlantic Ave in Marblehead. The phone (781) 631-7188 and the owner's name match across all three, so it is the same company — just filed under a different address. The right call for someone planning a bathroom or kitchen renovation or an addition on the North Shore who wants a small, long-running shop with an architect in the design-build loop. Because there is no written customer history to lean on, ask for references from recent jobs and for the addresses of the permitted projects — those are public, and they are the strongest thing this company has.