Fontes Home Improvements, LLC

Fontes Home Improvements has been pulling permits in the New Bedford area since 2004 — porches, roofs, kitchens, baths — and the paper trail is the most concrete thing about it. The standout entry is a 2019 New Bedford job permitted at $36,000 for three new kitchens and three new bathrooms, the kind of multi-unit work a one-person shop does not usually take on. More recently, a 2023 permit covered rebuilding a front porch in Acushnet at $7,600, and a 2022 Taunton permit covered a bathroom renovation with kitchen cabinets. BBB lists the business as started in 2000, incorporated as an LLC in 2006, 26 years in, with Maria Fontes and Jose Fontes as owners and one employee. The thing to resolve first: its Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration, number 116938, is held in the company's own name but the state registry shows it expired — BuildZoom puts the expiration at 6 August 2024 and gives the company a score of zero for exactly that reason. In Massachusetts that registration is what backs a homeowner's access to the Guaranty Fund, so ask whether it has been renewed before any contract is signed. There is no customer feedback anywhere to weigh — no reviews on any platform, and BBB has issued no rating, saying it lacks enough information. So the permits are all you have to go on. If the scope is a kitchen or a porch, ask to walk a recent job, get references from the Acushnet or Taunton work, and confirm the registration and insurance in writing.