Guthrie Construction

Joe Guthrie does a lot of the work himself. A customer who hired him twice wrote in 2015 that he was hands-on, patient with small details, and held his crew to a high standard — and the jobs behind that description run from a few thousand dollars of exterior repair up to a $160,000 renovation of an old multi-unit house, described by its owner in February 2018. The written accounts span 2011 to 2019 and cover most of a general contractor's range. A 2019 customer paid about $28,000 for a renovation finished in roughly six weeks and singled out the plumber, electrician, tiler and plasterer Joe brought in. In January 2019, a $15,000 kitchen job meant lowering the bar to counter height, painting the cabinets white, a new countertop, dishwasher, light fixtures and a backsplash. A December 2018 walk-in closet involved knocking down walls, closing off doors and building the shelving. Over the summer of 2017, another homeowner had a new front staircase, a rear landing and staircase, a rebuilt porch deck, new gutters and fascia and shored-up porch framing for $17,000. Getting hold of him is what older customers keep bringing up. After a spring and summer of stalling from an insurance company and contractors who wouldn't call back, a homeowner writing in December 2015 said Joe answered every call and every question promptly. A customer that June said he was the most responsive of many contractors they called, came out within days with a quote, and worked with them on price to meet their budget. A 2016 reviewer noted that when he had done their roof earlier he started within two days and was finished in three. One project went badly. In February 2018, a customer on a roughly $22,000 job said they asked Joe to leave nine weeks into work he had promised in six, that his costs kept climbing as things they understood to be included turned out not to be, and that he came back asking for more money. A different 2018 customer said their budget went up a little, though it stayed close to the starting figure. He averages 4.6 on both HomeAdvisor and Angi, 24 ratings on each. The credentials on the HomeAdvisor page are the company's own words rather than anything verified: it describes itself as fully licensed and insured in Massachusetts without giving a number, claims an A+ BBB rating with no file cited, and lists a 2016 Super Service Award. The written accounts stop in 2019, so the crew, the subcontractors and the prices in them describe how the business ran then. For a renovation you want one hands-on carpenter running — an addition, a staircase, a kitchen, an insurance repair — that is what his customers describe. Ask for two or three jobs finished in the past year, and put the scope, the schedule and what counts as an extra into the contract before anyone starts.