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Hawthorn Builders works at the big end of home building: whole-house rebuilds, custom and net-zero homes, and additions its Houzz profile prices at $250,000 to $5 million. The Needham company says Mathew Roth and Ryan McDonnell, two neighbours on Hawthorn Avenue, started it in February 2005 and still run it, and that it has built or renovated over 250 Greater Boston properties since. Its Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration, held by Hawthorn Investments LLC, is active, and BBB has accredited it since 2018 with an A+ rating. Its 20 Google ratings average 5 stars, and the written reviews describe large, long jobs. In a 2023 review, a couple building a Zero Net Energy home in Wellesley said the project began in June 2020 and ran straight into pandemic problems that the team handled and explained promptly. A 2024 reviewer said project manager Sean, who has a carpentry background, helped steer an old coastal colonial renovation, and the company helped them find an architect and designers. Another 2023 client, who had done five similar projects with other contractors, described a full renovation and rebuild of a 4,000-square-foot home west of Boston. Smaller jobs appear too. In a November 2024 review, a customer said a barn restoration and master bathroom renovation stayed on budget and met its deadlines, and a November 2025 reviewer described a five-month basement conversion into a family rec room with a new bathroom, with Matt, Ryan and Adam each handling a part of the job. The Houzz reviews run from 2012 to 2017, including a 2012 master bathroom with a curbless shower overseen by designer Jessica Williamson.
Hawthorn helped us with a complete basement renovation where they took our unfinished space and transformed it into a hangout space and rec room, including the addition of a bathroom, for our family. From our initial meeting with Matt, the financial updates with Ryan and our day to day interactions with Adam, the whole team was wonderful to work with. They were professional, skilled, punctual and transparent throughout the process. There were little to no surprises and they did a great job helping to manage to our budget. We absolutely love our new space, and appreciated the creative solutions and design that the team offered. We had an incredibly positive experience throughout the 5 month project and would highly recommend Hawthorn to anyone looking for an excellent contractor/builder.
Hawthorn is amazing to work with. We worked with them to build a new custom home, have used their home management services, and also are working with them on a renovation to a vacation home. The quality and durability of their work is unmatched and they are extremely responsive. We appreciate that everyone at Hawthorn is great to work with as well, they truly partner with the homeowner on all work and everything is very transparent. Cannot recommend highly enough.
We recently completed a master bath remodel, along with an extensive garage and barn project. From beginning to end everyone at Hawthorn was great to work with. After having a not so great experience with another contractor it was a breath of fresh air to work with Hawthorn. Highly recommend them!
We just completed a barn restoration and master bathroom renovation with Hawthorn Builders. From start to finish, we thoroughly enjoyed working with each member of the Hawthorn team. The project remained on budget, there was constant communication throughout, and deadlines were met. The work is truly top notch. We couldn't be happier with the final product and would absolutely recommend Hawthorn to any potential clients. We look forward to working with them again in the future.
We discovered Hawthorn as we were searching for a builder for our renovation. They had been working on another project in our town so we decided to reach out. From the first meeting onward, the level of service and honesty were outstanding. Every member of their team, whether the owners or others on the team, were all fantastic to work with. They helped us find a best-fit architect for our needs, matched us to designers, and exhibited a ton of patience as we worked through a multitude of decisions, both big and small. Our project manager, Sean, was amazing. Not only was he a strong project coordinator, he was a trusted advisor. His background in carpentry and his experience with builds showed throughout. All of the vendors they brought in were highly coordinated and excellent craftsmen. We were thrilled with the result; they transformed our old coastal colonial into a beautifully crafted traditional home, with attention to detail on historically accurate high-quality elements. We're super happy with our decision to work with Hawthorn and highly recommend them to others. They're small enough to provide the highly personalized service we were looking for, and big enough to tackle high-end large scale programs.
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2 changes recorded — last scanned Aug 2, 2026.
Typical Greater Boston range for this kind of work, from regional averages — not a quote from Hawthorn Builders. Use it to sanity-check bids, then get the real number in writing.
Estimated range
$23,000 – $35,000
Typical remodeling project around $29,000
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Owner named across years of reviews5.0
Deck replacements4.9
Bathroom renovations4.8
Interior upgrades finished before the agreed date4.4
Full remodels4.6
Project communication3.8