J & J Frerk Carpenters

Ninety-six building permits, and almost no customer voice to go with them. J & J Frerk Carpenters works out of Beverly and describes itself on Houzz as a father-and-son carpentry team doing carpentry and finish carpentry. The paper trail is the substantial part. BuildZoom's Beverly profile — filed under John Frerk, with Jared Frerk and John Frerk both listed as owners — counts 96 permitted projects, eight of them in the past three years, at a typical permit value near $48,500. That is a documented history of permitted residential work, and it points to a crew that handles jobs big enough to need a building department's sign-off rather than odd-job touch-ups. What you won't find is much of what homeowners said afterward. Houzz shows a 5.0 from two reviews, and BuildZoom states it has received no reviews for them at all. Two ratings can't carry a verdict, so read the score as a starting point and ask for references from recent jobs instead. One thing to raise on the first call: the licensing picture in the directories is mixed. BuildZoom lists a Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration and a construction supervisor license under the Frerk name, and also records two other licenses as cancelled at some point, plus a pair of Newton city licenses whose listed expiration was December 2022. Those are a directory's records, not confirmed status — ask for the current registration and construction supervisor numbers and check them yourself. For trim and carpentry work on an older Beverly-area house, the permit history is a reasonable reason to get them on the list. Just do the reference calls the online reviews can't do for you.