John Chew

John Chew takes houses down to the studs. Working from 47 Bayview Rd in Marblehead, his permit trail is dominated by full gut renovations — a $502,971 interior rebuild on Atlantic Ave, whole-house jobs that strip and replace electrical, plumbing, heat, siding, windows, kitchens and multiple bathrooms in one go, and a $326,906 garage rebuilt under old and historic district approval. Thirty-two permits in total, twelve of them in the past three years, with a typical permit value around $83,573. That is a builder doing whole projects on Marblehead's older housing stock, not one filling in small jobs. His BuildZoom page says a decade in the trade and lists kitchen, bathroom, basement and whole-home remodels plus additions. What's absent is any account from a homeowner. BuildZoom carries no reviews at all, so there is no rating on this page, and the site's own score is built from permits and licence records rather than customer experience. The registration question is the one to raise. BuildZoom shows an active Massachusetts construction supervisor licence for him, but it also shows a home improvement contractor registration as inactive and at one point cancelled — while a different part of the same page says he currently holds both and both were active when last checked. The page contradicts itself, so take neither reading on faith. HIC registration matters here: it is what gives a homeowner access to the state Guaranty Fund on a residential job, and gut renovations are exactly the kind of work where that matters. Ask him for both numbers and check them with the Department of Public Safety and the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. If you are planning a substantial renovation on an older Marblehead house, especially one facing historic district review, the permit history shows repeated work of that exact type carried through to completion. Do your own reference calls, and settle the HIC registration before signing.