John K Serven

Nobody has ever written a word about John K Serven online — but the building departments have. Sixteen permits filed under his name, spanning 2000 to 2023, trace a Marblehead carpenter who builds and rebuilds decks: 12x48 footings, pressure-treated framing at 16 inches on centre, PVC and composite decking, 36-inch railings, stairs to grade. The addresses run from Marblehead and Beverly through Peabody, Salem and Waltham down to Brookline, East Boston and South Boston, so the work has never been confined to the North Shore. The permit trail widens a little beyond decks — a shed dormer with a master bath and roof work in Peabody, a small bathroom remodel with replacement windows in Waltham, a finished basement in Burlington, interior alterations on Main Street in Peabody. Jobs mostly landed in the $12,000-to-$26,000 range where a valuation was recorded. What there isn't, anywhere, is a customer's account. BuildZoom says plainly it has received no reviews for this business, and no rating exists to weigh. Its BuildZoom score of 0 is worth understanding correctly: that number is generated from licence status, not from anything a homeowner said. Nobody has complained; nobody has praised. The licensing picture is the thing to settle before calling. BuildZoom lists two separate Massachusetts home improvement contractor numbers for him, 112910 and 169580, both shown as inactive and both described as having been cancelled at some point; the same page separately calls 112910 a general contractor licence that expired 3 May 2011 and reports checking it as revoked in June 2026. Those descriptions don't agree with each other, and none of them came from the state. Registration matters for the remodeling and dormer work even if a deck-only job feels simpler, so ask him directly and check the number yourself with the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. Recent activity is light — one permit in the past three years. If you want a deck framed by someone who has been pulling permits for that exact work in these towns for two decades, he has the history for it. Just go in knowing you'd be the first person to write down how it went, and get the registration question answered first.