Korte Construction, Inc.

The clearest picture of Korte Construction comes from building permits, not from customers. Robert E. Korte, Jr. has run the company out of 48 Katherine Rd in Watertown since 1996, and BuildZoom counts 18 permitted projects under its name. Those permits sketch the work. A $450,000 job at 141-143 Howard Ave in Boston, pulled in 2021 to repair burned framing with new electric, plumbing, insulation, plaster, finish carpentry, sprinklers, siding and roofing, closed out with a certificate of occupancy in 2024. A $40,000 kitchen and bathroom renovation in Malden in 2018, with the same address coming back in 2025 for a rear staircase rebuild. Bathroom and kitchen permits in Belmont between 2016 and 2021, siding in Cambridge in 2014, exterior trim in Charlestown in 2017. The company describes itself as a full-service general contractor and says the owner's 30 years of carpentry lean toward finish carpentry, wood siding, wood roofs and historical restoration. Angi lists it under carpentry framing and interior trim work. What's missing is anyone's account of hiring them. Angi and HomeAdvisor both mark the company as new with no reviews written, and BuildZoom has none either — its score of 109, which it says ranks in the top 5% of Massachusetts licensed contractors, is built on licensing and permit history rather than on customers. The paperwork is worth reading closely. BuildZoom says it checked Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration #178272 in February 2026 and found it active. It also lists an older HIC registration, #119350, that Mass.gov showed as cancelled at one point, and a construction supervisor number, CS-061617, that it has not rechecked since an August 2025 expiration date. For an addition, a gut renovation, or restoration carpentry on an older house, that permit trail is the real credential here — substantial jobs, seen through to completion. Ask for the current registration and construction supervisor numbers, and for references from the Howard Ave or Faulkner St work, because nothing published speaks to what they're like to hire.