Kraus Associates, LLC

Charles Kraus is an architect and a builder, and that combination is what customers keep coming back to: ten of the fourteen reviews on Google and Houzz name him personally. A 2020 Houzz reviewer spelled out why it matters — because he is both, he can design the remodel and generate the proposed scope and budget for the work. The firm works out of 66 Central Street in Wellesley, and its own site describes an architect-led design/build practice that carries residential and commercial projects from zoning feasibility and construction documents through construction management or owner's-agent administration. The jobs customers describe are big ones. A January 2026 review walks through an early-20th-century house where Charles designed and supervised each phase: center beam stabilization, a remodeled kitchen, a new deck, a renovated bathroom and a new one. A Newton homeowner writing in June 2026 lists a finished basement, walls knocked down, a mudroom added, the kitchen and all the bathrooms redone, and an en suite bathroom added upstairs. An October 2025 review covers a second-floor master addition, a full remodel of that floor, and a finished basement. Not every project is a whole house. A September 2025 review describes a large porch turned into a four-season room, design and build both; another from that month recounts designing a Greek Revival farmhouse, with the homeowners crediting attention to historical detail. Schedule and budget come up as well. A September 2025 Houzz review describes three bathrooms renovated that year — on time, under budget, and with the firm taking full responsibility for anything that wasn't quite right and making it right quickly. In March 2025, another customer said the projections for time and cost were spot on. The most specific timeline comes from a June 2024 review: design began in January 2023 and construction in August. Google shows 4.8 stars from 16 ratings; Houzz 5.0 from 19. The newest Google review isn't from a homeowner at all. Another company that shared a Wellesley project writes that the team was professional and organized, communicated with both their crew and the homeowners, and left the project area clean at the end of each day. Before calling, settle which part of the practice you are hiring. The services on their site — zoning feasibility, construction documents, construction management, owner's-agent administration — are separable, and the work customers describe ranges from one set of bathrooms to an entire house, so confirm where the design work ends and the construction contract begins. This is a firm for the drawn-and-built job: an addition, a second floor, a gut renovation of an older house around Wellesley and Newton. Its Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration is active. Ask for the scope-and-budget document early — it is the piece a design/build arrangement turns on.