Newton Exteriors

Frank Sullivan has been putting windows, siding and roofs on West Newton houses for six decades — BBB dates the business to 1962, the Houzz profile says Sullivan has been at it since 1966 — and the people who wrote about him keep circling the same thing: the owner comes out, looks the job over himself, and tells you what you do and don't need. The written accounts run 2002 through 2017, and the best of them are specific. In a September 2003 review a condo owner had a contract signed in 48 hours, windows delivered three weeks later as promised, and all ten of their large old windows replaced in a day and a half. In May 2002 a homeowner with a leak in a slate roof with copper valleys described Frank and his associate Mark laying out repair options — rubber as the middle choice against cheaper fabric — and doing the work professionally. A February 2015 customer's crew came as scheduled and left the house broom clean; in August 2017 a reviewer singled out the two carpenters and the owner's responsiveness. Angi and HomeAdvisor both show 4.8 from 36 ratings. The complaints are just as concrete, and they sit in the earlier years. A March 2003 roofing job took about five months longer than expected to start and finish, which that customer put down to unusually heavy rain — the final result, they said, was very good. In a July 2002 review the windows arrived over a month late after the factory made them the wrong size, and the caulking was done very poorly. A March 2002 reviewer put it bluntly: Frank is a busy man who gets the job done well once he commits, but expect delays, sometimes his guys do not show up at the end, and hire your own plumber rather than the one he brought. The sharpest is a 1-star Angi review from March 2012 — nothing fit correctly or lined up right, and because the wrong wire went in the first time the customer had to hire their own electrician a second time, and wrote that the company wasn't willing to pay. Those older complaints point at the same two places: the schedule and the finish work. For replacement windows, siding or a roof from a long-established neighborhood outfit whose owner walks the job himself, this is a reasonable call — put the start and completion dates in the contract, name who does any electrical or plumbing work, and agree up front what happens if the caulking or trim needs a return visit.