NICK PORTNOY BUILDERS

Our experience with Nick Portnoy was excellent. He had terrific design ideas right from the start. During the project, if a problem popped up (as they always do), he offered efficient and clear solutions. The work was started on schedule. The job lasted for the estimated amount of time. Nick and his crew did a great job protecting the good parts of our apartment and sealing off dust from others. Nick works with a group of sub-contractors who we found helpful and responsive. The quartzite counter has been a big hit. The sub-contractor picked out the stone for us, cut it nicely, and installed it very well. He even carried up four flights of stairs so it could be installed as one large piece rather than cut it to fit in the elevator.

We would use their services again if we needed to.

This provider has worked on our house before, and has gotten to know the house and its quirks. We told him that we did not expect a finished basement, we just wanted one that would not be "scary" . The floor was uneven and the pipe from the old and unused oil tank was showing through the concrete. There were a few rooms with walls barely still standing. We wanted to preserve the heart pine raised wood floor room, even though we didn't know its intended purpose. Our neighbor has since told us his 85 year old relative remembers playing in it as a play room, and was hoping that we didn't get rid of it. As usual, Nick came daily, even when sub-contractors were working. He always knew what they were suppose to be doing, and made sure it was done. He kept us informed of any problems or concerns he had. He was willing to use some old tiles we had for the basement sink and back splash. He even went along with my idea of tiling the wide window sill above the basement sink. Nick had the asbestos removed and sill insulated. He, and his crew, removed scary rooms, water proofed the exterior walls, put up a wall to section off the furnace from the laundry area, and put up dry wall for the laundry area. and all the other things mentioned above. Previously, both the hot water header and the dryer were vented through basement windows. This not only made the windows unusable as windows, but also caused concerns whenever the snow might cover the vents. The new vents are higher and will not be an issue with snow. We had recently begun to see some water on the basement floor. One of our neighbors had a leak in the water main to his house and we thought this might be the cause. Then the town and the neighbor's plumber came by to check out our situation and decided that the problems were with the our drains. We also had a drain specialist out to check the drains, and found that we had a whole house drain (the house is old) which needed to be changed. Even with all this done, the water issue was still there. Nick came to wait for the plumber to see what else could be the cause. He looked under the built in wooded storage benches and found that the problem was with an old pipe under the raised wood flooring going to the radiator in the play room. He had a new pipe install which circumvents around the out side of the room; so any problems will not be hidden. The new stained concrete floors look very nice and are easy to keep clean. The walls are freshly painted, and the heart pine floors and benches in the play room were sanded and stained and look great! The laundry sink and tile are perfect for the area. Going down to the basement is no longer an unpleasant experience.

He is excellent and he did a really beautiful job. He had a good price and the work was beautiful. He is a very good carpenter. The people that work for him are very responsible and respectful. They showed up every day and they were a pleasure to have around. He is very busy but we would hire him again.

Nick was the general contractor and used very responsible subcontractors. He and his crew were very punctual and the project finished on time and within budget, considering the extras we added. He and his crew were very pleasant and extremely considerate, They even installed a make shift door in one of the windows they were replacing, so they would be able to access the work area via scaffolding without bothering us. We were amazed at how clean they left the work area every day. They blocked off the work area so well, we hardly had any extra dust. We are very pleased with the new bath, the renovated powder room, the expansion of the landing and the window seat, and, we are thrilled with how the dormer looks outside. Our neighbors has given us many compliments on it. One of them remarked that it looks as if it was always part of the original house. We had projects done by others in the past, but we have never had such a positive experience as we had doing this project with Nick Portnoy. We have a lot of trust in Nick, and we would not hesitate to have Nick work with us again on future projects.