Old City Builders

A $247,000 primary-suite addition in Needham Heights and a $160,475 gut of a house in Arlington — Old City Builders, run from 2 Lewis Circle in Peabody by Joshua Budd, pulls permits for the big end of residential remodeling rather than the punch-list end. The six permits on file back that up. Alongside the two large jobs there is a $72,000 side-porch remodel on Birch Street in Marblehead, completed in 2021, a 2018 second-floor apartment kitchen and window replacement in Malden, and a garage demolition in Danvers. Two more are at the Peabody address the company itself lists — a storm-damaged roof rebuilt to engineer's specs and a kitchen remodel. The thing to settle before any conversation goes further is the licence. BuildZoom shows Massachusetts registration 176922 for the company as inactive, notes the state's record that its status "was at one point cancelled," and states separately that the registration expired on 10-09-2023 and was still expired when the site last checked it in April 2026. That is a directory's account, not a confirmation from the state, and the same page can't decide whether the number is a general contractor licence or a home improvement contractor registration. In Massachusetts, HIC registration is what covers non-structural residential home improvement work and what gives a homeowner access to the Guaranty Fund, so ask directly and verify with the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation yourself. One other paperwork note: the 2018 Malden permit is recorded as expired. Nothing written by a customer exists anywhere — no reviews on BuildZoom or elsewhere — so the permit record is all there is. If you're weighing them for an addition or a whole-room job, the scale of past work is the real evidence; ask for the current registration number, addresses of the recent jobs, and references you can call.