One Good Carpenter

Thirty-six years of experience is the headline, and it is the company's own claim. What One Good Carpenter actually advertises is the fine end of the trade - built-ins, custom cabinets and pantries, fireplace mantels, bookcases, crown molding, baseboards and trim - with fence installation and repair and deck work on the outdoor side. Its Houzz page carries 18 project photo sets, from Wellesley and Somerville to one job in Naples, Florida. It is a very small operation. The Better Business Bureau records a single employee, dates the business to 2016, and declines to grade it at all, saying it does not have enough information to issue a rating. Neither directory profile carries a customer review. The credentials are what to sort out before hiring. Houzz publishes the company's own list: a Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration numbered 171274 with a stated expiration of 5 March 2021, a CSFA licence numbered 047522 expiring 1 May 2021, a hoisting engineer licence expiring 1 May 2020, and a lead-safe renovator certificate expiring 18 March 2021. Those are self-reported dates on a directory page, not a registry check - and all four have passed. Ask for the current home improvement contractor registration and verify it with the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation before signing anything. There is also an address puzzle worth a question: the BBB files the company at a Lexington address while Houzz places it in Wellesley Hills, both under the same phone number. Right call for: detailed interior carpentry - a built-in wall, a cabinet run, a trim package - from a one-person shop working the Boston suburbs. Get the licence status current, and ask for homeowners from those Wellesley and Somerville projects you can call, because no written customer account exists on either profile.