Plank and Pine

Sixteen ratings on HomeAdvisor, eighteen on Angi, and the same number on both: 4.9. Plank and Pine LLC is a one-person carpentry shop at 22 Bradfields Drive in Haverhill, run by Teagan McCarthy, and the work it gets called for sits at the finish end of the trade — built-ins, mantels, interior trim, custom cabinets, arbors and pergolas. BBB files the company as a general contractor specializing in woodworking and custom carpentry, grades it A+ with no complaints listed, and puts the business start in 2018 with a single employee. Both Angi and HomeAdvisor carry an Approved badge for the shop. The catch is the calendar. Those ratings run from late 2018 into 2021 and stop there, and the two directories carrying them share a corporate parent, so a pair of matching 4.9s is less independent corroboration than it first looks. The company's own numbers don't line up either. Angi's card says in business since 2000, HomeAdvisor advertises 26 years of experience, and BBB's file dates the business to 2018 — three different answers to a simple question. This is the right call for a homeowner who wants one carpenter on a defined piece of work: a wall of built-ins, a mantel and surround, a run of trim, a pergola out back. It is not a crew for coordinating a whole-house renovation, and the listings don't describe one. Before booking, ask what they have built in the past year or two, and — since BBB categorizes them as a general contractor rather than a carpentry-only shop — ask to see current Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration.