Precision Finish Boston

Precision Finish Boston is John O'Neill's company. He established it in 2005, and it says it has since completed new home construction and major renovations across Massachusetts, working mainly in Weston, Newton, Cambridge and Brookline. The work it advertises is the ambitious end of residential: ground-up custom homes, additions, whole-home remodels, kitchens and baths, and historic restoration. The thing to settle before you call. Its Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration, #170326, is held under the earlier company name Precision Finish Carpentry & Remodeling — and the state registry shows it EXPIRED. Its Houzz page still advertises an unrestricted construction supervisor licence and a home improvement contractor licence, but lists no numbers for either, so neither could be checked. For a builder doing gut renovations and new construction, that registration is what backs a homeowner's claim to the state Guaranty Fund, so ask for the current number and verify it yourself. The customer record is very thin and very old. Two reviews exist, both on Houzz. In March 2014 a homeowner described a complete kitchen and dining room remodel — new flooring, cabinets with a centre island, granite counters, tile backsplash, wainscoting — and wrote that it 'was completed on-time (to the day) and came in on budget', with John explaining the trade-offs on every judgement call before deciding. A July 2013 reviewer wrote simply 'Excellent craftsmanship, honest, clean and timely'. Nothing has been written since. With two accounts more than a decade old, there is no basis for a rating and none is given. What there is instead is a portfolio: nine project galleries on Houzz, including a Brookline new build, and a website listing named jobs — historic restorations of the Alvah Kittredge House and 'The Painted Lady', plus whole-home remodels and new construction on Fiddlehead Lane, Briar Lane and Bradford Road. So: an established Greater Boston builder with a real body of work and an unusually specific historic-restoration line, but a public record that has gone silent since 2014 and a lapsed registration. Ask for recent references and the current licence number, in that order.