Presto CPR

Presto CPR is the kind of shop homeowners keep on the same phone number for twenty years. In review after review out of Beverly and the North Shore, the same pattern turns up: someone hired them once for paint, then came back for the roof, the deck, the windows, the lower level. A 2023 reviewer counted more than twenty years of projects at one house — shingle roof, copper gutters, a new deck, large window replacements, and carpentry and painting inside and out. Another wrote that his family and his company had used Presto for over 25 years, across a commercial building in Wakefield, his mother's home in Winchester, two houses of his own, and a five-unit building on the Cape. The company describes itself as a family-owned carpentry, painting and roofing contractor working the North Shore since 1988. Its site lists EPA Lead-Safe Renovator (RRP) and OSHA certifications, and BBB accreditation with an A+ rating since 2007. Painting is the work customers write about most. Reviewers in 2023 described interior painting alongside tile replacement and front porch repairs, finished within budget and on schedule, and ceiling and wall damage repaired as part of the same job. A 2021 customer walked through the whole sequence: surfaces prepped, quality materials, everything around the work protected, and equipment cleared off the site each night. That daily cleanup keeps coming up — another 2021 reviewer noted the crew returned all the furniture to its original spot at the end of every day. Several people name the owner, John, and tie their trust to his judgment on the awkward problems rather than to any one job. Two things to weigh. The single sour account is from 2018: a homeowner said Presto promised an estimate for a complete gutter job and then never came back, through more than ten follow-up calls. And the written history is dated — Google currently shows 4.7 stars across 19 ratings, but the newest written account on file is from October 2023, so there is little detail about how the crews are running today. If you want one contractor to take the roof, the siding and the paint together instead of coordinating three, this is a fit, particularly on older North Shore houses that need carpentry along the way. Get the estimate in writing with a date on it, ask who will actually be running your crew, and if your house is an older one, have them confirm the lead-safe renovator certification covers the job.