River Birch Builders

JDL Building & Remodeling of New England is the former name of what its own website now calls River Birch Builders, a Portsmouth, NH general contractor and custom home builder — and that rename is the single most important thing to know before reading the rest of this record. The reviews on file, all from 2007 through 2011, describe owner Jason Lajeunesse and his crew building additions, garages, and decks with consistent praise for punctuality, communication, and staying on budget. A 2011 review describes Jason incorporating his own design suggestions into a home addition and being willing to answer any question along the way. A 2010 review, from a reviewer who works in the trades and says they're critical of subpar work, calls the finished product first-rate. A 2009 review describes a garage completed exactly on the promised schedule, calling the work organized and top quality. A 2008 review describes choosing JDL for an addition and deck project after collecting several quotes, crediting an easy, budget-conscious approach. Here's the catch: Angi and HomeAdvisor's current listings still show a business under the JDL Building & Remodeling name, based in Greenland, NH, with a 4.9 rating from 11 reviews and 25 years of experience — the same reviews quoted above. But the company's own website says JDL has been renamed River Birch Builders. That leaves real ambiguity about which name and entity a homeowner would actually be contracting with today, and whether the directory listings under the old name are current or simply stale. Both directories list a Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor's License without giving a number, and note a Home Builders and Remodelers Association of New Hampshire affiliation. The specific work described here — additions, garages, decks, all finished on schedule and well-communicated — is a genuinely strong, if very old, record. Before hiring, confirm directly which business name and entity is doing the work, since the paper trail here points in two directions.