SILMAC Construction Inc.

Fourteen of the thirty-nine write-ups about SILMAC come from customers on a second, third or fourth job with Joe DaSilva, and a good number of those houses are old Boston stock with surprises behind the walls. One East Boston homeowner, writing in March 2024, has used the company for multiple large-scale jobs on an 1890 house. Another, in June 2024, had the porches and basement entryway of an 1890s home refurbished, on budget, with the trash cleared away neatly. SILMAC is a general contractor working the Boston area out of Revere. Its own site, which carries a 2017 copyright, describes a family-owned business with 16 years of experience at that point and tradesmen holding apprenticeship indentures. The Massachusetts registrations are in order: the company's home improvement contractor registration is active, and Jose L DaSilva holds an active construction supervisor licence. The jobs run large. A September 2024 customer, on their fourth SILMAC project, had a full gut renovation of a kitchen plus a powder room and an addition with a laundry/mudroom. A March 2024 reviewer, on a third project, needed a Charlestown condo refreshed to list on a tight timeline — wood floors refinished, interior painting. A December 2024 customer had a floor refinished and a stairway replaced while out of state for much of the work. Bathrooms, basements, attics and decks fill in the rest: an attic finished into a third floor in July 2023, and a bathroom, laundry room and new deck for one repeat customer in August 2023. Angi carries 165 ratings averaging 4.9 and Google 15 at five stars; on Houzz, three ratings average 4.0, and that is where the criticism sits. A September 2022 Houzz reviewer on a major basement project said he did not seem to have as much knowledge about the details as they would have liked, and that the work took much longer than anticipated. A March 2024 customer who spent $80K on a basement renovation recommended them especially for projects where smaller details do not matter too much. A June 2023 reviewer's deck came in within budget and looked beautiful, but a subcontractor's mistakes and omissions delayed the job. One more thing to settle up front: Joe quotes labor and has the homeowner buy materials. A March 2024 reviewer described exactly that structure, and a November 2023 customer noted their quoted price covered labor with decking materials separate. For a gut renovation, a basement build-out, or a long run of work on an older house, this is the kind of contractor people keep calling back. Get the materials-versus-labor split written into the quote, and if your project lives or dies on finish detail, walk that punch list with Joe before the crew starts.