Stephen A Modica

Stephen Modica has been doing carpentry and remodeling in the Swampscott area since 1988 — BBB's file puts him at a two-person sole proprietorship, accredited there since 2012 with an A+ rating. His Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration is active with the state, and BuildZoom's permit history shows 33 projects scattered across Greater Boston and the North Shore. HomeAdvisor's page claims 38 years of experience, which lines up with the BBB start date. The bulk of the 24-review HomeAdvisor history, running 2011 through 2020 (plus one in 2024), tells a consistent story: fair pricing, punctual crews, and finished work that holds up. In a 2017 review, a homeowner said their bathroom remodel was "stunning" and noted that even the plumbing and building inspectors had good things to say about how Modica coordinated the trades. A 2016 review of a deck and retaining-wall repair praised him for staying on top of the crew and being available for questions even after hours, and reviews from 2014 describe kitchen, deck and mud-room jobs finished on time, on budget and "great to work with." In a November 2024 review — the most recent on file — a customer described Modica and his crew finding a smarter fix for a rotting two-family front porch than the full teardown originally planned, reworking the footings and window sizing instead. Two accounts stand out as real exceptions. A 2020 review — echoed nearly word for word on a separate site — described "sloppy, incomplete work" on a porch-railing job, with the customer saying Modica didn't supervise the crew and was still redoing balusters and railings three months after paying him off. And in a 2013 review, a homeowner said Modica himself was rarely on-site, that his crew worked four-hour stretches before leaving for other jobs, and that a two-bathroom demolition was left exposed and coated in dust until the electrician and plumber on the job quit. Modica looks like a solid, license-verified choice for porch, deck, kitchen and bathroom work backed by a long BBB and permit history — just ask how he's staffing and supervising the crew on your particular job, since the complaints on file both trace to oversight gaps rather than the finish work itself.