Sturdy Home Improvements

Sturdy Home Improvement's written history splits hard. In a November 2020 Angi review, a homeowner with a leaky 20-year-old roof had it tarped right away and the tarping cost credited toward the new roof a week later. In February 2019, another wrote that when a problem came up with the solar components the crew had no idea how to seal the areas, that the leaks never stopped, and that calls went unanswered. The Indian Orchard company works as a general contractor — additions, kitchen and bath design and remodeling, patios and decks, roofing, siding and windows — and its Better Business Bureau page says 22 years in business. That page carries a C+ grade and no accreditation, describes complaints it has not seen resolved, and its two visible customer reviews concern a failing roof and a deposit-paid job that was never done. The good accounts are real and mostly old. In September 2018 a homeowner using a VA grant to make a bathroom and deck handicapped accessible said the company took them through the complicated paperwork and finished the deck in two days. A July 2014 Houzz customer had a job completed in one day for thousands less than the other quotes they had. A December 2017 reviewer who first wrote that the framing on a kitchen addition left the walls not straight updated the review to say the owner contacted them and made things right. The complaints are equally specific. A May 2019 homeowner wrote that they were told, in so many words, that the leaking roof was designed to leak, and that they sent numerous photos and videos. A November 2017 customer who contracted in May for a 12x20 workshop addition, with an August 1 start and a six-week build, wrote that August 1 came and went without a building permit. A September 2018 reviewer said a problem with the work went more than a month with no one coming to fix it. The newest written account, from February 2023, says the schedule was never adhered to and that subcontractors were often not paid on time. Two items sit outside the reviews. A safety-records site reports a formal OSHA inspection of a Sturdy Home Improvement, Inc. roofing facility — at a West Roxbury address rather than the Indian Orchard one — that resulted in four citations and $8,624.00 in proposed penalties. An April 2018 item on businesswest.com lists a suit by two homeowners alleging breach of contract and negligent infliction of emotional distress, $125,000, filed 3/13/18. The platform headlines run far ahead of all of that: Angi and HomeAdvisor each show 4.3 stars from 242 ratings, against 3.8 from four ratings on Houzz and the C+ at the BBB. If you go ahead, keep the job tightly specified: dates in writing, who pulls the permit named in the contract, payments tied to completed stages rather than an upfront deposit, and the warranty spelled out. Its Better Business Bureau page lists registration 151711 and construction supervisor licence CS-093603 — ask which registration will cover your own job, and check it yourself before any money changes hands.