Sutherland Painting and Construction

Sutherland Painting and Construction is John Sutherland working alone — a one-employee painting business the BBB dates to January 2011 and lists in Salem, with BuildZoom carrying a Marblehead address under the same phone number. The credential is the thing to settle first. Its Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration, 209621, is recorded in the state registry as expired, under the holder name Sutherland Painting LLC. BuildZoom separately lists an older number, 185766, and cannot agree with itself on what it was — the page calls it a painter's licence expiring in August 2018 in one place and an inactive, once-cancelled home improvement contractor record in another. Massachusetts exempts interior-painting-only contractors from HIC registration, but this business trades as painting and construction, so ask what work it actually takes on and whether it intends to re-register. There is no customer account anywhere. Its BBB page shows an A+ grade but no reviews, and that grade sits on a profile stating plainly that the business is not BBB accredited — two separate facts. BuildZoom has no reviews either and scores it 0 solely because it could not verify an active licence, which is a licensing statement and not a comment on the work. One piece of work is on public record: a building permit pulled in Holden in December 2010 valued at $800. Before hiring, ask for the current registration status directly and for references from recent Salem or Marblehead jobs, since nothing published so far describes how the work goes.