Westminster Woodworks

Westminster Woodworks is a small Merrimac outfit run by David Drescher out of 8 Westminster Rd, and the permits say plainly what it does: bathrooms. Pull the old tub, put in a step-in shower, new vanity and toilet, tile the floor, paint everything. Six permitted jobs in the past three years, typically around $17,000 each, across Merrimac, West Newbury, Newbury, Newburyport and Haverhill. The pitch is broader than the paperwork. The company describes itself as a kitchen and bath designer and general contractor that carries a job from design through construction without the homeowner hiring separate trades, and lists basement and attic finishing, stairs, floors, decks and porches as well. Some of that shows up in the permit history — a kitchen renovation, a room addition, a couple of finished basements — but bathroom work is the through-line. What nobody can tell you is how those jobs went: not one customer review has been posted on BuildZoom. The licensing is the other thing to settle before calling. BuildZoom puts a quality alert on the profile and a score of 0, stating no active license is on file. Its entries show a construction supervisor license, CS-095003, with an April 2024 expiration date — marked active in one place and inactive, once cancelled, in another — plus two Massachusetts home improvement contractor registrations, #148614 and #177436, both inactive and cancelled at some point. Those are BuildZoom's own records rather than the state's, but a lapsed HIC registration is not a small thing for remodeling work in Massachusetts. For a straightforward bathroom, the permit history here is real and close to home. Ask Drescher for his current construction supervisor number and HIC registration, check both against the Commonwealth's own lookups the day you hire, and get references from jobs he finished in the past year before you sign anything.