Boston Porch Screening

We had a tear in a large porch screen which was too big to patch. We called Richard Saturday night -- the day after Christmas -- and he came out the next morning around 9am and replaced the screen for $100. It wasn't an emergency, but he just likes to get his work done, and he did a great job. He's interesting to talk to, and is going to do some window work for us as well. He was also $50 less than the other quote we got. If you need a screen repaired, just call Richard.

Paul responded quickly to my initial email and came out soon thereafter to look at the job. Was able to come to do the work about 10 days later (he had estimated 2 weeks). It was done quickly and professionally. I would definitely use him again.

I liked the speed with which they responded to my phone call and I liked that they had the job done right away; I did not have to wait around.

AJF Construction did an excellent job. The two people who worked on our project, one of whom is the owner, were professional, honest, easy to work with, and very meticulous in the quality of their work. One major part of the project required the disassembly, cleaning, repair and replacement of floor-to-ceiling screens in a screened-in porch. This was custom-built, so each panel only fit its original location, and disassembly was complicated by some settling of the porch. They did a beautiful job on it, and did not paint over any hardware, so the next time it needs fixing it will be easy to do so. The quotes were detailed and there were no cost overruns. They did a great job on everything, kept us informed as the work progressed, and left the site cleaner than it was when they started. We were very impressed. We recently hired them again to replace a slide glass door. They did a wonderful job on that too.

This was initially intended to be a continuation of a previous project with Handyman Matters. The previous craftsman had painted our bathroom and it needed another coat, so we decided to purchase the $349 for 4 hours Angie's Deal and additionally have him fix the screens on our porch whose screening needed replacing. The craftsman thought that this could all be done in 4 hours. However, the evening before the work was scheduled be done, Handyman called us to say that the previous craftsman was no longer working for them, so we would need to schedule someone else, which we did. The new craftsman called us the evening before the scheduled work to ask about adjusting the start time (no problem) and find out about the work. He showed up when scheduled, but apparently there had been some misunderstanding over the phone, as he had brought the wrong size screening. He examined one of the screens and determined that it was not suitably designed to take fiberglass screening and that the it also was in too poor shape to take metal screening. Also, the frames were fairly badly sealed in with paint. He wasn't sure that he could do the work in the scheduled amount of time, if at all. Then he hit upon the idea of custom building some aluminum-framed screens and setting them into the wooden frames. He unhooked and knocked out the wooden frames, pulling off some pieces of the surrounding wood in the process, and took off (after asking authorization) to Home Depot to get the materials to build the aluminum screens. He successfully built the screens, installed them in the wood frames, and reinstalled the wood frames, adding some glue to reattach the wood pieces that had been removed initially. He worked as quickly and efficiently as possible, attempting to stay within the 4-hour limit, but ended up needing an additional hour, which was reasonable. The resulting work looked good from the inside, and we have no more mosquitoes getting in; but the outside needs some work. The reasons for a "B" rating on this are: 1. The second coat of paint in the bathroom never got done. Reluctantly, we ended up doing it ourselves. Whether the original craftsman underestimated the work or knew something that the new craftsman did not, either way is not good. 2. The new craftsman had not seen the work to be done in advance, as the original craftsman had, which led to inefficiency. 3. The new craftsman's removal of the screens was rather "brute force" with a hammer from the inside. A little work with a chisel around the edges outside might have prevented the breaking off of pieces of wood that happened. The result and process were "good", but I can't really say "excellent'".

Bruce did an excellent job. His installation was perfect and meticulous. I'm writing this a few a couple months after work was done and we are very pleased. Bruce is very friendly and professional. After all the work was done he cleaned up thoroughly. He communicated all the challenges and how he would work it out. We will certainly use him again.

1st time we re-painted house in 14 years. Got 3 bids and Paul's was middle price. Alot of great reviews as well as he's done alot of work in Boxford. Great team who take alot of pride in their workmanship & were amazing. Carpentry work - fair amount of trim boards replaced, some cedar siding and some replacement steps on exterior screen porch. They arrived promptly between 8-8:30 and stayed thru dark. Great work ethic and I'll have them back for any other exterior work in the future. Painting work - great bunch of guys and just like the carpenters, start early and work till dark. Real strong prep work with the scraping and sanding of our house that needed it badly. No detail overlooked & the house looks amazing. I'll have them back in the spring to finish up my deck and screen porch for a seal coat. We did the work at the end of October and early November. One of Paul's last jobs, got real lucky with the weather and didn't have to compete with multiple jobs . I highly recommend this team for any exterior painting job you may have.

While Dennis and Shawn arrived punctually and worked consistently on 9/15, the schedule on 9/16 was somewhat chaotic and therefore more challenging to track in terms of man hours worked. At the end of the day on 9/15 Dennis informed us that he would be arriving early on 9/15 but that Shawn would be a bit later due to another stop he had to make in the morning. Instead, Shawn arrived on time but Dennis did not arrive until the afternoon. Then everyone dispersed in the afternoon to attend to another high-priority job. Eventually both Shawn and Dennis returned, along with Brad who installed the heating coils over the front stoop. According to our records, the total number of man hours worked (inclusive of Shawn, Dennis, and Brad) on 9/16 was 8 hours, not the 9.5 hours we were charged for that date. Given how fractured the work schedule was on 9/16, we felt that the time was poorly spent as jobs from our list were started and stopped and then revisited without continuity, which ended up wasting some time. The heating coils were not initially installed correctly even though we explicitly showed your crew where the electrical box was that should house the plug. We appreciate that your crew returned on 9/19 to fix this issue, but they left the cord draping down in front of the bathroom window rather than securing it against the roof. Before the work started, we reviewed our to-do list with Dennis and were told that everything on our list was achievable in the two work days allotted. However, this proved not to be the case, perhaps in part due to Friday's fractured schedule. We realize that the painting of the ceiling in the screen porch might be viewed as feature creep (We are not entirely certain of this), it still didn't add that much. We were surprised that more attention was not paid to clean-up after the work was completed. In summary we feel that the people were friendly, punctual and competent but the value was not there

I called and set up an appointment. Office staff was very friendly and effecient. On 11/21/13, Eddie came to do the estimate as promised, and seemed very knowledgeable. We had some trouble around the estimate, which probably got lost in the mail. Eddie and his office were extremely responsive and professional on realizing I had never received the estimate. They worked hard to make everything right. I was so impressed with their response that I hired them. They ordered the windows which arrived on time. The installer was prompt, engaging, and the work was great. I'm very pleased with EB Windows and hope to use them soon for porch screens.

We had spoken to several screen companies over the past few years and they all wanted to make our side porch (Veranda) into a 3 season room, which is not what we wanted. Even after detailing what we wanted, these other companies came back with quotes of $15,000+. We wanted the entire porch screened in without windows. It seemed like a simple request, but constantly ran into companies that didn't "get it." I found Dan's company here and called to see if he could understand what we wanted. He came out the next day to look at the project. He said he would have the quote to us the next day and he actually faxed it to me about 4 hours after he left. The price was right in our budget and more importantly, he could start within the week. The workers showed up when they said they would and the entire job was completed by the end of the day. One word - AWESOME!!! Dan is great to deal with and we have been enjoying sitting on our porch every night without being eaten alive. Great job, Dan!