SAW Carpentry Services, LLC

Stu is very professional. He quickly responds to phone calls. He is very helpful with working out the details of the project to be done. I rely on him for all my home repairs and renovations.

He does really high-end remodeling in old houses. He is extremely detail oriented. I am planning on using him again.

Stuart is a very nice guy with a nice van and a professional-looking website. He was working on a home around the corner from me when I saw his van and yard sign and thought I would look him up to do some simple trim work on my 1928 colonial. He was very responsive and very professional in the lead up to the work. I was pretty confident I was going to get a great result.
I think Stuart thinks of himself as a fine trim carpenter, but, I'm sad to report, the quality of his work on my small trim project was decidedly amateurish. He did a great job routing out the top panels of several existing MDF radiator covers and installing matching cloverleaf grills, but his casing and trim work was botched and poorly executed from start to finish. Because I ended up prepping and painting the molding he installed, I got an up close look at his work, and it wasn't pretty: exposed end-grain, large gaps and poorly scribed joints, finish nails not properly set for putty, etc. Thank God for caulk. He mentioned that he usually lets the painters handle putty work and filling gaps. Oh really? Unfortunately for him, I grew up around contractors and home building my whole life. My father was a successful building contractor and a d*** fine stone mason from Sicily. I've seen plenty of production trim work and historical restoration carpentry jobs. I've never seen a trim carpenter leave a job with molding in that condition. He also blamed the poor quality of this particular job on the fact that he was running between multiple jobs and trying to complete a large bid at the same time. Great, nothing like telling a homeowner that their project was shortchanged because he stretched himself too thin. I hope he figures out that just because he blew his profit margin on my job is not an excuse to whip through work and risk your reputation.

Stuart Wiley of SAW Carpentry wasn't as expensive as I thought he would be after visiting homes of recent clients of his and seeing his work. I saw two previous kitchens he did, both very well done. Those kitchens and mine came out perfectly. Stuart and his carpentry team were friendly, competent, and more intelligent than any other carpenters I've met. Given the constraints of working with skilled sub-contractors, they kept a decent timeline and relatively clean job site. In the end, the detail work on my kitchen was outstanding. Custom made mouldings and cabinets were excellent. A custom made copper stove hood, a new wood floor that matches my other 90 year old floors, hand made stains to make handrails and door casings match the rest of the house,.... i was shocked at the amount of quality work. Very detail oriented craftsmanship.

Stu is a consummate problem solver and I highly recommend him for any home contracting need.  I plan to use him for all of my work in the future because he has shown himself to be reliable, smart, professional, patient and dedicated to delivering the highest quality work. He also has strong integrity (he was an Army Ranger) and we trust him implicitly. I was speaking with Stu about a basement water problem on and off for around a year -- I got his name from our neighbor who used him for extensive remodeling and the work was top quality.  Stu was always willing to listen and advise me -- he even brought out his colleagues to survey the landscaping/grading and foundation to determine the source of the water and how it could be fixed. We had a finished basement which complicated the task.  We received proposals from many other firms who wanted to dig first and ask questions/find solutions later - but Stu was far more analytical about the problem and didnt want to propose something just to make a quick $ because he genuinely wanted to fix the problem...    After we had enough of the leaking/flooding, we were VERY close to signing a proposal from another firm that was going to do a VERY expensive, VERY messy and disruptive job on the interior which was going to put our basement out of commission for 2 months but didnt address the source of the water... Stu said he believed that the water problem was surface water and he wanted to do a small investigation to see if he could isolate the problem:  he wanted to dig down around the foundation on the EXTERIOR and see if he could locate the problem.  Well, he dug in the area he was concerned about and found the issue and solved it, all for far less than we would have spent otherwise. I cannot recommend Stu highly enough. He is reliable and honorable -- and provides great service as well.