Winter Hill General Contractors

It went very smooth, the team was both professional and prompt even when working in very narrow conditions. We were always kept up-to-date on timeframes, permit progress and when the team would be arriving. This made it very easy to coordinate.

The crew worked everyday, job completed on the day it was projected to.

Fantastic. Hard workers, responsive, attentive to detail!

I don’t feel good about giving bad reviews, since I know there are consequences when a company gets a bad review, and everyone we dealt with at Winter Hill, from the project manager on down were nice people, who I am sure were dealing with many Covid-related issues, as my family was. However, we have been members of Angie’s List for many years, and rely on people like us to give honest reviews. So, I have to be honest in saying that this project turned out to be a bad experience and that we would not use Winter Hill again. The project we hired Winter Hill to work on was a re-model of our existing finished basement. The basement had been finished by the previous owners, but had water issues. So, we were looking for a contractor to rip out the existing drywall and carpet and refinish the basement. We hired a separate contractor to do the basement waterproofing. Since it was just a replacement of the existing basement, we (perhaps naively) expected the project to go fairly smoothly. The process started out fairly well. We received a relatively timely quote from the estimator, although we had to correct the scope of work several times. As it turned out, the estimator left some key items out of their quote that they really should have captured, such as the cost of a plumber. Winter Hill’s quoted price was higher than we had expected to replace an existing finished basement, but the contractor with the lowest price was not going to be able to fit us into his schedule for 6 months, so we chose to go with Winter Hill. The process of ripping out the existing basement went okay, though we had to call a few times to get the contractor out to do the work. The waterproofing contractor finished their work at the end of August 2020. And, after that, is when the problems really started. Most of our problems stemmed from very poor communication. Starting in September, we felt lucky if we could get one piece of the work on the basement construction done each week, and oftentimes whole weeks went by with no work getting accomplished, and little explanation from the contractor. I cannot count the number of times we were told we would hear back from them that evening or the next day, and all we got was silence. My assumption, though I have no concrete proof, is that we were very low on this contractor’s priority list, so that work only got done when their employees were in the middle of other jobs. Regardless, this, in my opinion, relatively simple project, took 8 months to complete (into March 2021) and I fear that it would have taken much longer to complete if I was not constantly calling/texting our project manager to get things moving. Now, if Winter Hill is going to be honest with themselves, I think they would accept this aspect of the review without much rebuttal. We certainly received our share of apologies from them for delays and for people not showing up when they said they would, while the work was ongoing. However, I worry that they will respond by saying that there were things outside of their control that resulted in delays, such as problems we had getting inspectors from the Town to come out. While it is true that there were those types of issues, they caused delays of a few days or weeks, at most. The poor communication also extended to far more than simply when the contractors would show up. As just one example, we selected a vinyl tile for the floor of the basement. The contractor told us that they could not apply vinyl tile on the stairs, and that the stairs would have to be done in wood, but that it would be “no problem” to find a stain to match the vinyl floor. In fact, it turned out that (1) the vinyl tile could be applied to the stairs and (2) the contractor could not match the stain. After seeing the color of the vinyl tile we selected, we asked for weeks (if not months) for samples of the stain they would use on the stairs, so we could give our approval. However, it was only on the day the stairs were installed, while the carpenters were working on the stairs, that we were given a few minutes to select a stain from three choices before the work commenced. Two of the stains were nowhere near the floor color, so we picked the only stain color that was remotely close. After one coat was applied, we stopped the work after seeing it at the end of the day, because the colors did not match at all. After that, we performed our own research and found out that the manufacturer of the vinyl floor made a stair tread in the same style. This is something we should have been told at the start of the project, as that is the option we would have selected. It ultimately turned out that the stair tread was back-ordered from the manufacturer, which caused further delays in completing the project. Even after the tread became available, I had to go purchase the stair tread for myself to get the project moving. Worse, at the close of the project, Winter Hill charged us for a “change order” done on the stairs due to the need to do the work on the stairs twice. It was their fault the work needed to be done twice. Moreover, at no point before or while the “extra” work was being done, did they tell us there would be an additional charge for the stairs or what that would be. I will freely admit that really ****** me off. There are many other examples I can give of communication problems. Winter Hill had to be reminded to do things multiple times, like replacing a door in the basement (part of our contract) or leaving gaps in the insulation for access to the waterproofing system. We had multiple issues with the relatively simple closet where our laundry machines were located, having to explain what we wanted many times in order to make sure it was done correctly. Initially, we were fine with a simple closet, but were talked into putting some shelving on the side by the project manager. Ultimately, the carpenter put a fairly fancy shelving system into the closet, despite that not being necessary. At no time prior to the work being done was it mentioned that there would be an extra charge for the shelves or how much it would cost, but again, we were presented with a bill for that “extra work” at the end of the project. In terms of the quality of work that was performed, I would say it was average to below average. Part of the problem, in my opinion, is that the project manager was rarely at the site to oversee the work. We would see him perhaps once every few months, and hardly ever while the actual work was being done. This led to issues like the vinyl floor not being installed all the way to the doors (you could see the concrete floor right in front of the door), no paint over some of the windows, holes in the drywall not plastered over and painted, a stain on the vinyl floor left over from the stair staining process, cracks in the molding on the stairs, nails sticking out from the stairs, some sagging stair treads, and missing molding on the stairs. Even after the project manager came out to review the work, these were issues that we largely had to identify ourselves and press to get resolved before the project was finished. Neither my wife nor I have any construction experience, so it leaves me to wonder what other issues there might be that we missed. This was our perspective of the experience. Perhaps we expected too much, but we have done other large projects with other contractors that did their work on time and on budget, and where the quality of the work and attention to detail really blew us away. This is one of the most expensive projects we have done on our house, and we expected better service and quality than we received.

Excellent service overall. They delivered as promised.

All great, very professional. Very happy with end result.

Winter Hill was an incredible partner to have for our first renovation project. We had our kitchen fully gutted and remodeled, the floors sanded and restained, an internal wall removed, and painting and base boards in the entire first floor. From the beginning it was clear that Winter Hill was different from other contractors we had visit our home and give us quotes. Tiago was extremely thoughtful, friendly and full of great ideas. Where other contractors said no you can't do that, Tiago would say you can't do that, but offer another solution that got us what we needed. Our site director, Gustavo, and the 3 staff on staff on site were all friendly, great at communcating with us about progress, and hard working. As were the electrician and plumber they worked with. The quality of the work is fantastic, and they were very flexible with all of the personal touches we wanted to make. Timeline: The project started right on the day we scheduled with no delays, and ended after 5 weeks when they said 4-6 weeks and that was even with us adding on a few additional things mid-project. The time between when we first reached out and the start of the project was about 6 weeks, which was longer than we expected, but they were by far the fastest at getting us a quote and setting up a date once we accepted the quote. Finances: The amount we were quoted was substantially lower than other offers and there were no hidden costs. We paid what we were quoted plus the additional work we asked them to do mid-project. Responsiveness: On a few occasions we had to wait about 48 hours before hearing back from them but my sense they were both just very busy! Every other time they were great about connecting with us, but this was a small thing compared to all the other GREAT things about Winter Hill. We highly recommend Winter Hill to all of our friends and will be hiring them for any additional work we decide to take on.

Winter Hill is by far the best general contractor we have ever had the pleasure to work with. Everyone is very professional, responsive, skilled, hard working, flexible and dedicated. The first kitchen renovation project went so well that we have had Winter Hill take on 3 more home projects since then. The last project was a massive undertaking to build a 33’ x 17’ two-story deck. The pictures below speak for themselves - the quality, craftsmanship, and attention to detail were very impressive. Better still, the price for all four projects was extremely reasonable and fair. Other estimates we had gotten along the way were almost always substantially higher. In addition to the extremely high level of quality work and great pricing, what sets Winter Hill apart from its competitors is the superior customer service they provide. Whether working with Claudio, Tulio, Ubi, Alex, Gustavo, Marcio or anyone else at Winter Hill, the care and service provided is the best I’ve ever experienced. That great attitude starts at the top with Claudio and it’s clear he makes sure everyone at Winter Hill embodies the same great attitude and commitment to providing outstanding customer service.

Very good. I was satisfied with the work performance

Very happy with results

Hard working crew, from early in morning to late at night.

Excellent Very professional + polite

Job was completed quickly and professionally

Estimate process was fantastic and professional, but after that it was all downhill. Signed the contract and gave the deposit on Aug 15; work started on Dec 2! I was told at the end of October that the delay was because of the color of the materials. I then had to be the one to suggest a different color to keep the project moving forward. When work finally started, I was told this was a 2-3 day job, a week max; three weeks later and the porch still isn't finished. To add insult to injury, I emailed them today to get a status. Got no reply, but a worker came over to shovel out my garage to take the tools to another job instead of working on my porch! Would never hire again, they're horrible.

It went well, the job was completed in 1 day.

Great job. Hire them

This experience was outstanding! Professional, timely and honest from the beginning. We absolutely love our "new" home.

Very good. Fast,clean. Was done on time. Good Quality

Great work, reasonably priced. Follow up work was great, too

Hardworking crew , from early in the morning to late at night

It went perfect great communication with Claudio, he’s a nice guy easy to talk to. The price was good and most important they did an amazing job. Fast and cleaned up after themselves. A+

It went well.

Could not have asked for nicer guys to have worked on our house Saul + Raphael are gentleman. Very happy with job.

Saul & crew were amazing! They were timely , neat and listened. I absolutely would recommend them to others. Amazing from start to end!

This is the second project we used Winter Hill for and it didn't go as well as the first. First issue was ordering the wrong size windows - while most of the house is wooden shingle, part of the front is brick. We had a quote from Pella Windows along with window dimensions that they had measured. When the carpenter from Winter Hill remeasured before finalizing the order, he decided on his own, without asking us, that he was going to do away with the trim for the ones mounted in the brick, so he told Pella to make those windows 3" wider and 3" taller. As we had never asked for this, we had them reorder those two which stretched the project out another month. Other than that, the windows were installed competently and diligently. I think they did a good job insulating them as well, which is a step up from how the old windows were. The crew they hired for staining decided they wanted to use this combination stain and polyurethane product. This was a terrible idea. Polyurethane tends to get some thick spots when it dries, but these are usually almost impossible to notice since it's clear. But the combo product gets these glops, but they come out dark brown since the stain is mixed in, so the thicker the glob, the darker it is. One of the painters did not have the required skill to work with this product and you could see a dark edge from thick globs along the path his brush travelled. They did three coats of this product which I don't think you're supposed to do. In my life I have never stained anything and had it come out as badly as some of these windows. Regular stain is so easy to get right, but they just didn't choose that. When we complained they sent another guy to try and fix in. In spots he would strip it off and then re-apply, but it was hard to get that to come out the same darkness, so you can see the areas he fixed are lighter. In a few years when I don't have to chase a 3-year-old around, I may rip the trim off the windows in the living room and redo them. After deciding to spend more money to have real wood windows, it's very frustrating to have them look bad from the poor staining. The new Ops Manager was very bad at keeping in touch and keeping appointments. For example, he'd say he'd visit at 10 AM on Tuesday. That time would come and go and I'd call him at Noon and he'd say "Yeah, something came up and I'm not going to make it." Being as I'm home for the pandemic this wasn't such a big deal, but if I'd arranged to stay home from work and then get stood up time and again I'd be furious. I don't think Winter Hill is bad, most of the work was done well. I just think they might be used to jobs where they slap some vinyl up on a rental property and no one really cares about how the details come out. So maybe they were just the wrong choice for this job.