J MURRAY & SONS CONSTRUCTION

Terrible experience

DO NOT HIRE HIM FOR ANYTHING! It's like he took a correspondence course on how to be a horrible contractor. He abandoned the project without finishing the siding from where he put in a new window, without installing cabinet base molding, he owes us two new doors and door moldings too. He did of course take all of the money in full. The customer is a senior citizen in Medford. He is screening his calls now and either sends them to voicemail or doesn't answer his phone. If this is not resolved in a week I am calling the tv stations next to come out and film this and chase him down. Bottom line? He is unreliable, dishonest and this is not someone you want to invite into your home. You will see that this is not his first bad review so a senior citizen who might not know about online resources like Angie's List or even using Google is a perfect target for him. Soon he will be able to say "As seen on TV" but it won't be in a positive light. I am also contacting the Consumer Protection Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office of which I once served. This is no way to treat people, especially senior citizens.

Do not hire this company!!! I had worked with them years ago on a small project with no issues. I decided to use them again to remodel a small bathroom and back hall due to water damage. The project started on April 3rd. I was told by the owner that the job would take 3 weeks possibly four because of all the inspections. I am sitting at week 22. It took them 16 weeks for plumbing and electricity. The roof which was the cause of the water damage has not been touch. The water damage in the back hall has gotten worse since they “started” the project. I have no walls or ceiling in the bathroom and only a plank floor. I have had trash and discarded building materials sitting in my backyard since May. It is almost impossible to get hold of the owner, Jim Murray. He never returns calls and his voice-mail is always full so you can never leave a message. I have two half baths and one full bath (approx. 5X10). I have not been able to bath in my home for 22 weeks. Jim told me that it would take two weeks the last time I was able to get hold of him. He promised that I would not have to suffer through another long weekend (Memorial Day, July 4th) without a shower. I have been relying on work and the Y. He lied. One of the lowest points was August 24(the last time he returned my calls). That is the day of the building inspection. I was the one taking the inspector through the site and answering his construction questions. No one from J Murray and Sons Construction bothered to show up. I have a complaint with the Consumer Board and I’m waiting for the hearing date. Save yourself a world of pain and pick another contractor. If this company cannot complete a small 5X10 bathroom they cannot handle large projects. They also underestimate the cost of the project and continually ask for additional payments.

Overall this project went horrible. The owner took our deposit, cashed it, and then skipped the start date. We e-mailed to complain and they then gave us another start date and skipped that as well. Finally after threatening legal action they performed the work (months late). The quality was fine when it was completed, but the management at this company has to be the worst in Boston.

Overall, the bathroom remodel came out wonderful. One person did 99% of the work and he did an excellent job (They brought in an electrician for the recessed lighting and ceiling fan work). The tile work and replacement wood trim around the door and window came out great. There was a lot of turn-over in the back-office, which caused some confusion around the quote and products being ordered on time. But, this was corrected quickly. Some issues with the floor tile a couple months after the work was completed was followed up on and corrected immediately after we contacted them. The crew performing the work were always on time, friendly and professional.

The tile work came out great, the floor refinishing was horrible. The floors had bubbles in them and they tried to buff it out. Instead of removing the marks, it added swirl marks on top of it throughout the entire condo. The floors looked worse than when we started. We asked several times for at 1/3 the cost of the floors to be refunded or to fix the floors. They said they would come back and redo the floors if we gave them more work in our condo. We ended up hiring Connolly Floors to come in and redo the floors. Luckily they were able to correct the mistakes and the floors now look amazing. Unfortunately, we had to spend another 6k to fix. In hindsight, we should have held our ground and not paid for the floors. The work was shoddy and they knew it. Beyond the poor results, it was very stressful to deal with these guys. They missed deadlines (for a small project) by weeks, showed up hours after they said they would be there, and would not call us back for days when we needed answers.

unknown

We worked with John McGinn, Denis Garofalo and Mark Tuttavilla. All were professional and punctual throughout project. Always explained each step and provided necessary written estimates and contracts.  We felt the pricing was fair and that our concerns or questions were answered in a timely fashion. We recommend to others and will use again if needed.

This was the worst experience I've ever had with a company. J Murray & Sons Construction consistently sort of over promise, finding up things and the not show up for a week on end. They try to change the payment schedule along the way. When there are problems they were completely unresponsive. They will not respond to phone calls or emails.

0.

I hired J Murray & Sons to do a full renovation on a home I was buying in May of 2012. Right from the start the owner (Jim) was quick to respond to my questions via e-mail or phone. He came out within three days from my first contact and followed up with a written estimate about two days later. I ended up having three quotes for the project including J Murray & Sons which came in as the lowest one.
After moving forward and signing the contract construction started as planned on May 14th. I was given an outline with expected milestones by the week and for the most part this was followed and completed as expected/. One of the most important and valuable things I found in using this company was that they were true to their word and they didn't try to add in extra costs throughout the construction. The estimate was almost identical to the final price of construction.
Another positive that we noticed when using the company was that they employed their  own electricians and plumbers. The previous contractor we used on our last project would hire multiple other companies to do the HVAC, plumbing, and electric. This became a problem when dealing with warranty problems and issues that were not done by our previous contractors employee's. I can't stress enough that having a contractor provide their own plumber, electricians, and HVAC rather than subcontracting them out can be invaluable during the project and if there are any issues down the line.

Overall J Murray & Sons was great to do business with. Jim was very attentive to our project and would check in from time to time during construction. Any problems or issues that came up we had a call back usually the same day. It was nice to have the owner of the company oversee our project. We would 100% use them in the future.

DO NOT HIRE J. Murray & Sons for your home renovation or improvement project.  While the quality of some of their work was acceptable, there are two issues that lead to our negative recommendation: poor communication throughout our four-month home renovation process and their unwillingness to stand by their work and follow up on issues that arose after they finished.

We hired J.Murray & Sons for extensive updates of an older home we purchased in January 2011.  We did not live in the home during renovation.  When we selected them, one of their references cited communication as an area where they needed improvement, so heading into our relationship we were determined to set up clear lines of communication with Jim and John, the owners.  We wanted to have an understanding of the project timeline, how work was progressing on a weekly basis, and to know in advance when they would need information or materials from us (as we bought the fixtures/appliances/cabinets, selected the paint, etc).  We made it clear we wanted to be involved but trusted them to run the show. 

However, we quickly realized we had to be proactive to get information about what was happening in our home each week.  We asked for regular face to face meetings and thought everything else could be handled by email, but soon learned the only way to communicate effectively was in person.  John was our point of contact and would tell us what his crew was working on each week. The first two months were quite slow and we added/deleted work as we learned more about the house.  They were very flexible to changes, which we appreciated.  We would always put any changes to the project in writing and email it to them because we wanted to be clear about the adjustments to our contract. This became very important because when they would send us updated invoices, we often found errors and would use our emails as documentation to correct them.  In a sense, we basically became our own general contractors in order to make sure everything was getting done and we were being billed correctly.  This was frustrating but since we were dealing with our money and our future home, we were more than willing to do this since we found them to be unorganized, uncommunicative and too casual in their work style.  Some examples: of the 12 new window replacements we bought, they installed one where it should not have been replaced, which meant an extra replacement window had to be purchased (we split the cost).  We also had an old stone fireplace that we wanted cleaned and re-grouted, and we approved their quote on the cost.  After the work was done, they asked for 7 TIMES more than the original quote, saying they had misunderstood what we were asking for (even though we pointed out it was clear in the emails we?d sent to confirm the work).  Also, on more than one occasion they would ask for an advance in the money we owed them, even though our contract stated we would pay them in separate installments after certain work was done.  Another example is that there were seven or eight times where we would agree to meet at the house at a certain time, but they were either late or did not show up.   This was obviously frustrating as we were often late for work or ended up leaving work early, only to be kept waiting.  They were, however, apologetic about this.

The biggest example of poor communication was that John assured us several times that they would hit our target move-in date, even though the work had changed from when we started.  We felt certain those changes would affect the timeline, and told John we were fine with delaying our move-in date as long as we knew in advance.  We were clear we did not want the job rushed because we wanted things done correctly.  Our target move-in date was early April since our second child was due in mid-May, and John told us this would be fine.  As we got to mid-March, we asked for daily meetings because we felt it was necessary to keep them on task.  I asked to meet John or a crew member every day at 8 a.m. to go through the checklist (at this point, we were following up every day on the things that still needed to get done).  We had constant assurances from them it would be no problem to hit a mid-April move date, so we gave up our rental place and planned to move in on April 23.  However, they rushed several things at the end and after we moved in, they came back EVERY day for 3 weeks to re-sand, re-plaster, repaint or re-grout (the interior paint job was done badly, which they admitted when we started pointing out all the errors we saw).

We never should have been allowed to move in (particularly since my pregnant wife had to endure dust and paint fumes unnecessarily) and feel if they had actually been on top of what was happening and truly assessing the work on a daily basis, this would not have happened. Many things that needed to get done were only done when we pointed it out, and in the end we were very disappointed.  John took responsibility and rectified the painting, but by then our second child was due any day.  We eventually came to what we felt was a fair settlement on the final bill considering our grievances with their work, and agreed that John would come back and address any punch list items in fall.  This would allow us to have the summer with our new baby and finally get settled in our home.

Nearly 8 months later, we still have a punch list consisting of work that would probably take one or two days to complete. Despite their guarantee to stand behind their work and address any outstanding issues, they have not done so. This fall, they sent out an electrician at our request, but it was work we paid for as it was outside our original contract.  Since then, I called both Jim and John repeatedly - almost daily - for 2-3 weeks in November and December, but apparently neither are interested in keeping their word or standing behind the quality of their work. We never got a return phone call and find this extremely unprofessional.  We have extensive cracks in the grout in the master bathroom shower and floors, a large crack where they re-plastered a ceiling, several outlets that don't work, and doors that don't shut. While they are more or less capable builders, they are extremely poor communicators, and in the end, not to be trusted to get the job done right. Our recommendation: find someone else.