Hilltown Plaster Co & Handyman Services

I hired James to do a bunch of jobs around my house this past summer. The biggest job was getting the drywall in the bathroom (walls and ceiling) ready to be painted. He worked on the walls and ceiling for a couple of days, and when he was finished I asked if it was "paint ready" and he said it was. I was surprised by that answer because I saw significant flaws -- a section of the wall about 1 foot squared was raised up about a millimeter for some reason, there were a ton of pin-sized holes, and the corners where the walls meet were uneven -- but I assumed he knew what he was doing and so I painted the walls thinking these things wouldn't show up, and the walls ended up looking just as bad once they were painted. So after hours of painting I wrote to him saying I wasn't satisfied, and he came back over, did some scraping, and put more plaster on the walls. When he finished he told me that I would be doing the sanding of the walls once the plaster dried. This was surprising since he didn't properly do the job the first time, and when he came back to fix the job he left it totally unfinished. Furthermore, he knew I've never done this kind of work in my life, and I texted him later saying I didn't have a shop vac either so I wasn't sure what I was going to do about the walls. He never got back to me. So I had no choice but to hire someone else to fix the bathroom walls. I paid the new handyman over $500 to get the walls paint ready (which he said the walls wouldn't look perfect given the poor job done to them but could look much better), and then wrote to James saying I'd like a partial refund of $500. He told me I should have contacted him again before hiring someone else, and I said I wasn't going to call him back a 3rd time when he couldn't do the job right the 1st or 2nd times. I never received any refund. Other jobs he did that did not turn out well: - The custom trim he made for my bathroom window started falling off a couple weeks after he installed it. - He did something very strange with my bathroom door while installing trim around it. My door does not close correctly, and the hardware in the door jamb can be seen when the door is closed. When the door is closed, it is not fully closed -- you can wiggle it about a half an inch. I have no idea how I'm going to fix this, or how much it's going to cost to fix it. - The transitions into 2 rooms have plugs in them, and he said the plugs would blend in when the floors were sanding and stained. The plugs are totally noticeable -- they stained a much darker color than the transitions themselves. There were parts of the work that he did that turned out well. The ceiling section that he repaired looks okay, the baseboard in the living room looks good, and some of the trim looks good. However, I am left with problems that need to be fixed that he caused (the bathroom door being the biggest), and I had to pay another handyman to fix the whole bathroom, and that was a huge cost to me. Therefore, I definitely cannot recommend this handyman and wish I had hired someone else from the start.

Very well. He recommended we consult with Fleury's Lumber here in Easthampton and they recommended the correct stain for the job. We purchased the stain and he applied two coats of the finish, after sanding and filling cracks.

Wonderful job! Would definitely hire again!

James was just great to work with he was responsive, flexible and very knowledgeable. His plastering work was top notch as was his carpentry. If you have an old house that needs work this is the man to see.

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James accommodated our schedule and completed the job as agreed.  We would use him again and would recommend him to our friends.

unknown

Very well great follow through, so misunderstanding about pricing, but was adressed and taking care of....

Our experience with the contractor was good and bad. James was friendly and got the job done, however, several things went wrong now creating long-term repercussions.
His job was to re-tile part of a walk in shower. For him to gain proper access, the high-end glass shower door needed to be removed. I suggested to call the company that originally installed the door to remove it, but James thought he could do it without their help.  In the process of removing the door Jim somehow broke the water tank for the toilet. Feeling bad for this unfortunate situation,I agreed to buy the water tank if he picked it up and installed it. 
When it was time to re-install the shower door, I again suggested to call the installers, but James thought we could save money if he installed it. He needed a second pair of hands, so I agreed to help. During the process of installing the door, it became clear James was not  a hundred percent sure how to hinge the door to the frame. During the process of James guiding the door into the correct place the door slipped off the receiving plate and exploded into a million pieces. One of teh pieces landed undr my foot and when i moved it cut into the arch of my right foot.
Now I had to order a new glass shower door and pay for the shower door company to install it.
In the aftermath we realized that the impact of glass pieces flying throughout the bathroom, some of the antique wooden floors were damaged as well. They were pitted. 
We understand we should have mentioned all the above sooner, but frankly we felt bad for the guy and tried to move past it. 
However, my foot did not heal as expected, a piece of glass got stuck in the foot and has now encapsulated.
It is a very painful condition I had to see a podiatrist for. I now learned that I need surgery to remove the grape size bump from
the arch of my foot. I am scheduled to have surgery May 1st.
I have to stay off my foot for at least 2 weeks which creates another expense. I will not be able to care for the farm animals in my care and must hire someone to do my work. 
The expenses in addition to the actual job are as follows:
new toilet tank $170
shower door $600
hired help $350
medical expenses not covered by insurance: TBD
I am looking to recover the expenses that went above and beyond the cope of the original job.
Please let me know how to process from here.
Best, Nicole Birkholzer

James is simply spectacular.  He has an amazingly broad set of skills and can get most of your house repairs done efficiently.  He is thorough in his work, very accommodating, has a great work ethic (will let you know upfront if there is something he won't be able to do as efficiently as a specialist), is very reasonably priced, and is very accurate in cost estimates.  He is going to be my get-go person for home repairs from now on.  You cannot go wrong hiring him for your home repairs.

unknown

I'l start out be stating that we anticipate hiring James (Hilltown Plaster Co & Handyman Services) for additional work this spring and summer. During the repair of the ceiling damage from the roof leak, James ran into unanticipated damage which was apparently pre-existing to the actual leakage. He showed it to me and we discussed the best course of action, and he  addressed the problem. While this added a few hours to the repair project- that is par for the course when discovering unanticipated problems.
The ceiling damage from the furniture was done beautifully, and without any additional problems noted.
After James was just about done with the actual repairs, and at a point where only priming and painting was left- I added an additional item that I wanted done (and which we discussed at the outset, and I decided against). Although this required James to set up his wood working tools again the next day, he was most accommodating and the additional work was done beautifully.
We are very satisfied, and would recommend James to anyone who requires plaster work specifically, and handyman work generally.

James was responsive initially. He came out to inspect the job and then gave me an estimate. We discussed a possible date for him to begin the work, and he stuck with that date. I was not home when he did most of the work. He called me at work on the first day of the job and said that he forgot to ask me for a retainer, and asked that I leave him a check for half the estimate. I did that the second day of the job. When he completed the job, it was 9pm on the third day. He and his partner did a good job cleaning up after themselves (as much as one can after plastering--I know it's messy work). Then, before leaving, James asked for $500 more so that he could pay his helper. He told me that he would send me a detailed invoice within a day or 2 for the balance. It has been nearly 2 weeks, and I have not heard from him.
While he did quality work, and it is difficult to find someone who knows how to plaster, I would not use him again, due to his poor professionalism.

James was very thorough. We were incredibly impressed with the quality of work he did, his attention to detail and his price. I would highly recommend his services.

James was by far one of the best experiences we had with a contractor. His professionalism was matched only by his fantastic attitude. Work was performed punctually and neatly, and we are completely satisfied with the outcome. We would recommend him for any drywall/plaster (Or anything he feels comfortable doing) job in the future.

unknown

It was an Angie's List Big Deal that I purchased. It went well. I was pleased with it. There were additional charges because I had 2 days' worth of work. I had 16 hours and that covered the first 4 of it. The good thing about them was they were honest, they worked up to what I needed, and they were able to make adjustments. Whenever you do any general contract work, you are going discuss the problem, and what you want to do about it, and all those went well. The discussions went well. Nothing was unreasonable. The guy was professional and based on that particular person's experience and their experience, it worked out well for me so I was pleased with it. He sent me an email on Angie's List, and Angie's List didn't tell me that I had an email so I called them and said I just got their email through Angie's List. He was told that when I respond on Angie's List, it automatically goes to the person's email saying you've got email, and I didn't get his email for 5 days. My complaint right now with Angie's List is whether I set it up or not, I've got a response from something I bought but I didn't get an email. It was a decent price or else I wouldn't have done it. The guys were really good. I will use them again. I know what I am going to get, and I know what I needed done, and what I needed done was in the confines of this guy's expertise. Every time I go after 3 contractors, one of them never responds. He was out and has done work before so this guy was good.

Pretty well, the only downside was it was difficult to get connected with him because of my schedule since I work at night and he works during the day.

unknown

Discovered mold within the drywall of the skylight shaft (had leaked prior to replacement of the skylight a few years ago). He cleaned this out and allowed time for the area to be completely dry before proceeding with drywall repair which looks phenomenal. Upon completion of this process over several days he then painted the ceiling. This drywall project is well known to be a dusty, messy task but James managed to contain and clean up any residue on a daily basis leaving very little for we the homeowners to deal with.

James is very professional, competent, and task oriented resulting in a job well done. We would certainly request his services again if needed and recommend him to any and all who could benefit from his skill as well.

James re-plastered the walls in our dining room. As far as we can tell, these walls have always been covered with wallpaper and the surface, after removing the current wallpaper, was quite rough and had some cracks. Before painting them, they needed repair and a full skim coat of new plaster. Finding someone who specializes in plastering is a tall order, especially where we live in Western MA, so I was very excited to find James on Angie's list. James is the kind of person you want every contractor to be: thoughtful, conscientious, responsive, kind, and dedicated to quality work. He and his partner Steve did a fantastic job and the walls look gorgeous. I definitely plan to hire James again in the future.

James was referred to us through another group, and he was able to come review our proposed project soon after we got in touch. He got us a quote for the job quickly, and had an opening in his schedule whereby he was able to start work the next week. He seemed engaged in the project from the beginning - we never had to pester him for a response or wait for him to get in touch. He was great to communicate with!

James always arrived when he said he would, told us what he'd be doing (he was very easy for both of us to talk to), and finished on time. He also kept the rest of the house as clean as possible, which included laying paper on the floors so that he wouldn't track construction debris on the rugs and carpets.

We'd definitely use James again - this was a great experience, and we're so pleased with the result!