M. A. Fortier & Co

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Marc Fortier was professional in every way and got the job done superbly.  My finished basement was destroyed years ago due to flooding and subsequent waterproofing which left the walls with sections of drywall cut out around the floor and no flooring.  Mr. Fortier and his contractors re-did the drywall, rebuilt shelves in a closet, created a box around the open water meter, replaced the tiling and fixtures in the bathroom, relaid new carpet in the open area and stairway, hallway and office, and painted the entire area.  He made excellent recommendations about how to cover the area where my new sump pump had previously been installed, which increased the beauty of the room.  He oversaw every aspect of the work to my satisfaction and completed the job in 2-3 weeks (he worked with my schedule to be there on days I was able to accommodate the work or not be there on certain days at my request).  I trusted him with access to my house without me having to be there all day. The quality of his work was outstanding and his price very reasonable. I highly recommend M.A. Fortier and Co. for any kind of home improvements and plan to use his services again.

Workers were punctual and professional--it has been almost a year since the work was done and there have been no problems.
The results were excellent.

My aged father asked his four children, suddenly, to basically "beam us up":   take him out of his house in DC which he and my mother had occupied since 1968, to an assisted living situation, as the management of the household had become too much for him as he approached 90 years old.   We got them moved within 30 days to an assisted living situation on the other side of the country, where most of the adult children live.  Then we had to deal with the house.  No family member lives in DC, but I in Boston was closest, and for that and other reasons it fell to me to direct the remote renovations of the house for sale.  We were not in a rush to convert the house to cash, and we wanted a better return on it than an as-is sale would have brought in..   We interviewed a few realtors, and wound up settling on one who pointed us to Marc Fortier as a reliable and capable contractor for doing a round of renovations on the house.  

We interviewed Marc Fortier, in the course of which it occurred to me to offer to sell him my mother's old Ford Focus, which though it was 10 years old had low mileage.  I got some other offers on the car from a CraigsList ad, but wound up selling the car to Marc as he seemed trustworthy and realistic in his assessment of the car.   I was pleased to see how he quickly resolved some cosmetic repair issues on the vehicle, and dealt with some bureaucratic issues having to do with title transfer and power of attorney.  This looked like somebody I could work with remotely on renovating the house.

The initial thought was to get the basics done:   Refinish floors, repaint interior and exterior, do basement wall repairs and basement waterproofing if it turned out to be needed.   Marc's crew began work.  He sent me occasional photo updates, and he trained me to use text messaging for a lot of our routine communications about the job.  (I was already sold on using email for the larger documents, e.g. detail estimates).

I made an inspection visit to DC a few weeks into the work, and came to believe what Marc had reported:  that the redone parts of the house looked really good, and it suggested we might want to do a more complete renovation.   At that point, with the scope of the renovations widening and the stakes going up and the design choices getting more complex, I interviewed a couple of interior designer/stager contractors, who could steer the aesthetic choices on a more complete renovation, and then stage the house for sale.   Both candidates seemed really good.  In an agonizingly close choice, I picked J. Hodges + Associates over GlorifiedSpaces.com.   Marc Fortier participated in the interviewing process and I credit both him and Jason Hodges with professionalism in managing, over the coming months, to work together effectively across some differences in personal style.

As a general contractor, Marc brought in and transparently managed subcontractors for several specialties:  painting, flooring,  kitchen renovation, countertops, electrician, basement waterproofing, asphalt driveway.   He was also amenable, when he did not have a specific recommendation, to working with other contractors I arranged.  For example, I interviewed (by phone and email) a couple of swimming pool demolition specialists.   Marc was willing to advise me on which of the two bids to take, and to review the proposed methods of both bidders.   Marc then acted as my eyes on the job with the eventually chosen pool demolition contractor, and Marc refused payment for that monitoring role..   (My pool demolition contractor was great for remote work -- he texted me photos daily to track progress).

I made a few one-day trips to DC over the course of the job to look in on things.  Each time,  I found that Marc was doing things "right" even if that meant doing more work than the bid had specified.   Time spent discussing things with Marc, or spelling things out in email, was time well spent, as he was listening and is a very bright guy.   I never got the feeling that he was holding back on discussing issues that came up.

Over the course of months working with Marc, I came to believe this:  There are contractors who produce a more polished written bid.  There are contractors who will predict the future with more apparent certainty than Marc will.  There are contractors who will work for less money than Marc will.   But to me, Marc seems to be very good at pricing things so that he can quietly take the unexpected in stride, and do the job right, and quietly deliver more than what was originally envisioned.  There are certainly slicker-talking contractors, but I have never seen anybody who is smarter than Marc when it comes to getting the job done and done well with risks minimized.  

Also, for my needs as remote client, Marc's use of text and email and digital photos and mobile phone were very helpful.

The finish of the story was that Marc's final contribution to the sale of the house was as a solution to a little problem that our buyer reported during the pre-settlement walkthrough.   Our buyer insisted during the settlement meeting that we fix this problem after they take occupancy, at our expense -- but by proposing that we have Marc fix it, the buyer made it easy to say Yes.  A couple weeks after the settlement on the house, I got my modest bill from Marc for that work.   No problem.