Professional Building Services

PBS did an excellent job of removing all of the old cedar siding and trim and replacing it with Hardie Siding and Trim. Pete the owner and his son Joe are true professionals and know the ins and outs of the construction industry and what is necessary to prevent a home from water damage and damage from elements. Joe and and his team worked through difficult winter weather to get the job done. They took the time necessary to properly seal the home and ensure it is bulletproof from the elements. The home exterior is now maintenance free for many many years to come. They are easy to work with and you get a lot of value for your investment.

We've used PBS before for a basement remodel. On the first of the two occasions in question - 2 years ago - our rear gutters started making a buzzing sound when the wind blew from the side of the house. It was very loud and annoying - sleep-denyingly so. It was mid-summer and T-storms were coming constantly so I texted PBS owner, Pete Ceraldi, and gave him the scoop. He had a crew to our place within 2 days to put everything in order. Golden. Jump to this year (2017). 3 Feet of snow had fallen within a week and then mid-60s temps were making waste of Mother Nature's thick, white blanket. The quick melting caused snow and ice to slide swiftly off of our roof ripping our gutters down in the process. Another text to Pete - he responded same day - from New Zealand, on vacation! That was on a Sunday. By Wednesday he (still in NZ) had a contractor crew to our place to pull all the gutters down, clean them up, and re-install. Twice Golden.

We first found PBS on Angie's List a few years ago when we wanted to finish our basement. They came highly recommended and lived up to the designation. The workers were prompt and professional; the work was done on-time and on-budget; the owner, Pete, was quick to respond to any questions we had and was very open to changes and unusual requests (like a ceiling-mounted swing for our son who has autism). We have called upon PBS several times since, for both planned and emergency work, and each time we have been happy and satisfied with the responsiveness and quality of work.

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Bottom line up front:  My experience with Professional Building Services (PBS) started, continued, and ended badly.  I think PBS has potential and that the owner, Pete, has recognized the breadth and depth of his personnel turnover problems.   Their Ops Manager, admin, an entire crew, and various other employees left and were shortstaffed.  They are overwhelmed and are juggling way too many jobs concurrently, trying to satisfy everyone, but quality workmanship certainly suffers.

If you hire PBS, monitor and track their employee and sub hours closely and have them initial their arrival and departure times on your tracking sheet.  Also, be ready for callbacks and to do a lot of work yourself, to include clean up.  I finally called for the porta pot and dumpster removal b/c PBS let those very beautiful items sit there month after month, with all that snow we got last year.  Also be prepared for an inordinate amount of your time to be invested.  I easily sent PBS employees over 100 e-mails over 11 months, mostly on coordinating schedules, but often on billing discrepancies too.

I hired PBS on what was supposed to be a simple, fast time and material (T+M) bathroom renovation between Christmas and New Years of 2014 and they finished 11 months later on 11 Nov 15!  It took them almost a year for a standard tub to tile renovation.  Granted, it was a small, easy job that PBS doesn?t usually take but Pete Ciaraldi, the PBS Owner, and I thought it could be win-win.  I?d get on his schedule faster and his crew could knock it out during a slow period and earn some extra cash. 

What happened?

• - Coordinated with the owner, Pete , his Ops Manager, Matt Bouchard, and his energetic admin support, Cathy Zaconne.  Pete only provided the initial quote and negotiated contract terms before handing me off to Matt, which was standard.  Pete?s family owned this business under a different name, but he went in to another business as an engineer (I think) and accepted a sweet buy-out offer.   So, I?m guessing he?d like to hand this company off to his 20-something year old son soon.

• - Signed a standard contract clearly outlining labor rates, terms, and conditions.  Pete was pleasantly flexible on contract terms and text.

• - I envisioned a higher end shower with radiant floor heat, 0.5 inch glass shower enclosure, and quality workmanship. 

• - Turns out the subs didn?t really want to work between the holidays after all and there were no alternate employees who did.

• - Pete started out as the rainmaker and I never heard from him until Matt, the Ops Mgr quit or was fired no notice.  Then Cathy the admin support (who kept everyone on task) also left.  Cathy kept everyone on task.  Then PBS lost an entire crew of skilled craftsmen too!  I knew something was up when I finally started hearing from Pete personally.    

• - First part of the job was to demo a hardwood floor area outside bathroom and replace with tile for a mudroom.  I demo?ed the floor to save time and money while PBS employee/sub Jim Fournier did the floor tiles.  Turns out Matt bought brown grout for gray tile so we sent that back.  Turned out to be too difficult to schedule Jim to grout the tile after that.  I installed the floor transition pieces to deal to the different floor heights and I grouted the floor myself. 

• - I specifically asked Matt about the tile pro several times?and was repeatedly told by Matt that ?they have someone?  (meaning Jim, their on-again, off-again employee or sub depending on the week).  Lesson learned: if you have a tiled bath wall, ensure a tile specialist is identified and do not use a jack of all trades and master of none.  The PBS chap who did 90% of the work for me on this job was Jim Fournier.  Jim is a great guy to chat with, has a good sense of humor, and is very trustworthy.  He generally does good work but I did require him to do several call backs to correct his mistakes.  Matt did not treat his folks well and often used Jim as his verbal whipping boy and expected Jim to correct the work of other PBS employees when they made mistakes.

• - The crew planned a substandard shower just to finish quickly:

  • -- with a rubber liner that would get tacked to the studs, resulting in a swiss cheese effect!  It would have been ruined before it ever saw water.

  • -- so, I changed course after seeing Jim?s work and decided it was better to use a presloped high end tile kit from Laticrete, which I acquired myself.  I had no faith in Jim being able to get the floor slope right otherwise.

  • -- they weren?t going to install any additional blocking behind the shower wall so I had to do it myself.  Full disclosure:  I made mistake #1 by putting a nail right through the copper pipe. Easily and quickly corrected by the plumber Brian and a nice lesson learned for me to stop work before I got tired.

  • -- Jim improperly framed the shower.  He knew it was going to have heavy 0.5 inch glass doors supported by bracket fasteners going directly into the studs but he never added any studs there!  So, I directed that it be done over.

  • -- The team (to include the electrical and plumbing subs) do not work well together and the left hand does not know what the right is supposed to do.  No one wanted to install the exhaust fan vented outside so Jim finally had to do it.    

  • -- Same issue with team dynamics happened for the electric radiant floor heat. Everyone acted like it wasn?t their job to install so Jim got stuck with it again, even though he had never done it before.   So, who do you think read the directions and took the requisite voltage readings?  I did.

  • -- The crew (except for Eric the electrician) play it fast and loose on their hours, resulting in wide discrepancies with reality.  In theory they are supposed to use smartphone apps to log in and off job sites but they sometimes had trouble getting a signal in my driveway.  I wised up after seeing the first hourly bill and then asked the fellas to initial off on my own time sheet where I closely tracked their arrival and departure times.  Just a coincidence that after that they were more accurate (yeah, right!)  The plumbers working for Paul Martin were the worst offenders...we?re talking about consistently being hours off, not a measly 30 min.    

  • -- Shower wall tiling was substandard at best.  Several significant lippages are clearly evident and the wall and floor both have wave issues, even with a presloped shower pan.

  • -- You should see how bad the walls and ceiling came out after Jim plastered.  Sanding was inadequate which resulted in lines everywhere.

-- Pete really does mean well and genuinely wants to provide exceptional work.  He (like all of us) was juggling a lot of familial challenges concurrently and experienced huge personnel turnover.  In my view, he never handled the crisis of losing his Ops Manager  correctly by notifying his clients up front and never apologized for the long delays and frequent callbacks required.  I think he is trying to mentor his son Joey to take over as Ops Manager but I?m dubious as to whether he has the requisite experience and interpersonal skills to manage clients, staff, and suppliers.  Pete needs to hire and pay for top quality folks if he wants superlative results.

We obtained quotes from 3 different companies for this deck upgrade job.  We chose Professional Building Services and were very happy with that decision.  Pete's company performed careful work on our deck and took care of details that we would never have even considered.  Professional Building Services also responded promptly to our questions and concerns as the job proceeded.  Once the work was completed, our deck looked much better than it had before.  We look forward to enjoying our deck for many years in the future.

Professional Building Services is fantastic.  We have used them many times.  Pete and Joe are high on communications and go out of their way to make you happy.  They did our siding using Hardi cement board siding and did such a great job we hired them again for our roof.  After this winter we were concerned about Ice dams and leaks again.  They found plywood that was not nailed and took care of that for us and completed our roof in under two days.  We have a lot of landscaping and a pool.  They were super clean.  You have to expect some little things you will find in shrubs later but thats expected.  Removing a roof is super messy and we were impressed.  We honestly thought there would be some major cleaning on our end.  There price is very competitive to others.

Little or no attention to detail. Really disappointed with their work.  Workers were often late or did not show. Wouldn't use them again.

Pete and his team were great. I needed a gut re-model on the first floor of my house and I couldn't have asked for a more skilled group of contractors to get the job done right. If you're looking for someone who will work quickly, have great communication with you and most importantly be fair and deliver an outstanding product then you should be calling Professional Building Services asap. A++++++

Professional building was amazing, Their name says it all!  Its hard to say anything else but that.  Pete and his team are very responsive.  Communication is outstanding, especially in todays world.  The entire team was curious and attentive to detail.  Having other projects completed by other contractors in the past we know that construction is messy and nothing ever goes as planned.  This is expected.  Pete and his team of workers dealt with the unexpected issues and kept us up to date with any issues.  They took care of everything so we did not have to worry about it.  Considering the scope of the project they were neat and punctual!  They did what they said and the team was exceptionally talented and well skilled.  I have read some of the other reviews (there is always someone who does not understand that every home is different and they become unreasonable with what they expect).  This company is top notch.  IF you want quality and a company that backs up their work this is the company to hire.  We are hard to please and have had many contractors over the years.  We will not hire anyone for any project unless its Professional building services!

First, don't believe their slogan: "No surprises. No risks. No hassles." We got all three of these throughout the job. 
This company operates without providing any visibility of the process to the homeowner. They sub-contract crews to install siding, which was clear, however the steps involved came as surprises all along the way.After all, how often do you get your siding redone? Joe, Pete's son, was supposed to lead the project but there was no project management except when it came to asking for payments. Joe was on site maybe 3 times during the whole 7-week project. The foreman had no written description or guidelines of the job when he began, only verbal. We had walked through with Joe many times prior to the start but some key details were forgotten and overlooked as the siding was installed. We, the homeowners, had to remind them of the items such as half-rounds in specific areas and trim board placement. 
Communication was one-sided - many of our questions and inquiries have either gone unanswered or have been deflected. We feel that we have been mislead and not fully disclosed to. Some examples:
1. False start: Pete shows up with a foreman and walks through saying that the job will start that following week. Turns out that Joe had another plan and so although we expected the job to start, according to Pete, it turned out that we had to wait for the crew Joe had planned to finish up another job, demonstrating how poorly PBS communicates internally.
2. We were told that we could ask the Hardie rep questions anytime, but anytime we tried to contact the rep the questions went answered through PBS. 
 3.  Text messages sent during the day went unanswered until a day or two later, and the excuse was that his phone was off the night before. 
4. They told us that the crew doesn't leave until the job has finished yet they pulled the foreman off of our job for another one, 3 weeks prior to what they called job completion.
5.  When questioned about this change in foreman, Joe didn't know that there was another job.  
6. When asked if they would do a final walk through with us, the answer was yes, but this was never done by Professional Building Services (PBS from here on out). 
7. Did not receive detailed receipts as requested for invoiced items such as electrical work. 
There is a real lack of transparency in their operations. 
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The James Hardie rep does not provide any value to the homeowner. For a rep that was on site 2-3 times during the whole job, there were many details missed, such as exposed nail holes in the washboard and fascia trim, lousy caulking joints in some places, and a noticeable section missing washboard that we had to call out during our inspection when the crew finished up.(PBS never noted these either during any of the 4 times they were on site during the whole job).
The final straw came when we were informed that the job was complete even though PBS never came and did a walk through with us. They did not ask if we were satisfied, just told us the job was complete and we would be invoiced. This was after  we contacted them to let them know that we were not satisfied with the rake board trim installation the week prior.
Ah, the rake board trim: We own an antique home and the objective was to maintain the original look as much as possible with respect to the trim, half-rounds, etc.. PBS installed 12 inch Hardie Board trim on our rake boards that has been BONDO'd to cover up large gaps in the rake board-to-fascia joints, Yes, you heard right - BONDO on brand new Hardie trim board! They would have just left the gaps if we hadn't complained, leading to moisture intrusion on unfinished fiber cement and causing damage. We requested that the rake boards be redone but this was not an option for Pete, even though we were charged Master Carpentry rates. We were told that BONDO is a Hardie-approved method of addressing this sub-standard carpentry. Had we been advised up front about the specific nature of the 12" trim board with fluting on the back, we would have been receptive to other trim options. The sub-contractor should have contacted PBS and informed of the issue when it was in play, not wait for us to complain. No one in their right mind would pay the amount of money that you do for Hardie trim and accept the resulting trim joints. 
I would rename them UN-Professional Building Services because there is no sense of customer commitment or service, just condescending and bullying responses to justified complaints/inquiries. The primary goal of PBS is to get paid. 
The one positive comment is our kudos to the crew, led by Angelo. They worked very hard, were pleasant, and did a fantastic job installing the corner trim, washboard, and siding - Hardie products that they have used for many years (except that they admitted it was the first time they had used this 12 inch trim board). We have nicely mitred joints on other trim areas, as expected. If it weren't for Angelo we would not have known what was going on many times. Overall, the house looks great, but as a homeowner, we know the details of our house.
Bottom line: Do not use these guys if your siding job includes skilled finish carpentry work on the trim because this is outside of their specialty. Also, beware of the lack of project management, though we chose these guys because they explained how they were out in the field all of the time working jobs. Maybe decks are more of their specialty, Our feeling is that your job will not be their priority once they have passed it to their sub-contractor. They have moved on to the next one and want to be done with you no matter how dissatisfied you may be.  

They showed up on time and cleaned up after themselves.

The service went well. They showed up a day early which was a slight inconvenience. No one called me to notify me of the schedule change but it was ok. The estimate was higher than the final bill.

Amazing! They responded so quickly to my request. Special thanks to Cathy. They were courteous and incredibly hard-working. I have a complicated and irregular roof, so this was a tricky job. They left the pathways and shoveled areas clear. I have other home repairs to do this spring and will definitely use Professional Building Services.

I needed to get the snow removed as quickly as possible from my roof because the snow was almost covering the top of the plumbing system vent pipe and they sent their guys out the same day. They arrived on time and removed the snow from my entire roof and farmers porch in about two hours and they did a great job. And the price was right. I would definitely hire them again.

I asked four contractors to provide me a quote on finishing a room in my basement.  Professional Building Services was the easiest to work with regarding the quotation process.  They were the fastest to provide a quote and the best price.  They e-mailed me a typed professional itemized quote within 2 days after the visit.  Matt Bouchard was the project manager and he was very easy to communicate with (phone, text, e-mail).  The subcontractors that they brought in for framing, electric and drywall were first rate and did high quality work.   The job was completed in 5 days, there were no breaks.  Great scheduling of the subcontractors by Matt.    The subcontractors cleaned up each day after their work was over and were very courteous and knew their craft.   I would definitely recommend PBS and would rehire them for another job.

Too much snow on roof and we called. They came right away and shoveled it off. Cleaned up nice. very good job

Professional Building Services did a great job shoveling our roofs. Awesome crew !

Went great ! New roof. Clean job, fast, neat and professional. They explained everything and did what they said,

Great kitchen design and we think they are the best kitchen remodelers around. Loved them.

House was stripped down to plywood, house wrapped tight and new James Hardie siding supplied and installed. Job was kept very clean and the guys were great to deal with. Always friendly and always worked hard.  Very happy !

Great company to do business with. Couldn't be happier - was just a great experience !

Replaced a deck on one of our rental properties.. It was a simple, clean process.  Great company to work with !