General Contractor in Somerville, MA
Carpentry comes before coating on Somerville exteriors. Front and rear porches carry three households and take the full weather load. Rails, decking and post bases rot first and painting over soft wood buys one winter. We repair or replace it first, because paint over soft wood buys a season.
General Contractor Services in Somerville
Carpentry Repair in Somerville
Trim, doors, porches and structural wood — We repair the wood before we paint it. Painting over a rotted board is a one-season fix.. If you want the detail, here's how we handle carpentry repair in Somerville.
Wood Rot Repair in Somerville
Fascia, sills, casings and corner boards — Cut out the rot, treat with epoxy consolidant where the piece is salvageable, replace it where it isn't.. If you want the detail, here's how we handle wood rot repair in Somerville.
Siding Repair in Somerville
Clapboard, shingle and fiber cement — Damaged courses replaced and profile-matched, then primed on all sides before they go up.. If you want the detail, here's how we handle siding repair in Somerville.
Trim Installation in Somerville
Baseboard, casing, crown and millwork — Installed, caulked and painted as one job so the finish lines up with the walls.. If you want the detail, here's how we handle trim installation in Somerville.
Rest of what we do in Somerville: Start from the Somerville overview.
More on this trade generally: General Contracting across our service area.
A Family Business, Not a Call Centre
You deal with the people doing the work. We are Allston-based, we hold Massachusetts HIC licence #193121, and we carry full liability and workers' compensation cover.
Estimates in Somerville
We measure on site and put the number in writing.
(617) 777-7700 Call Now Request OnlineWhat General Contracting Work Here Actually Involves
Three-deckers and two-families from the 1890s through the 1920s, packed tight with minimal side yards, plus Victorian single-families on Spring Hill and Prospect Hill.
Most of our general contracting work here is for owner-occupants living in one unit of a three-family, plus landlords running the other two.
Extremely tight lot lines
Somerville buildings sit within a few feet of each other. Ladder and staging placement on a three-storey exterior is planned, not assumed, and often negotiated with a neighbour.
Stacked porches on every block
Front and rear porches carry three households and take the full weather load. Rails, decking and post bases rot first and painting over soft wood buys one winter.
Rental turnover
Much of Somerville turns over on the September lease cycle, and units have to be patched, primed and painted in days.
What a Contracting Quote Has to Account For
What drives the price
Carpentry pricing is mostly about what is behind the surface, which nobody knows until it is open. We price the known scope firmly and carry the unknowns as a written allowance rather than a vague contingency, so a rot repair that turns out to run further than the visible damage does not become an argument halfway through. In Somerville specifically, the work is mostly three-deckers packed shoulder to shoulder, and almost no room to stage shapes how we schedule and stage it.
How the work is sequenced
Repairs come before finishes, always. There is no point painting trim that is going to be replaced, and no point replacing trim while the flashing above it is still letting water in. We work from the water source down: flashing and drainage first, then the substrate, then the carpentry, then the coating.
Where it usually goes wrong
The common failure is cosmetic work done over an unresolved cause. Filler over rot that still has a moisture path behind it will fail again in a season, and the second repair costs more than the first because the damage has spread. If we find a source we cannot fix, we tell you before we coat over it rather than after.
How long it takes
Carpentry runs on material availability as much as labour. Stock trim and standard dimensional lumber are immediate. Matched profiles for older houses can take weeks to source or mill, and we flag that at the estimate rather than discovering it mid-job.
Recent Work
Before & After
Drag the handle to compare
Three-family exterior restorationCornice and bay-window brackets had failed with rusted flashing behind them. Carpentry repaired first, then the full envelope prepped and refinished.
Questions We Get Asked
Do you fix the wood before painting it in Somerville?
Can you match old trim profiles?
Is carpentry quoted separately?
Ready for Your General Contractor Estimate in Somerville?
We walk the property, measure it, and send a written itemised quote — normally inside 24 hours. No pressure, no obligation.
Licensed #193121 · Fully insured · 2-year workmanship warranty