SILMAC Construction Inc.

Joe and team were great, ensuring a high quality finish and dealing with unexpected issues as they arose. I would recommend Joe to others and would not hestitate in using him in future for other products. If you are looking for a high quality finish call Joe

Joe and crew were very professional, and Joe was always available to respond to questions and offer helpful suggestions; he was also willing to collect materials for me and charged them at cost. He takes care and pride in his work and it shows. When the inevitable complications or glitches arose, he was very quick to rectify them. The job became more comprehensive and protracted than originally anticipated, largely due to permit delays, but the finished product was worth waiting for. I would definitely use SILMAC again.

We had Joe and team remodel our 10 by 10 master bath. The estimate was prompt and reasonably priced, and demonstrated familiarity with the finishes and features I was considering, like large-format tiles with Schluter trim pieces, built-in shower bench, niches for shower and tub, etc. They demo'd the existing bath and removed a lot of material. Floor protection was good through the entire path to the worksite, especially in my adjacent bedroom which remained occupied. They also helped set aside some fixtures at my request that I could sell or donate, which helped defray some of the renovation costs. We had a delay after that; my freestanding tub and engineered stone shower base had a long lead time...in hindsight, I wish we had them on hand before starting demo, so it meant we paused the project while waiting on materials. We also had some surprises that were unforeseeable, like finding that the original contractor who built my bathroom (not Joe) had notched a beam incorrectly, so the building inspector required an engineer to sign off on repairs to the beam. Once the structural work and rough plumbing was completed, the drywall, painting, tile, and finish plumbing work went pretty quickly. We had a few punchlist items come up with the plumbing, but I coordinated with Joe over email/text or with the onsite project foreman to get things resolved. The team usually arrived on workdays in that 'sweet spot' after I got ready but before I left for work, which helped with communication. They also worked on Saturdays during peak effort times, which helped us to recover from some of our schedule delays. The project looks like a million bucks now. We loved the work that they were doing in the bathroom so much that we had them add on several projects, such as patching drywall from former roof leaks, repairing a leaking rotted exterior door jamb, and painting nearly every room in the house--which involved a lot of ladder work, as some of our ceilings are up to sixteen feet high. I'm amazed at how excited I was with the drywall work...I can't even tell where they cut out some of the old drywall and replaced it. Way nicer than the patch jobs I've attempted before. The foreperson also did a great job with my custom special order vanity that arrived with a very small defect on the side panel/leg. He did some sort of wizardry and flipped a piece around and trimmed another bit to put the defect in a more hidden spot, which saved me from waiting several more weeks for a replacement. The master bath now looks like the relaxing spa I envisioned, and the rest of the house feels brand new again. The only work that they didn't do in the bathroom was installing the glass shower enclosure and the Zodiaq countertop, which were handled by others.

It all went very well, from start to finish. I am immensely pleased with this company and I am sure you will be, too. We have had major renovations completed in two other homes and this company stands out for its professionalism, competency and a desire to please their customers. From the first set of contractors to the last, I was met with politeness, competency, pride in work, and an attention to detail. The clean up each day was particularly commendable. The total cost of the project was over $80,000 and I got quality and excellent service. They did everything they could to please me and for that, I'm glad I hired them. I wouldn't hesitate to use this company again.

Joe was very responsive to my initial contact, and throughout. He wasn't able to make our originally scheduled meeting, but responded immediately to texts and was able to reschedule for the next day. After he came by the house to see the bathroom being renovated, he got back to us quickly with a detailed estimate. Price was competitive with other quotes, but we did not ultimately have Silmac do the work. We will definitely consider them for future projects, however.

I fired Joe about six weeks into our bathroom renovation project because his sub-contractors only worked on our house an average of two days out of every week, and they weren’t even full days. They would arrive between 10 and 12 and leave sometimes as early as 3 pm. I took over the project myself because I was essentially doing Joe’s job for him. Joe was rarely at my house and depended on texts with his sub-contractors to monitor the work. I was the one talking to his subs about the details, and I was the one going to the building department to speak with the inspectors. Since I’ve taken over the job, more work has been done in one week than was done in the six weeks since Joe had the project. We were given a lot of excuses for why the work was not getting done. We were told the workers were sick or that the material was not ordered or that we had changed the scope of the project. That one is an old standby for shady contractors. “We didn’t show up for a week because you changed the scope of the project.” That’s a load of crap. Every project changes. It is the nature of the beast. And there is always other work that can be done. You don’t have to take a week off to think about it. After letting him go, we found out that his plumber does shoddy work. We have to take it out and do most of it over from scratch. This is very expensive. In addition, his plumber cut giant holes in the floor joists for oversized piping that was pitched incorrectly and large notches out of the wall framing that compromised the structural integrity of the floor and wall. We need to have that repaired as well. Another thing that annoyed me was the fact that I asked Joe several times to dispose of the job waste, but instead his subs just left it in a pile in my back yard. At the time of his firing, we had paid Joe $15,000. We got very little for our money. Nothing was done completely. The framing was only 3/4 done and the plumbing was not completed and had to be redone from scratch. The electrician hadn’t even started yet. I may as well have flushed $15,000 down the toilet.

He was very responsive and punctual in giving his quote and providing feedback responses. Unfortunately our current finances did not allow for us to move forward with the project but we would love to work with him in the future.

We hired Silmac based on their great Angie's List reviews. I'm not sure why we had such a vastly different experience than so many other reviewers. The work started on April 10. Approximately half of the demolition was done in the first two days, then no one returned for 2 and a half weeks, with no explanation about the delay. Joe then came out with a plumber to discuss a plan to for rerouting a pipe through the kitchen. The demolition was finished shortly afterward, but work was done very sporadically. There were multiple weeks when no work was done. My husband frequently called, texted and emailed Joe to find out when the work would resume. Probably over 50% of the time, his messages were ignored. The day that the plumber finished his work, we discovered that the water in our kitchen sink was only a trickle, so we couldn't use the sink or dishwasher. Despite messaging Joe about this problem right away, this problem was not resolved until 6 days later with no response to texts and calls for 5 days. Then we decided to test the underfloor heating. Only a portion of the floor heated up. When my husband emailed Joe about it, he sent photos (see below) showing were the heat mats had been placed under the floor tiles. Only a strip of mat was put down, so that only a fraction of the bathroom floor was heated. We then actually had to argue with Joe to make it right. He claimed that he put down the heat mat "where you would walk" despite the fact that there was no coverage in front of the toilet or most of vanity. After a lot of back and forth, Joe finally agreed to put down additional mats to cover more of the floor. Unfortunately to cover the whole floor would have meant pulling out the vanity which we chose not to do. Also, we were anxious to be done with the project as it had already gone on for over 5 months. So only some of the floor tiles were pulled up and then put back. The entire project took over six months, with work being done an average of one day/week. That said, we are pleased with the overall look of the new bathroom.

[Overall impression] How many times did I her Joe saying "Sure!" and "We can do that!" since we started our bathroom remodeling project last summer? Countless. Joe and his team have transformed an old bathroom of ancient construction to new, comforting, soothing heaven, with no headache/hustle/annoyance throughout the project. Craftmanship Joe put in the detail was above and beyond. The door originally painted in solid color was decorated as if it were stained to match its style to the door near the bathroom. There is no gap at all in trims installation. Every part was installed at a perfect angle. All electric parts and plumbing functions flawlessly. And more importantly, all issues that would have been neglected by other contractors are still addressed! [Project Detail] We started our plan to remodel the bathroom in spring of 2017. A designer was hired to perform a rough drawing of the new bathroom on which a couple of construction companies were invited to propose bids. Among three we received bids, Joe provided us the most competitive bid but lots of personal touch in the proposal. His proposal was not a copy/paste from his previous job. He scribbed his plan, and contingency plans specially tailored for our remodeling and responded quickly to the changes we requested. The construction started while we are away on vacation, and it turned out it was the right choice we made. By the time we came back from the vacation, the demolition was all done, and rough installation including discussion with city inspector to make everything in order. The rest of the installation including plumbing, electricity, tiling, vanity and tub installation all happened flawlessly. I found out and later appreciated, that Joe's goal was to provide a functional bathroom to our family as soon as possible and work on detail then. In retrospect, that was a very wise strategy as Joe spent extra attention and time to make all installation complete until we finish the project. When we had issues with plumbing or some detail was not in the original plan, Joe addressed them after we started using the bathroom. We recently identified a minor issue with bathtub installation, which I believe Joe will address by saying "Sure!". [Logistics] As Angie's list user, I care a lot about the ease of communication with contractors particularly. No one uses a web to find a contractor using the internet, and ended up using a phone to communicate with them! I am a busy professional who rarely uses a phone for business. Likewise, I expect my contractor to use emails (and texts) for communication. Joe was perfect in that regard. All of his communication including invoicing were all electronic. I could communicate, pay, request changes all by email when I am away for the business trip. There was no ", please meet me Thursday noon to discuss the project" with Joe. If you are one of them who has meetings or things to do during daytime (which most of the people reading this report would be), hire Joe. [Tips and expectation for future customers] A couple of things a prospective customer should know and expect before she starts to work with Joe. 1) Demolition, carpentry works, titling are all performed by Joe's in-house employee or someone Joe constantly work with. This employee seems to be more engaging to our project, and responsive to Joe's commands. He is a very skilled carpenter. 2) Plumber, electrician, and painters Joe brings in from outside company are top notch but seem to be in high demand. They tend to show up on later days than Joe says they would. They did amazing jobs. Thus it was worth waiting for them for extra days or a week. But you just have to gauge your expectations to this reality and don't get yourself stuck at home waiting for them. We used our keypad lock to let them, but we felt we were neglected in the beginning when we didn't know these outside contractors pattern. 3) Since external contractor relies on parts delivered to our house by a courier service when Joe or I was not present at my home, no one was really in charge of inventory control. There were a couple of occasions the external contractor could not find the parts to be installed on the day they showed up. I will hire Joe again for sure, but Joe and I have to come up with a better way to receive items, identify them, and provide them to contractors accurately. Perhaps, shipping all items to Joe's attention can be a solution to avoid the confusion. [Conclusion] I will hire Joe for any project we will perform for our house. His craftsmanship and personal attention I received are addictive. I also learned how I could work with him; perhaps he knows me more too. I hope this review will lead to creating happier customers like me.

Joe and one of his team members came to our home and assessed the work promptly. He was always responsive to emails and concerns. Two of his workers returned and completed all the repairs over the course of two days, without leaving any loose ends. He sent a follow up email ensuring that all of the repairs were completed to our satisfaction. We continue to be very pleased with his team's work, and have referred him to others, including our neighbors.

I think they will do a good job, but the price little high for me.

Joe was fantastic and the team that he brought in to complete the work was great. Joe was very responsive and communicated the team's progress throughout the process. He made suggestions along the way as well, which were appreciated. The crew cleaned up each day and at the end of the job wiped down surfaces. I'm very happy with the work and would absolutely hire Joe again.

As he did 2 years ago, Joe did high quality work, above and beyond my expectations. The job was done on time and below budget! What more can you want than this? We had a tight schedule to fit this work in between rental tenants, and he started and completed the job right on schedule.

We are very happy. Now two years later we have been using our beautiful kitchen for quite a while and are quite happy. This note is a follow up. We have had a number of parties in our remodeled kitchen and condo. Our guests are always complementing us. The other day we noticed a cabinet door came loose and a cabinet draw handle broke off. Did we panic? Nooo. I picked up my phone and called Joe at SIlmac. He came over in a few days and proceeded to fix the problems. We recommend SILMAC to everyone.

Great. Joe was fantastic to work with. He organizes a team to help him with his work. The apartment that he was remodeling for us was not our home, and he helped a lot by several trips to Home Depot to pick up the necessary materials for us. His cost was much better than the other quotes that I had. He took down our kitchen, bathroom, and the wall in between down to the studs. He then had his team we work the plumbing, electrical, and helped fully remodel the kitchen and bathroom. We gave him all the specs after we designed everything from Home Depot, and he followed it very nicely. Would definitely hire again.

Joe responded to my inquiry very quickly, and was very professional. Got me a quote within a couple of days. Responded to follow up questions quickly. Wish there had been less TBD costs in the quote, mostly for code upgrades and materials. Ultimately decided to go in a different direction.

After contacting Joe through Angie’s List, he came to our home promptly to provide an estimate for the work. From the outset, we found Joe to be honest, forthright, professional and thoughtful in his approach. His estimate fell somewhere in the middle of the others we received, but we felt confident that his number reflected an honest desire to limit any added expenses along the way. When we hired Joe, we asked him to honor one major request – to ensure that the new spaces did not feel like “add-ons” or “extensions” of our home, but rather to blend in seamlessly as if they were part of the original construction. This was not an easy task given that our home is more than 150 years old. We were very pleased with his effort and success in honoring this request. He helped us obtain mouldings/trim and ballusters to match other areas in the home, made design recommendations for built in shelving/bookcases, and re-did any carpentry work that we felt did not honor our original request, no questions asked. Our project presented several construction challenges given its location on the 3rd floor/attic, including angled ceilings and a stairwell not to building code. Joe and his team were able to overcome these challenges, and others that presented themselves along the way, most of which were unanticipated. He did not ask us for extra money along the way to solve the challenges. When an initial building inspection of our new bathroom revealed that that the ceiling height within the shower was not high enough to meet code requirements (due to the angled ceilings), he worked with his carpenters to lower the floor of the shower, a thoughtful and creative solution. In the end, the aesthetics of the step down shower are even better than we had originally conceived with our plans. As for the day to day construction – all of Joe’s workers, from the carpenters to the tiler to the subcontracted electrician and plumber – were of highest quality and were most respectful of our home. They always cleaned up thoroughly at the end of the day. Many of his workers only speak Portuguese, but we did not find this to a problem, as there was almost always someone on site who spoke English and to whom we could ask a question. Joe was always very accessible and responded to emails promptly, even on most weekends. While the project did take longer than we expected, this was due largely to subcontractor availability and timing. In summary, we would recommend Silmac without any reservations and most highly, regardless of the scope of the project. Joe is very reasonable, accessible, easy to work with and has assembled an excellent team behind him. We could not be happier with the quality of the project, and we look forward to hiring Silmac again in the future.

It was a pleasure meeting with Joe DaSilva. He was professional, he answered our questions and offered advice on our project.

Joe came and assessed our project according to the appointment time we set. He was punctual, courteous and professional in his presentation. He reached out to me several times during the process of deciding what to do. While we ultimately went in another direction, we were so impressed with Joe we would not hesitate to reach out to him for future needs!

Simlac crew put it all back together. We've used them before and the same level of professionalism, responsiveness, flexibility, paying attention to little details to make it work for best price (used some old tiles I had, found a few new ones, so we didn't have to replace the entire floor. Saved a lot since didn't have to remove sink and toilet to do it). I could go on. Joe is the best and the guys who do the work have all been terrific too. Friendly, thoughtful, considerate and care about doing high quality. Can't say enough good things. I've had some bad experience with contractors so I know the best when I see it and this is it.

Throughout the whole process Joe and his crew were a pleasure to work with, they were punctual, respectful and responsive. Joe is very kind, fair, honest and was considerate to my neighbors. I never had an issue reaching him by phone, text or email. I truly look forward to hiring Joe and his crew again when it is time to renovate the master bath. Thanks Joe!

The project went smoothly, in part due to the fact that Joe was very communicative and willing to listen to our concerns and ideas. Also, we live in downtown Boston and it was great to work with someone for whom it was a non-issue. Parking down here is a nightmare and a number of contractors were turned off by the parking issue.

The biggest thing when looking for a contractor is finding one that returns your calls and shows up on time or close to it as possible, and someone you can trust. Joe with SILMAC General Remodeling Inc. was all of those things. He returned my calls and came right when he said he would. He was very pleasant to deal with and gave a reasonable price for the work to be done. Unfortunately he was unable to perform job because of people hiring him after he came out to see me. I will not hesitate to contact him again when I need a contractor.

We did not have Joe do the work only due to an unplanned availability from a contractor whom we had extensive experience with had an opening in his schedule at the last minute and could take our job. I was impressed with Joe's excellent communication (technically capable) skills, punctuality with quotes and getting my questions answered fast. I'd consider this contractor for future work.

Joe was very professional with great suggestions. Ultimately didn't hire because we went with a friend'a contractor who had a slightly better estimate.