In February of 2005, we contracted with Martin King to do some extensive remodeling on our house: gut the kitchen and bathroom, add a 1/2 bath downstairs, remodel the whole 2nd floor, including new sheetrock and electrical. It was a disaster from which we have still not recovered. We have just now been able to get another contractor on site to finish and repair the work that he left unfinished when he abandoned the job.

Just so we’re clear on exactly who I am talking about, here is the information I got from the Massachusetts HIC database:

Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor Registration # 105434
Martin Joseph King
333 Baker Street
West Roxbury, MA 02132

Since his employees seemed unable to complete the work without intentionally and/or unintentionally damaging our property, or without just plain screwing up the work, interaction with Martin became increasingly tense. At one point, he called and said that he was having trouble getting people to work on the house, and that “it’s going to end up in court.” I’ve no idea why he thought that was a good idea, because our house was a mess, and it was all his fault. Anyway, he said he would call me back with a time that we could meet the next day. He never called. Finally, we consulted a lawyer and drafted a registered letter to him. He never accepted it, so it was clear that he had abandoned the job.

We’ve managed to get another contractor, who should be starting any day now. Hopefully he will be able to fix everything without going over our original budget that we had contracted with Martin, but there are a few big ticket items that may not be easily fixed. I really don’t want to break our budget, not because I think I will have to pay, but because I really don’t want to have to go through the process of getting Martin to pay for it. But if we have to, we have to.

Anyway, if you haven’t been able to guess so far, I’d recommend against using his services.