DdA Home Remodel

Wow these people are rude and un-​professional. I found them in Unilocal and called their number when the phone was answered I hi and I proceeded to ask my question and before I got to the third word of my sentence he replied that they don’t answer to «do you» and he told me that they would not be able to help me and hung up the phone in my face. This tells me that this company is very unaware and just does not get it. It tells me They don’t value their customers and this is not someone I should be doing business with. In the Information Age where a revue on Unilocal can expose you and for you to behave in such a manner is un-​acceptable.

We gave Dan and his team a variety of restoration projects throughout our house. The projects included: interior restoration to a glorious ice-​dam, installing a threshold/​top step to our upper level, and replacing a rotted out window sill on the exterior.
They completed those tasks in a timely manner. Dan is very personable and the team’s skill set comes highly experienced.

Dan,
Was extremely efficient and did a great job doing some painting in my house. I highly recommend him.
MG

Dan and Noël was great my enclosed porch needed to be taken down and my roof needed to saved. Noël came and did the work one day. Than Dan came up with replacement idea for the new deck that was a great improvement from the existing one. The whole project just took 8 days and the workmanship is outstanding ,
I would highly recommend Dan and Noël they do great guys and do outstanding work.

Great work. Noël was wonderful. Highly efficient, knowledgeable and great work. I have a very old house and the workmanship was outstanding I would recommend them VERY highly

Dan’s handyman Noël was incredibly efficient. He also proved to be knowledgeable, personable, (musical, I must add) and willing to work around our daily routines. We were very impressed by his expertise and careful, detailed work. Particularly unusual and wonderful was how well he cleaned up after himself — there wasn’t a shred of garbage or scraps lying around afterwards.
We are also grateful that Dan responded promptly to all of our messages, and for being absolutely clear about pricing policies and estimate. It was a completely new experience for us to deal with a trades person who is so responsible and trustworthy. We will certainly call him again when we have more work to be done.

Dan did a complete gut-​job renovation on our neighbor’s condo bathroom. This bathroom is on the third floor directly above our bedroom and bathroom. During the demolition phase, they made a mistake with the plumbing and water leaked all night from the third floor through the walls all the way to the basement. As you can imagine, this was alarming and distressing for everyone in the building. There was visible water damage on our bedroom and bathroom ceilings. We had no way of knowing what kind of damage could be in the walls. Dan and Noël assured all of us that the water would dry out quickly and they would fix all the damage, as the fault was completely theirs. Dan was awkward to talk to and seemed in a rush, but our neighbors also assured us the problem would be completely resolved.
Towards the end of the construction, Noël came down to our unit and put a quick coat of primer over the damage in both rooms and then followed up with one coat of ceiling paint. We expressed concern that the damage would still be visible with only one coat, but he assured us it wouldn’t be noticeable. After drying, the stains were still visible.
My husband contacted Dan and asked him when he was coming to fix the problem. Dan said he’d respond later in the week, but two weeks went by without any further response. I think Dan was hoping we’d forget about it. As we were having painters come in and do some work, we contacted my neighbor and told them that Dan was being unresponsive and we could have the painters paint the ceiling, but that we’d need reimbursement as it was Dan’s responsibility to take care of it. Our neighbors contacted Dan and we heard from him once more. He was cagey and difficult to pin down for a time to come by until he heard the painters were coming. Then he showed up the same day. He argued with my husband about paining the entire ceiling of the rooms saying that there were other paint marks and that he wasn’t responsible for the entire ceiling insinuating we were trying to get something for free. We are putting our place on the market soon and my husband told him that we’re not concerned with the paint marks. It’s easy to explain a crappy paint job to an inspector but not so easy to explain water damage. Dan insisted that he would cover only the corners and that was all he was responsible for. My husband agreed that Dan could try to do one more coat to see if it would cover, but we were sure it wouldn’t. The next day, Noël came and also agreed that the corner paint would not blend in no matter what, so he reluctantly agreed to do the entire ceiling. That evening, I saw that Noël had painted our bedroom, but had not touched the bathroom ceiling and that damage was still visible.
At this point, we just had our painters paint the bathroom ceiling because trying to get Dan to do what’s right just isn’t worth the time or trouble. The team also left several trash bags full of construction debris on our lawn. To date, they are still there.
Dealing with Dan was frustrating and difficult. He acted as though fixing a problem HE CAUSED was an tremendous inconvenience and that we were expecting much more than what was reasonable. This was completely unprofessional and not at all what I would expect from someone who cares about customer satisfaction and future recommendations. I would absolutely not recommend hiring him or his team.

My wife and I are first-​time homebuyers planning to move to a home that needs a fair amount of remodeling work, but we’re on a budget and learning about the process as we go. I’ve heard a lot of terrible things about contractors, so I was reluctant in the first place to reach out blindly to businesses I’ve never heard of, but I do not have the time to do this work myself, and I’d prefer it be done by an experienced professional anyway, so of course we’d call around and attempt to find the right contractor for us (one who understands our needs and works well with first-​timers).
Dan de Angeli is surely not that contractor. Apparently if you don’t call him first or see him first, you have insulted him by putting him «in line» behind someone else. Heaven forbid I don’t come across his Unilocal!listing first or that, as in this case, the other contractors responded to me within 12 hours of contact via email, while Dan kept playing phone tag with me (red flag right there, I guess).
When we finally connected by phone days later, he was pretty abrupt, talking about scheduling a meeting without explaining what the meeting was about. It felt sort of like he just assumed I would know what the goal of the meeting was, despite not having seen the unit that will need the work. Call me crazy, but I like to know what I’m clearing my schedule for. When we did talk about the fact that we were seeing the place tomorrow and that another contractor was already scheduled to come out and take a look, you’d have thought I was telling a possible date that we would be going out dancing after I finished my dinner date with another person. Super-​weird.
We have every right to meet different people and try to find the right fit for us. I did not appreciate Dan trying to make me feel like there was something wrong of us to do that. Maybe I’m more clueless than I thought, but you’d think this would work like many other situations, where you meet multiple people to attempt to determine the best fit for you. Based on the reviews here, I thought maybe Dan could be that guy. I was wrong. I’m just glad I found out before we signed any contracts or wasted any time meeting with him in person.

You can never find a more honest and dependable person to do work at your house. Dan and Noël can tackle any project I can think of. Dan is amazing with his tablet, we discussed putting a new Window in my home and in less than 2 min he used his ipad to take a picture of my house, draw on it, ad showed me what it’d look like before he ever picked up a hammer. It was amazing!

My husband and I just bought a condo. We loved the space and the location, but the first thing I said when we closed was, «the kitchen’s gotta go.» Uneven floors, hideous green warped laminate countertop, cheap cabinets, and barely any prep space to speak of — it just wasn’t going to work long-​term, especially since I cook almost every night.
We found Dan via Unilocal.When we met with him, we immediately established a good rapport with him. He was incredibly personable and took the time to explain things to us. He didn’t try to pressure us to get anything he wasn’t sure we absolutely wanted. He kept in mind that we’re a young couple/​first-​time homebuyers, and he always suggested less expensive alternatives that might work better for budgets. He was also up-​front about pricing and scheduling — how much he expected labor and materials to cost, when it would be done, etc. He didn’t mince any words, and my husband and I really appreciated that kind of honesty.
We met with the kitchen designer, Bob, who completely remodeled the space. (We loved his design — it really maximized prep area and «opened up» the room.) Then Dan and his contractors started on the work. Every contractor he sent to work on our place was clean, affable, and professional. Noël was especially delightful to interact with.
I won’t get into all the gory details of the reno; I will say that they found a lot of extra stuff done by the previous owners that had to go (for example, many laminate floors stacked on top of each other, making the floors very uneven). Every time they found something like that, Dan sat us down and informed us, explained to us the process required to repair it, as well as gave us an estimate of how much it would cost. He always asked us if we were sure, and then got it in writing, before starting any additional repairs.
Anyway, long story short, we have an amazing kitchen now for under $ 20k. The cabinets are gorgeous and the craftsmanship is unparalleled. Our not-​granite countertops look enough like the real thing that we’ve gotten compliments about «granite countertops.» But best of all, I cook more than I ever have previously because it’s just that easy to work in/​navigate that kitchen because it’s laid out so well.
We look forward to owning this home for a long time, and we’ve still got a lot of renovations/​repairs to go. I’m happy to say, though, that we’ll definitely contract with Dan and company for all our future renovation needs.
(Note: if you want to see the Before/​After, my kitchen is #12 and 13 in the photo array.)

We hired Dan and his crew to install a tile backsplash in our kitchen. They were a pleasure to work with, professional and the results are great. Not only did they install the tile but also worked with us on the best way to edge the tile in certain places around the kitchen. Would hire again.

We hired Dan to take the helm on a kitchen and bath remodel in our South End condo.
Dan was a pleasure to with; he is a clear communicator, he worked within the time frames we set up when we began working with him, he’s reliable, he’s personable, and he worked within our budget. We also had the freedom to source our own products and do our own design — something many contractors we encountered won’t allow. We would definitely hire Dan on a future remodel, and we’ve already recommended him to a few friends. We are so proud of our new space!
An added bonus: every one of Dan’s partners (particularly Noël) inspired confidence and exhibited conscientiousness as though they were working on their own home.

I just got off the phone with Dan. I called for a quote on removing a wall on my first floor so that I can have more of a open floor plan. Dan quoted me a price and promptly told me that he was pricey and I could not afford him. (I would like to know how he knew that… I wonder if he has access to my bank account). He sarcastically told me to call my «bother-​in-​law». A joke I did not appreciate. He then proceeded to tell me he was too busy at this point to take on the project because he was busy working on bigger projects.
I have never written a review of a company but was so put off with my interaction with Dan. I had to put down my thoughts. Dan needs to improve his customer service skills. I just wonder what type of business he is running.
Also, Dan if I couldn’t afford to get work done on my house I would not be calling.

I would recommend Dan and his crew without hesitation. I have used them on several occasions for repairs to my condo. While they are definitely not cheap, I have found them to be honest and easy to work with. Unlike most contractors, Dan actually returns emails and phone calls. All work has been done in a timely manner and of excellent quality.

Do you ever have things that you just tolerate and live with because you either don’t want to spend too much money or you feel that «it’s not that bad?» I often fall into this thinking and my cousins in Roslindale thought so too. I had visited them in Roslindale twice in the past 2 years only to find that they have been living with one of those pull-​out kitchen faucets with a built-​in trigger sprayer, except that the broken sprayer head was removed and only the hose remained sticking out of the faucet. On my return visit I was surprised they had been living with this for over two years! Since I live in California, I decided to check out Unilocal for a plumber for them as their gift this Christmas.
Enter Dan de Angeli! He returned my email and said he could do it, just send him a check. I told him, «But You gotta keep it a surprise». I then arranged the surprise repair date. He gladly went along as part of the surprise, while informing him that HE was the «gift». His associate Noël replaced everything needed! He showed up on time, was courteous, fun, and personable. The cool part is that my cousins are now ready to accept their holiday guests this Christmas!
Through this process, I’ve learned three lessons, first, If there’s something broken in your house, take the time to hire good professional help, it will be well worth it! THANKS Unilocal CONTRIBUTORS! Second, It’s oftentimes easier to see someone else’s problems while putting off your own, so through this I learned to invite others to point out things I need to get done! The third is that IT IS more blessed to give than to receive! It was truly a thrill to help out my wonderful cousins. It was just a small task but it help make their lives easier. If you know someone in a similar situation, hire Dan de Angeli so your family member/​friend will be blessed plus you too will experience the joy of giving.
— Dave in SF (go Giants!)

This review is only for his price.
I needed an access point put into my ceiling to gain entrance to my attic. He quoted me $ 800 per day and it would take 2 days to do, then I would have to add on the price of materials. From what I’ve researched, it usually takes a day to put in ceiling access to an attic. So $ 1600 plus materials is in my opinion way over priced.

Dan did a small job of installing a storm door for our rental condo in Brighton. Everything had to be done remotely since we are out of town. Dan was punctual, reponsible, corteous and thorough. The total for the job was even lower than the original estimate which was quite reasonable.
I would recommend him to anyone.

After having had a bad string of luck with recent home repairs, we found Dan on Unilocal and used his company for a bunch of jobs. His partner Noël refinished our kitchen cabinets, redid the windowsills in our living room, replastered a wall in our basement, and repainted our bathroom.
We talked to Dan on the phone about what we wanted and then Noël came and gave us an estimate and started work the next Monday. He was pleasant to be around and did what I consider to be an enormous amount of work in 4 days. We will definitely use them again if we need any more work done and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. I also liked that they were able to do various types of work, so I didn’t have to hire a separate carpenter and painter, etc.

My husband & I had put off a modest remodeling of our back «storage» room for SO LONG I can’t even tell you — *partly* because we’re renters & didn’t want to invest a bunch of money in something that wasn’t really ours… but, honestly, *mainly* because the thought of finding a contractor or handyman to do what we needed — for a fair price, no less — just seemed… daunting. So we waited. We stewed. We stacked boxes in corners & pretended they weren’t there.
But eventually we found ourselves with a baby on the way, & the need to make use of our apartment’s extra spaces became unavoidable. (How come something so small as a baby can demand so much square footage? — but I digress.) The storage room smirked at us, just *daring* us to try to turn it into something useful & livable. Every time I walked by, I felt like I could see its gross moldy linoleum undulating & hear the faint strains of 1970’s-era laughter. The whole thing reminded me of the creepy furnace scene from ‘Home Alone’. (Again with the digressions.)
So I first contacted a friend –a carpenter & craftsman who I knew wouldn’t try to gouge me & my limited funds. He came over, took some measurements, asked us what we were looking for (basically built-​in bookshelves & some flooring solution) — then a few days later emailed me a pleasant message with an absolute BOMB of a projected cost. And I’m talking A-​bomb, not some sort of Molotov cocktail deal. I still get palpitations thinking about it.
We decided to scrap the whole project, heading to Home Depot to explore self-​installed track shelving. Well, even that was going to run us so much money — & time — for something that wasn’t even real wood! — & I knew that with our lack of attention to detail… well…things just wouldn’t end well. (My husband has about nine gazillion books, & I could picture only the dramatic crashes destined to occur in our future…)
I sat on it another week or so, then finally decided to try to find someone on Unilocal.I called Dan when I saw his many positive ratings (which, weirdly, keep getting filtered out. What’s up, Unilocal?). It was a holiday, & Dan still answered my call immediately. Asked me some basic questions about the project, gave an overview of his services, & — as it was a slow time of year — even made time to come over *that day* to check out the space & provide an estimate. We were amazed. But still nervous.
A few hours later, Dan arrived with his trusty colleague Noël, & the two of them set to work measuring, inspecting, & offering really helpful advice. Though we’d arranged w/​another company to have the wood floors sanded & refinished later that week (to the tune of several hundred $$$), Dan advised us to go with carpet instead, to save money & because of the dangers the dust could pose to me, the pregnant buddha that I was/​am. (This ended up being great advice that saved us over $ 300!!! — & by the way, it was no advantage or disadvantage to Dan… so we felt he was especially trustworthy after that.)
Plans were made. We felt totally *understood* — not just in terms of the project, but also as renters, in terms of the budget. Dan & Noël drew up some sketches & agreed to build bookcases THAT SAME WEEK. Yayyyyy! We shook on a price that had my husband & I feeling like our faith was restored in both humanity & the economy.
A day or two later, Dan & Noël arrived right on schedule, with all the supplies (including real wood, might I add? — take that, Home Despot!!!). The only glitch, for me, was that Dan had under-​budgeted the cost of the wood, so we did need to do some quick re-​negotiating on the spot. Though that was frustrating, the cost we arrived at still seemed pretty fair, & Dan was really cool about it – fully disclosing, apologetic, etc. — & he and Noël agreed to come back at a later date to secure another bookcase we were putting in the room — free of charge. Good guys.
The work took all of a day. I worked at home the whole time — cooking, doing laundry, taking work calls, handling emails. There was barely a sound, nary a speck of dust, & — might I say? — Dan & Noël were hella pleasant to be around. Really sweet, quality guys. Quick to have a conversation & really aware that they’re working in someone’s living space. I found myself wanting to make them tea because everything was just so… effortless (for me, at least)!
The bookcases are phenomenal — so sturdy that my husband can buy lead editions of the OED for all I care; nothing’s pulling those suckers down.
And — true to his word, Dan came back about a week later, with Noël in tow, after we’d had the carpet installed & moved another free-​standing bookcase into the room, to anchor it to the wall. We had tea & cookies & — without my asking — the guys even planed the bottom of a door that would no longer open (for no extra charge).
I have already given Dan’s card to my landlord & will absolutely use these guys again if anything household-​y arises. Thanks, Dan & Noël!

I hired Dan deAngeli to design and build a three season porch for my second floor condo in a Boston three family home. I obtained a few estimates and spoke to several contractors before selected Dan’s company. He provided excellent design suggestions, addressing both functional and aesthetic concerns, that fit what I had budgeted. Instead of standard windows, the porch includes a series of wood framed doors with easily interchanged storm windows and screen panels. They converted a window from our office/​studio room into a glass paned door onto the porch, which matches the old wood trim throughout the room. The result is a simple and elegant porch, which fits perfectly with the original style of our home. We’ve been spending hours on the porch ever since it was done, and are looking forward to using it late into the fall and early in the spring.
Dan is also a great project manager. The project moved along quickly and he let us know about the schedule and any changes. It was clear from the first day that he and his team work well together. They were meticulous about protecting our living space from construction debris and kept the work area clean. I have also used Dan’s company for other tasks, including assembling and installing IKEA cabinets. Although IKEA cabinets can be straight forward to assemble, installing/​hanging them is a real challenge considering the old lath and plaster walls we have in Boston. Dan and his crew are knowledgeable and reliable, they really do excellent work!