J Murray and Sons Construction

Atrocious company to rely on for snow removal services. On our first huge snow storm a couple weeks ago which forecasted to 18+” of snow, they sent out an email advertising for snow removal, specifically from
.
They quoted a price and agreed to take on the job to come by my residence. We exchanged a few more emails, one for contact information and the next two I sent were to ask for an update as they had not gone over to do the services. To date, there has never a reply. So unprofessional.
This review comes from that experience. It reminded me to log this into Unilocal to help others from getting into this fiasco since they’ve just sent out another email for our current storm for more snow removal business.

I know there are some negative reviews for other divisions of their business, and I cannot speak to those, but for masonry work, we are extremely satisfied. My condominium association (five units in a brownstone in South End) hired J. Murray & Sons Masonry Division to do much-​needed repairs and restoration on our front steps, garden walls, and iron railings. After years of wear and tear and damage, the steps were broken, chipped, worn down, and generally in bad shape. J. Murray & Sons’ team worked with us to develop an accurate estimate, making sure to inspect the property ahead of time. The estimate was competitive and realistic – we weren’t expecting a cheap deal given the work to be done and our location, but it was also not astronomically high. Once we agreed on a schedule, the team leader paid us a visit to go over the work in detail, asked really good questions, and made sure we completely understood the work to be done. It took about three weeks (bad weather didn’t help), and the results are beautiful. The repair work is seamless, and the surfaces are smooth and uniform. A few final coats of masonry paint ensured a perfect finish. All iron railings were sanded and painted, and the site was completely clean upon completion. I highly recommend this contractor for masonry work.

where to begin??! as i am trying to write this review i am shaking with anger. if you ignore anything on this page or fail to retain all the important information please try, with all your power to retain this. J Murray & Sons LLC are one of the companies whose practices gave birth to the common description of «cowboy Builders»
their utter unprofessionalism and neglect managed to get my project shut down for 8 weeks, cost me 20 – 25 k in losses and alot of sleepiness nights, i won’t go into detail because i don’t think standard computer mouses are capable of scrolling down that far! however, i will say, do yourself a favor if you are considering an estimate that you have received from them then trace back as many of their previous clients as you can (not the people they give you) do your due diligence!
i don’t want to make this personal but this company should not be aloud to operate any longer.
incase you don’t know how these reviews work, the long ones are genuine!
the short ones are contrived/​fabricated by affiliates/​friends to smoke screen the truth.
this is the best review you can hope to find in the universe! use it wisely.

You have a lot of choices when it comes time to select a company to help you with your project. There is absolutely no reason to pick this one. Believe every negative review posted here, and be very wary of the company’s carefully worded responses.
I bought a condo unit from this company, and nearly 2 years later, I still have an exposed electrical outlet sitting directly beneath a water pipe (the handy work of their electrical contractor, mentioned in other reviews), a water leak with damaged flooring, missing bathroom fan, 8 light switches that do nothing, improperly mounted kitchen faucet, missing caulking, improperly installed cabinets and the list goes on. Of the items on my punch list, only the smallest handful were addressed. On the day we moved in, we had no refrigerator, no heat, no air conditioner and no hot water or gas. Most of these items were on our punch list, some were addressed, but others were only hidden or obscured to surface later (see below).
Even now, our building has no functional elevator, no finished driveway and we have gotten a quote for many thousands of dollars to address sub par building practices when it comes to the exterior window facings. There are exposed wires, unpainted walls and unfinished doorways in our basement.
This example best underlines J Murray’s business practices: On our punch list, we discovered a water stain on the ceiling. We stated «Find root cause, address root cause, repair stain». At move in, stain was gone. 3 months later, it was back. They simply painted over it, hiding the water leak above it, and costing us $ 1,000 to fix after the fact.
The company’s response to this will be masterfully worded. They’re happy to show you the documents. I am happy to show you my documents as well– dozens of photographs of their sub-​par work, which I have shown to other contractors– you would not believe some of the comments I heard. I ran into a guy at home depot who had actually been inside this building and said it was «a mess». I ran into 2 different contractors who demanded payment from myself and our HOA for work performed in the building, for which they were never paid by J Murray. One of these contractors was our HVAC tech who «refuse (s) to set foot in this building again» (his words). This was right after he told me that my AC unit is sitting crooked on a rotting wooden pallet, completely lacking any mount, sound dampening or protection.
The company loves to tout the famous 1 year MA new construction warranty. I’d also be happy to show you the dozens of emails I’ve exchanged with my lawyer, in an attempt to get them to respond to anything. It’s easy to hide behind a one year warranty when you are completely 100% unresponsive. In the end, we were quoted $ 5,000 to repair the remaining items for the punch list, and to address other items which never even made it on the punch list because they weren’t discovered until later.
I’m sure they’ll be quick to point out that I’m over the warranty, and it’s my responsibility, and they shouldn’t be held responsible for items discovered after move-​in. JM, where were you the countless times I called you, desperate and panicked as a first time home buyer? Why didn’t you ever respond to my emails, calls or text messages? Why didn’t you ever fix all my issues, as agreed? Why did you promise and promise and promise to send a crew, one that never showed up day after day after day? Is it fair that I have to pay $ 5,000 out of pocket because you decided you wanted to walk away from the project?
Please, click my profile, check all my reviews. I’m just a Unilocal user like yourself, and I have always taken time to leave well-​crafted, carefully thought reviews. I am not here to destroy this company or to get revenge, I’m here to help you avoid making the same mistake I did. Don’t let J Murray and Sons ruin your dream, like they did ours. Run away, and bring help if you can.

What follows is a condensed version of the experience we had with Jim Murray from J. Murray And Sons Construction, LLC. Feel free to contact me for any of the details or documentation (i.e. civil contract, e-​mails, etc.) that support this experience.
Let me begin with my conclusion: You should avoid doing any business with Jim Murray or J. Murray And Sons Construction.
Here’s our experience:
We looked at several condominiums when moving to Boston and decided to buy a unit at 14 – 18 Main St. in Somerville, MA. The six-​unit condominium building at 14 – 18 Main St. was built by J. Murray And Sons Construction.
We signed our P&S agreement in December 2011. We moved to Boston and stayed in a friend’s guest bedroom in January 2012 while completing all of the typical hurdles associated with closing on a home. There were several common area elements (e.g. driveway paving, drywalling the basement, etc.) that needed completion, thus we put holdbacks in our closing for these items. 1.5 hours before the closing his lawyers called asking to remove the holdbacks given that the prior purchasers of a condo already had these items in their contract. I was not comfortable with this, but we didn’t have much of a choice given that all of our furniture was set for delivery in two days. Thus, we drew up a civil contract for these items and removed the holdbacks. Plus, Jim Murray said [paraphrasing] «I still have several units left to sell in the building so I’ll still be around if anything goes wrong.» Needless to say, these items have never been completed.
Fast forward a few months to April 2012. A few hot days struck Boston so we turned on the air conditioning on only to find it was not cooling the air. We tried texting, calling and e-​mailing Jim Murray with no response. This went on for weeks with no response. We later discovered that there were no air conditioning units installed. It wasn’t until the final condominium units of the building were sold (July 2012) that the air conditioning units were finally installed on the roof.
The Home Owners Association (HOA) attempted to contact Jim Murray in several ways over the next few months. The only time he responded was when we informed him of our intent to remove the remaining contractor building materials which were blocking several parking spots of the tenants. His reply was succinct, «After I pick up the materials I will have no need to step in that building again.»
Beyond the common elements described above, there were several problems (both large and small) within each of the individual condominium units. Some of the highlights include a toilet which was supplied with hot water instead of cold, leaking sprinkler pipes destroying ceilings, uncaulked bathroom tub edges, incorrectly routed kitchen vents, improper window edgings, non-​functioning elevator. The list of examples of his company’s poor workmanship goes on and on.
Beyond his evasiveness on the poor workmanship issues, there’s one final story which punctuates Jim Murray’s disreputable business practices. The HOA was approached by a «businessman» who indicated that Jim Murray sold him easements on the two extra parking spaces in the building. The «businessman» in turn offered to sell those spaces to tenants of the building. After numerous attempts none of the tenants expressed interest so the «businessman» pseudo-​threatened to sell the parking spaces to people outside of the building. In the end, the HOA rebutted his attempts to finagle money out of us and he faded away. What the HOA later discovered was that Jim Murray owed this man money and gave him these parking spaces as a means by which to pay off some debt.
The HOA decided against pursuing legal action because the cost of a lawsuit with someone who refuses to communicate is significant and we would rather spend that money fixing up our building.
Thus, he got away with it. Don’t let the same happen to you.

We just completed a home renovation project with J Murray and Sons and were very pleased with both the outcome and the relationship. The project started with a detailed and accurate assessment of project costs and the management of J Murray has a very clear and professional way of working with customers to manage — and properly set expectations for — project scope changes. In a very cold and often snowy project lifespan the guys working on the house were always prompt and professional — and remarkably courteous and respectful of our home. With any project, things sometimes don’t go exactly as planned, that’s not a negative, it’s just a fact of life. The refreshing part of the relationship with J Murray was that in each case of concern, they demonstrated a true and obvious desire to exceed expectations and make the project not only a success on paper, but a success in our minds.
We have more work planned for the house and we know J. Murray will be doing it.

It has been nearly a decade since I have chosen J. Murray and Sons Construction to do various work for me, and I can confidently say that they are the best around. The level of professionalism and dedication that they bring to each job is unbeatable for the greater Somerville area and I gladly recommend their services to friends, family, and clients.
These guys are reliable and are always available– they have a sense of pride in the work that they do, and you’ll be making a great choice by hiring them!

Since I wrote my review, J Murray did send a different crew to fix the paint and doors on our basement remodel. The crew did a nice job touching up the previous crew’s sloppy work.
My only other note is that the initial project manager failed to insulate the basement before putting up drywall (a step that was in the original work order). The last few months have revealed how much we needed insulation. We ended up hiring a different company to install extra heating, adding to the overall cost of the project, and is something we can’t go back and fix without taking down the drywall.

Very reliable contractor! Easy to get in touch with by e-​mail or phone. We use them for all of our projects and so far they have been great every time. Great local company in the Boston area that isn’t «too big». The owner Jim is always on or around the job site.

J. Murray & Sons are my go-​to guys for any projects around my home. They have someone for any construction-​related thing you might need (gutters, masonry, finishing carpentry, exterior/​interior repairs, etc.) I live in a 112 year old house that has been converted into 3 condos. As a trustee and the treasurer of the small HOA, I am responsible for getting things repaired, replaced, updated, and making sure we can afford to do it.
I first used J. Murray & Sons for some repair work on the exterior of the house. We had some old, wooden gutters that were rotting and damaging the surrounding fascia. J. Murray & Sons were 1 of 3 quotes I received for the work, and they were extremely reasonable and honest (they were also the most personable). Some of the other companies I spoke to completely talked down to me, like: little girl, you have no idea what you’re talking about, and quoted me astronomical prices (like thousands more than J. Murray & Sons). Jim and his staff are not like that at all! Jim explained options and reasons why certain things needed to be included or excluded. Jim also understood our desire to preserve the look of our 100+ year old house, and he reassured me that the new gutter and fascia they installed would look like it belonged.
The second project we had J. Murray & Sons tackle was a small set of steps in our backyard. They replaced a rotting/​waterlogged set of stairs with azek steps for a fair price. I never feel like I am getting ripped off with J. Murray & Sons.
The most recent job I contracted J. Murray & Sons to do was a built-​in bookcase in our condo. Greg, the finishing carpenter, was really nice and easy to work with. He understood the look we were going for, and how we wanted to incorporate the piece into the room. When it was installed, I wasn’t entirely happy with the look — it was not exactly what I had been envisioning. J. Murray & Sons worked with me, and made adjustments to the hand-​crafted piece until I was completely happy with it. Everyone I worked with on the project was very nice and patient; they didn’t make me feel like a total harpy for complaining about the first install. I now LOVE the bookcase.
Overall, J. Murray & Sons is a great company. They are honest, easy to work with, they respond to e-​mails (!), and are just a bunch of really nice guys.