Mark Persaud Reco?

Hi - I've seen a lot of recos for Mark Persaud. However, has anyone used him for a big project? We're looking at renovating our basement which would include adding a existing a bathroom to our laundry room. The rest would be painting and laying down a carpet, so not terribly hard. Any feedback on working with him on a larger project would be great.

I only used him for small projects but there was someone on here who used him for a huge renovation. She was the one who recommended him to be but I can't find her info. Ask Mark for references on local big jobs. I can attest to the fact that he is great to work with!

Thanks! out of curiousity, what type of work has he done for you? Good idea on the reco!

lynnb said:

I only used him for small projects but there was someone on here who used him for a huge renovation. She was the one who recommended him to be but I can't find her info. Ask Mark for references on local big jobs. I can attest to the fact that he is great to work with!

We had two bedrooms that he worked on. Plaster walls were skim coated, repaired and painted; moldings and trim caulked and painted; outlets added; overhead lighting added. He also did some painting and repairs on our stairs and hallways. His crew is very thorough and clean and he does things right. Not the cheapest by any stretch but every time I hired him I wondered why I didn't do it sooner

I've used Mark Persaud to do all kinds of projects, large and small, on my Maplewood house for the past 8 years.  In fact, since I moved from Maplewood, I saved up a bunch of projects and he came down the shore for a day to work on my new house (I couldn't find anyone here anywhere like him).  If you'd like to see the kind of job he will do on your basement, ask him to send you pictures of his own basement which he just recently finished renovating.  It's gorgeous, and I remember saying to him that most people's upstairs living spaces don't look as good.  Not only does he know how to build things, but he also has a very good design aesthetic.  He made many suggestions to me that I hadn't thought of, and they wound up being my favorite things in the house.

Like lynnb said, he isn't cheap, but he isn't outrageous.  It's quality work and you know it will be done right, on time, and with the least amount of stress.  I know of at least 4 different people who did not hire him because they thought he was too expensive, and they all wound up calling him to finish the jobs when they weren't done right by the cheaper outfits (which wound up costing them more in the long run).  Good luck and tell him I said "hi"!

I recently used Mark for a bathroom renovation, and he was very good to work with, as everyone here has said. One of the nice things about working with him is that he does much of the purchasing and selecting of materials for you, so you don't have to accompany him to Home Depot to buy everything, which I have had to do with other contractors. And the stuff he picks out is very tasteful. He is also a good guy and very communicative, and much of his crew is made up of his family members, which keeps up the quality. Like with all contractors, you have to inspect and check everything he and his crew does, as some of his crew members are better than others (all of my issues were very minor and taken care of quickly.) Overall, a solid contractor.

I'm not sure if he is licensed and insured.  I asked him that, and if he had any photos of his other renovations, and he never responded.  I also know not everybody cares about that.  To be clear, I'm not saying that he isn't.  Just that after he e-mailed me an estimate, he never responded to an email or phone call which asked those questions, so I chose someone else.  Good luck in finding a contractor that meets your needs.

chalmers said:

I'm not sure if he is licensed and insured.  I asked him that, and if he had any photos of his other renovations, and he never responded.  I also know not everybody cares about that.  Good luck in finding a contractor that meets your needs.

https://newjersey.mylicense.com/verification/Details.aspx?result=73745e80-6770-4b73-9575-af84ff0af7d5

Above link is broken.  Didn't have time to do the whole search but you can start here:https://newjersey.mylicense.com/verification

Saturday Mark finished his 3rd job for us over the past couple of years. Two of these were big jobs . I can't say enough good things about the quality of the work, his work ethic as well as that of his amazing, hard working crew. If you have trouble with his email (we did a couple of times), call or text he responds very quickly. We had all the usual estimates, though he is not the lowest, the quality of the work, the quick attention to any thing that you consider a problem or not as you expected makes it well worth it. After a casual comment to him that the paint job a very well known local company did for us was not "weathering" well and that the house needed painted again, he responded that they could do that. We discovered that the original type of paint used never lasts and that an entire side of the house had had no primer. 

Yes, he is licensed and insured. 

I also used Mark for some handyman level projects and fully agree with posters- professional, quality work and materials, prompt and very strong team who were equally personable and communicative.

only thing that made me uncomfortable was as he walked through my house he criticized work that was done by the previous contractor-- while his criticism was correct I felt he was too overtly looking for more work to do.

new207040 said:

only thing that made me uncomfortable was as he walked through my house he criticized work that was done by the previous contractor-- while his criticism was correct I felt he was too overtly looking for more work to do.

Yeah, he did the same for me. I didn't care for that, but I was happy with the work he did.

marylago said:

new207040 said:

only thing that made me uncomfortable was as he walked through my house he criticized work that was done by the previous contractor-- while his criticism was correct I felt he was too overtly looking for more work to do.

Yeah, he did the same for me. I didn't care for that, but I was happy with the work he did.

Since we had just moved into our house when he did work for us, and much of the work done by the previous owner was shoddy, I was the one pointing out to Mark all the poor work, so he didn't have a chance to say anything about that

marylago said:

new207040 said:

only thing that made me uncomfortable was as he walked through my house he criticized work that was done by the previous contractor-- while his criticism was correct I felt he was too overtly looking for more work to do.

Yeah, he did the same for me. I didn't care for that, but I was happy with the work he did.

He did that also for one thing I had done by another contractor, but it didn't bother me any.  He also complimented a job another contractor did for me and actually used him on other jobs he did for other people.  He's a perfectionist and is only trying to be helpful by pointing out things he thinks you should know.

I didn't want to "go there" but he absolutely bad mouthed a local company saying, "they always do work like that." I don't think that was right.

Isn't it funny how much you realize is wrong with your house when you're looking at it through someone else's eyes?  

Mark just finished renovating our basement and re-activating a defunct basement powder room that had been turned into a creepy darkroom . I would consider this a moderately big job: ,

 skim coating the previously disgusting walls, painting, repairs galore, replacing lights,  redoing ceiling,   and  installing windows, flooring, molding, tile in bathroom, beadboard, bathroom fixtures , electric and plumbing to code in bath, etc.  He is licensed and obtained proper permits for us. He uses reputable plumbing and electric subcontractors. He did a great job. His guys are fast, clean, and quiet. He's very responsive, and tried to work with me to keep the costs as low as possible when a couple of glitches occurred , as they always will. We're really pleased with how it came out. It looks fantastic. 

I have to say, I found his estimate to be offensively high. He wanted $75 to replace an electrical socket. My electrician does that for $38, including the socket. He wanted $125 for each light fixture he changes out. Again, electricians don't charge more than that to create a new light fixture. $37.50 to mount each Venetian Blind. And on and on.

I've worked with lots of handymen before, and we have had probably about 75 contractors come through for one thing or another since we've moved in. This was on the extreme end of the unreasonable estimate scale. I was really offended.

dbandhk--who is your electrician?

I didn't pay that much for my electrical, either.

Seemed like a nice, knowledgeable guy when I reached out to him a couple of years ago for handyman work, but there was something about him that made me question his work. Nothing concrete, just a feeling. He was also incredibly expensive compared to the other quotes I'd obtained, so I went else where.

Mark is one of the most conscientious and professional contractors I've worked with. He renovated two bathrooms and portions of a wraparound porch for us and his work is beautiful. His estimate for the porch project fell in the middle of three bids. We went with him based on his agreeing to be flexible in terms of scheduling because we had to have some of the woodwork custom made and shipped from out of state. We were so impressed with his team we hired him to renovate a powder room and a second floor bathroom. The second floor bathroom was down to the joists and he brought in great subs and finished on time and under budget. I approved the job on the day they finished and offered the final payment. He replied, 'Great' and said he'd be back the next day to make sure my wife felt the same way. He did and she did- then he took the payment. He's a pro.

Even though I moved out of MAPSO, I still use Mark to do household repairs/painting/renovating.

If you're looking for referrals for anybody, I'd suggest you listen to people who have actual experience with contractors (or anyone else), and not people's "feelings".

mums: I'm sure the person requesting the rec is perfectly capable of deciding who they want to "listen" to and why. Besides, my post was relevant to the discussion even though its contrary to your experience. If you don't like or agree with some of the comments you read on MOL, the appropriate thing to do is to either stay quiet or simply disagree without suggesting that people not "listen" to them. I can't tell you how many of your posts I disagree with, but I've never told you. I've simply moved on.

bklyngirl said:

I've simply moved on.

When an anonymous poster casts public aspersions on someone else's livelihood based on just a feeling, pushback can be expected.

Dave: If you read my post carefully, you'll see that that's not what did, and I believe you know that.

Goheels: Good luck with your project.

I can highly recommend Mark, who did several jobs for us, all tonourchrear satisfaction and at a reasonable price. He would often fix small issues while working on a bigger job without charging.

He clearly demonstrates an interest in building a long term relationship with satisfied customers, and advised us against two projects because they would be too expensive for what we're getting.

P.S. I'm not sure how to read the comment about a "bad feeling" but can't help to see it as some type of coded language.

I used Mark for several small items. His prices are on the high side but the work was very well done. All the details were taken care of even if not discussed up front, the two guys cleaned up after each task and left no sign they did any work. He also promptly responded and was able to come in 2 days later so I do not regret over paying him to get it done promptly and correctly.