Cambridge Home Renovations

Rod and his team did an amazing job doing our bathroom renovation. The work was beautifully done and Rod paid attention to all the details. He was very helpful with decision making and provided excellent input to the design of the bathroom. Rod was present every day and very easy to communicate with. He is dedicated and passionate about his work. We had a few unrelated items that needed fixing in our home and Rod was thankfully willing to do the extra work for us. We would readily hire CHR again....definitely 5 stars!

Rod is a genius. Not only can he beautifully renovate a house from bottom to top, but he also can work within the complex legal restraints of the town, with inspectors whose every whim he understands, while pacifying neighbors who have their own needs. And all of this, on time exactly when he promised. I cannot recommend him highly enough.

CHR did a great job to finish our basement. We were so enthusiastic with their work that half way we asked them to remodel our guest house bathroom and kitchen. They were very responsive and the results were fantastic.

Unfortunately we had a very unpleasant experience with Rod Vaca and Cambridge Home Renovations. This was surprising since we had a positive first impression of Rod, and were impressed with his reviews online. I strongly recommend against using Rod’s services. We paid an unnecessarily high price for our reno, yet received low quality work, and went through an exhausting and unpleasant process. After more than 8 months, our renovation is still unfinished and Rod stopped responding. We are now pursuing legal action. We hired Rod in September 2020 to renovate our home. Rod’s team worked on multiple rooms, doing woodwork, painting, and finally, doing a small remodel of our kitchen. Rod charged a high price for our kitchen, but he assured us of high quality workmanship. Then we went out of town and Cambridge Home Renovations performed poor quality work while we were gone. Our kitchen shelves were not level, the window trim had gaps, our range hood was twisted and not level, and they left an electric plate in the middle of our wall. Rod said deficiencies would be fixed later on the “Punch List” and told us our full payment for the kitchen was due. We trusted him and we paid him. It is 8 months later and Rod has not returned to fix the Punch List items. In addition to the kitchen deficiencies, he also left gaps in our expensive wainscoting, peeling paint in our bathroom, and a light switch that doesn’t work. Sadly, Rod is attempting to gaslight us and tell us these deficiencies are not his responsibility. For example, he said the kitchen shelves are fine, yet they are very slanted (see picture below). Rod refuses to acknowledge that they are not level. We cannot believe the thousands of dollars we paid for these low quality, slanted shelves. It has been a sad and exhausting experience. It’s not worth your risk to work with him. If you do hire Rod Vaca, be prepared to actively manage his team and regularly perform QC checks on their work, otherwise they will cut corners. You will need to confront Rod regularly about the workmanship. Do not pay him until everything is adequate. Do not believe him when he says things will be fixed “on the Punch List”. He will simply stop responding and leave your Punch List money behind. The most disappointing part is how Rod repeatedly gaslighted us. He will say that the deficiencies are due to problems with your home. He will make you feel uncomfortable and unreasonable when you highlight deficiencies. But unless you do this, Rod's team will do sloppy work whenever possible.

I live in a 100 yr. old triple-decker in Mid-Cambridge in an historic neighborhood. I needed to replace my windows. My neighbors had hired Rod Vaca, Cambridge Home Renovations, to replace their windows among other projects. They highly recommended him to me, so I hired him for the job. I’m very happy I did. Rod knows all about the Cambridge permitting process and how to get a project through it. He knew exactly what type of windows to install and made it so easy for me. The pandemic arrived during the installation timeline, which stretched it out, but Rod kept me up to date with what was happening all through the delay. Finally, Rod and his crew arrived. They came punctually from 8 am-4 pm every day for 5 days, wearing masks and protecting my furniture. They did a meticulous job with the installation and surprised me by repainting the window frames and sills. Their workmanship is remarkable. Their clean-up of their work great. And I am thrilled with my new beautiful windows.

We just finished a family bathroom renovation with Cambridge Home Renovations and we couldn't be happier. Rod and his team are hands-down the best contractors we've ever worked with. Rod was easy to communicate with by phone, email, or text before and throughout the project. He helped us select everything. He asked our style preferences, showed us options, answered our questions, and got it all lined up. His team were prompt, hard-working, careful, and nice. They kept the house as clean as possible while they were working and limited the impacted space. Rod was able to negotiate the many different necessary inspections. He also solved some tricky problems in our not-ideal space. The project was on-time and on-budget. I highly recommend Cambridge Home Renovations.

I cannot imagine a better contractor than Rod Vaca. He is a master craftsman and professional totally dedicated to creating a beautiful space. He also is able to handle any types of problem that arise, from structural to personal, including being calm, patient, easygoing, and flexible enough to tolerate our continual change of plans. We started from scratch and six weeks later ended up with the most beautiful bathroom I could imagine. In between, he and his workers removed 3000 pounds of concrete, corrected a basement valve that had been unknowingly allowing outside sewage into our bathroom, strengthened a supporting beam that was cracking, added a new heating system under the floor and in the ceiling, ordered and arranged for delivery of all the main pieces, tiles, faucets, towel racks for the bathroom that we had chosen, and then renovated the bathroom. And despite all the unpleasant surprises that inevitably arose in our old house, the price was almost precisely what he had estimated at the start. He is the perfect contractor.

This is the second time we Hired Rod and his team, and they did not disappoint. We are so happy with the quality of work and Rod's expertise when guidance was needed. The attention to detail made it all come together! Pictures do speak a thousand words! Love our new kitchen!

Rod and his crew renovated the very dated bathroom in our 1920s era apartment, which was in an association-owned building. Rod was straight-forward, pleasant to work with and efficient. Rod did an excellent job managing the complex permitting process and even more complex politics of the association. The quality of the work was excellent and truly complemented the vintage feel of our apartment. I would recommend him without reservation!

This is now the second time we've worked with Rod and his crew. After interviewing several contractors to gut our small bathroom with a non-ideal layout, we ultimately went with Rod. Rod renovated our bathroom in May of 2016 and we were so delighted with the result (he turned it into our dream bathroom that we thought wasn't possible given the poor layout of the original), that we ended up hiring Rod to also renovate our kitchen in May of 2017. Neither of these were easy tasks since we live in an old Cambridge home that was built in 1916, but we couldn't be happier with the quality of Rod's work. The best thing about Rod is that he is reliable, he does what he says he will, and he will not stop until you are happy with the finished product. He is also just a really good guy. For example, he helped us repair some nursery furniture when it arrived damaged, just because he is a nice guy. If you're looking for a reliable contractor that does great work, look no further than Cambridge Home Renovations.

I learned of Rod and his team at Cambridge Home Renovations through a friend and they ROCKED! Rod completely gutted and re-designed a master bath and a separate powder room at our home. He was Calm; Profession; Showed up to the house when he said he would and on time; accessible by text/phone etc/ and an overall pleasure to work with. I mentioned calm because he was patient with me and my lack of construction experience- drew pictures, marked walls and kept me appraised of the project status all of the time. I think most importantly- he and his crew were neat and cleaned up every day and COMPLETED THE JOB on TIME and ON BUDGET. They were a gem and I would certainly work with Rod and his team again.

I'll start off by saying Rod and his crew were outstanding--true professionals! It was our first ever renovation experience, so we did not know what to expect; Rod was extremely patient and helpful throughout the process. He explained and walked us through unfamiliar (and sometimes stressful) aspects of the job as they came up. Rod's communication and reliability were both huge strengths (which we found to be very rare for GCs). Rod's estimate was reasonable and the work was completed on budget. Additionally, Cambridge Home Renovations was wholly transparent and honest about the cost and fee schedule (no hidden surprises). Phone calls, texts, and emails were answered near immediately. He asks you all the right questions and actually listens to you. The quality of their work is superb and Rod's attention to detail is super impressive--it's apparent he cares very much about the work. We have already decided to work with Cambridge Home Renovations on a bathroom update down the line.

Trough Houzz we found this company. Not only did Rid do a wonderful job with merging two smallbathrooms i to one, he designed it with our imput and he kept us upto date all the way. Itcould bot have worked better. What especially lime is that Rod was always quick to respond and he necer made any changes without consulting with us first. Weca highly recommebd this company.

We hired Rod and his crew for a deck rebuild, with a decorative divider matching the current one, which had rotted. We also needed rotted wood repaired/replaced on various parts of the exterior of our home. All work was professionally completed within the amount of time allocated. Deck is beautiful and solid. All the other repairs were done with great attention to detail. Showed up on time, returned our calls, and responsive to a minor problem we had afterwards. Fixed within 24 hours of calling him.

We are really fortunate that we hired Cambridge Home Renovations! This is our first major renovation project and we were very clueless to start with. Our project involves expanding one of the bathrooms by giving up a closet in the master bedroom and converting the same bathroom into a master bathroom. The communication process with Rod could not be better. Rod was very transparent in his budget estimation. He was very patient, knowledgeable, and thoughtful. He provided his professional advice and was hand-holding us for each step of decision-making, while still leaving us enough freedom to decide on our own. Rod respected our privacy throughout all stages of construction. The construction site was kept as tidy as possible. We were living in the same apartment while the project was going on. Our life was not affected much despite the scope of the project. Rod and his assistant Kris were highly skilled and reliable at what they do. They took the ownership of the project and cared about the details. Our new master bathroom is spacious and beautiful! We recommend everyone in this area to consider Rod and his company!

Rod of Cambridge Home Renovations helped me with a week's work of updating our kitchen and a bathroom. He met the challenge of repairing a kitchen island with all its complexities of stone counter top, faucet, garbage disposal, and dish washer which would have been very expensive if hiring a plumbing company and a marble granite company and a carpenter. I had previously had a plumber from a well known local company look at the situation and had received bad advise, which made me appreciate the efficiency of using one skilled in doing maintenance and replacing projects. After the initial meeting, he followed through with giving references, and his estimate of the time and cost of work was accurate. I would certainly rehire him.

We hired Rod for renovating a small bathroom and we couldn't have been happier with his work. He was on schedule, within the price range he gave us, and had great ideas for solutions and design. Most important, he took a lot of pride in his work so every detail was done in the best possible way. We have hired contractors and repair people for our multi-family house for 20 years, and of all the people we have worked with, many of them were excellent, we recommend Rod the most.

We had seen a kitchen and bath project done by Cambridge Home Renovations(CHR) so when the GC we hired for our home renovation disappeared from our project , we sought out Rod to estimate finishing the job. We hired CHR. We are so pleased with the quality of the work, attention to detail, good communication and the job getting done right. Our front porch, side entrance and rear porch look fabulous (minus the columns and railings for the front we Finally can order!) - not only does the finish work look great but mistakes made by the first GC were corrected!