C. LeBlanc Contracting, Inc.

Nineteen building permits on file, six of them in the past three years, with a typical job around $106,000. For a one-employee corporation, that is the shape of a carpenter taking a few substantial jobs at a time rather than a crew chasing volume. C. LeBlanc Contracting works out of 20 Southwick St in Salem. The company describes itself as a small residential outfit built around custom carpentry, remodels, additions and new construction, and says Chris LeBlanc owns and runs it after learning the trade in New England. Its BBB page is an A+, lists it as not accredited, and dates the corporation to January 2017. The licensing is the firm ground here. Massachusetts shows an active construction supervisor licence, CS-093068, in Christopher J LeBlanc's name, and an active home improvement contractor registration, 187862, under the company itself — both checked against the state registry rather than taken from a directory. BuildZoom separately lists two older home improvement registrations, 167195 and 181870, as inactive. What customers have written is thinner than the permit history. In a 2023 r/SalemMA thread from a homeowner wanting an entryway, banister and stair treads redone, a commenter put C. Leblanc Contracting forward by name — a bare recommendation rather than an account of the finished work. The one customer review on its BBB page runs the other way: a complaint about the owner's professionalism. Tenure is where the sources pull apart. The company's own site claims 20 years, BuildZoom says over 14, and BBB counts nine from the 2017 incorporation — plausibly the gap between Chris LeBlanc's years in the trade and the age of the corporation, but worth asking about directly. This is the shop to call for a small, finish-heavy carpentry job or an addition run by the person who will be on site. Before booking, ask for references from recent permitted work, and ask him to walk you through how the professionalism complaint was handled.