Raffaele Construction Corp

Raffaele Construction is a Swampscott mason shop built around a single old-world skill: cutting and shaping every stone by hand instead of with machines. The company's own site says it was started in 1985 by expert masons on the North Shore, and that Gerardo, the current owner, inherited it from his father. Its work runs to stonewalls, columns, walkways, driveways, chimneys, and outdoor kitchens around the North Shore and greater Boston area. The public history here is still short. Google shows a 5-star average across four ratings, and the two written reviews on file are both positive in tone. Houzz lists the company but shows zero reviews on its own page, so the overall footprint online is small — not enough volume yet to call the praise a pattern, just an encouraging early sign. The Better Business Bureau grades the business A+, though it has never applied for accreditation and its BBB profile shows no complaints on file — a clean sheet, but a short one to judge by. The clearest independent check here is its Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor license (HIC #177419), which comes back active in the state registry. A couple of other details don't quite line up: a business-data listing puts the company's start in 1996, a decade after the 1985 date the company itself gives, and a separate contractor directory cites different license numbers than the one verified here. This reads like a small, hands-on masonry crew rather than a high-volume outfit — a reasonable call for a stonewall, patio, or chimney job, but worth asking to see photos of comparable finished work first, since the visible track record is still thin.