It’s All in the Details

Most mornings, David Pimental can be found rushing to visit each of his six or so major projects. But once he’s on-site, his rush is put on hold as he gives each project his undivided attention because Pimental knows he can’t hurry or take shortcuts if he wants to see the job done right.

Based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Pimental Contractors brings an artisan’s mind-set to a full range of construction services, including high-end renovations and new construction. The company’s reputation for detail and quality stems from its founder’s tutelage under a master carpenter while in vocational school.

“[The carpenter] was a stickler for structure and quality rather than doing things in a hurry,” Pimental says. “He was meticulous about everything; he made sure that the job site was always very neat. I was that way, too, and I think he recognized that and gave me finish work. By the time I was 20, I had men 30 and 35 years old working under me.”

Pimental was also working on his own projects at night and getting a taste of working for himself. He launched his own business during the recession of 1987 and ’88, and, with only one employee, a truck, and a strong work ethic, he persevered. “It was tough times, but I stuck to my guns and didn’t give up on quality,” he says.

Eventually, because of that attention to quality, people weren’t just asking Pimental to build cabinets and staircases; they wanted him to manage entire remodels and new builds. More than one client came to him after having bad experiences with another company. “People get contractor shock from working with companies that are not honest or that make a mess,” he says. “The bottom line is it’s not very difficult for a contractor to take advantage of a client when their house is ripped apart.” Today, Pimental has 18 full-time employees and a cabinet shop where seasoned artisans turn out the company’s signature woodwork.

In 2012, the team combined its carpentry knowledge with research into the history of the Buzzard’s Bay region of Massachusetts in order to renovate two 18th-century homes in Mattapoisett. Pimental’s staff installed some modern touches such as new kitchens, but it also restored and reused the original stairs, doors, windows, and hardware. Boards found in attic spaces, some 28 inches wide, were remilled into flooring and wainscoting. “The owners asked us to keep the crookedness in the walls and the waves in the ceilings,” Pimental says. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime project.”

Up the bay in Marion, Pimental had an entirely different challenge building the $1.5 million Schaefer residence adjacent to the exclusive Kittansett Golf Club. The firm outfitted the contemporary, streamlined home with an interactive control system that provides easy management of sound, heat, air-conditioning, and more.

Both projects include Pimental’s exquisite custom cabinetry and woodwork—built on-site and in the firm’s shop—and both benefited from the company’s specialized knowledge of coastal construction. “Someone from the inland who tries to work out here will find there are things you can’t do when you’re working this close to salt water,” Pimental says. “Materials, paint—everything is different.”

Pimental could talk at length about that as well as Massachusetts’s ever-changing building codes and its increasingly complex permitting processes, but instead he’s ready to get back out to another job site, where clients and employees are waiting. “We have excellent project managers on every project,” he says, “but I still make sure I am out meeting with the customers because I have learned that people rely on my experience and perspective about their projects.” ABQ