Sonoma Contracting

From the beginning Mike and Aldo were incredibly friendly and helpful with our basement renovation. We had a typical East end semi with unfinished basement, with uneven concrete floors and damp walls.

They were efficient from the very beginning. We decided on interior waterproofing because our concrete floor needed to be replaced it was the most cost effective. Aldo was on site managing the teams, the first crew had the concrete out and the basement dug down in three days! The crews were always very courteous and cleaned up after themselves each day. There was very little downtime and Mike and Aldo kept the trades coming back to back to keep the project running on schedule.

It was great watching the basement take shape so quickly. From a damp storage area to now an office, tv area, bathroom and laundry. Aldo and Mike were helpful providing advice and options on what can be done or materials might work along the way. We replaced our basement stairs and widened the opening, as well as had custom made doors for our (6ft clearance). We supplied a number of materials ourselves that were included in the quote, like vanity while others we wanted were more than originally budgeted (like the toilet). Mike amended the bill at the end to balance these changes. Do be aware the materials quoted are generally the low end and if you have specific tastes on things you'll want to budget more. Mike clearly laid out the exclusions/extras in the quote and a few of those did come up in our reno (old houses with surprises) but they ended up being quite reasonable. Mike was honest and trust worthy, a great contractor to work with.

We had a few minor hiccups like the levelness of the concrete floor and dust control during the fixing of the concrete floor. But Mike was quick to remedy the situation and brought people in to fix it without delaying the timeline.

The team finished the basement to concrete floor and drywall and then we installed our own vinyl flooring, painted, and trimmed out the space. Then Aldo and his team returned to install our vanity, toilet and doors. They worked with our timeline wonderfully. We also had Aldo and Tony help us put up a wall of ikea cabinets in our kitchen to help polish off our space upstairs.

Some tips for all basement renos. Take photos of everything during the many stages. It's helpful to know where things are in the walls (studs, wiring, pluming) when you're putting up cabinetry, shelves etc. Think about the final layout before starting the project. We added bracing for a wall mount tv at the framing stage and put an outlet at that level during electrical.

We love our new space and would definitely recommend Sonoma to anyone.