K H Davis Engineering Consultants Ltd

KHDavis was recommended to us by friends, based on their actual experience. We needed solid advice and guidance throughout a residential project that involved lowering basement and crawl space and underpinning party wall that was done by our new neighbour in a semi-detached situation of a1894 Victorian house. There were many serious issues during the lengthy project but Ken provided excellent and timely advice from the very beginning, did several inspections and mediated with neighbour's structural engineer and the city. His reports were professional and extremely helpful and he always answered all our questions. Everyone at KHDavis I spoke with was efficient and friendly. Mike was able to provide prompt and valuable guidance for the Committee of Adjustment hearing. We will be using this company next year for our own structurally complicated reno of the back of our house, and I can recommend KHDavis wholeheartedly for any structural and/or architectural residential project.

I needed to remove a wall between the kitchen and the living room. I got the name from this site based on the reviews I thought it will be good experience. It took few calls before I get an appointment, I left my phone and address few times and did not get a call back, I guess that should been a red flag at the time but I decided to continue. They visited my home at the schedule time the person was nice, and start taking measures, and want on the attic. He discussed few options, which I did not know before, he said he will add these options to the report and he will get the cost to do the work. I had to call for the report, it took longer than promised, and when I got the report, it had only one option, which is the one I knew already and is the one I told them I am planning to do, there was no other mention of any other options they discussed and no cost. I sent follow up emails to get the information but no reply. This was the most wasted $500+ I ever paid.
Mr. Davis contacts me through email and we discuss the issue. Still took longer than promised but they revised their report and send the other options we discussed. The report still did not have the cost of doing the work from their (contracting company, that they work with), which I discussed with Mr. Lai and Mr. Davis. Given that they try to contact me and fix the problem, I am changing my rating to 3.

We hired a contractor to convert our 1st floor to open concept and had our building permit application rejected. It turned out that some of our walls were load bearing after all. A friend recommended that we go to KH Davis for a structural design. Mike and his colleague met us and discussed what we wanted and measured the house, and produced the drawings we needed on an accelerated timeframe so that we could approve before leaving on vacation, and applied for the building permit while we were away. The design was very clear what type of lumber and even the size of screw that our contractor should use to sister our joists.

When we purchased our 1920s home, we knew right away that we would alter the layout to make it a little more open concept. We took special care to ensure that the walls were not load bearing when we opened them up before removing them altogether. However, after removing these particular walls, we noticed that the joists seemed to bow and the floors were soft - especially in a part where they had been notched for ventilation ducts (original to the design and build of the house). While certain that we did everything 'according to the rules', we wanted an expert opinion.

After speaking with several firms, we chose to meet with Ken Davis because they specialized in residential buildings, were located in our area, and VERY familiar with our style of home. Ken came to our house, looked at the joists in question and explained to us the reason for the deflection: our joists were overspanned for the width of our house and while the walls we removed were not load-bearing, they were what he called 'load-sharing'. He was also very thorough in examining other parts of the home, and we are so glad he did because he identified the same problem of the joists being overspanned for the ground floor and improper support for the 2nd floor bathroom (done by the previous owners).

Furthermore, Ken was very friendly, professional and gave great attention to detail. His report was very clear and outlined everything (down to the screws to buy!) that was required to fix the deficiencies.

Now our floors are very solid and we have the peace of mind that our big investment in tiles and other flooring won't be damaged by deflection in our joists. We both agree that this was some of the best $500 we spent on this renovation!

Ken and his team is amazing. I highly reccomend using them. They provide excellant advice on a timely basis. In addition, I was told by the Town of Richmond Hill planning examiner that Ken Davis has a very strong reputation and is known to produce excellant work so the planning examiner didn't expect any issue with granting my permit (and there wasn't).

I had Ken in to provide suggestions to my future plans to renovate my kitchen and bathroom. Ken was professional, non-judgemental and provided solid advice on what structural issues my 125 year old home had. He took the time to educate me on what needed to be done and in what order. The report I got was wonderful. I highly recommend his services.

Ken surveyed our older home for structural issues. He quickly identified the source of our floor sag-which stemmed from the original construction! He was thorough, patient and answered all of my questions as we did an indoor and outdoor review of the building together. I would gladly use this company again.

Ken Davis provided excellent, professional service and mediated in a difficult situation with an unscrupulous contractor. He came to my rescue when the basement lowering and underpinning by my contractor did not pass inspection by the City of Toronto building inspector. He was able to mediate with the subcontractor to get the job done properly. His professional demeanor and calm approach to the problems of old houses was reassuring. I would highly recommend him to consult about a renovation project BEFORE you start any project requiring structural work. I have consulted him several times over the past 8 months and will continue to ask for his valuable advice. He is reliable, trustworthy, and honest. For your most important investment, he is the sort of professional you want.

We had 2 other engineers out before Ken. They were scarred of our home built in 1887 which leaned 8" top to bottom.

Ken and his team came in and created a plan to fit our circumstance and were always available for questions and revisions when needed. I have recomended them many times since our project concluded.