To make use of the basement in our 1920s era home, we needed to have the floor lowered. Among the three contractors who came in to give us estimates, only Daniel from True North took the time to walk me through the options (underpinning, benching, doing half the basement), explain the process (getting engineering drawings, getting the building permit, what they do with the existing sewer pipes, where the excavation waste would go, underpinning insurance), identify possible problems and follow up within days with a detailed estimate. We also got the chance to visit a job in progress before signing a contract.
Apart from a couple of small extra costs that came up as the work progressed, mostly related to extra depth to accommodate in-floor heating pipes in the new concrete and and insulation blanket, the estimate was spot-on and the work was finished a few days ahead of schedule. The crew from True North (headed up by Leo) were at the house early every day from the first to the last day of the job and always worked a full day. Daniel from True North was available to answer questions and co-ordinate his company’ s work with the HVAC work done by someone else. He referred us to an excellent stonemason who enlarged our basement windows and installed new stone sills. He was also willing to speak to another contractor who later came in to polish the new concrete floor after it was laid.
This final comment is not a criticism of True North but is only a piece of advice to anyone who is planning on polishing a newly laid concrete floor: take more care than we did to ensure that the concrete is the best type for polishing. Daniel from True North made it clear that he had no experience with his floors being polished but after his conversations with the floor polisher, it seemed that everything was in order. As it turns out, even though the floor was fine for use with the usual floor coverings, the concrete was not optimal for polishing and this limited our options for the finish we could achieve with polishing. It will all turn out well - that will be another review of another company - but we should have been more involved to ensure that the concrete mix used was better suited for polishing.
But this does not detract from the excellent work that True North did and I give them the strongest possible recommendation.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $55,000.00