Aquata Bathroom Renovations

Accommodating Peter's massive tool crates was an inconvenience – and ultimately scratched our hardwood floors, much of the finishing work was done by his young trainee left alone, grout work is uneven, rain shower head plumbing leaked behind the wall, the tub creaks, and existing fixtures were damaged. Overall he seemed rushed.

We had our bathroom renovated by Peter last winter, so it has been almost a year now. He is very talented and skilled in so many areas (tiling, trim finish, drywalling...). As with the other reviews, he sticks to his schedule, and is well prepared from the start to the finish. His shelf of tools that he leaves in your house, says a lot: professional, organized and ingenuity.

This review is for a main floor bathroom that Peter built us in June of this year. It was originally scheduled for April but was delayed due to Covid.

The purpose of this reno for us, was to correct mistakes we had made when we previously renovated the bathroom 16 years earlier. So the plan was a better budget, better craftmanship, better products and design. This meant getting rid of the tub and going with a walk-in shower with built-in bench, linear drain with no curb, and removing the bulkhead above the shower area to have full ceiling height, a custom vanity, undermount sink, high-end fixtures, huge medicine cabinet etc. This also meant hiring Peter to do the job.

We chose Peter from Aquata because he seems like a very conscientious person with a vast knowledge of his chosen specialty. I really liked the fact that he moves his tools into the house during the reno. I thought, not only is that brilliant from a speed aspect, but that’s a guy who will show up everyday and get the job done when his tools are sitting in your house.

Peter, along with his very skilled assistant Nick, showed up every day with a plan. And every day they executed that plan. Renos are not without their unexpected challenges, and this project had a few. But Peter’s vast experience and ability rose to every challenge. When a challenge did arise, he would provide options and a game plan for each option. The site was always left clean at the end of the day, and any/all debris was taken away from the property the same day it was removed. I felt like we were in the most capable hands throughout the project.

Quite simply, Peter builds next-level bathrooms. We’ve lived with the new bathroom now for many months, and every time I walk into the room, I see attention to detail and perfection. It is so nice to walk into a renovated space where you have spent considerable money and say “that was worth every penny”.

If we ever find ourselves wanting or needing an additional bathroom renovated in the future, there would be no hesitation in hiring Peter again.

Tim and Jodi Chisholm

The first thing you experience when meeting Peter for a quote is how knowledgeable and professional he is. We went over the job and he knew where the potential issues lay and equally as important where he wouldn’t have an issue with our plan. We planned to move a lot of things around and didn’t know if it was actually feasible. Within days Peter provided us a very detailed quote at a reasonable price. He included a list of individually priced “nice to haves” – features we still needed to make a decision on. This really helped as it gave us really good information to help decide if we really needed that heated floor because we could see exactly how much that little extra would cost.

Peter and Nick (AKA the Dream Team) started exactly when they said they would and spent the first day laying protective material for all areas they would be walking on or working on. During the work, dust is kept to a minimum via a zippered plastic door covering, fans and filters. They also have a cleaning routine at the end of every day.

Peter was very clear about each stage of the project and when he needed our input for the next stage (finer details). This relieved any anxiety regarding finding surprises later. Peter didn’t assume we wanted the tiles going a certain way or the height of the shower kit should be x inches from the tub. He gave us little homework assignments where we could play around with positioning various fixtures to determine what looks good. The next day we’d show him what we came up with and in our case, asked for his feedback.

A bit about our job: we were gutting the existing small bathroom down to the bricks and studs. Everything in the bathroom was moving including part of a wall. As the toilet, sink and tub were moving, all plumbing and drains had to be redone. Our first surprise was the mess the previous contractors left from the last bathroom renovation. Peter proposed a solution (basically rip out their mess and do it right). After Peter and Nick finished that stage we got to inspect the new plumbing, electrical and structural work before they started closing it all in. We really got to see the quality of work Peter and Nick pride themselves on. At the end of a job anyone can look at a bathroom and inspect the quality of the tiling and drywall and fixture installations … but what lay beneath?

As each little unexpected issue came up Peter informed us, and in our case followed up with “… but, don’t worry I’ll figure it out”. Later you’d
take a look at the solution and it is perfect.

Their experience combined with quality workmanship and attention to detail resulted in a beautiful bathroom renovation.

TLDR: The best contractor we have ever had. Hire them.

This was quite a journey with our ensuite bathroom renovation. - A complicated project, which contract was negotiated and done by the same person. - Very rare case for these days, and Peter is probably one of those few contractors left who still does the whole job by himself. Always on time from the day one, and then every day after, until the whole project is completed. Work area kept very clean and dust free on a daily basis.

Aquata Bathroom did an amazing job with our bathroom renovations. Even years later, I am still in love with our master bathroom. Very professional, quality of work was 10/10. Highly recommended!

Aquata Review 2020.

For those of you who are skeptical about a lot of 10/10 reviews, please read this one.

Three or so years ago when we interviewed Peter for our bath Reno (Queen), he had a lot of 10/10’s. At the conclusion of the interview, during which we had been very impressed, I challenged Peter on this point. I said “nobody in the real world gets 10/10 all the time... what’s up with that?”

For all the skeptics, I will say three years later that there was only one thing about hiring Peter and executing the project that I regret. It is not posting a 10/10 review for Peter that he and his team so deserved. I drafted three different reviews and posted none of them because they all sounded like an exaggerated story. Sadly, none of them got posted but that gives me a chance to do a review of what it’s like to live with Peter’s product every day for three years.

It brings joy!

It’s reasonable to expect competence when you hire a contractor. After three years of daily use by two of us, the quality and durability of Peter’s work is evident. It isn’t competence alone that has brought me daily enjoyment. It is, for example, the recollection of how thoughtful Peter was when installing the tile in the room. I admire frequently how he paid attention to small details that made the difference between competent and masterful. While some contractors might have seen a more finicky tile as a headache, Peter saw the vision and took the time to perfectly place the tiles, the lines and edges and cuts to create a finish that he could be proud of in any old world country where pride of craftsmanship is honoured.

I especially respect that because tile is completed near the end of a project at a time when some would be tired and anxious to move on to the next project. Like any project, Peter had already dealt with unforeseen challenges due to the characteristics of our building. It wasn’t that the project proceeded perfectly smoothly.. it was that Peter took in stride every surprise and came with a solution. We had a lot riding on it, because its the only bathroom we have and we were worried about things going sideways.

In fact, the very first morning after we turned the job site over to Peter, I was on my way to a meeting and got a call. Peter had encountered our first surprise, something that was clearly outside the scope of work for Peter, and that none of us could have foreseen. As he explained it, my heart sank but I had to tell him that I was due in a three hour meeting immediately. Peter said “Leave it to me”. When I checked in three hours later, he had come up with two alternate solutions, and had chosen a path that allowed him to proceed with other work and avoid a painful delay. He also treated that surprise and every other incident that followed with exactly what I would expect knowing how big projects are well managed. He was always factual, respectful, creative and fair in resolving every inevitable project issue. I learned that first day that when Peter asks you to trust him and leave the site in his capable hands, you should do yourself a favour and do exactly that!

On pretty much every scoring criteria, Peter and his great team won the day. He was not the lowest bid, but he was close and better than most. He scoped out our dependence on the room and estimated the shortest schedule to completion and then he met it. I had confidence that if anything came up (and I’ve never seen a project where it didn’t) I could look forward to a reasoned and sensible discussion with Peter. This is everything you can expect and hope for from a professional.

Now with the passage of time, I can add some additional criteria that you may not always hear about... the quality of Peter’s work absolutely stands the test of time. By now, I should be seeing the two or three little problems that were never properly resolved, or be bothered by the one thing that the builder promised would be done later but was never done because they had moved onto the next project. There has been NONE of that. Instead, I am left admiring the result and feeling happy to let my eyes roam the room, seeing only inspiration and admiration for quality.

That brings me back to the beginning. There was only one thing left undone, and that was our review. We haven’t had any contact with Peter since the project was completed, so in hopes that late is better than never, and with fond memories I will say to all of you skeptics that this skeptic is happy to give Peter a solid 10 out of 10. Peter, you earned it.

Hire him!

I initially contacted Peter 2 years ago. He was extremely busy and asked me to contact him again when he was free. The reason i chose Peter to do the job was because he was knowledgable with linear drains. We did run into some problems due to the builder of the house being lazy, and cutting corners. Peter solved the plumbing problems, so i could install a floating vanity. Peter also has the ability to cut oversized tile and he invested $800 in a machine to cut my oversized tile. Peter can also get you a trade discount through some of the popular tile stores in the Greater Toronto Area.
Peter and Nick did a great job.

In general, we are a very fussy and detail-oriented people. We used Aquata for our bathroom renovation and I must say, we were very impressed by their workmanship, politeness and cleanliness. Peter is very organized and treated our home very respectfully. He was always punctual and completed the work on time and to our satisifaction. We had no issues and we didn't have to make any changes. The entire renovation went perfectly as planned. Peter's assistant Nick was also hardworking and polite.

Peter also recommended a good supplier for all our purchases including the faucets, vanity etc. We took advantage of his contacts.

Overall we are very satisfied with Aquata's work and would strongly recommend them. We will definitely use Peter again.

Our washroom was stripped down to the studs and cement floor and entirely rebuilt by Peter and his team. We hired Aquata after being impressed with Peter's portfolio during our meeting. But mostly, it was his attitude toward the work and his open, honest approach to dealing with his clients. He estimated that the work would be completed in two weeks and that was exactly right! He took great care to make sure that the work area was tidied up at the end of each day and he and his team were very conscientious about treating with great care the other areas of the house which they had to walk through to get to the work area. Along the way, of course, there were unexpected things that came up due to the small size of our washroom and the quality of the original construction. Peter anticipated potential issues and went over them in great detail with us so that solutions could be found to avoid any potential problems. He and Nick (his employee who worked with him everyday) were punctual and always prepared for the day's work with all the right tools and materials. It was a pleasure to deal with both of them on a daily basis and we always felt confident that they had our best interests in mind and wanted to deliver the best work possible. And they did! We are very happy with our finished washroom and they were able to do all the things we had hoped could be done in there. We would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone who needed a bathroom reno and will definitely use them again should we have another bathroom to do down the line.