Jeffrey. in Davisville

Just after a snowfall, I noticed a small hole under my front porch, but next morning (a Saturday) I was assaulted by the stench of a nearby skunk. And you guessed it. The skunk had taken up residence under my front porch. The smell was overpowering and because my bedroom is near the front of the house its seeped all the way into the room and woke me up at 5 AM. I called and Sal got right back to me even though it was a Saturday. He said no problem he could come out to deal with it that afternoon. He showed up right on time, and after a few hours had dealt with the problem. I would highly recommend them!

I am getting a new Bosch washer and it requires a 240 V outlet rather than the 120 that most North American washers need. Anthony came and within 45 minutes had installed a brand new circuit and breaker directly from the electrical panel. He was very polite and knowledgeable on the topic and I can’t recommend him enough

On Saturday evening, just before dinner, a massive branch from one ot the large trees on our street crashed to the ground without warning, taking out the power lines for both my and my neighbors houses. As we surveyed the damage the first priority was calling Toronto Hydro to take care of the live wires. When the crew showed up, they cut the lines and told us that the mast (that’s the thing going from the meter on the house to where the line attached from the street ) was our responsibility and we need to get “our electrician” to fix it at our own expense. I looked at my neighbor and said, ‘I don’t have an electrician, do you?’ He shrugged as both of us stared at the tangled mess of downed power lines, branches, leaves and broken conduit. So, I went on a search for electricians and the only one that took my call was Belyea Brothers Electric. Chris and I spoke about getting a crew out to fix it and said he would try to get them out that night. I was surprised but hesitant as I didn’t expect them to respond so quickly. I thought to myself the earliest likely would be Monday morning and by that time I’d have to throw out all the food in the fridge. At least it wasn’t winter… Imagine my surprise when an hour later Anson and Tony showed up and started right in on making repairs! In addition to being very thorough, they were also extremely friendly explaining what they were doing and even taking care of making the call so that Toronto Hydro could dispatch a crew to connect both houses back to the grid. They stayed until 1:30 AM to make sure it got fixed! When the Hydro crew connected up the power at 4 AM I was so glad I made the call to Belyea Brothers as what could have been a mess of spoiled food turned into a great Fathers Day! Thanks again to Chris, Anson and Tony. I’d highly recommend them for any electrical work!

We’ve done a lot of repairs to our 90-year-old house over the past 15 years we’ve lived here. That includes replacing a 10-year-old York furnace that the previous owners put in, only 18 months after we moved in. At that time, based on a lot of research I did, we selected a Trane furnace that came highly recommended (and installed) by Direct Energy. After 13 years, the furnace begin making strange noises about a week before it finally stopped putting out heat on one of the coldest nights of the year [of course]. Not having a good understanding of how to get a technician, I turned to Homestars to look for some names One of the contractors said that although he did not work on Trane furnaces he recommended Tom as someone who was very hard-working and could get the job done. I’ve worked with many contractors over the years but Tom certainly ranks in the top three for knowledge, responsiveness and ability to get the job done. I didn’t really have an idea what was wrong but I described the situation and actually made a quick video on my phone to capture the sound the furnace was making and I sent it to Tom who diagnosed the problem right away. He was right on the money and although he was incredibly busy he kept in contact with me all through the process of getting over to my house to take a look. If you’ve ever experienced a furnace failure, you know that you’ll do almost anything to get the heat back on especially like in my case where the temperature in the house was going down into the single digits. I really felt that Tom listened to me when I was describing the problem and instead of just saying what some other contractors said (which was replace it with a new furnace), he was willing to troubleshoot the problem. He is honest and conscientious and will put in the extra time to make sure things are running properly. I would definitely recommend him to anyone who has furnace issues without hesitation!

A few weeks ago during the especially rainy week that caused flooding all over the city, we got out of bed one Friday morning and heard the sound that every homeowner dreads: it was the sound of water dripping from our ceiling fixture onto the bed in our master bedroom. After grabbing a bucket the first call I made was to Darren at Canadian Roofing. They had done our flat roof a few years ago and I was very satisfied with the work they have done on that project. I called Darren and got him on his cell phone the first time around 8 AM that day. He said he would come by in the afternoon and take a look at the roof. True to his word he came by in the afternoon while it was still raining, got up on the ladder, and put a tarp over the roof to stop the leak. He said because he could probably do the job in a single day that he would give us a call when they had an opening. A few weeks later I got a call that they had an opening and they could do the roof that day. The crew got to our house within about an hour and quickly started taking off the old shingles and putting up new plywood over the old boards. They got the job done very quickly and apart from a few small things, which Darren had to come back and fix, I was very happy at the quality of their work. I would highly recommend them for your next roofing project.

I live in an older home and because there is a lack of proper insulation, we often get ice dams in the flat roof part in the winter. After purchasing heating cable I wanted to find a company that would install the cable on the roof. I called no less than a dozen companies before I got Eaves Experts to do the job and I am glad that I did. Neethan responded to my call promptly and we chatted about what I wanted done. We settled on a time and he was great at communicating when he was going to be able to come to do the work, even letting me know that he was running a bit late. When he got to the house, he set up quickly and I showed him what needed to be done. He had some great suggestions and was really easy to work with. I’ve worked with lots of contractors but Neethan was one of the best communicators as well as knowing his stuff. I highly recommend Eaves Experts and will definitely use them again on my next job.

After I had a recent skylight put in (along with a full roof) I hired Frank to install a part that was mistakenly left off as part of the installation. Frank made it very easy and the work was completed even when I was at work, so I didn't have to stay home!

I have no reservations recommending Modern Appliance for repairs. After my 8 year old fridge started making noise and losing cooling ability I called Peter at Modern on a Friday and he got back to me within an hour to set up an appointment on Saturday. When I was explaining the problem he had a suggestion for what the problem could be- and when he arrived on Saturday (at exactly the time we'd agreed) he was exactly right! In fact because a faulty design the drain had frozen causing the fan to stop moving- which didn't require any parts so he just billed me for the service call. He also gave me some great advice in what to look for in my next fridge when the time comes. Very honest and I will use them again for my next appliance repair.

I retained Solid Space for a job to frame out for a skylight installation which would be taking place a few weeks from when their work was complete. They were extremely clean and did a great job when they encountered a few challenges on site. They knew what they were doing and I would not hesitate to recommend them. Very professional!

Bill was very professional and responsive in how he walked through what would happen on the job and then made sure I was in the loop when some bad weather threatened to change the start date. When on site, the crew was very fast and thorough to make sure that all the work was completed on time. Even when they had to come back for some last minute work, they kept me advised of what was happening. Great service!

After booking a few days before the two guys showed up on time (actually 15 minutes early!) and gave me a quick estimate on removing a bunch of wood and construction debris. They did it very quickly and cleaned up every scrap and nail. Great work~

We just completed a kitchen renovation that extended to the rest of the main floor of the house and we are absolutely thrilled with the result (for more info on the results and pictures go to http://bit.ly/16mN77) Was the reason we are happy with the finished product the design? Well that is a large part of it, but I’d have to say main reasons we are happy has to be how the contractor Premier Kitchens and baths handled the project. We took a long time to get to the stage where we were ready to move into the “Reno-zone.” We looked at a lot of magazines over about 5 years and then brought in a designer to help us translate our wishes to paper. That was a really great process, but then we were faced with the task of bringing it to life. We looked around for contractors and after a great review on Homestars, met Phil and Alan at Premier (which coincidentally is just up the street from us). They understood immediately what we were trying to do and were very helpful in allowing us to stay true to our original vision. They bring a great group of subcontractors to the job – ones that were willing to think about how to solve problems and make the finished product look great. That is one of the key reasons we enjoyed working with Premier- we never felt that we couldn’t trust any one of the subs to do a great job. But I think the real measure of what makes a good contractor is what they do in adversity, which is bound to happen on any job. In our case, we had a problem with the backsplash tile and when we brought our concerns to Phil he looked at it and didn’t hesitate to ask how we’d like the problem fixed. It turned out that the tile had to be removed and re-installed, but that never was a problem and we didn’t even have to negotiate with Phil. He realized that it had to be done and set about getting the right people in to do it. So all in all I would highly recommend Premier to any homeowner looking to embark on a kitchen or bathroom renovation.

How many times have you gotten a quote, had a contractor start work and thought, “Hmm, I’m not really confident that they can do the job to my specifications?” Even if you have had fairly positive experiences with your contractors at the end of the job did you wish they had taken a bit more care in the work they did? Well if you hire Bill Mark, you don’t have to worry about either. He states right from the start that he is not the cheapest but he’s not the most expensive and he does things the way he’d do his own house. Bill is a Master Electrician and it shows in his planning and attention to detail For example he ran new circuits for my new potlights in the kitchen rather than tie into the existing box in the ceiling. His reason? He said that he didn’t know where that circuit went so instead of worrying about it, he ran a new one right back to the panel to make sure he could do the calculations on that circuit. He even lines up his screws when he puts back the wall plates! It was a great experience working with him and he came in right on budget.

Mark did a great job of walking us through the process of installing a carpet from our front door to our stairs and a runner all the way up the stairs. Not knowing how to install carpet we had no idea what was possible; all we knew was that we didn't want to put any nails or tacks into our brand new hardwood floor! Mark took the time to explain what our options were and what would look the best in our house through many emails and calls, each time being very courteous and responsive. We had selected the carpet from a reputable store, but their estimate to purchase and install the carpet ended up being a bit higher than we wanted to spend. But we didn't give up and searched here on Homestars for someone with a great reputation to do the installation. His price for installation was about 1/2 of what the store would have charged and I don't think the quality of the installation suffered a bit. Mark even went so far as to pickup the carpet from the store, take it to his warehouse to cut and bind the carpet then bring it back to my house to install the stair runner in about 90 minutes. I’d have no hesitation in recommending his company.

When we started thinking about new windows and a front door the sun was still warm and the grass was still green. It seemed like a good idea to get everything done before the snow came so we might not repeat the drafty mornings we had the last few winters in the house. After a recommendation from a friend who had all the windows done in the house, we called the Brock Windows and the salesman came to do an initial estimate. We got a few other quotes and got the salesman back and at this point, he sat down with us for about an hour and spent some time explaining the options and wrote up the contract. Brock was the most competitive and the windows they install (Northstar Windows) are really great now that they are installed. No fault of Brock's but when I called to inquire about the install date, they said that the door wasn't in yet and to call back in a few weeks. When I did finally get a date we booked it for the Monday following the week the door was supposed to arrive. The crew of 3 came in and put down groundcloths and went to work with saws and crowbars to get the old windows out. The windows came out quite quickly. But the door hadn't yet arrived so they would have to come back to finish the capping around the windows and put in the door and trim. I found the crew did good work (including some creative work in getting the door to look good in my 80+ year old house), but was a little messy. Given that they were working in pretty cold (and sometimes snowy conditions) I cut them some slack but will now have to find a way to get some of the debris from the installation off my roof and out of my gutters.