Jane from East York

In 2013, Patrick was helping me with my home reno and he impressed me with his punctuality and carpenter skills. I hired him again this year to demolish kitchen shelves and create a powder room in their place on the first floor of my house. I’m very happy with the results. First of all, Patrick is very resourceful. When he was doing the floor in the powder room, he kept a couple of original tiles to fill the gaps from the removed shelves in the kitchen floor. , Patrick keeps the client’s interests in mind. I originally thought I will only have a place for the toilet, but he found out a way to put in a small sink as well. He also suggested a way to build in shelves into the new space, bringing back some of the kitchen storage space we lost when we demolished the original shelves. Patrick is very punctual. He gave me the exact timelines for his work, and kept true to them. He also has enough experience to roughly estimate the time needed for other specialists (plumber, electrician) to do their work. This helped me greatly with the project planning. Al the last, but not least, Patrick is very personable and friendly. It’s a pleasure to work with him. I would definitely hire him again and probably will. I’m eyeing my backyard porch next...

In August and September 2013 Behrid worked in my newly acquired house to replace Knob&Tube wiring. Replacement needed to happen before October 9th, otherwise I would lose my insurance. Behrid was very meticulous. He worked on weekdays and weekends. He tried to be as gentle to our walls as possible, taking that he had to make quite a number of holes. He also showed my father, who helped me with the reno, how to fix these holes to make the walls whole again. It turned out there was much more knob&tube wiring than I initially anticipated. Behrid ended up doing the whole house. He also powered out the vent in the bathroom and made a separate outlets for sump pump and for the dishwasher. He worked with my husband to put in the internet cable. He put on the lights we purchased. He brought in the inspector to get us the certificate of the work done. I got the certificate on Oct 7th, which was just in time to finish all the paperwork and prolong my insurance successfully. The initial amount for the K&T replacement was about $4500. But because it turned out there was more work then expected, I paid around $8000. My communication with Behrid was sometimes difficult, as English is not the first language for both of us, but the important thing is, he always did the things the way I wanted. He was very patient and accommodating. I would hire him again.

I found Trical company as they were doing a big reno a couple of houses from mine. I asked George for a quote for my front porch: I needed old cracked concrete base removed and replaced with brick one. I also needed old wooden stairs replaced. George gave me a good price, and, when it came to it, he and his team (Carlisle and one more gentleman) did the work within 4 hours. There are only 2 things that could be better. First is wait time. I had to wait for a month and a half for work to get done, and George never gave me the exact date. I didn't mind the wait, but I had my share of the contractors who give lots of promises and do nothing, so I was worried. Luckily, George is a man of his word, so he eventually came and did the job. The second thing was that after they were done there was a gap left between the deck and the stairs because they didn't have a plank narrow enough. This meant I had to wait another 3 weeks for this to get fixed. But it was (without me reminding George of it), so now I'm completely happy with my front porch base and stairs. Thanks George and team!

Order was placed in May, gates installed in August. The gates installed were not the ones I picked from the catalogue. The gates came with numerous scratches. The installer sprayed paint over them, but now the sprayed lines are very visible. The installer said they will come back with the designs for the gates, never did. I left them a message, never answered. The gates fulfils its function of blocking the passage, but everything else about them is dissatisfying. So far, I see no reason to work with this company again.

I was looking to clean my ducts after the last year renovation. I went through reviews for 5-7 companies and settled for Dial One because they were not overly pricey and I liked how Joe explained everything on the phone: what will be happening, what's included, what's the price. The technician Wil came exactly on time, quickly set everything up, cleaned all the ducts including the dryer duct, and changed the filter in my furnace. He also put a note on my furnace with the recommended date of next cleaning (in 3-5 years). The price was exactly like I was told by Joe. No extra charges, no attempts to sell more services. The only thing that confused me was that Will removed all the filters from my vent grates. He told me they were useless because when I sweep the floor the dust gets in and when the air starts blowing it flies back into the room. However, if this is so, why do stores sell filters in the first place? It's not something I'm unhappy with, just confused a little. Overall the experience was pleasant. I will hire them again.

The rare case when I give company a 10. I needed to get rid of construction waste left from the last year house renovation. I called We Haul and they were available on the date I wanted. I asked of the price, Mark gave me their rates. He said he'd give me the exact price when he sees the actual junk pile, and if I like it, it's a go, if not, we say good buy to each other and they move to the next job, no strings attached. Everything went exactly like he said. I paid for 1/3 of a truck which was $300. To compare: the alternative would be buying a bugster container ($40), loading it on our own and having it removed ($200). This alternative didn't work for me because there is no place in front of my house to put the container safely. So, Mark's price of #300 was quite reasonable. Another important thing for me was that they took the long light bulbs and other hazardous waste which bugster company didn't do. Mark and his colleague showed up exactly on time, worked for about 40 min, loaded my junk in their truck and it was gone. I am very satisfied with the experience. My backyard veranda is finally clean yay!

1) Their representatives were 2 hours late. 2) After my things are loaded into the truck, the driver, Derek, suddenly announced that I ought to pay $375 more in addition to $200 deposit I already paid. His reasoning was that the move will require extra hours to unload, and the furniture will need to be carried upstairs on the second floor of my new house. I gave him $400. He gave me the receipt for $575 but he never gave me my $25 change. 3) It took the truck an hour to get to new address while myself and my friends separately were there within half an hour. The driver explained to me they had to go eat, and assured me that the time will not be charged for. 4) At 5 PM Derek and his partner started unloading. They brought the things inside the house but never got anything upstairs, just cramming them in on the first floor. I have two witnesses apart from me and my husband. Before 6 PM they disappeared without a notice. They worked 3 out of 5 hours they charged for, and they didn’t finish their job. 5) I called the main office (647-400-4000). Noone picked up the phone, although the company website clearly states their hours are 8 AM till 9 PM on Saturday. Just before 8 PM I finally got the response call. The representative told me he’ll figure out my problem and will call me back in 15 minutes. I never heard back from him. I called about 40 times through Sunday but nobody picked up, although the company Sunday hours are 9:00am – 8:00pm. I've filed the complaint to the company, and, if it's not resolved within specific time I stated, I will be filing the compaint to the Ministry of Consumer Services. Thankfully, I kept the receipt and I have witnesses.

Pros: The team is very personable and polite. Available relatively quickly. When they get to work, they do it very quickly. Cons: They made a mistake and tried to pretend they did what I wanted. I needed to run an air duct into one of the rooms of my house, fix another one, which was disconnected, and run the return duct from the second floor. The closest appointment for assessment was the next day (big brownie point), the closest date of work done - within a week. However, when I came home after the work was done and team left, I discovered than the duct that was disconnected has been re-attached to the wrong duct. The end result should have been the air flow in one of the rooms, but there was no air movement there. Also, I asked for the return duct to stick as close the wall as possible, to save the space, but the end result took 10 cm of my kitchen space for no particular reason. When I called the company, the agent who did my assessment first tried to insist that they did exactly what I wanted. I objected, telling that I wanted the air to flow, not the duct reconnected to God knows where. After a brief conversation the agent agreed to send the air duct team back. They came back the same day and fixed the problems, although they couldn't bring the return duct as close to the wall as I wanted because they ran out of bends. Thankfully, my carpenter found a way around it. Overall, these guys did their job, so they earned they money, but I wish they would come more prepared.

My experience with Avenue Road Roofing was a dubious one. Pros: When they get to the job, they do everything very quickly, and the result is of high quality. Shingles roof team was remarkably efficient. Cons: Communication within the company is non-existent. Flat roof team left the scratches on the siding of my neighbour’s house. Flat roof team proved very uncooperative when it came to doing the dumpen vent. Here are the details. I signed the contract on July 26th and was told they will be able to start the work in 3-4 weeks. They started Sept 3rd. I was told their scheduler will get in touch with me. In reality I had to call several times because the scheduler was sick and no one else was able to do the job. By Sept 3rd, my contact phone number has changed. I gave my cell to my father who came to help me with reno, and did business on my work cell. I left my new number to virtually everyone in the Avenue Road Roofing company whom I spoke to. Nevertheless, when trouble came, they couldn’t reach me because they didn’t have the number. On Sept 3rd, it was the shingles roof team started their work. They were done in one day and did everything beautifully. I was delighted, hoping that tomorrow the work will be all done. On Sept 4th, the flat roof team started their work. And here came the trouble. First, I needed a dumpen vent on my flat roof. The roofers would forget about it, if I haven’t called in to ask them to cut the hole in the bathroom ceiling. They refused. They said they do not do any work from inside the house. Ok, I asked them to wait for my electrician to come and do the hole (the hole was necessary to run the vent duct properly). They refused. They had a whole roof to work on, but they refused to wait for an hour for my electrician on the excuse that they need to finish the vent NOW to continue work. I had to ask my carpenter to make the hole, which cost me additional money. I pay several thousand dollars for the roof and they cannot wait for one hour to provide a service client requests. Second, when I came home after work, I was met by my neighbour looking very angry. It turned out that the flat roof team damaged the siding of his wall when dropping down the debris. There were multiple scratches on the siding. My neighbour is an elderly man and he’s Greek, so I realize he could have been exaggerating the damage. But taking that he had no complaint whatsoever about shingles roof team (and he would not miss a chance to complain), the flat roof team really did something wrong. I had to write a complaint and forward it to several different people within the company. As a result, two nice men, Joe and Kaz, came to fix the damage. They pacified my neighbour by patching the scratches, and fixed my dumpen vent, this is to say completely redid it from inside. Why couldn’t it be done like this in the first place is beyond me. In the end, the work was done, and I’m happy with my new roof, but my experience was far from brilliant. If I would ever recommend this company to others, the recommendation would come with a warning: “They are good as long as you babysit them”.

Dmitri and team have installed the sump pump and back water valve in my basement. They also did a number of minor repairs in the house, like replacing the laundry sink and faucet, tightening the kitchen faucet, replacing the pipes to increase water pressure in the bathroom on the second floor etc. Dmitri and team were on time and on budget, and very polite. They cleaned after themselves. I'm going to hire Dmitri again to do the initial installation of my new dishwasher.

I found Patrick from Great Wood Solutions on handycanadians - he replied to the project I posted. I picked him out of 4 contractors I met, and I am glad I did. His quote was very detailed, stating every step he was going to be taking to complete the tasks. Patrick did several jobs at my house. He demolished a wall between two rooms (this was a tricky one, as the stairs seemed to be sitting on the wall), installed a window in the kitchen (also not a simple job, the opening in the wall had to be cut bigger and framed) and installed the stove hood with the vent outside. He also cut the hole for bathroom vent when the roofers refused to do it. But it's a separate story, see my review for Avenue Road Roofing. I am very happy with the results so far. Patrick is very punctual and he sticks to the timelines he set up. He also left the site sparkly clean, taking away his own construction waste and some of ours, for which I'm very grateful. Patrick is not the cheapest guy on the market, but he does a very good job and is very reliable. He was also available almost immediately, while other carpenters were booked up the end of the month. I would hire Patrick again and probably will, as the reno in my house is far from over.