Robin at Oakwood and Vaughan

I originally sourced Ambia through Homestars.ca and found the experience to be as positive as other reviewers had indicated. Ambia was very good to deal with: sales and service people were responsive, everything happened when it was supposed to, installation took two days and the crews left the work areas tidy at the end of the day. Everyone was accommodating and answered my questions. The windows look fantastic and already the difference in comfort inside the house is noticeable.

Our terrible money pit of a house needed yet more work and All County provided a reasonable quote to tear off all our eavestroughs and downspouts and replace them. Our old downspouts were relocated to better positions and the original entry points into the ground sealed off as required by the city. Serge also checked the fascia and reported back to me mid-job: a portion needed replacing and this was done for a small extra amount. A little extra shingling was done for free. The job was completed at the end of February, in very cold and snowy conditions and it looks very smart...we've had drainage issues affecting our basement but already the eaves seem to be functioning better...no drips.

We'd been in our "new" 1928 house for about a week when there was a big snow melt and rainstorm and a large wet spot appeared on our finished basement carpet. I called Mayday to investigate and give me an opinion on our drainage situation. Roy came about a day after we talked and checked our drain with his camera (he tried both the main drain and the toilet, and although initially thwarted by some improper T-junctions managed to get a look after taking a different approach and doing some augering -- free of charge). He was able to determine that our problem was seepage by examining the various pipes heading into our drain, as well as inspecting our basement walls (drywall had been partly removed for another reason so he could see them). This really scared me because it was starting to look like a very expensive fix, i.e. an excavation from the outside...which in our case would have meant busting up a lot of asphalt on a mutual driveway and tearing down a brand new deck. Roy suggested we try an interior weeping tile system under the basement floor, which would set us back $2750 instead of $20K+. Within a few days his colleague Victor had a crew in our basement installing the system...which was done quickly and neatly...and about a week after that, we had another big melt and rainstorm, complete with flood warnings for the City of Toronto. I bought a pair of rubber boots and put all our books in big Rubbermaid containers, but our basement was dry as a bone. Our house turned out to be a lemon, but our basement appears to be okay now and at dramatically lower cost than it might have been.

There had been two considerable snowstorms in the week before we moved, and another one was scheduled to arrive on moving day. I called Tome to discuss possibly changing the day but they said it wouldn't be a problem. They came about 20 minutes earlier than we had arranged to get ahead of the weather and moved our cluttered apartment quickly and efficiently...no breaks, no time wasting, no standing around. They needed to remove a door at the new place which they did very skilfully and replaced well. The move was as stress-free as possible, considering it was four days before Christmas, we were up to our knees in snow and we have a small baby. The only glitch was that our cheap IKEA pine kitchen table did get a big scratch on the top, but I would still hire Tome again.

I had a frozen pipe burst exactly four weeks after moving into a new/old house and was calling around for a plumber at 1:00AM on a Sunday night. Even after shutting off the main water supply, I still had a lake about 2-3 inches deep in my basement. Jarrett of Shanks Plumbing picked up the phone and after discussing my problem with me, offered to come out right away if I wanted him to (albeit at an emergency rate)...but advised that coming in the morning would be better and cheaper because I'd shut off the water and controlled the immediate emergency. In the morning, he'd be able to see outside if he needed to, and get parts easily if needed. Jarrett suggested coming around 9AM, but when I expressed concern about not having any water until then or later, he agreed to come at 8AM. He arrived at 7:45AM, quickly found the location of the leak and did a pipe replacement (and had all the parts on hand to do so). He also replaced a certain type of valve which might have had something to do with the pipe breaking and provided some advice about insulation, etc. He answered all of my questions, cleaned up after himself, did minimal damage to the drywall, and billed me only for the hour and a half he actually worked instead of two hours like many companies do. I was completely frantic and he was calm, competent and professional, which was exactly what I needed. The price was very reasonable for the service.

Jason was easy to contact and showed up exactly on time after we had agreed on a start date for the project. I bought a house and knew there was knob and tube in it, but didn't know how extensive it was...based on a surface inspection, I got a reasonable quote from All-tech but Jason was very clear that the quote would change once he opened up the walls. After he did this, we discussed what needed to be done and amended the quote...every step of the way we discussed changes in the price as I added or dropped things I wanted done, so there were no surprises at the end. In addition to getting rid of the knob and tube, Jason found and fixed a number of code violations related to the work of a previous electrician. He also did all the plaster repairs after cutting holes in the plaster to feed the new wiring, so I didn't have to hire an additional tradesman to do this. Overall, Jason was polite, knowledgeable and a tidy worker.