Cecilia in downtown Toronto

Vitaliy came to my house within 24h of my calling him. He and I discussed the advantages and disadvantages of changing my lead pipe service to a 3/4" copper versus a 1" copper service. He gave me the prices for both, explained how long the job would take, pointed out where the holes would be dug in my front yard, and explained what the basement would look like during and after the work was completed. His crew, led by Walter, started the work a few days later at 8am, as promised and, despite the very very cold -20 degree weather, they worked 2 long days and completed the work on schedule. Vitaliy kept his word. It cost what he said it would cost and not a penny more. He started and finished exactly when he said he would. The job was executed just as he said it would be. In addition to this, Vitaliy's price was considerably less than what I was quoted by another company. A week after the job was done, the hole in my walkway sunk quite a bit. I called up Vitaliy and, even though I had already paid him, he had his workers drive by the next day to fill it with more gravel. Despite Vitaliy not being on site during the work, he always answered the phone immediately when I called him. It was as good as having him on site. Vitality provided me with the receipt that I needed to send to the city for the lead pipe replacement programme. The city has since called me to let me know that they will be calling me up in the next month to upgrade the city side so that there is no more lead anywhere in my service. I highly recommend Vitaliy at Master Drain & Water Works 416-910-3599.

Having employed KP Waterproofing to do several waterproofing jobs on previous homes, I felt VERY confident that he would do an equally professional job on my back parking pad. The parking pad I had was cracked and weeds were growing through in spots. There was also a flower bed that I wanted removed so I could make my parking pad larger. Chris and his 2 crewmen did a wonderful job. We discussed many details before he started: how much of the original concrete should remain; whether or not to put a short concrete wall along the length of the garage floor so that the wood posts and bottom plates of side walls wouldn't make direct contact with the ground; whether the concrete wall should be made of concrete block or poured concrete; how deep the gravel layer would be; how much concrete would be poured; how long the driveway would be blocked off while the cement truck was churning out the cement; where to place the disposal bin so that I could continue to park in the back; how many days I'd have to park on the street while the concrete cured; where the rebars would be placed; which way the pad would slope and how it would integrate with the surrounding properties ... I was so pleased with Chris' price that I asked him to also: 1. form some terrace steps for me (17 feet wide steps!) to the parking pad 2. Remove and replace a concrete block wall in the exterior stairwell to my basement 3. Parge the walls leading to my basement so they don't look so dreary 4. Waterproof a small section of my basement wall (6 foot section that they had to dig down to the footings to waterproof with parge, tar and membrane) All of the above work was done as promised and with his usual attention to detail. His workmanship and timeliness are reasons enough to hire Chris for any waterproofing or concrete work. The added bonus is that Chris is SO easy to talk to. I'm a woman and have worked with many contractors. Some men are not comfortable dealing with women; Chris is not this way at all. He treats all his customers (I've referred him to many over the years) with respect. He's fair and punctual, communicative and kind. He doesn't try to gouge his customers. Many years ago, I referred him to friends of mine that had a leak in a section of their basement wall. My friends had obtained quotes from other companies -- all in the $10K to $30K range. They asked me for my advice and I told them to call KP. Chris quoted them $800, telling them they only needed to waterproof a small section of their basement wall -- not the entire wall and certainly not the entire basement -- as others had advised them. My friends called me and asked, "Is this guy for real? The other quotes are exorbitant! Does he really know what he's doing?" I told him that he's been in the business so long that he probably trained some of the guys that were giving them the exorbitant quotes. They went with KP and their basement has been dry since. If you want a professional job done by someone you can trust at a price that you can afford, Chris really is the guy to go to. My only hesitation in writing such an honest and positive review is that Chris will be too busy to do my jobs in the future. But he's an honest man and deserves an honest review. -- Cecilia