Ottawa General Contractors reviews (191)

OGC did my kitchen and bathroom. They did an amazing job. The quality of work is very good. I will be recommending them to all my family and friends. If you are able to, request Andrew Jabbour as your project manager. He is very responsive and was a pleasure to work with.

What we had done: Basement: Install engineered hardwood flooring and sub-floor, build a stone fireplace, install gas fire, new ceilings, lighting and integration. Main Floor: Remove old flooring and install new ceramic tile and hardwood. New custom design kitchen. Sand and skim ceiling in Family Room to remove popcorn. New lighting and integration. Full refit of Powder Room. 1st Floor: Totally refit both bathrooms, with a redesign of the Ensuite bathroom. Also, house fully repainted. Our experience: This was our first renovation, so having a company that could offer an ‘all-in-one’ service (project design, suppliers to source materials from at discounted rates, project management, city permits and sub-contracted labour), with a fixed guaranteed price, was very appealing to us. Initially we were going to move out for our reno (as apart from the bedrooms the whole house was being worked on), but we were told it would only take 3 months, so we lived in. Sadly 3 months ended up being 6 months (not all because of OGC) . I will add that this was the summer of 2017, after a Spring of flooding in the Constance Bay and Britannia Beach areas, therefore, most construction companies were over committed on projects. Being a stay at home Mom with a toddler and 2 dogs, I found the 6 months of living this reno 24/7 very stressful. I strongly recommend that people do not live in on large projects! The work started well, and we were happy with our fixed price as some of our materials were more than the projected estimate. Our first hiccup was when OGC invoiced us for ‘change orders’ for work that was ‘missed’ on the scope of work. We felt that these were unfair and the charges extortionate, so we disputed them. OGC (Brian and Allan) quickly resolved this dispute by agreeing to a reduction in the extra we were to pay. Our work was carried out by sub-contractors and on the whole they were pleasant to deal with, worked hard and did a good job. The weakness was we had whole weeks where no-one was on site and only one trade was on site at any one time. We also found that each trade had no respect for another trades work, at one point we had our nice new hardwood flooring damaged because another trade didn’t protect it when working and drywall was allowed to dip/fall on our new kitchen and countertops. Our Project Manager (Allan), was a great guy and worked hard……too hard!! At the time of our reno he had too many projects as OGC were short of project management staff. Therefore, he was not on site as often as we were promised. That being said, if ever we flagged a problem he quickly dealt with it. We found his knowledge of the trades to be excellent. During our reno it was our Daughter’s 3rd birthday and Allan showed up (outside of work hours) with a card and present for her on behalf of OGC; small gestures like this go a long way!! Also, when we had a problem with one of the sub-contractor’s volatile attitude and I asked that he not return to our home, Allan dealt with this immediately and showed empathy for my negative experiences. At the end of our project we did have a couple of things that needed repairing under the 2 year warranty. These were dealt with very quickly and with no quibble. In conclusion: Having a company like OGC that offers an ‘all-in-one’ service is great. Their weakness is they use sub-contractors, so they are only as good as their subbies. We liked the fact they offered a fixed price and that materials could be purchased using their 40% trade discount (with no mark-up by OGC). We love the end product of our reno, but the work and timescale were stressful. OGC were great to deal with but their overall communication could be improved. I would also like to mention Cutwell Kitchens and Urban Stone who helped give us the kitchen of our dreams, thank you.

Due to a medical condition we required a curbless shower in our master bathroom and needed to eliminate two steps in our master bedroom. We were rookies in the renovation area so looked for a company that provided a complete start to finish service. Overall we are satisfied with the finished product.

The work by all of the tradesmen was very good. The only small problem was that the measurements taken by the kitchen designer (not OGC) were slightly off which required some later adjustments and was the only cause for delay. OGC was always very responsive to our concerns. The people at OGC were always very pleasant to deal with , and very accommodating.

We renovated our kitchen through OGC in March 2018. Nick, Tannie, Paolo and Jordan guided us through each step of the process. We were consulted throughout to ensure that each feature of our kitchen met to our satisfaction. The entire renovation was completed in a record three weeks and the team worked through weekends to ensure that we were enjoying our kitchen as soon as possible. Tools were put away safely (a big concern with young children in the house) and the team made all reasonable effort to accommodate our work schedules and vacation so that we would still have some semblance of ‘normalcy’ while work was done on the house. The team was easy to communicate with and delivered a fantastic end-product. They were also very personable and clearly took pride in their work. We would not hesitate to use OGC for future projects or to recommend them.

Professional manner, workers...Clean job-site daily...In a timely manner despite a few glitches...Have already spoke with Alan and his associates about several additional projects...Finally a contractor that does not over-promise , then under-deliver...They got it right..Thanks...Look forward to working with these guys again...

We used OGC for a major kitchen renovation and other small items in 2016. The project started out well but quickly went downhill with numerous delays and long lags between different teams coming in. We found the trades they used to be generally unqualified except for the tiler. They seemed more like jacks of all trades rather than a high end finishing team. The main sub they used could not even hang doors properly. The project manager was checked out, unresponsive and not helpful. It took almost 8 months to get all the deficiencies cleaned up. I would definately not recommend them for a high end kitchen. Details and high quality finishing is not their strong suit.

I hired OGC to do extensive refinishing throughout my whole house, and am extremely happy with the process and the end result. The project involved replacing all the floors, trim (baseboard, door/window casing, adding crown molding), interior doors, and lighting fixtures through the whole house, as well as completely re-doing both bathrooms, adding a built in closet to the master bedroom, and a built-in fireplace/bookcase unit to the living room (plus a few other odds & ends). The whole team worked well together from the initial planning and designing (Nick, Maria), through to coordinating the various tradespeople to keep the work moving efficiently. Communicating with the project manager (Allan) & financial department (Fatima) was quick and easy. The work done by the whole team is top-notch, which all my friends & family will attest to. Finally, I appreciate that all the work is warrantied, and that all of that is dealt with by a single company. I’d definitely recommend OCG to anyone looking to do major renovations to their home.

Right from the initial meeting/consultation, we found the OGC team really pleasant, knowledgeable and all around fun to work with. They were very consistent time wise. The team showed up every day. They worked conscientiously, and cleanly, which was really important to us. During the project, they made recommendations that were beneficial to the long term end result, such as changing our kitchen floor from wood to ceramic. This was suggested by the project manager and floor layer who were concerned with durability. This is just an example of the care we experienced from the team throughout. As with any major reno, we did experience some hiccups, but Allan O. always made himself available to make sure all our needs were met to our utmost satisfaction, including when we needed a touch up done a couple of months ago, 10 months after our project was completed! We love how everything turned out and we love our home! Thank you OGC!

I had a kitchen renovation completed about 2 years ago by Ottawa General Contractors. Recently I started having trouble with the new sink and faucet. I contacted both Ottawa General Contractors and Pearl Faucets. Both of these companies, working in cooperation, and had the issue fixed with a replacement faucet head in under a week. I was very pleased with both companies and their prompt response.