I am rewriting my original review (which was harsh). Red Robin has since lived up to everything I could ask for in finishing my project and referring me to other great contractors (a general contractor and a landscape contractor). I'm very happy with their service.
Front brick work
I was not going to write a bad review because I can understand that some situations just don't work out due to no one's fault, but reading the review by Matt and Caroline from East York and Red Robin's response to my latest concern, I was compelled to write.
I hired Red Robin because of their Home Stars reviews. I needed brick work to the front of my Victorian and parging on the south side of my house. A misunderstanding (about my lack of knowledge about masonry work I was told) meant that the top south side of my house was ignored in their quote and not cleared up with me until after they started the job, meaning I had to find someone else to repair that small part of my house (not an easy task in downtown Toronto, my goal was a one-shot deal for my outside repairs but it was too late after they had started).
Then, after they finished the front brick work I found many areas missed, as did my landscaper in preparation for front stone and garden work. Red Robin responded by suggesting that I had changed the grade in the front of the house exposing 'new' problems. The only thing that had happened since they had been to my property in mid-March was the final snow melt. They did do the repairs in obvious holes in the brick repair that were missed, and at the same time I agreed to additional work to parge the foundation wall that was 'now' exposed from all the snow being gone.
Then on April 27th a window caulking repairman found that some brick beside a front window (windows had been installed in 2013) had disintegrated and flakes of brick were only being held up by the original caulking. If he removed the caulking (for the new caulking), those pieces of brick would crumble. At the same time I found more holes in the brick work below that window so I sent the pictures to Red Robin asking for the repairs. I was told they'd get back to me with a quote. I reminded them of the details of our contract the month earlier, front tuck point, clean/replace lose debris, etc. They did do the repairs when I argued this was not new work, but I received a stern email stating that this was 'absolutely additional work as it was an area that was damaged when a different trade was doing work, which was not visibly damaged when the estimate was made'. I have had no other trades here to work on the front of the house except Red Robin and the next stage of repair for the front of my house was caulking then repainting because the warm weather is finally here.
For these reasons I cannot recommend Red Robin, I do however have to say they have nice people working for them but something went wrong in completing the work here on my house and blaming me for either hiding work area when they quoted or to blaming other trades is inappropriate.
