KNT Electric

After years of procrastination due to our fear of living through a total mess we decided in August of this year to hire Bill Tang of KNT to replace the knob & tube wiring in our 1920's house. Bill assured us that our furniture & floors would be covered in plastic & that any holes in the walls would be plastered over. In rooms where we have wallpaper he would take care in replacing the paper in the area where the cuts needed to be.

We chose to leave town while the work was being done & left on a Monday with Bill & his team arriving on time to start the job. We returned home the following Saturday & couldn't believe how much had been accomplished in such a short time..

We were able to match the paint colour in 3 of the rooms & now it's hard to see where the holes had been. The wallpaper cutouts were minimal & hardly noticeable.

There were a few minor problems with the wiring of the kitchen light fixture but within a few hours Bill had a technician come out to fix this on a Sunday afternoon!

We would not hesitate to recommend KNT to anyone contemplating having this work done. Bill takes care of getting the permits, inspections & provides the ESA Certificate of Inspection to prove your house is now wired to meet the safety code. The job was completed on time and within budget.

Thanks Bill and to your team for doing a great job.

Sincerely,
The Barkers

Bill and his team replaced the K&T in my house, as well as adding some additional outlets.
They did everything that you hope and expect from any contractor:

1. The quote was clear and detailed.
2. They showed up when they said they would, and the job was completed on time.
3. The house was treated respectfully.
4. Good communication throughout the process.
5. They did a great job, and there were no surprises with the final bill.

Overall, this was a great experience and I would not hesitate in using KNT Electric for any future electrical work.

KNT Electric are the neighbourhood experts in removing knob & tube wiring in older Toronto homes. They did an exceptional job on time, on price....at one point I had 7 electricians in my home fishing wires through the walls. They repaired and cleaned as they went; you'd never know they were in my home. Unlike my previous electricans who spent much time outside smoking, Bill and his crew worked steadily until the job was complete. I'm very satisfied.

I recently had KNT replace the the knob and tube wiring in my home. Bill and his crew were exceptional. The estimating is transparent and you can easily determine the cost implications of expanding or reducing the scope of your project. The communication between Bill and his team is great and all the changes we agreed to were executed just as discussed.

I exercised my female prerogative in a number of instances and relocated the bathroom fixture, up-down-up and back again without any eye rolling from the crew or charges for the additional effort. Tim rewired an antique light that was not working and as a final gesture, Amy repaired the fence gate which was broken long before KNT arrived on the scene.

I intend to use KNT for the electrical work on the next phase of my home renovation project. If I could only persuade KNT to expand into the plumbing business, my life would be complete!

Bill and KNT Electric are outstanding. They provided a detailed written quote, started and finished exactly on the day as they'd said, at the price quoted. Bill was easy to reach by phone, email and text.

Overall, KNT were the best of both worlds -- precise in handling their commitments and flexible and helpful with snags from my side.

As a single woman and a first-time "vintage" home-buyer, it's easy to get the run-around. KNT respected my two stated priorities, safety and cost-effectiveness, and didn't push potlights, dimmers or extra outlets. They provided written progress updates on the work without my requesting them. The ESA report and insurance letter I needed arrived on the day work ended.

Above and beyond the call: My basement flooded during the work and the KNT team vacuumed up the water and lifted up my click flooring to help it dry. When I injured my hand, they changed gears and did the patching I'd planned to do myself -- out of sequence, and working around the wet walls caused by the flooding. They were even nice to my cat.

I was in the middle of a project getting a sump pump installed in our basement. In the back room the wall plugs stopped working because of an equipment overload. When I could not correct the fuse issue I called Bill. We've known Bill Tang and KNT since he rewired our whole 1890 house 2 years ago (doing an amazing, non-destructive job). Bill came by in the afternoon and personally dealt with the issue for me. He is always, helpful, upbeat, respectful of homeowners concerns, and dependable. The kind of vendor you stick with and recommend to other people. So if you have a huge project like we did originally, or just need a dependable trustworthy electrician, call KNT and they will take care of you.

I hired Bill to replace all the knob and tube wiring in my old house. He and his crew, especially Tim did a wonderful job, helping me with good ideas but most important to keep within the original quote. They are very well trained and professional electricians. When I was presented will the final invoice there was no surprises, everything was as planned. I give KNT electric a 10. They deserve it and I fully recommend them. Thank you Bill

We contacted KNT Electric to provide us with a quote to completely update the wiring of our house in June, 2011. The original quote was $8,500.00 plus HST. At first, we were quite pleased with the progress of the job, until it was done. The total amount was around $11,000.00 because we added additinal outlets, potlights, etc. There was also a few things missed when we were quoted, which was not a big deal. The patch job was not the greatest, which was tolerable, until we began to paint. They used some form of caulking when patching the holes that we could not paint over it. We were given an excuse that it was there previously, but we knew it was not. We had to pick it off, and re-patch and repaint several times.

Shortly after we moved in late June, we noticed the lights began to flicker when an appliance (ie the vaccuum, A/C) was turned on. I called Bill to come to our house to figure out what the issue was. His reasoning was Toronto Hydro uses surge protection where the power is reduced a bit to avoid any power shortage. I accepted this reasoning for the time being, as I had no reason to disbelieve him up to this point.

Our major issue with KNT came during the blackout in August, 2011. When the power was restored after 25 hours, only half of the house's power returned. I immediately contacted Bill, who was too busy to take my call, and advised that if only half the power came back on, it was a Toronto Hydro issue, and not a KNT Electric issue. I did not accept this, as we drove around the neighbourhood and everyone seemed to have full power. I contacted Toronto Hydro and asked if full power was reached in our area, and were told yes. Toronto Hydro sent out a truck within 3 hours. When Toronto Hydro reached my home, the first thing they ask was whether or not we recently updated the wiring. When we advised yes, we were then asked if the electrician did anything on the outside, and I said no. He immediately told me that that was the incorrect thing to do, and that if the service was being updated on the inside, the outside service should have been done as well. I was told that the service coming from the City was 200amp?, the house was running on 100amps, but the connection between the City and our house was only 60amp, and that it was a fire hazard

I contacted Bill about this issue, and he advised that he "checked" the service coming into the house and it seemed "fine." I did not accept this, as this is a serious issue.

I contacted Toronto Hydro again to find out what needed to be done, and was advised that the service from the City should have been updated at the same time as the service was being updated on the inside, and that the electrician should have determined this.

I later contacted the ESA to find out how they would have passed KNT Electrics work on the inside when the outside was not proper, and was informed that the outside work was a separate permit, and the ESA would not inspect it because a permit was not pulled. I think this is quite scary.

I sent Bill a report about what work needed to be done according to Toronto Hydro and he said he did not agree with what they said, but would not challenge Toronto Hydro, and advised that it would cost about $1,500.00 plus HST to update the service.

Up until recently I did not have an issue with everything until I conducted a Home Energy Audit. Our auditor is also a home inspector, and he advised me that this was a serious issue and should have been dealt with from the beginning. I also recently had insulation put in my house and was advised by the insulator who is a master electrician that from looking at the side of the house, he could tell that it was 60amp, maybe even 50amp.

The reason why I took so long to write this review is I was trying to give KNT the benefit of the doubt, they were very nice people, however, this is my first home and if there was a fire, my insurance company would not have covered the damage, because we were all under the impression that the electrical was ok, which it is not. We did not expect to have a quote as high as $1,500.00 to do something, that should have been done in the beginning. I'm not asking not to pay, but it should have been included, back when we had more money to spend, as further renovations have depleted our savings.

We had knob and tube wiring left over from a previous renovation. Bill and his team removed and replace all of the remaining Knob and Tube with minimal disruption. He is very organized and took care of organizing the electrical inspection and providing a certificate. Highly recommended.

Bill and team did a fantastic job - making sure my home was rewired and up to code. He also brought in the Hydro inspector to give me the paperwork so that I can prove the knob&tube was out and my insurance coverage for my home was secured.

Bill also has excellent follow-up and support and was very flexible with timing and scheduling.

Great job!