Marzi

We were very happy with the service and value for money we received from Green Choice. They replied promptly to my voicemail and were able to come quickly to look at the problems we were having with no hot water (and hence no heat as we have radiators). Though Jackson was not familiar with our unit I gave him the manual and it didn't take him long to figure out what the issue was. We needed a new part and then when he was installing it he found that there was another underlying problem that had caused that part to break. So he had to make two trips to Etobicoke for parts - under those circumstances the cost was super reasonable (we are in the Beaches). He was also thorough in looking at the whole system and recommending what maintenance we could undertake in the future to lessen issues.

We had Scott do a bit of a fix-up job (in the spring of 2012) rather than a complete redo of some poorly laid interlock and steps, & it was agreed we would therefore not expect a guarantee/warantee. He and his assistant worked hard and did a decent job but there was one area where the glue oozed out, so that doesn't look very good. It would also have been nice to have been consulted on grinding down one of the stairs, which hadn't been discussed. His quote was for cash, i.e. no tax, but when it was time to pay he said he had to charge tax. I asked him a number of times for a receipt for tax purposes, which since I paid tax seemed fair enough. There were a couple of small issues that came up that I think annoyed him but I was always polite. When he finally replied he accused me of emailing him about "complete nonsense" and said he came by and could not see the glue, but it is certainly there, it's not something I would just make up. He seemed to think I wanted a warantee but I did not and had not asked for one. Scott seemed very knowledgable and I am sure a lot of his work is very good. It is unfortunate he could not be more professional in dealing with me and more responsive to my enquiries so that I did not have to pursue the invoice for such a long time, ultimately clearly making him feel that I was harassing him. In the end he said that I should just be happy to have received good work at a reasonable price and to stop contacting him. I wonder if the goverment ever got the 'tax' I paid?

New View did our huge number of windows as well as our fan, chandalier, screens, skylights and changed lightbulbs where accessible. The quote was done in a thorough and professional manner, and the job was done efficiently and to an incredibly high standard by the same polite and pleasant employee who did the quote. The owner followed up to make sure we were happy and payment was easy to arrange after the job was complete. The price was extremely reasonable. I would not hesitate to recomment New View and will definitely use them again.

I had very high expectations given the Homestars reviews and also I have quite high standards, but I'm afraid these were not met. Maybe less picky people would have been satisfied - I am the first to admit that I am hard to please! After my intial enquiry by phone, I had to chase for a quote, i.e. email Jamie to remind him, as he had not provided it in the time frame indicated. In his reply email he called me by the wrong name, presumably a different customer, but eventually he did give me the quote and the work was arranged for a couple of weeks later. Jamie and his crew were pleasant enough but I was their last job on a hot Friday afternoon and they seemed a bit weary! I was disappointed that there was not a bit more attention to detail. Some windows were still grubby and streaky after the team finished and they did not get right into the edges. The screen cleaning was just ok. One of the guys came back to redo the windows I was not happy with but even so he still missed one that we discussed needed doing again. He said it was not possible to get rid of all the streaks etc due to mineral deposits that require a special treatment to remove, and that I should make sure to request that next time I had my windows done. That's fair enough, but I think that they should have observed that this was the case either when they were quoting the job or when they were carrying out the work the first time, so I could have had that done. Now I will have to wait until next year, but I'm sorry to say that I will probably try a different company next time.

Declan installed a new electrical panel for us when we bought our house but we did not investigate knob and tube at the at time. We were happy with the work on the panel. My husband later discovered we had some knob and tube when we were going to install a new porch light. Declan did a survey of the house and identified where all the knob and tube was. He removed it all and also installed some light fixtures for us. The invoice came in slightly under the original quote as there was a little bit less work than expected, which I thought was honest and fair. The work was very good quality and while not cheap I think it was reasonably priced. Declan has an excellent reputation in the Beaches area, which is well deserved.

We removed the carpeting from the 2nd floor of a house we were preparing to sell, exposing the old hardwood floor. It had always been covered but the area had been made open plan so there were areas where walls used to be that didn't have proper flooring, just plywood. Beach Hardwood installed new hardwood flooring in these areas to match as closely as possible to the original floor, sanded it all down and finished it beautifully. They also varnished an oak hardwood floor on the first floor and managed to re-stain an area that had been bleached by something so that it matched the rest of the floor. The result was a lovely sateen sort of finish. Would definitely recommend and would use them again.

We wanted to make sure we got a good mover, and the good reviews on Homestars helped us choose Emerald. Our move was a bit complicated as we were in between selling one house and buying another, so had to store some of our stuff with Emerald in the interim. We have moved many times, include two big overseas moves, and Emerald is definitely the best we have used in terms of packing, tidyness, no damage to belongings, etc.... The staff were pleasant, professional and extremely hard working, definitely far superior to any movers we've had in the past. The only problem was that Emerald underestimated the size of our move, both in terms of the garage-full of stuff that we needed to store with them and the house-full of stuff from our rented accomodation. I can see it would have been difficult as there was a lot of stuff in our basement all piled up, so it may have been difficult to evaluate - having said that, the chap seemed quite confident and I was surprised at the time that he wasn't taking a closer look at it! It wasn't a big deal re the garage stuff going into storage and to be fair I had told them that we could take any small items that didn't fit to our rented accomodation. When the truck showed up on moving day we thought it seemed a bit small given the size of truck needed for our previous move, and indeed not everything fit into it. Luckily it was only a five minute drive between the two locations and we have a station wagon, so we moved some excess ourselves on the day and we had an extra day after the move to pick up the remainder. However, in a typical house move where the distance is longer and you can't go back the next day, this would have been a major problem. It is really hard to get good movers. Emerald is not 100% perfect but they are the best I've encountered - I would just make sure that you are sure that they have estimated the size of the move accurately. I would use them again.

Cinderfella was recommended by our real estate agent when we purchased our new home as it was not clear if we would be able to use our fireplace and we were aware that there was no damper. It was quickly established that it just needed cleaning and the damper, and also a cap thingie on the other chimney to stop stuff getting into it. The work was done quickly, cleanly and efficiently, and I was shown how to operate the damper and given some tips on using our fireplace and sources of firewood. I will definitely use Cinderfella for future cleaning and repairs and highly recommend them.

We had to replace our front door lock as my husband lost his key and we were a bit nervous about security. Tom showed up the day I called him and promptly replaced the lock, also showing me something about how our lock worked and things to watch out for. A couple of weeks later the entire locking mechanism broke and again Tom showed up promptly to help. I don't think the breakage was his fault at all, it was just not a very good lock and the original installation had been a bit shoddy (as he had pointed out on the first visit), but maybe he felt some responsibility for not spotting that is was going to break and was apologetic about not having a new piece that matched the colour of the original lock - anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when he replaced the whole lock, gave us a set of new keys and did not charge us for the work or call out at all. I would definitey use Victory Locks again.