Irina Ivanova in Toronto

My husband has contacted this company a year of 2011, in the fall to replace old air conditioning system. It was replaced and supposedly working - i.e. cool air was blowing from the vents. Our house is a quite shaded so as long as nights are cool there is not need for AC at all, so we have only started using the AC sometime end of June of 2012 when it was hot for few days in a row. This is when we realized that AC is not working. I.e. it would blow warm air, only slightly cooler than outside temperature. And actually, for a 2-3 first hours it would blow the air that's hotter than outside, since our ducts run in the attic (we have water heating, so this is two separate systems), which, no wonder gets quite hot, so it takes some time to cool down the pipes. With this in mind, it didn't make sense to cool the house to say 29C (say it was over 30 outside). We have contacted the guy and he did come in attempt to fix things. Over the course of the summer he came at least 4 times. One time he was fixing something and didn't do a proper job of saudering the pipes - so the cooling liquid leaked out and evaporated. The other time he replaced some vaulve and during this process dropped his drill from the attic onto our wooden floor. So there was a massive dent. As you may guess, the replacement of the valve didn't help and the guy was planning to charge us back around $100 for the valve, but waved it because of the floor damage. He said that it is because he was fasting (ramadam) that his judgement was impaired = he dropped the drill. This to me is utterly unprofessional. Send someone else during that month to do the job, or take time off. I have called the guy again, because after valve replacement the ac wasn't working anyway and we've made an appointment, but he never came. And this was not the first time, he said before (during previous visits) that he'd come on day A at time B and never show up or even call. Frankly, we still don't know what it the problem with our ac system. It might be the unit, it might be the whole system (although we did hire other ppl with camera to check and clean all the ducts, so at least there is nothing in terms of obstructions), but I would expect a company in the case of being unable to deliver the promised service would refund the payment, at least some portion of it(after all they were hire to get our ac running, and it isn't, unless cooling house by 3 degrees less than outside is considered running) His advertised price was quite cheap and we shouldn't have believed it. Bottom line: careless, irresponsible, useless. Call someone else.

We have about 6 meters of fence and 2 gates installed (one as part of the fence and one just to fill in the opening between the cedar hedge parts). The installation happened about 6.5 weeks after deposit was paid. The gates were supposed to have a decorative piece on top of them, I kept asking to e-mail me the picture prior to installation, but it never happened and sure enough, on the installation date the pieces were not there. They did eventually manufacture them and came to install them. There was a mix-up in the quotes, originally I got around 3000 quote. One of the gates is very wide, it had to be adjusted later because it wasn't even latching. Company came back and adjusted it, however, the whole look if still not that pretty and the whole structure shakes when the door gets open (because the door it so wide). It doesn't break or anything, but it feel very odd when the gate is opened. Overall, good price and good work, but through our renovation journeys I've had work done closer to perfection (although I've also had worse :-) ).

Over a year ago Fieldstone has replacd 6 windows in our house. 2 bathrrom, kitchen, living room, bedroom and one in the beismant. The good: - I got an excellent price - installation took place during busy time and even earlier than anticipated - installation was done very quickly - windows were sparkling clean after installation (I didn't have to wash them for nearly a year after :) ) - so far the windows are functioning (and looking!) flawlessly So-so: - I wish I'd be offered a choice of casing style. I didn't think there was and now I've got a fancy casing everywhere. It's ok in the bedroom but in kitchen and bathroom I find it gets dirty quickly, and because it's so intricate it's hard to clean. - in few places the removal of old windows was done so that big pieces of plaster of the wall were damaged. They were mostly patched and sanded but not to perfection, I ended up redoing a few (mostly on top of windows, where it's not too visible, but still). - bathroom windows were not sealed around the casing Overall, a good job done fast for an excellent price and good quality windows put (I did some research on brands of windows).

Archiel and his crew have changed 4 windows in our house in June 2012. 4 windows were changed in total, two of which were corner windows, and 2 of which were large (almost floor to ceiling). At this point I am rating the actual installation process. Prior to settling with Archiel I have contacted 3 other companies, all of which are reviewed here on the HomeStars. Two of the companies estimates were about 1000 more while the other company was $6500. After some research and contemplation we decided not to take chances, plus, Sobol was installing VynilBuilt brand windows - the same brand of windows that got installed for us a year ago by another company that changed some of our windows as part of renovation. What I liked: - Archiel did not try to sell me things I do not need - I was provided with a detailed breakdown of the work cost (I mean 2 pages worth of details) - my request for oak casing in one of the room was accommodated at no additional cost - I was able to choose different casing styles for different rooms. - jamb extensions are preprimed. - the connection between wall and casing is sealed with vynil sealant, which is great! The other company hasn't done it everywhere. - no walls/floors/furniture was damaged. The removal of old windows was done very carefully, all garbage removed with nothing left behind. The previous company yanked a few pieces out of our plaster walls. They mostly patched it, but I had to do more patching and sanding after anyway. - installation was done on schedule and finished on schedule My only minor complains are - the filler on jamb extensions wasn't sanded. I did it myself, but I would prefer not too. - one of the casings had a splinter that one of the workers came after to fill in and sand as well as few small nail holes. - the windows were somewhat dusty and dirty after renovation. The company came back and cleaned them. Overall, I am really satisfied with the job and would not hesitate to recommend Sobol to anyone.

The good: - very fast service - reasonable price - accomodated installing floor around radiators and where the floor was uneven - came and redone the few spots where the wood has splintered during installation The bad: - the part where floor meets the nosing of the stairs was not very accurately done. And it does not matter how much filler is put in into uneven narrow holes. Filler driers out and loosens. - quite a few nail holes closer to the walls were not filled with filler - there is actually one nail that's sticking out a bit (it's not very visible and it's not sharp, but still) - few of the shoemolds were not sanded smooth. - the piece installed between one of the bathrooms and rooms is uneven (there is a clear level difference between tiles and wood floor of about 2-3 mm). Overall: if you are on a budget and can't wait for long time, would definitelly recommend. If you want a flawless installation, then perhaps it is worth paying more and get another company to do it. For us as young family speed and price was more important. Our son is working hard on denting and scratching the floor :-) so wouldn't make sense to pay a lot for perfection. We're quite satisfied.

Background: I had a condo to be renovated before it could be sold. We've been living there (with a kid) for over 7 years so naturally it got quite used. So we wanted to renovate it so that we could sell. The contractor who has done quite a good job for us before, was too busy , so I had to start going through yellow pages looking for a contractor that could start very soon. These guys could and offered a reasonable estimate. The scope of the job was to install new kitchen cabinets, countertop sink and appliances. Install vanities and new tiles in the bathrooms (with removing of the old tiles), kitchen and closets and painting (and patching up) walls, ceiling, doors, trim, window ceils. And remove carpet, old blinds, old bathroom cabinets. We have already removed kitchen cabinets and baseboard ourselves. Not a rocket science project. In the end, these the job was done poorly and took forever and wasted a lot of our nerves. I have to admit I have made couple of mess-ups when buying the materials that contractor had to put up with. So here are my faults: - I didn't buy enough grout (underestimated that mosaid was very small and needed more) - I didn't buy enough grout for regrouting old shower stall and grouting the new one (in 2 separate bathrooms) - I've made a mistake for one of the tiles and bought 15 instead of 50 tiles. - I've bought just over of how much marble was needed, so there was a shortage of 2 or three tiles that I had to bring additionally. - I've bought one wrong cabinet for the kitchen (wrong size) so the layout of the kitchen cabinets had to be rearranged. - contractor picked-up the sound proof uderlay for tiles (but they have offered originally to pick up materials for me and bills me) - contractor picked-up one of the tiles missing above - contractor picked-up laminate underlay (they didn't have to, but becuase the renovation was taking longer than planned, I wanted the underlay that I've paid for already to be picked up from the warehouse). Now to the contractor faults: - This pretty simple job took over 2 months! Originally, contractor said they would be done in about 3 weeks. Now, the original estimate was realistic provided that one works hard (the 2 guys that remodeled our house got tons done a day!). During this time I’ve ended up paying over 1000 in condo fees and taxes. - Could not get vanity light centered (it is about 3” off center line, which given that vanity itself is ~30” wide is quite noticeable. - Did not bother measuring the size of the mirror before installing the light fixture. When I have seen the light installed above the vanity to me it looked like mirror will not fit in between, so I’ve asked. I was told it was measured and it fits. Well, at the end I was informed that mirror doesn’t fit (to be exact, the mirror had a little shelf at the bottom, sticking out about 2-3”, so technically, you could fit the mirror anyway, provided you remove the shelf, which obviously damages the mirror frame. Anyway, the contractor said they couldn’t measure if the mirror would or not fit. Along the lines that they couldn't possibly measure everything, right? Like for real? Could not measure height of mirror, of vanity and that of the room and subtract? - Scratched the washing machine, covered the scratch with grout and when we found it said “it’s just grout, it will wash off”. Well, when we washed off, there was a scratch behind. - Did not even bother checking if pipes leak after connecting the plumbing fixtures, so when I turned the water for the test – bingo, the water started leaking fast in one vanity and slowly dripping in the other. Contractor fixed this – but my point is – as a professional you wait for customer to check for leaking?? You don’t even bother checking your job? - The shower faucet was not configured properly – the switch to shower would not switch. Contractor fixed it, but again, it took checking on our part to find the problem. - one of the toilets was not properly installed back after tiles were laid (they didn't bother removing old wax ring, so after about 2 weeks of use it started leaking, when water was flashed. - the old shower stall floor was regrouted very poorly - the grout would come off when scrubbed. I'm actually, not 100% sure it was grout, it was kind of stingy and solf, and came off in thin pieces. Looked more like silicone spread. - In total – three cans of paint disappeared (over 100 dollars worth). I have bought them, I have the bills, and it would be quite hard to loose 3 gallons of paint in our house. - The switch from whirlpool was gone after renovation. - The painting job was horrendous – I’ve seen bad painting job before but this is by far the worst. The workers have painted bathroom doors and trim with latex semi-gloss paint without priming the doors first. The doors were previously painted with oil based paint, so nothing really sticks to them. Painting it directly with semi-gloss (or anything else really but prime) is stupid – now you can wipe the paint off with you bare hands. I’ve pained over old doors before, and now I know how to deal with this – you use a power tool to sand the old oil based paint to get enough texture, then you prime it and then you pain it. Or, if you have enough skill and persistence you remove the old oil paint with chemicals or heat gun. I found the removing fully is never possible, so sanding with dremolo tool worked quite well. - The contractors didn't use the 5 gallon (the big one) container of prime at all, or very little. I don't understand why they requested me to buy it. What's more, when I was coming to check on the job close to completion date, one of the workers was walking out of the condo with this big bucket of prime. When asked where he's taking it to, he said to drive it back to my house. Well, of course, it's hard to prove, but I find it hard to believe, at least, they would need to arrange with me prior to loading it in the car when are they coming to my house to drop it off. - The rest of the rooms were simply badly painted with white spots showing all over the place. They've painted over some of the spots, but not over all. - Contractor told me that they’ve done tons of Ikea kitchen installation before and then they phoned me and complained that there were no screws to put into the door hinges. You know what? Ikea doors are installed without additional screws, and IF they had done Ikea kitchens before, they would have known that. - On the same topic – they’ve asked me to buy screws and such to MOUNT the cabinets. How can I, as non-professional be able to judge which screws to buy? Again, there was this whole rant that ikea is supposed to provide these. It doesn’t, because all walls are different, installer is the best one to choose this kind of stuff. - Overall, originally, we have agreed that that I am providing all the materials and anything additional contractor gets and I pay the bills later. My understanding was that I provide what I can reasonably know about as a consumer (tiles, grout, cemement, prime, paint, cabinets, faucets, lights, appliances), but as the time went on I was requested to provide special electrical cable, special receptacle, special power cables, etc. That I would never know about because I am not in the profession. AND originally, contractor asked for 50% deposit because “he has to buy material”, and then later he kept telling me that contract says that I am providing materials down to every nail (it didn't say that it just sayd "all materials"). Now I know that one is supposed to pay 10% of deposit at most, unless there is like some custom manufacturing done - They would often show up at the place around 10-11, when formal working hours starts at 9 (judging by the calls made to me when it was mentioned they're on the road to the place). - They said that they would pick up all the materials from our house. Well, in the end, I kept hearing how their truck was in repair (for over a month) and thus they could not pick up the carpet, the dishwasher and some of the cabinets. In the end my husband managed to drive these items himself. Contractor did pick up paint, tiles, prime and some of the kitchen cabinets. Maybe it would be better for me to do it – at least then 3 cans of paint wouldn’t have disappeared. - Btw, when my husband brought that big roll of carpet to the loading dock these “professionals” didn’t even have enough brain to unroll the carpet and fold it in a square fashion so that it could fit into elevator. - Didn’t finish sealing between backsplash and countertop - Didn’t seal around the toilet. Thank goodness at least the laminate was installed by the person that has done our house. My advice: - use sample contract that is available on the Internet - make contractor sign for every material they pick up (if you’re buying them and handing over) - no more than 10% of the price is to be paid as deposit - have a clause in the contract that if the job is not done on due date then there are some penalties (check with the lawyer though on how easy it would be to enforce it). - Withhold 10% of the contract price for 45 days once the project is complete. This is a law (Construction lien law). - Don’t let contractors threathen you that they will place a lien on your property. If this is your residence – you’re protected by consumer’s protection law and can complain to consumer protection agency, and if you have good grounds for not paying, you can wait it to go to court. If this is not your primary residence and a lien could prevent you from selling it – well, two solutions – set a closing date 2 months after contract is complete and certificate of completition or substantial performance (described in construction lien act) has been signed. That way, even if contractor files a lien against you on the 44th day (by law they have 45 days to file a lien) you’ll still have 2 weeks to pay the disputed sum to court, let your lawyer clean up the paper work and still sell. Now the truth is that anyone at any time can place a lien against your property. A bum from the street with $8 dollars can go to land registry office and do it. So, don’t be threatned. Do talk to your lawyer – if you plan to sell, your lawyer (that would be closing the deal from your side) has a vested interest to consult you for free prior to sale on such matters ? (well, at least give you some of his/her time)

I needed a old toilet replaced with a new one. The new one was already bought by us and delivered to the condo, so the price only included installation and removal. I'd say the price could be a bit cheaper, say around 240 (hst included). But I just needed this done and done quickly, so I appreciated the speed and no hassle service. The guys were able to come out the same day I called and got the job done within less than 2 hours, didn't make a mess and din't try sell me anything on top of what I needed. And took down the old toilet to the recycling dock. I was also potentially looking for the water hose (of the washing machine) to be fixed, as it was leaking. However, on the day that Aquamaster workers came it was not leaking, no matter how hard we were trying to make it to, so at least they didn't try to make me fix it "just in case". Believe it or not, many companies do. I wish the mark I give would have a weight, because giving a 10 for a complex project is not the same as giving a 10 for a small project. I mean the real test of any company is when they perform a complicated non-trivial project well. Well, I would definitely recommend Aquamaster for changing toilets, sinks and the like.