Mark in Ottawa

We first hired Cadieux Roofing a number of years ago to fix a leaking roof that three other contractors charged us a lot of money for repairs that did not fix the leak (then threw up their hands and said the entire roof needed to be replaced). JP guessed what the problem would be and then when he found it was actually hidden damage caused by a previous contractor, he fixed the leak for a very reasonable price. When we decided to have our roof reshingled in 2018, we obviously went with Cadiuex Roofing. They recommended a different shingle colour than we had considered and agree that the house looks far better with their choice. The crew forgot to remove a temporary vent cover, and JP came back the same day we called to remove it. Very excellent service for the work and five stars for communication from the office and for billing. I have dealt with 5 other roofers, but JP and Cadieux Roofing is the only roofer I recommend whenever anyone asks.

When the hot weather started in May (2021), our air conditioner was working well. Then one day the fan on the exterior unit was not turning and it was buzzing. I turned the a/c off at the thermostat so it wouldn't damage the unit. I called Home Climate Pro in the late afternoon (because of previous experience with them). Matt came the next morning and replaced a part on the exterior unit (I had an appointment so was not home at the time). Christine is very friendly on the phone too. Quick, friendly, reasonable prices, and fixed the problem - can't ask for more than that.

We had a new furnace and a/c installed when we purchased our house in 2012. The a/c stopped blowing cold air a few years later (June 2017) and the original installer would not warranty their work. We submitted a request through homestars.com and a number of companies including Home Climate Pro contacted us. We chose Home Climate Pro after checking references and also because Christine was very friendly on the phone. Matt quickly diagnosed the problem (which I would describe as a poor original installation job) and repaired it which required replacing the coil in the furnace as it had been badly damaged during the original installation. Very friendly, clean, and have recommended Home Climate Pro to multiple people since.

We hired Kanata Flooring to replace the cushion flooring and carpet in our house. After several months, the gaps in a few seams opened up, and a person was sent to our house to fix it at no charge. A few years later, we called because the gloss finish on the cushion flooring was wearing out. This was explicitly excluded by the manufacturer warranty but Kanata Flooring replaced the flooring in our kitchen at no charge because it was so new.

We hired Maize Eavestroughing to install guttering and downspouts on our new house. They did an excellent job with matching the material colours to our house - much nicer than some of the other companies we spoke to. Everything was installed quickly and neatly, the sharp scraps of aluminum and nails/screws etc were picked up. That was all excellent. Maize promises a 25 year warranty. We have a problem with a downspout that was always overflowing. I have been trying for months but it has been extremely difficult to get a return phone call from this company. When I do get a call, the person says "oh you need to speak to XX", and then I don't hear from anyone again untiL I have called again and again and again. The downspout has been overflowing so long that it has eroded the landscaping stone for our front steps. The landscaper will not correct the damage under warranty because the problem was caused by the downspout overflowing. I would have fixed this before but I have a fear of ladders and heights because I was on a ladder that fell about 15 feet once. I got a taller stepladder and was able to reach some of the elbows in the downspout so I didn't have to get up on a big ladder. I found that the part of the elbow that fits into the downspout was almost pinched closed. This didn't allow the water to flow freely into the downspout and caused the eavestrough to overflow. I opened up the pinched part and put the downspout back together, and did not see any overflowing in the recent storm (left over from Hurricane Ike) so that fixed the problem. Lessons learned: 1. check a company's reputation for follow-up before hiring them. 2. try to fix a guttering/downspout problem early before it causes damage to your landscaping.

We hired Rossen Glass to install glass shower doors and mirrors in our new house. They let us borrow their catalogue overnight (nobody else would). Rossen delivered the same quality product as their competitors but is significantly friendlier to the wallet. In addition, Rossen Glass came one evening to install everything to accommodate the topsy-turvy construction schedule.

We hired Mike of Burlco to supply and install the flooring in our new custom house. As our house had radiant heated floors, we wanted to hire someone who had experience with this. Mike had this experience. We spent several months driving back and forth from our home in Kanata and the Burlco showroom in Merrickville until we found something that we liked and suited our budget. We signed a contract. Four months later and two weeks before he was supposed to start installing the flooring, we get a call from Mike saying that the flooring that we selected "was no longer warranted" for installation on radiant heat. As a result, we had to make an emergency unplanned trip to his showroom to select something that was not only in our budget but was also available without a big lead time. We found out many months later that the flooring we initially selected had actually never been warranted for installation on radiant heat, so Mike was just trying to cover up his mistake with that phone call. Mike's dependability (to be precise, his LACK of) showed up once the installation started. He would say he would be at our site at a certain time, and would show up many hours late or not at all. He said his crews would take about 7-8 days to install everything (bath tile, floor tile, and wood flooring). In fact, it took over 3 months for him to complete the installation. His crew used the furnace vents as a dump for their sawdust and debris (see photo). His crews complained to me that they were installing a product that they had no training on - which was a big concern to me! The floor was installed crooked relative to the room. Perhaps this could eventually be forgotten, except for the fact that he did such a poor job installing the engineered hardwood flooring (he installed this underneath the cabinets - a big no-no!) that it has to be completely redone. We are very fortunate that the manufacturer (TORLYS) is stepping up and paying for the replacement. However, we will be out of pocket several thousand dollars as Mike said he would do certain things (like leveling the floor) but he did not and we have to cover this extra cost. Because Mike was so undependable, we had a different company install the carpeting on the stairs. We sent Mike a registered letter, and it was returned to us by the post office because he didn't pick it up. Why wouldn't he pick it up? That speaks volumes about this guy - there must be other people after him for other things. In a nutshell - save your sanity, save your money, do NOT call Mike of Burlco.

We hired Heinz Ulrich to supply the cabinets for our new house: kitchen, powder room, bathrooms, and laundry room. Heinz was very flexible to work with us, and always showed up when he said he was going to - and believe me when I say that this is a rarity in dealing with construction trades. The only time that Heinz was late for an appointment, he called in advance to say that he was going to be 35 minutes late, and in fact he was only 25 minutes late. Of course, this courtesy would be meaningless if the end product was no good, but that is not the case. At the beginning, Heinz was meticulous about understanding our desires, through several iterations of the cabinet design. Heinz can supply cabinets at several budget levels (we used lower priced cabinets in our laundry rm, for example), and did some custom work for our master bath cabinets. We purchased handles for most of our cabinets from Lee Valley, and Heinz was happy to accommodate us (did NOT force us to choose from a catalogue he used). Due to incompetent general contractor that we had, Heinz had to deal with constantly changing schedules. Heinz dealt with all the changes with grace and without complaints. He installed our cabinets quickly and efficiently, and did an absolutely superb job. We have referred several friends to Heinz and they have been very happy with the results. If you need any cabinetwork for a renovation or new construction, call Heinz Ulrich - you will be very glad that you did!

This builder told us he built one house at a time so he could get it done right and quickly, but he was building another house at the same time as ours and told his crew to cover up for his absence. He took 648 days from the time we signed the contract until the final occupancy inspection passed. He went off on a vacation to Australia before our house even had the exterior finishing completed (stucco etc), and never came back to finish it. I ended up having to hire an electrician to complete the electrical panel work and install numerous exterior plugs and light fixtures. He didn't do the grading as per the contract - he left a huge ditch that you can even see in the Google satellite images. We had to find people to hire to do the grading and bring in topsoil, etc. He didn't build the house properly according to the plans (doorways are too small). He had only one experienced crew member and hired a bunch of people who were neighbours or were with his son in cadets. He had his crew improperly install a heating system that doesn't work properly and the manufacturer won't warrant because it wasn't done right. He misrepresented facts to us all the time. He billed us for his mistakes, even when he said he wouldn't (!!!). He failed to supervise or provide even basic training to his crew. He billed us for tools that he bought. He billed us for his crew's time when they were on another job site. Had to chase him for 6 months to get the caulking completed - the guys would show up and do some caulking and then disappear because "they ran out of caulking", then it would take another 6 weeks to get them back. For five months, the only way we could get into our house was through the garage door. Subcontractors were perpetually threatening us with liens even though we had given him the money to pay them. This was a nightmare. STAY AWAY FROM CHARLES AND ADMIRABLE 2000 HOMES!!! You will save your sanity, your health, and your money!!!