staktrace

My tenant left behind a bunch of stuff including furniture and trash. I contacted a few junk removal companies on Saturday, and immediately heard back from Junk Professionals. We agreed on a time to come on Sunday for them to give me a quote. They were punctual and on walking in the door gave me a verbal quote right away. It was a good price so I said yes and they did the work right there and then. The team was great, very friendly and easygoing. They were able to take all the stuff out of the apartment, breaking down whatever they needed to fit it into the small elevator, and out to their truck. Very efficient in their process too, they were done in less time than I thought it would take. I was very happy with the work and would hire them again.

I wanted to take advantage of the Greener Homes rebate program to get some insulation/HVAC stuff done. I used greensaver to do the pre- and post-retrofit evaluation. All the people I spoke to on the phone and in person were great. However the overall process was somewhat annoying. Often when calling in I got bounced through multiple people before finally getting to somebody who could answer my questions. And each time I had to repeat my address. Also it took two months after the post-retrofit before they finally submitted all the documents needed to the Greener Homes program. In the end it all worked out and I got my rebate, but there was a lack of communication on their part around the process timeline.

I was on my way to pick up my kid from daycare when I discovered the garage door wouldn't open. I called Hamilton Door Systems as I have used them before and over the phone they were able to diagnose the problem as a broken spring. Although they weren't able to come that day (it was already the end of the day) they were able to schedule their technician for the next day. The technician arrived on time, and quickly replaced the spring and got the door working again. I was very happy with the prompt service and would definitely recommend them to anybody facing a similar problem.

My furnace was reaching end-of-life, and I wanted to have it replaced by a heat pump. I put in a service request via Homestars and was contacted by Hadi from MH Heating and Cooling. From the initial interaction he showed a high level of professionalism and expertise. We discussed heat pump options and he proposed a system that would fit my needs based on the size of the home, the existing equipment installed, what was available on the market, and budget considerations. The system he proposed (heat pump, replacement furnace as auxiliary heat, plus a free HVAC-attached home humidifier) was reasonable and suited my needs perfectly. On installation day his crew showed up to do the install. The installation itself was tough because they had to run wires and pipes (the heat pump wasn't a drop-in replacement for my existing furnace/AC setup) and so it took a while. It was particularly complicated because I live in a townhouse with a finished basement. They ended up having to poke a few holes in the drywall to fish stuff through. It was a long day for them and in the end Hadi had to come back the next day to finish the thermostat install. They did a great job overall and I am quite happy with the result. Some particular things to note: - Even though they ran into difficulties with the install, they did a great job keeping me up-to-date on what was going on, and never gave up. - They maintained a professional attitude and attention to detail all the way to the end until the job was fully complete to my satisfaction. - They were very conscientious about using drop sheets to contain the mess and taking on/off their boots when going inside/outside. - They did an excellent job covering up the drywall holes in the ceiling that I would have a hard time dealing with otherwise. - Hadi was also very detailed in explaining how the whole system worked and testing everything to make sure it worked correctly. - Even though the supplier had provided them with the wrong thermostat initially (which resulted in wasted time for them), they took care to leave my house with a working setup and then Hadi came back the next day to put the correct thermostat in. I'm very pleased with the service and am really happy that I chose Hadi and his team to do the install. I expect the system to work as advertised and will update this review if any problems occur down the road. I would not hesitate to recommend Hadi and his team to others as well.

I was in the process of purchasing an electric car and wanted a 240V/50A outlet installed on the garage for charging. Santino Electric was recommended by somebody who had used them before. I called and Sandro came out to take a look and give me a quote. After leaving he actually further reduced the quote which I appreciated. I got a couple of other places to also provide quotes. Both of those places took longer to get back to me, didn't come out to eyeball the space (just asked me to take photos and provide them with info) and were charging more. So I went with Santino Electric. Jerome came out to the install - punctual and very professional. He confirmed what needed to be done, checked with me on outlet placement, etc., and went to work. After he was done he showed me everything and it looked great. We also requested an ESA inspection of the work (which Sandro had made clear was optional and cost extra). Other than the inspector's poor scheduling practices (I had to be home basically the whole day) it went fine. Next time I won't be bothering with that inspection as it didn't seem worth the $150 to have some guy come out and eyeball the job and pass it without doing any tests or anything. I recently got the EV and have been using the outlet without any issues. I highly recommend Santino for electrical work - my experience was that they are punctual, professional, and do a great job with attention to detail. And the best pricing, at least compared to the others that I checked with.

I have a finished basement that was one large room and wanted to add a bathroom and storage closet. After interviewing a few contractors I decided on Mike and True North Maintenance, mostly because of the easiness in communicating with them and Mike's professionalism. Before work started Mike and I discussed what I wanted and his suggestions. He also provided a detailed work quote breakdown showing how much everything cost (minus a few things like tile, which were explicitly listed) and provided a time estimate of a month. Everything seemed good so we went ahead. Other than the total time taken, everything went great. Mike's team (specially Hubi) were very professional, always taking care to not make a mess, and checking with us before doing particularly noisy things (which was much appreciated, since we have an infant who would often be napping during the day). They consulted with us whenever they hit an unexpected snag or needed clarification on what we wanted, which was great. And they had very good attention to detail, resulting in a very well-put together finished bathroom and closet. I was very happy with the final result. The only hitch was it that ended up taking over two months to get finished. It wasn't a huge problem for us since we didn't have a deadline and I preferred to have the job well done rather than rushed, but I felt that it could have been done faster with better scheduling on their part. There were quite a few days where I wasn't sure if anybody was going to be coming in to work on the basement that day and towards the end I felt like I was having to nag them to get the job done which was a little annoying. Some of the delay was due to external factors (Lowes screwing up an order etc.) but some was probably avoidable. Again, to be fair, I didn't give them any sort of firm deadline, and they also ended up giving us a bit of a discount at the end due to the extra delay. Overall I'm really happy with the final result, and I would recommend them to anybody looking for a quality job done professionally. Just be sure to be explicit about any time constraints you have :)

I had a small gas leak in my furnace which my gas company flagged as an infraction to be corrected within a month or so, or my gas would be turned off. I called Reliance to get it fixed right away and they sent somebody out. He fixed the leak and assured me the paperwork would get sent in to the gas company to clear the infraction. However that never happened, and I got a notice from the gas company that the infraction was still pending. Then followed a nightmare of having to call Reliance's call centers and customer resolutions department every day until the deadline, being told that it would get done for sure that day, and then calling the gas company the next day to be told they still hadn't gotten it. While everybody I spoke to at Reliance was friendly and nice (except for one call center agent who twice put me on hold for 20 minutes and then disconnected me), their repeated inability to submit the paperwork to the gas company was extremely frustrating. Having to spend hours on the phone with different customer service departments going through the same rigmarole every day is not my idea of a fun time. Now the gas company will have to come out to reinspect the furnace.

I had a few miscellaneous things I needed done - installation of timer switches, 3-way switches, and a thermostat replacement. Earl showed up on time and did all the work professionally. The quality was good but it took somewhat longer than I was expecting. Given they charge by the hour (which is reasonable) it ended up costing me more than I had thought it would. But to be fair, some of the delay was due to unexpected pre-existing wiring when installing the 3-way switches, and I probably wouldn't have been able to figure out how to do that myself. Not sure if anybody else would have been able to do the work faster.

I moved into a new place which had a gas fireplace. I never had one before and wasn't sure what kind of shape it was in, so I called Gas Fix to come inspect it and get it ready for use. They were able to come the same day which was great. The technician who showed up was friendly and thorough. He inspected the fireplace, and cleaned out years of dust and junk that had been sitting there. He got the pilot light going, made sure it was working fine, and walked me through turning it on myself to ensure I knew how to do it. He also provided some great tips on maintenance and use. I appreciated his attention to detail particularly when cleaning up after the job was done.

We moved into our new home and discovered that the dryer didn't work at all. Not sure what was wrong with it, so we called Cascade to have them come in and take a look. After some troubleshooting Steve discovered that the power outlet wasn't hooked up to the electrical box! Even though it was a house wiring issue and nothing to do with the dryer, Steve was able to fix the problem and get our dryer going. Meanwhile Linda regaled me with all sorts of horror stories about stuff they've encountered on past jobs and some great tips to avoid running into problems like those myself. I was very satisfied with the service and particularly impressed by the attention to detail and effort they put in to avoid scratching our wood floor with the dryer as they moved it around.

We purchased a new home, and wanted to get the locks re-keyed. After calling a few locksmiths for quotes, we picked Mike. He was very friendly and professional. He arrived at the scheduled time, and did a great job re-keying the locks, and even threw in some extra keys for us. He also did a bit of adjustment on the plates so that the lock opens and closes more smoothly without having to push on the door. Overall I was extremely satisfied with the work he did.

I had some sewage back up into our laundry tub and were also having glugging noises coming from our kitchen sink when it drained. It's an old house so I wanted somebody to come in and take a look at the drains to make sure they were draining properly. I called and scheduled an appointment with Roto-Rooter. They gave me a 2-hour window in which they would arrive, and the service technician (Andrew) did arrive as scheduled during that window. I also got a call from the office ahead of time when the technician was on his way. I thought the technician did a great job in obtaining all the relevant information (asking me questions for stuff I forgot to mention) and getting a handle on what the problems where before getting started. He also showed me upfront how much he would be charging (per hour), before he started the work. He snaked the laundry tub and kitchen drains, cleared out a few clogs and advised me on following up for the remaining issues which would be harder to deal with. He did a great job cleaning up after himself which I always appreciate. Overall I was really happy with the service and will definitely call them again for future drain issues.

We had an drain blocked causing water to get backed up in the laundry sink and the kitchen sink. There was also a leak from a pipe when the water level backed up above it. I called Dy's as soon as they opened at 8am and within two hours they sent somebody to snake the drain and replace the pipe. It was a tough clog but he cleaned it up and everything is draining beautifully now. Also gave me some advice on how to avoid it in the future. Dy's always comes through for me!

My bathtub knobs and tap were dripping water. Since the tub was really old I figured I might as well replace all the parts (seat, stem, knob). Dy's as usual had all the parts and tools I needed and were happy to explain what I needed to do.

The tub in my bathroom was very old and I wanted it replaced with a shower. I was also interested in replacing the floor (old vinyl tiles) with something newer and maybe getting a new vanity. The bathroom is extremely small and so I wanted the updates to maximize use of available space. When I called Re-Bath, Russ and his sales associate came to take a look. We discussed what could be done given the space available and Russ said that we could put in a smaller shower and use the remaining space from the tub to put in some shelves. This sounded like a great plan to me. Russ used his iPad to access his online catalogue and made a basic estimate that added up to $7000+ which was a little beyond my budget. After some discussion we picked a cheaper shower surround and switched from ceramic tiled floor to a one-piece vinyl floor which brought the price down significantly. I was quite happy with his willingness to work with my budget and find something that would satisfy my requirements. A few days later I also decided to keep the old vanity for the time being, and he updated the quote accordingly. We agreed on the final work order and he said since they were booked up they probably wouldn't get to me for a couple of months, and that their installation supervisor Mike would get in touch with me to set a date. I was in no hurry so this was fine by me. After a couple of weeks I hadn't heard from Mike so I called him at the number given. He didn't seem to know what was going on but checked with his office and gave me a date of a Wednesday a couple of weeks out (about a month before Russ had said they would do the job). On the Friday before, I realized that we had never decided on a pattern for the vinyl floor like Russ had said we would so I gave Mike another call to confirm. This time he said they would be there on Monday morning, and said that I had to talk to Russ to get the vinyl pattern sorted out. I got in touch with Russ who asked me to pick out a pattern from Home Depot's vinyl rolls (which I did) and said he would figure out which date was actually correct and get back to me. The next week on Tuesday afternoon Russ called and said they would be in on the next day. As he had previously said he would give me "plenty of notice" I was not expecting this at all, since it was less than 24 hours notice. I had to make some last-minute arrangements to account for it. He also said the job would be done by Friday noon. They showed up the next morning and went over the final details on what needed to be done (replace tub with shower, add a wall and some shelving, replace the flooring) and got started. On the first day they managed to get the old tub out but the plumber who was supposed to install the shower was delayed so nothing else happened and people just wandered away. The plumber did show up at the end of the day to take a look and see what stuff he would need to get the job done the next day. At the end of the day they put the toilet back in so I could use it but the vanity/sink wasn't hooked up. Also something that I noticed was that they didn't bother putting down a drop cloth in my living room while taking out pieces of the tub. To be fair they didn't make a big mess in the living room and did sweep up after themselves. Also while sledgehammering the tub into pieces a bunch of debris went down into the furnace room below which they didn't clean up. The next day the plumber showed up (late again), and started working on installing the shower, while the other couple worked on the wall and (I assumed) the shelving. Turns out there was a miscommunication and they just closed off the area where the shelves were supposed to be. In order to fix it they would have to rip out the shower surround and basically start over. In the end we agreed that it was not worth the effort and that instead of that they would install a ceiling capper (the ceiling part of the shower surround) for free, which wasn't part of the original contract. That day they also put down the vinyl flooring but said that it would need to sit for a bit before they could caulk it into place, and so they'd be back the next morning to do that. At the end of the day after the plumber left I noticed that the drain for the shower had not been hooked up yet. I texted them and when they showed up the next morning to do the caulking they also hooked up the drain. They made it clear that it was the plumber's fault for not doing it the evening before. The finished doing the caulking as well although because of the size of some of the gaps around it looked a little sloppy in places and some of the wall tiles were damaged from when the tub had come out. They said that they would need to come back once more to do some touch-ups on the caulking, and that they would install the ceiling capper at the same time (within 3 business days at most). So I waited for the three business days to pass and no word from them. I contacted them again about the ceiling capper and got some vague reply with no specific date. At this point it's been two weeks since they started the job and still no ceiling capper. The shower itself works fine, and is an improvement over the tub. The vinyl floor is nicer than the old floor, but there are a couple of spots where it could have been secured better as I'm sure that over time the movement will cause the caulking to crack. The other thing that annoyed me about the whole operation was that the payment schedule was not made clear up front. I gave a small deposit upon signing the contract, and then I had to unexpectedly pay about half of the remaining amount on the day they showed up and before they started working. And then for the remaining amount, they asked me to sign a credit card authorization form on Friday afternoon before the job was done. They promised that my account would not be debited until I agreed that I was satisfied with the result, and wouldn't be until the next Monday at the very earliest anyway. But they charged my account on Sunday before I had said that they could, and I don't think I'll be hearing from them again. Russ and Sohail (the owner, who came by a few times) both seemed to be very focused on ensuring that I was satisfied with the work done. However the same could not be said for the installation supervisor, who seemed more interested in whatever was the least amount of work for his crew (he said as much to me explicitly). Sohail was the one who agreed to do the ceiling capper for free because of the mix-up with the shelving. Although at the time I was satisfied with the arrangement, the ceiling capper has yet to materialize so I'm doubting his good intentions. The work that was actually done seems to be holding up for now after a couple of weeks but time will tell.

I wanted my front door and surrounding trim and sidelight replaced. I was looking for something relatively simple and cheap. After talking to a couple of others I ended up going with Ted from Complete Home Handyman Services. From the beginning I was impressed with his attention to detail - he came prepared and measured everything, asked me about the details of what I wanted (type of door, handle, lock, trim, etc.) - things I hadn't even considered. At the same time he was able to recommend what would work best based on his experience since in some cases I was unsure of the different options. The quote he came back with was a little higher than I expected (and higher than the ballpark estimate he had given me). I asked him to try and find a cheaper option and he was able to reduce the price by a bit but made it clear that if I went any lower I would be getting a poorer quality product. I like that he made this clear rather than just substituting a worse product because I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Finally I agreed, gave him a deposit and set a schedule. On the day of the job as well, Ted and his partner worked extremely efficiently. They were very good with not damaging any of the walls while taking out the old door - I didn't even have to do any touch-ups to the surrounding painted walls. They put down a drop cloth while working and cleaned up everything after themselves. They were done within the day as promised and the door works beautifully. I'm very satisfied overall with the workmanship and the door is exactly as I wanted. Throughout the process Ted was extremely professional.

I had some odd jobs that I needed done - I wanted a bathroom fan installed, a custom gutter repaired, and the flashing on my chimney redone (based on a home inspector's recommendation). I called Handyman Matters and sent them some pictures over email of what I wanted done. There was some discussion back and forth but they made an appointment to come out and do it. When they arrived they determined that the chimney was fine, so nothing needed to be done there. They were able to put together a good plan for installing the bathroom fan (it was a little complicated because of the house layout) and finished the installation that day, although there was still a depression in the wall that needed to be mudded and also some garbage (ceiling diffusers panels) that they said they would pick up. The next day they finished filling in the wall and patched up the gutter, but the garbage got left behind, and I had to dispose of it myself. Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the job they did, although looking back at it now I feel like it was pricier than it should have been. Still, I have no real complaints on the quality or professionalism of the work, so I'm pretty satisfied.

We had bought a water softener and called McKenna plumbing to install it. They came in and hooked it up pretty quickly, although they charged us quite a bit to do so. Later we tried to turn on the softener and it turned out to be a defective unit that didn't work. We returned that unit and bought another one and hooked it up the same way the previous one had been hooked up. After getting that going we discovered that the plumbing job was incorrect, and the cold water was not getting softened because of the way the water lines had been plumbed in. We called McKenna plumbing back and asked them to fix it. To their credit they admitted their mistake and came over the same day to fix it. They were able to correct the plumbing within a half hour and were very professional about it. Overall I'm pretty happy with their service - everybody makes mistakes sometimes but they were very good about responding and fixing it for no extra charge.

I got furnace and AC serviced by Rafi. He was very professional and helpful. He explained everything that he was doing and gave me lots of good tips on how to prolong the life of my heating and cooling equipment. Will definitely be calling them back in a year or two.

Having bought a new home I wanted to have the ducts cleaned. The technician showed up within the stated time window and set up his equipment. He cleaned all the ducts and vents but also left behind more of a mess than there was earlier. There were a couple of smaller things here and there also where I think he could have behaved more professionally. But in the end the ducts are much cleaner than they used to be and I'm pretty satisfied with the overall job and price.

We woke up to our freezer not being very cold and all of our food defrosting. I gave Cascade a call and they were able to send somebody out in a couple of hours. He showed up as promised and dug into our fridge to figure out the problem (a non-functional heater element). He was able to look up the necessary parts right there and give me a quote on how much it would cost to fix. We scheduled an appointment when he could come back and install it. They did a great job, and the fridge is running great now. I would happily call them again if I have any more appliance problems.

I wanted to paint the interior (walls/ceilings/trim) for some of my house. Dave was very helpful both via email/phone and in person, and arranged to meet us on short notice to give an estimate. He provided his estimate promptly and after a bit of delay on my end we hired them to do the job. There was a bit of a scheduling mix-up though - the ended up starting a day later than they said they would, but still got everything done within the time window they said it would take until, so it wasn't a big problem. The quality of the paint job is excellent - they used good paints and put two coats on everything so it looks great. During the process the painters were very professional - being punctual, asking me to clarify a few things here and there about taking nails/screws out and so on, and also cleaning up at the end of each day. Overall I'm very satisfied with their work!

We bought a house and there was some electrical work that needed to be done to bring it up to code and for safety. Various things were not grounded properly, there were some overcrowded junction boxes and dead wires, etc. I sent Ian our home inspection report for a quick overview, and he came in and took a look around as well and gave me a rough estimate on what would need to be done and pointed out many quick fixes that could be done to save us money. After we agreed he went ahead and did all the work as promised. We had some follow-up questions a few days later and he was happy to follow-up and answer them. Overall I'm quite happy with his work and would happily hire him for other projects or recommend him to anyone. The only negative I have is that he often showed up a little later than we agreed upon, although to be fair, he always called ahead and let us know and it wasn't really a problem for us.

Even though we were a bit early, Steve was already there before us and getting to work (awesome!). He was very through and systematic in his home inspection, and pointed out many things that were good to know for us as first-time home buyers. Although the cost was a bit higher than other home inspection companies, I do feel I got my money's worth here. I got the report the same evening and it was full of links to useful information as well.