Kyle from Calgary

My second review of Calgary Home Comfort. I had Aaron back to replace my mid efficiency furnace and 20 year old hot water tank in Spring 2019. He spent a lot of time educating us about our choices and in the end we went with a 96% efficiency furnace and an on demand HW heater. Both have been great, but we did have him back in 2021 to fix a manufacturing defect with the furnace. Aaron's attention to detail is impressive. He took his time with the installation and we have a much better utility room layout now because of it. If you call to book him for a new install, he might be busy and not available for a few weeks, but this is because he is good at his job, taking time with his other customers, and responds to emergency calls.

Western Insulations removed my old insulation quickly and cleanly then came back 4 days later to blow in new cellulose. They did a really good job on the removal making it much more pleasant for me to seal up all of the cracks and gaps in my 1960s bungalow ceiling. They arrived on time both days and worked quickly but carefully and I am would recommend them to anyone who needs an attic insulation upgrade.

We had the owner, Shawn, install Hoyme dampers on our mid-efficiency furnace in 2009 and we have been 100% happy with them since. This week our furnace broke and service manager Aaron came that night on his way home from a bigger job and was able to do the repair (a $99 part) the next day. 24 hour service is not their main business so I really appreciate their willingness to do such a small job. I suspect that if I had called one of the larger companies I would have been sold an entirely new system. Calgary Home Comfort specializes in some of the more interesting new energy saving technologies but they also pride themselves on their ability to repair equipment rather than just sell you a cheap replacement. Their prices are fair and their workmanship is excellent. When I can afford it I will have them back to replace my water heater too.

We received 3 comparable quotes for this project and a 4th contractor wasn't interested because of the complexity of the project. Dennis and Wanda had good reviews and the best product so we went with them. They are a busy company so we had to wait two months but once they got started their team completed the job in 4 days. The quality of the work is excellent and their crew were always on-time, hard working, and cleaned up the work site really well.

I hired Don from Doncore to cut my basement floor in order to move some plumbing. He arrive on time and did the work exactly as planned. It wasn't cheap, but the clean cuts were much easier to repair than had I tried jackhammer it myself.

After contemplating drywalling my DIY basement myself, I called 5 highly rated drywall contracts whose websites specifically said they would do smaller jobs (like 800 sqft basements). Barry was the only one willing to come out and give a quote. He is very professional and very well organized and knows his trade very well. His board estimate was right on (one extra board at the end), his delivery crew was so efficient it made me question how I ever contemplated doing this part the project myself. His boarding crew was fast and organized, but you could tell they were overbooked and after delaying starting for several days and then promising to complete the boarding in one day, they left just before lunch because another more important customer had been waiting even longer. The taping was doing by a younger guy who did a really good job, particularly since we were doing a drywall return on the doors to try to match the 1960s look of the upstairs. We are really happy with how the project turned out and would recommend Barry to anyone else doing a basement, he is a good project manager and he only hires good crews. Unfortunately right now any drywall crews in Calgary who know what they are doing are all really busy, so expect to be surprised at how much the labour costs.

I bought quartz kitchen counters from Rona in 2011. Granite Worx is their installer. Their measurement person was very, very thorough. He arrived on time and did all of the measurements using only a tape measure and a square. He pointed out one location where my cabinet was not level which I was able to correct before the counters arrived. The installation crew arrived on time with 4 pieces of quartz and installed them incredibly well. Perfectly centred and level and the glued seam is almost imperceptible. Talking to the installer, I found out that in his previous career he was a land surveyor in Albania, so precision is very important to him. Three years later, as part of a basement renovation, we decided go directly to Granite Worx to buy our bath counter and replace the upstairs laminate counter at the same time. They are a very busy company and we placed an order, but they never got back to us with a quote. After several weeks of no replies, we ended up just going to Rona and ordering it though them. Exactly the same price for the same product. Like three years earlier, their measuring guy arrived exactly on time and was done in minutes. We think they may have broken on of the pieces while cutting it, because they didn't arrive on the day we had booked for the install. When I called, I was told "we forgot to tell you that we won't be able to make it this morning but will come in the afternoon" We ended up booking them for another morning and the same crew as three years earlier arrived. They were quick, clean and accurate and we are very happy with the install. If it wasn't for their office staff not getting back to us on the order and then on the scheduling, I'd give them a 10. Their field crew is definitely worth a 10. But overall I have to give them a 8. I would recommend them if you have a big job. If your job is small, the office staff might not really be interested. The quartz, Hanstone, is made in Canada and is really great product. Unfortunately its price is going up, but I would certainly buy it again.

So sad. I tried to buy a mattress set from Sears Home. They will only schedule a delivery in a 5 hour window so I waited for half a day only to be told after I called them that my delivery had been cancelled because the product had not been delivered to their warehouse. So I called back and rescheduled for a week and half later. Then the night before my scheduled delivery they called to say the product had again not been delivered, they were cancelling the delivery and that the store would call to set up another day. They didn't, so I went back to the store to either get a firm date or get my money back. At the store, I met the same saleslady who seemed surprised to see me. She took me to her manager who with the help of an admin person behind the desk determined that my sale had not been "ordered". So basically they took my money and booked my delivery, but forgot to order the product. How this is possible when everything is computerized in 2014, I'm not sure. They offered me a $100 discount but couldn't give me a delivery window smaller than 5 hours. I told them to cancel the order since I could afford another half day off work waiting around for a delivery. I feel really bad for Sears. They used to be experts in catalog sales and were not a bad place for the middle class to shop. But now they are in a death spiral. Their call centre is in the Philippines, which is why they were useless, and their delivery is contracted out too. I doubt they will still be in business in 6 months.

Deerfoot Carpet's installers were awesome. The salesperson we dealt with forgot to check and accidentally double booked his crew. They didn't show up on the day they were supposed to which was quite annoying and delayed our project by about a week. However when did finally install our carpet two week late they did a truly excellent job. Our concrete floor was too hard for their nails, but the install crew quickly and efficiently went and bought the right kind of glue. They also came back the next day after hours to do the stretching once the glue on the nailing strips had dried. We're very happy with the product and the installation. Next time we'll call the office several times before the install date to make sure they've booked us on the right date.

I hired Paul to replace a 15 year old replacement service and panel that had been installed, very poorly, by the previous owners. He responded to my initial inquiry the same day, came out to see the site that week, provided a quote, then did the work in one day on budget and on time on a day that was convenient for me. He really is an expert at panel upgrades and had the whole operation planned in advance right down to the arrivals of both the inspector and Enmax at exactly the right times. He was also very accommodating and was willing to wait while I did some framing and insulating before he installed the new panel. The end product is very impressive and I can't believe I didn't do this sooner. My only regret is that I didn't take any "before" pictures for comparison. I plan to have him return to rewire my basement and I would recommend him to anyone who needs their electrical panel replaced.