My husband and I spent a great deal of time reading the Homestars reviews of various driveway contractors. We narrowed it down to 4 and when we contacted them, two were willing to visit our home in February when we had plenty of snow. Lou’ay had no problems taking measurements in the snow, preparing a diagram, recommending a manufacturer for a stone driveway, suggesting a colour scheme and providing an estimate. No one else provided the information so quickly. We did a little more research and Lou’ay met with my husband where he answered many more questions that demonstrated his deep knowledge of his craft. Also, when we hadn’t made a final decision on a contractor, he followed up since he had our timeline for the work. The price was also competitive compared to the two other quotes.
They completed the job in one and a half days. Lou’ay phoned on Tuesday that his staff would arrive late on Wednesday with their equipment and a staff of ten men would start the job early Thursday morning. He also had some bad news that the stone we had selected was not available due to its popularity. Nevertheless, he recommended a substitute with a company that we had reviewed. The look and colour were virtually the same so we had no concerns about changing the stone and the overall price remained the same.
Although the city provided consent for the work, we were concerned about Rogers’ cable that was buried at the end of the driveway. Rogers had cut the asphalt and laid the cable from the box, two houses away and it continued at least another three houses beyond ours. We pointed this out to Lou’ay and he indicated that they would cut further out and then carefully removed the asphalt by the cable. Happily, there were no incidents with the cable. We also asked Burl-Oak to remove 3 old and large evergreens from our flower bed along with the basketball pole and cement. The latter was more challenging to accomplish but they did it and we were very pleased. We also had stone blocks edging the existing driveway and around the garden bed leading to the front door. The staff removed the stones to our backyard and piled everything neatly.
At first, Lou’ay thought the job would be completed in one day but the supplier did not send the complete shipment of stones so the job continued into Friday. My husband could not work from home the first day so when we inspected the work that evening, there were some adjustments to be made. Three of the stones were defective and had to be replaced and the garden wall was not spaced according to the agreed layout in places and needed to be adjusted. On Friday, they made these adjustments and the final result was stunningly beautiful. The work was completed by 1:00 pm including cleanup.
We also had slate cemented onto our existing front porch and were told not to walk on it for 24 hours until the mortar had set and cured. Being in a court, we blocked the driveway so no one would drive on it. To anyone who saw the work, it was obvious, that work had just been completed and should not be walked on. My husband was in the garage preparing a keep off barrier for the porch when he found that the Mississauga News carrier had already stepped onto the porch and cracked the mortar around one piece of slate. We were very upset and contacted Lou’ay immediately as well as the Mississauga News. In less than two weeks, the damage was repaired by Burl-Oak. This time they covered the piece not to be walked upon but still the Mississauga News carrier ignored the barrier across the porch and stepped over it to reach the mailbox. At least he did not step on the repaired section!!
We have few negative comments about this company. Lou’ay always had answers to our questions and was attentive, right from the beginning. His staff were polite, skilled and did a good cleanup job. He could have brought more sod and topsoil for the grass that had to be replaced and certainly we would recommend that he purchase and affix barrier tape around any areas that need to settle and not be walked on.
