Theresa and Roger Trudel in Ottawa

Amended review We hired PTL Contracting to build us two decks (one deck off the back patio door and the second was a pool deck) and a patio in June 2020 which was quite a bit of money (over $32,000). Once Tim completed all the work, we had a pool inspection and the inspector informed us that the railings surrounding both decks were not installed according to the building code and the baluster manufacturer’s specification. We worked with Tim and agreed that we would pay another $1,500 for bringing the decks to meet the building code. He took the original 4x4’s posts which we paid for that were notched and they should not have been notched. He should have left us the ones that we already paid for. It was obvious that he ran out of wood and had to shorten our stair rail, but he charged us more money and we never asked nor discussed changing the handrail. We were so elated after Tim and his business partner Chuck finally completed the corrections that we hadn’t noticed that they changed the stair rail (patio deck) and the length of the panel, and it looks awful and is totally unacceptable. There was a finishing board that was also removed from the stairs and now we have nails popping out making it very dangerous. We brought all these issues to their attention in March of 2021 and Tim said “OK” to come and fix it. After four months of waiting and no word (until July 2021), we asked when are you coming to do the work and he didn’t acknowledge our emails. We sent another email a week later and gave both Chuck and Tim 15 business days (until August 4th 2021) to come and correct the deficiency and he has to this day (August 29th 2021) not shown up nor replied, leaving us no choice to bring PTL to court. We posted a review on Homestars where we actually hired him from, and he disputed and denied our existence as one of his paying clients!!! See attached email. We had to produce evidence that he actually did the job. Until we produced the documentation our review was taken down….he lost and our review was put back up and this is the amended version. This company has a five-year warranty, and they can’t even honour that as Tim had also missed putting a stair backing on our pool deck which was brought to his attention in March 2021. During his time here, we found him to be impatient and rude to his workers. He came and went whenever he wanted without letting us know if or when he would return. He does not purchase all the wood required for the job…he goes and picks up the wood he thinks he will use in a day…if he runs out he leaves and has to drive to a lumber yard to buy more wood…..what a waste of time. It is very unfortunate that it has come to this to get the job completed…..they will probably never show up. We had a good relationship at the beginning (we bought them lunch, we did a BBQ and beers at the end of the day a few times). While Tim was here, he helped us with a flat tire on our ride-on lawn mower, he built us a screening tool to sift rocks from the earth and gave us pointers on growing grass from seed which we truly appreciated; but that does not give him the right to not finish our job or not honour his guarantees and to and disrespect a paying customer by ignore us. Tim will charm you and is extremely pleasant until he was asked to come back and fix the job or make good on his guarantee. Unfortunately, he is unreliable, and his ethics are seriously questionable. He removed our old deck which we kept but he actually took the old stairs without even asking us. He was the only contractor within a block radius of our home and we live on 1.78 acres lot and he denied leaving his Tim Horton’s cups wherever and he or one of his workers popped a hole in our siding. He and his worker were the only ones on our property and once confronted he denied but offered to pay for half ??????. We would not recommend this company to anyone.

It was worth the wait for Jeff Hayes Contracting to come and do our basement. We met Jeff at an Ottawa Home Show about 2 years ago and we signed the contract last spring and as Jeff is in high demand, we were willing to wait. His company is outstanding and Jeff has great ideas on how to maximize your space while keeping costs down. For example, we wanted to paint the basement ourselves so that we would also contribute as part of the team :) We loved his vision of the design he recommended. He was very flexible by ensuring client expectations were met throughout the whole project. Jeff has a great personality and we got along great and that is very important to us and we knew that we've chosen the right person. His team was also good spirited and were clean, they protected our stairs and hallway, they came on time and were very polite and respectful. During the project Jeff was approachable with any questions or concerns that we had. The project finished earlier than the estimated time of completion. We are very pleased of the results and highly recommend Jeff and his team.