David in Thornhill

After trying to do some DIY touch up painting, we ended up getting 1 Day to cone in to quote to redo all the walls properly. They quoted on Monday, and by Wednesday Doug was on site, right on time and ready. Quality is good, price was good, clean up was decent. Doug was quiet, professional, and friendly. Overall, would have them back again.

We used a service request on Homestars, Armin called same day to get more information. He came out the next day and put in a full day. He worked efficiently and the quality is good. Work mostly included installing and repairing baseboards and trim, a bit of plastering and painting.

Our neighbour used Casper for some new doors and recommended him. Very prompt to offer a quote, accommodating with the installation schedule, quality of work is excellent, and very polite and easy to deal with. Even removed our safety lock off the old door - not an easy task since it was attached with very long screws - and reinstalled it at no extra cost.

This is a bit late, as we did this reno a couple of years ago, but realize I didn't review at the time. Doug and his crew were great to work with, the quality of work was very good, everything was organized and prompt. My only comment looking back was that I wish they had put up some plastic prior to gutting the kitchen, as there was a lot of dust generated. Covering the doorways would have gone far to minimize this issue, I'll know to ask for this if we do another major reno.

We were very happy with the service from Amanti, and appreciated that they didn't try to oversell us on other products that we didn't need or try to sell us a bigger vac than the house required.

After a few years of living in our house, we finally got our ductwork cleaned. Rupert and Brown came to the house within a couple of days of us calling, were very pleasant, and did a great job. They even ended up cleaning our dryer, though it wasn't part of the package, because they said it really needed to be cleaned, and they weren't ok leaving it like it was.

During our kitchen reno, our contractor reminded us that we had to have the kitchen sink for when the counter people came to measure. With less than a week, I felt relegated to Home Depot, but couldn't believe the prices for a nice looking undermount stainless steel double sink. After a bit of searching online, I found Vodasinks, who sell wholesale and to the public by appointment. Dave got back to me within a couple of days, and I arranged to meet him a few days later. I met him at their warehouse - this isn't the sort of place you can go and browse, but the website shows all their products very well, so we had already picked what we wanted. The price was great - the same sink online at Home Depot was $800 vs $350 from them direct. He was a nice guy, very friendly. The kitchen has been finished now for about 3 months, and we're very happy with the quality of the sink. I suppose my only complaint might be that it didn't come with a tailpiece for the drains, which my contractor said normally comes with the sink. But a quick trip to the local hardware store will address than for less than $10 - still a big savings over buying an equivalent sink at that same store.

We suspected mold in an upstairs bedroom, so called a few companies to investigate it. Two came out including Zack. He was very thorough in his investigation, and was able to accommodate us by getting a crew to us within a few days. His staff were very polite, they did a great job and cleaned up very well when they were done. They ran a drier in the room for a few days, and then returned to coat the exposed wood with a mold inhibitor and to get their equipment. Overall a good experience, especially since it could have become very stressful if not handled well.

We discovered mold in an upstairs exterior wall, and we suspected a leaking roof vent. Our contractor recommended RHR. Rocky came out the next day, checked the roof, identified some worn/cracked caulking around the vent, and fixed it. He then told us that our roof was otherwise in great shape, and when we noted some concerns with the eavestrough pulling from the house, he told us that it wasn't so bad and not to worry about it for a few years, at which time we could consider addressing it, and also how we could do it to get better value for our money. Seemed to be a nice guy, honest, and we liked that he was quick to show up, I'll definitely call him back when we need to do some work on the roof in the future.

Once again with the cold weather we had mice show up, but this year our attempts with store bought poison just seemed to make them angry. We called Kevin and he was here promptly, he spent an hour in total, and explained everything that he was doing and why. He really cares about the quality of work and service that he provides. We hope to never need an exterminator again, but if we do, we'll call him.

We were accidentally locked our keys in the car, and didn't have the auto club phone number, so our neighbour recommended Dr Locksmith. They were at the house very quick, in less than 10 min., and the guy was really courteous and helpful. We thought 80 seemed a bit much for the service, but this might be reasonable for a 30 min house call. That's the only reason I did 4/5 for recommending to others, I'd say get some quotes (if you have time and aren't locked out of your house and car!)

We got 3 quotes to replace five windows and to reseal two others. The first 2 companies were typical, apparently - "we're one of the only trustworthy companies, I'm going to give you a special 130% discount plus free installation, and the seniors discount because I like you.... so that would be $9000..." Archiel was the 3rd to quote, and his first words were "how can I help you?" It was a good start. He spent lots of time looking at the windows, gave us some ideas of how to reduce our costs, and gave us a very reasonable price. The only downside was that they're so good that we had to wait a couple of months to get the work done. But when they did, his crew was prompt, fast, clean, and they did a great job. The windows they installed are very good quality. I've already recommended Sobol to my neighbour, and I'm going to have them quote some other work for me in the near future.

We found Maric this past summer when the owner of another (top rated Homestars) company that wasn't able to send a service person to us for a number of days recommended that we call him since we were in a rush. Maric came out right away, fixed our AC, gladly explained everything he was doing to the curious homeowner that followed him around, and was very reasonably priced. When our furnace started making awful noises the other day (mid-January), we called him up, and again he came within a day. The problem turned out to be serious, and we decided to replace the whole unit rather than waiting in the middle of winter for replacement parts, since the cost difference wasn't too outrageous. Despite being booked up with service calls the following day, Maric showed up at our house at 7:30 pm with a new furnace and worked until 1:00 am to get our heat back on. The quality and cleanliness of his work is fantastic, and his price was very reasonable. I will recommend Thermal Edge to anyone that's willing to listen to me rave about them.

I'm trying to write this review as balanced as possible... Someone recommended this company, by saying "if you want it done at a good price, call this guy. If you want it done meticulously, I'll give you another name." Being on a tight budget, we went with good price. We got 3 other quotes, ranging from 4500 to 6500, to paint 1600 sq ft of interior, including doors, ceilings, any minor repairs, and 3 coats on the walls and elsewhere as required. The quality of painting was about average - some spots were missed, the trim shows a lot of brush strokes, and they did a reasonably okay job on some of the more difficult wall repairs. Plus points - I like that they recommended a good quality, zero VOC paint, so we could live in the house while the work was done. The quality of the paint, now that the work is done, seems very good (Dulux Lifemaster). Big negatives - first, we had to repeatedly ask for them to fix or repaint certain areas, because they would seem to forget to do it after each time, so be sure to stay on top of them and be clear about the work. Second, and much more importantly, we tried to make their job easier by piling furniture and items in the middle of each room, so that it could be easily tarped. But... they didn't use tarps. They covered some furniture with thin plastic sheeting (think 3 foot wide sandwich wrap) and most things they didn't cover. This resulted in paint spatter on pretty much EVERYTHING (see photos), including furniture, hardwood flooring, carpet, etc. They offered to clean things afterwards, but that would've taken at least a week, so I opted to get them out of the house and do it myself. We thought about holding back payment, but at $3000, it didn't seem worthwhile. If you need an average house painted at a good price and are willing to put up with these things, then it's worth calling. Just make sure they actually SHOW YOU real painters' drop cloths before they start.

We *inadvertently* found water behind the vapour barrier in our basement. I called a mould testing company, but they recommended first calling Accu-Star to determine the cause. Best $300 I've spent on this house to date. Nev came to the house, on time, and went through the basement with me, explaining everything as he went. He explained that what I had found was relatively normal, but then pointed out other areas where moisture/water might be infiltrating. We then went outside and he took the time to help me identify where the problems were potentially coming from, gave me recommendations on how to fix it, and wrote it all up with photos in a follow-up report. And even though we were focused on the basement, he took a quick look at some other areas around the house and found that one of our upstairs toilets had a slow leaking gasket, which we would never have realized until it became a much bigger problem. I'd definitely recommend this company to give you the peace of mind and understanding of what's going on 'behind the scenes' of your house with totally non-destructive testing.

We had Philip and his crew of two clean carpeting on two floors and two full sets of stairs prior to our moving in to our house. He was a very nice guy to deal with. We weren't able to get him into the house prior to the work, so he gave us a 'worst case' estimate based on the condition of the carpet and the time they'd have to spend. The results were that the carpets were as clean as they could be (previous owners had left some uncleanable spots), and they did hit this 'upset' limit cost, though it's entirely possible that they spent a lot of time trying to get some of these stains out. I'm not sure if the cost was low or high relative to other companies, but I'm guessing it was probably comparable to the average cost. I did call one larger company and they quoted me almost $900 for the same area, so I guess we paid a pretty reasonable price.

We found Maret through Homestars, and figured that since enough people had such good things to say, it was probably a safe bet. We had our house cleaned the day before we moved in, as the previous owners had left it in less than spectacular condition. Maret came out for an estimate a couple of weeks before, and was very prompt, which was appreciated. She gave us a very detailed account of what was to be done, as well as the amount of time for each task. We were able to remove certain things that we didn't need done, which was helpful. Be sure to book a major cleaning in advance so that you get the day that you want, as they have a wait list otherwise. On the day of the clean, their team was at the house right when they said they would be, and brought all their own equipment, which was also very helpful. Overall, the quality of their work was very good, and the house was cleaned very well. However, there were a few areas, specifically in the kitchen, that weren't done quite as well as we would expect for the price paid. For example, there were some difficult to see areas in the cupboards that were not cleaned well and had food and other bits of things left behind, which we easily spotted when putting our things away. This would have been caught if they were checking their work a bit better. We also noted that the kitchen light fixture was not cleaned, despite the assurance that every small nook and cranny would be addressed. We contacted Maret to point out some of the major deficiencies, and appreciated that she was very open to our comments and even refunded us for some of the items missed. The clincher to this is that I'm not sure what the house would have looked like if we'd found a cheaper service to use. It likely would have been worse, with more areas missed. We were generally very satisfied with Maret's work. I would recommend to people using this or any service to set aside time at the end of the work day to do a careful walk through of the house while the cleaners are still there, to make sure that you're satisfied with their work, and to pick up if they missed anything, and can thus have it dealt with on the spot.

We reno'd one of our bathrooms, and were looking around for wall and floor tiles. We were surprised that Olympia was one of the only tile stores open on Sundays, which is when we were able to go browse. They have a large selection in a pretty well laid out showroom, plus the 'end of run' stuff in their warehouse showroom just down the street. One nice thing about buying there was they recognized that Sunday was a busy day and they had lots of sales staff available. You had to pull them away from other people which was awkward, but at least they did their best to help everybody. Overall a good experience, the tiles are great, and the prices are comparable to others.

We were out of town for just under a year, and we needed to store pretty much all of our stuff - furnishings and things to fill a two bedroom apartment. Someone recommended Speedy, and and we were satisfied with their facility. Everything was clean, the lockers have rolling steel doors, the compound is fenced in with swipe card access. Access isn't too bad within the building, though there are a limited number of service elevators to get to the second floor, so we found ourselves waiting at times for the elevator to be available when we were moving thing in. I also noticed that there are some people renting lockers for 'daily use' type things - there was one guy there who looked like he was woodworking from his locker. I thought that was odd, but I guess you can use it for whatever you need.

We bought a 25 year old home, and our real estate agent suggested Home Inspection Canada. Isaac was very flexible in appointment time, and was able to go to the house during the day with our agent where he spent a few hours doing a very thorough inspection, and then came back at night to meet with us and to go over everything in his report. He also provided a very clear written PDF report with photos and work recommendations identified as critical, important, or for future consideration. Also as a certified energy auditor, he was able to give us some good advice on how to reduce our energy costs (e.g. some windows that were in okay condition, but don't provide good energy value). Overall, Isaac was very thorough and instilled confidence, and he was also a really nice guy to deal with! In the few weeks since we've used his service, we've already recommended him to another friend who recently bought a house.

We returned from an extended trip during which time all our things were in storage. Getting our things put into storage by another company was a terrible experience (but that was another review for another company). A friend recommended Danny at Ascent, so we used them to move out of storage and into our apartment. The three person crew was prompt, quick, careful, and very polite. It was definitely one of the best moving experiences we've had to date, we were able to just relax and not worry about how they were handling things, or anything else. We'll soon be using Ascent again when we move from our apartment into our new house.