Christopher from Toronto

Preferred Air has been taking care of our aged furnace for about 35 years. Office staff and repair staff easy to deal with. They have always been prompt, knowledgeable and efficient. Allowing for travel time--we live nowhere close to their current office and they sometimes have extra travel to track down obscure parts--we consider their prices very fair.

Picked this company based on Homestars reviews and have no complaints. Reply to our initial inquiry was fast, estimate done quickly, job completed, all within a week and all at a very reasonable price. The crew did a thorough cleanup, even of our neighbours' properties. Joshua was easy to deal with and gave us knowledgable advice.

Have very little experience with eavestrough cleaning since I can do the first floor eavestroughs myself. But the upper eavestroughs had become a growing problem, so I called in New View. $95 plus tax seems rather steep for just 3/4 an hour of work on just one level but maybe not out of line? Certainly New View did a fine job, prompt, courteous, all one could ask for. Incidentally, almost all the offending debris turned out to be roofing bits and pieces left over from a complete roofing job done here in 2008 by Gable Roofing. At that time, I had given Gable Roofing a good rating but clearly their cleanup was inadequate.

This was a small job and we made it even less desirable because we wanted an "oldfashioned" two faucets and a centre diverter control, instead of the contemporary, much easier-to-install cover plate with single control. Adrian took the job without any problem and completed it at half to a third of our other estimates, while at the same time, and without comment or charge, corrected dripping taps on the adjacent washstand! He is a pleasure to deal with and we've already had him back once to do an even smaller job.

Perhaps because the summer/fall of 2008 was exceptionally busy for roofers in the Toronto area, we didn't find Gable nearly as timely nor as responsive as some other reviewers. However, they had come highly recommended, so we stuck with them, waited until they could finally do the job, and in the end have been very satisfied with their work.

I've been dealing with Preferred Air going back to 1987. Nonetheless--because we're a bit outside Preferred Air's normal area--when our rather antiquated electric furnace started to give trouble a few weeks ago, I panicked and made the mistake of calling in another, much closer company that was very highly rated on HomeStars. Without going into the several frustrating and needlessly costly missteps that followed, I was very disappointed in the service I received. So I called in Preferred Air to finish the job properly. This they have now done in their usual highly satisfactory way. The father was doing the work alone back in 1987, now apparently he has two sons working alongside. These folks are great: responsive to calls and questions--everything explained in detail--fast service and turn up on time--and honest in their dealings. I will remember to call them first next time.

Wilkens was recommended to me by word of mouth and I can now add my own recommendation. Our fireplace chimney started shedding bits and pieces of brick near the top. One chimney contractor advised me that we needed to rebuild the chimney up from the roofline. A sceptical friend of mine suggested I get another opinion. Wilkens took a look and offered to fix the problem for just a third of the first estimate. Their work appears to be excellent and it was a breeze dealing with them. In fact, all the arrangements were made verbally over the phone: I never had to wait around for an estimator, the work was done while I was away on vacation, and the bill didn't arrive until a gentlemanly ten days later! Can't be too many businesses still left that operate in such a civilized way.

This company might be fine for industrial and commercial drain work but I would not recommend them at all for residential drain work. Their estimate was several hundred dollars less than another company but their heavy equipment badly damaged a mature tree and left my front lawn looking like a construction site. In retrospect, I now suspect that the other estimate was a more accurate reflection of what a proper residential job should have cost.