Sonoma Contracting

We recently had our whole basement finished by Sonoma Contracting.  The basement in our 1920's era house was totally unfinished and we'd started the process by having the floor lowered and the foundations underpinned by an exceptional company called True North Underpinning.  True North and Sonoma often work on the same basements, one finishing (pun intended) what the other started. True North had been a pleasure to work with and recommended Sonoma to us, so we were hoping that the basement work would come close to the standards set by TN.  

And there was a lot of work to do - electrical, new plumbing, in-floor hot-water heating, replacement and relocating of existing plumbing and heating pipes, framing, drywalling, painting, staining, tiling, finishing carpentry, custom built doors, new stairs, glass and mirrors, windows, spray foam insulation, low voltage wiring, building permits, etc.) Well, we were not disappointed. In fact, most evenings when my husband and I went downstairs to see what a day of Sonoma work had brought, we were absolutely delighted. The bulk of the work progressed extremely quickly and when there were delays, while we waited for over-height doors to be built, for example, we were always informed where things stood. The original quoted price was very detailed and charges were fair for additional items that we asked for and which were not included in the original quote. There were no "surprises."

All of the people working for Mike Flammia (the easy-going, dry-humoured, and utterly reliable owner of Sonoma) were, to a man, serious no-nonsense skilled professionals who even came in on weekends and put in extra time if needed. From their next-door vantage point, our neighbours were also impressed with how hard-working and courteous these workers were.  As with any large project, there were a couple of times when there were misunderstandings about what exactly we wanted but these were quickly cleared up and fixed.   Whenever we had contact with any of the Sonoma crew (Aldo, Marco, Paul, and Alex in particular), we got the sense that they were doing whatever they could to make sure that we were happy with their work. Mr. Flammia has been in this business for a while now and so seems to have separated the wheat from the chaff in terms of who he hires.

Finally, we have to mention Tony, Sonoma’s carpenter.  The one tradesman who is most involved in building is the carpenter.  Tony is an older Italian gentleman who appears to never be happier than when plying his trade.  His skills are extraordinary and we felt especially privileged to have him working away in our basement. Tony's strengths were apparent in every part of our basement, from framing right through to the little finishing touches around the stairs which made them fit seamlessly into the stairwell.  We really cannot say enough about this hard-working and humble craftsman, and I'll give the last words about him to a friend who said that Tony was "an artist" when she came over to see his work.  

As you can tell from this review, we were very, very pleased with the whole Sonoma experience and would heartily recommend this company to anyone with a basement.