Ottawa General Contractors

Rating: 9/10

I am writing this review to share a positive experience with OGC (Ottawa General Contractors).

I hired OGC for a complex project involving numerous repairs and even rebuilding part of my house. While the project was not without issues, what I found about OGC is that they are very responsive, they see things through and they take responsibility for any issues. Things are done in writing, professionally, on the up and up, the project scope is clearly set out at the beginning with professional diagrams and details, and there are multiple levels of contacts within the company who are available during the process.

OGC also has a dedicated customer service employee, Fatima, who was very attentive to all our concerns. Unfortunately she was absent on maternity leave during the first part of our project, but when she returned, she jumped right in, took care of issues and was extremely quick to respond to any of our concerns.

We also had positive experiences with Deirdre and Andrew.

This is a local, family-owned business and they are keen on ensuring work is well-done and customers are satisfied. They are not argumentative or dismissive of concerns; when you bring something up, they address it. When the manager visited our project, he himself pointed out things that he felt were not up to the company’s standards, and he organized additional work to make things right. He also returned repeatedly to our house ensure the work was done correctly. If an issue occurred, such as a subcontractor damaging something, OGC also took full responsibility and made things right.

The only negatives were issues that I believe would have been encountered with most renovation companies, mainly issues with subcontractors, employee turnover and delays. However, between choosing to do a cash deal with a company that may run away in the middle of a project with the work incomplete, or choosing to do business with a professional company like OGC that sees things through to the end, is responsive, and takes responsibility, then I would definitely once again choose a company like OGC.

We used OGC for an en-suite renovation last spring. The job was done quite well. There were a few minor issues that they said they would take care but didn’t until we signed up for our second project. The second project was kitchen, flooring and painting throughout. Before we signed the statement of work and paid the first instalment on Aug. 2nd, we asked for assurances that the project would be completed before the end of the year. Needless to say it was a resounding yes. Next step was to have their materials coordinator contact us. We only had a couple of things we needed help with acquiring for the project. We wait and waited and tried to email, call, etc but no response. Our project started more than a month later than planned. The workmanship by the painters was sub par on this job as they were trying to get it finished. They didn’t cover our furniture as we requested and they had five painters In on Dec. 24th to try and finish the job. There were paint drops all over our new flooring, they forgot to paint two closets, and they must have spilled paint and wiped it up with a cloth as there was a paint smear on our bedroom floor. They got paint on our sofa and scratched our floors. They left our place in such a terrible mess that we had to work all day on Christmas and Boxing Day to try and clean it up. After the holidays it was like trying to pull teeth to get things fixed. We went several weeks without hearing from our project manager despite attempted to reach him. I gave them two stars because the en-suite was well done. The larger project was a nightmare for us. I would not recommend OGC to anyone.
Update - OGC reached back out to us and have since worked hard on correcting the deficiencies. They have even done extra work to make up for our frustrations.

Ottawa General Contractors undertook a significant updating renovation in our home in 2019. The job started in September 2019, which is a month later than we wanted, but we had to wait for the contractors to finish a prior job. We had a wall taken down between our kitchen and dining room to make a larger, more open kitchen space, we had our second floor completely renovated and we had a bedroom and new window added in our basement. We needed to do the renovation as there was plumbing leakage that caused damage to our floor, but we were nervous to do so given the experience we'd had with a previous contractor. Based on the reviews, and our consultation meetings with Ottawa General Contractors, we decided to go with them. Nick was great at having our vision designed out and at hearing our concerns. We loved the contractors that did the work in our home (Horizon Plumbing) and working with our Project Manager Paolo made things go a lot smoother and quicker than if we had been working with all of the trades ourselves. OGC ensured that our job was completed within the three-month timeline we had set, and we were ecstatic. We were able to move back into our newly renovated house before Christmas. Though there were a couple of hiccups when it came to pricing of some items vs. what they final price was, and an issue regarding the height of a new beam, OGC did their best to be accommodating, and this was appreciated. We love our renovated spaces and we are very pleased with the work done in our home. A special thank you to Nick, Paolo, Deirdre and Horizon (Chris and Nick).

OGC renovated our kitchen by taking out a support wall and finishing. Great service and communication but the final touches were slow to wrap-up. OGC worked with us to understand the best way to stage our project to prepare for a future large renovation.

Ottawa General Contractors rebuilt a bathroom for me in January of 2020, and I could not be happier. While there were a couple of glitches at the very beginning with scheduling, the work was completed according to the revised schedule in three weeks. As far as quality is concerned, it is now three months since the work was finished and I can say that it was completed without a single flaw. I will definitely use them again when I reno my main bathroom!

In late 2018 we contracted OGC to finish our basement.

We had a budget set which they totally ignored. When I asked for some sort of reduction in the price, they just cut some items that I didn't really want cut in retrospect, and it barely saved us anything anyway. We exceeded our budget by 25%.

The workmanship was not up to par, there were visibly crooked walls, they covered the main drain in the basement with flooring, blocked doors with framing that then had to be shaved down. The baseboards don't have a tight fit.

They forgot a lot of small things we asked for that was technically not part of the contract, but why say yes if you are just going to ignore/forget. Not very professional.

Some of the contractors walked through the house with their boots on in full winter,dragging mud and dirt all over the place. They also rang the doorbell at 7 AM to get in despite there being a lock box with a key and repeated requests to NOT ring the bell due to having a 9 month old that would wake up from the doorbell.

The touted all in one pricing but then charged us extra for things that were not 'up to code' after being inspected, even though they said the price includes making sure everything is to code.

The pricing was not at all transparent, it was not possible to see what work items cost what to decide what to adjust or cut. All you have is one big number and a big list of what is included, but no breakdown of the cost.

I also feel they rushed near the end to get things done before the end of the year, most of the work was done just in time for Christmas, but in retrospect I would have preferred they not rush, who knows how much better it could have been.

Overall the work was adequate, and the space is usable, but the experience was not a pleasant one for us. If you have money laying around that you don't need, and are happy with adequate workmanship then this place might be for you.

The process of my kitchen renovation started out well, and I was impressed with how efficiently we were able to get the ball rolling. However, as soon as the renovation portion started, I experienced multiple issues that I felt could have been easily avoided by simple means of communication.

I was assigned a project manager who was switched out without my knowledge until the first day of demo, when someone entirely new just showed up at my house without any explanation. While I was fine with the change, it would have been courteous to have given me a heads up. Unfortunately, the new project manager who was assigned to me was perhaps overwhelmed, or just inexperienced, because he was unable to efficiently manage the operation. As a result, I found myself, as the client, being asked questions from different trades that I did not have any answers to, and also having to push the manager to coordinate appointments to get things moving -- this was specifically why we decided to go with OGC. We had over a week’s delay when absolutely nothing took place after the demo. For my first experience with a renovation, I was quite underwhelmed with how things were being handled. To make matters worse, the designer with whom I originally worked just stopped responding to my emails for 2 weeks, and even after I asked multiple times what was happening, no one could give me a straight answer. I was finally given an excuse that it was related to the pandemic, which, although understandable that there may have been a change in operations or understaffing, it would have been nice to be kept in the loop from the beginning, instead of causing an increase in my frustration and undue stress trying to chase someone down who simply wasn’t there. The moment that OGC was aware one of their employees would not be available should have been the moment they notified their client.

Finally, another change in staffing occurred and I was assigned a new designer Sharri, and project manager Paolo, but again I only found out when they showed up at my house. While this change was clearly needed and welcome, a simple email to advise me that this was happening would have been appreciated. Despite this lack of warning, Sharri and Paolo were both able to turn things around. Once they took over the project things started to be handled with more efficiency, competence and professionalism. They were both responsive and in continual communication, which was a nice change compared to my experience up to that point. They saw to any issues right away, coming to my home either the same day or next day. Also, when the bin left in my driveway had caused damages, OGC not only patched up the damaged areas, they fixed up other problem spots and made it look like new.

If I were to make a suggestion it would be that a little communication goes a long way. If I was made aware of any issues right from the start, my experience with OGC could have been less frustrating at the beginning and even more positive. By the end, while there were still some delays in the final project completion (what I expected to be an 8-week process ended up taking about 14 weeks), I felt that OGC wanted to make things right and they did help deliver a final product that I am happy with.

First person from OGC to come to our home was Ken. We were so impressed with his knowledge, we decided right there that we wanted OGC. We had Allan and his great team. They were all a pleasure to have doing the work. At the end of the day they always tidied up, which helped us. Bassem for kitchen cupboards was amazing. He gave us our dream kitchen. Also walk in shower was above & beyond what we expected, thanks to Stephan. At end of construction, my biggest surprise was OGC sent in cleaners to get everything back to normal. Thank you.

A year after finishing our main floor reno’s OGC remains available and willing to come and follow up on any warranty concerns. Needed a few touch ups and though small needs, OGC was very responsive and and followed up as needed. Still great service a year later! We love our new kitchen!

My wifeand I wanted to send you a note to thank you for your diligence in completing our project. Although we had to all work through multiple issues, we are pleased with your collaboration to address all of them.

Leopold was an absolute professional and his attention to detail is evident. We appreciate that you kept him on to complete everything. He did a great job and made sure that everything was done perfectly. We only wish we could have had him work from the beginning.

He left the work area and our house in impeccable condition and extremely clean.

Abdull was also a true professional, he really cares about his clients and took it upon himself to make sure we were happy. He went above and beyond to compensate for the utter lack of professionalism of the original trades that started. From helping move furniture to showing up ob Sundays to discuss our issues, he was always available and reliable.