Another Contractor told me 'Most people will not post negative reviews' and he recommended that I should do so to let others know. So, it is with a heavy heart I am placing this negative review and rant so others don't experience what I am continuing to try to remedy.
In 2015 we hired Canada's Restoration Services based on all the hundreds positive reviews and having this company being on the Holmes on Homes show. We needed mold remediation just for our cold room (so our kids don't get sick), 3 foot of foundation repair and dry wall restoration.
An availability had finally opened up on August 26, so we took it after waiting a month. They sent contractors Charlie, Ran and their crew to do the work. On the second day another crew came in and one of the contractors noticed the crew from the day before took down an extra (4'x7') interior wall outside of the cold room and also along the bottom of our electrical room. The contractor insisted we were to be charged an additional $600 for this. He said mold must have been hidden behind the wall. I questioned 'How could one see hidden mold behind the wall when the wall was perfectly fine during inspection and if so, why this was this not caught during the initial inspection or even mentioned during the remediation. He didn't give me an explanation. I suspect that the crew mistakenly removed the wall and the contractor decided to charge me for this. Feeling that he wasn't going to allow his crew to move forward to finish the restoration I reluctantly agreed to the additional charges. The project ran late into the 28th of August (day of my 5yr old's birthday at the time), the crew packed up early and left to start another project that they were running late for. The contractor promised his crew would be back soon to finish up the rest.
I thought I would be the ideal client by paying off the invoice early before they finished their work. I took pics of all the work that still needed to be completed. I was expecting the crew to come back the next day. After waiting an entire day, I sent them a friendly reminder and many more reminders via email and phone calls for the past 2 years.
About a year ago, the foundation (that wasn't leaking at the time) finally gave in. Our basement was flooding with every heavy rain fall especially this past spring. No doubt there is also new mold growth with every flood. I persistantly called the company again was informed Charlie would call me back. Most of the time, he doesn't call. I when I finally did get in touch with him, he told me he was going to show up next Tuesday but didn't. I called again and again told me next Tuesday. Miraculously, Charlie arrived just before 10 am.
He never did the work. All he did was inspect the situation and told me that the water leakage was not coming from the cracked foundation and that it was possibly coming from a crack in the footings/underpinning and suspected the water table was overflowing up into our basement when it rained. I suspect he was attempting to defer the leak of the foundation and suspect he was pre-paring me to charge me for additional services to repair a possible crack in the footings/underpinning. For the time being, I decided to put a tarp temporarily over the 'said' foundation to stave off some of the water. He called his 'water' expert guy to come to confirm his suspicions and told me that his guy will call me in a few minutes to make arrangements to inspect the situation ...and then he left. I waited an entire business day and no one called. After coming home from dinner from a neighbour's house, there was a message on my answering machine (time stamped) sometime after 6pm that the water guy arrived (without warning) and was at my door. I called them back and left a message. No one called me back. BTW. It rained heavily the next day and our basement nearly stopped flooding due to placing the tarp over the cracked foundation.
I emailed and called the contractors from Canada's Restoration Services many times over the past 2 years only to discover that the individuals were no longer with the company anymore. I was informed, Ran moved to Calgary, Charlie was no longer with the company and receptionist I was conversing with stopped emailing me and also discovered she left the company. I was pretty much passed on from person to person and when those individuals eventually left, I was left in the dark once again.
I called the company up again recently and referred me again to another individual whom tried to help me. He emailed back and quickly tried to follow up till one day I got no response. I decided to call and was informed by his manager that they were not going to send anyone to finish the work. I didn't understand why and still don't. I paid for the work. I wasn't refunded for incomplete work...as a result our basement floods and small patches of mold are growing. We are a single income family. We paid in full over $5300.00 with our credit card.
I called the main number to see if someone else from the company can help me and got in touch with the new receptionist. I even asked her if she could ask her Manager to send some else. I was informed that the Manager will not send any one else and that it has to be the crew that originally worked on this project. ??? But those contractors are not with the company any more??? **Even if they do show up after 2 yrs, how do I know they are going to finish the job right with all the closeted animosity that's grown over 2yrs??**
....Charlie was scheduled to show up at 9am today. It's after 10am. Still waiting...No one has called. Surprised?? No.
I noticed recently again that all my calls go to voice mail and again no one is returning my calls or emails.
I am so upset. There is now 6-8 feet of foundation needing repair, a leak and mold is growing back some some of the new and old drywall and baseboard as a result (2nd,3rd and 4th pic).
We sunk $5300+ in total into this project. At this point. I want a full refund so I can hire someone else to remedy the current problems properly.
Any suggestions??
10:30am...Someone (New) actually just showed up....After 2yrs and 2.5mths.... Let's see what happens....
1:30pm...Leaves to wait for foundation repair part 1 to set. Promises to come back next day to get supplies to finish the rest.
7pm...Charlie suddenly shows up at my door and informs me that the foundation repair was not part of the project and that the 'foundation repair' was actually to fill in the hole (which is actually a small air vent to the cold room). He added that they installed a bigger air vent to the other side to prevent mold and moisture in the cold room. I disagreed. Mentioned that since the air vent was sealed, even with the bigger vent added to the other side, there was no cross wind or air circulation. I informed him that we put two child car seats into the cold room, only to discover a few months later they were covered in mold and had to be tossed into the garbage. On the initial quote I requested mold remediation of the cold room, foundation repair (parging). The request showed up on my quote and after, on my billing (pic). I remind him again that my bill is quoted ' Sealing the openings on the outside step' then the next line 'and in the foundation'. He's trying to convince me that they are one of the same. He goes on to tell me that the foundation had been leaking in the electrical room corner back in 2015 and there were signs of water and mold. I reminded him that those issues were (pre-existing) caused by a leaking toilet just above the electrical room and had been replaced before his men came in. There were no signs of additional water leaks after the toilet was replace. Again, the leakage began about a year ago but stopped after we put a tarp over where foundation needed parging.
