District Stairs

Floor Laying & Refinishing
Pickering ON L1X 1Y6
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Reviews for District Stairs

Average customer rating:
4 10 (5 reviews)

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Newton Spencer
Newton Spencer
1 review Hamilton, ON
0/10

Home Renovations

December 2021 I hired District Stairs to renovate my townhouse. In the contract Marlon gave me a quote for $158,652.20. He asked for 50% as first payment. I gave him $79,326.00. He proceeded to do the demolition. A week after he sent an Electrican and a framer. Marlon called me and said pot lights and framing of the closet are not included. He asked for another $5,640 framing of the closets and pot lights. Which I paid because I needed the work to get done. After I paid no one showed up on the site. I called and he said they will come when they want to. I allowed another two weeks to go by and nothing was getting done. I asked him to give me back my money so I can hire someone else to do the work. He said hes not paying me back. I called him several times and he does not answer my calls. District Stairs is not to be trusted.

Approximate cost of services:
$186,262.00
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Company Response

Mr. Newton Spencer… This is a blatant misrepresentation of the facts. It is you who terminated the contract because of a pending payment of $47000 which you couldn't afford to make or didn't intend to make. In fact, the contract was terminated by you about one year ago, and days before that second payment was due. And, indeed, prior to terminating the contract and causing a breach, you had been in breach several times. Most notably by refusing to pay for extra work, running electrical wires without the approval of the electrical contractor and misrepresenting the fact to the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA), trying to poach District Stairs’ trades and pay them under the table to do extras, and the list goes on.

To be clear:

· Extensive demolition work was completed throughout your house including the basement. This involved removal of bricks from fireplace, removal of flooring including tiles, removal of walls, gutting of washrooms, kitchen and general gutting of the property.

· The main floor was opened up by removal of load bearing walls, reachoring them structurally, and re-routing Hvac, electrical and plumbing therein.

· Extensive framing alterations were done including widening and heightening doorways, (not in contract) building a second laundry room, closets etc.

· Plumbing roughing work was completed throughout for three (3) bathrooms and kitchen.

· Detailed electrical roughing was finished throughout the house, for which a permit was obtained. And the ESA had already passed the work. This included extra requests outside of the contractual arrangement including 30 amp wires for oven, pendant lights over island, wiring for wine fridge, and close to 90 potlights, multiple additional outlets and switches, etc

· Several tons of debris were removed from the premises and disposed of by the truckloads

· Tiles were purchased and tiling was scheduled to be started. And the tiling contractor had already been on site doing preparations for tiling.

Again, on numerous occasions you requested additional work to be done which was outside the scope of the project and the statement of work which District Stairs quoted.
These included insisting that the kitchen be extended from 18 ft to 25ft and that the island be increased from 8ft to 13 ft; that heated floors be installed in the bathrooms, powder room and foyer; widening and heightening of doorways; a linear drain system installed in the master bathroom; lighting over the island and a curbless shower.

All major upgrades which not only cost more but also threw our production schedule off and for which you refused to pay or couldn’t afford to pay for.

You knew based on our contract any additional work had to be pre approved and paid for in advance. Yet you attempted to circumvent this by trying to get District Stairs’ crews to do on the side for you, or arbitrarily deciding to pay what you “thought the job was worth” despite what the trades were actually charging for the extra work… leaving District Stairs to cover the shortfall.

From day one, you made requests for which it was apparent you were unable to afford or unwilling to pay for.

It is unfortunate that you misrepresented the facts and are trying to paint a picture which is far from correct.

District Stairs has successfully completed hundreds of projects over the years and continues to add to our immense list of very satisfied customers.
We pride ourselves on being fair and honest and at the core of our existence is ensuring that our customers are satisfied with our work, our prices and our service. We worked hard to build ourselves into a business of integrity. But, we do have a business to run and being in business cost money. The least we expect is that customers be reasonable and pay for extra work which they request. District Stairs has never ever increased any quotation given to hundreds of customers over the years. We stick to our quotes. Customers only pay extra if they request extra. However, quite often, we do do additional work at no cost for some of our customers because we believe that we should give more than we receive. Similarly, we were to install solid oak threads on your staircases instead of the vinyl caps which you had said you could only afford. We had also upgraded you to engineered flooring instead of the vinyl which you said you could only have afforded.

But, to this day, Mr Newton Spencer, It’s still inconceivable that you actually wanted an island increased from 8 feet to 13 feet, almost double the size, and a kitchen increased from 18 feet to 25 feet, heated floors,and a range of other improvements which actually cost thousands of dollars, for free.

You terminated the contract and therefore are in breach, Mr Newton Spencer. You owe District Stairs. We didn’t walk away from the project. Work was being carried out at the time of termination.

Nataliya
Nataliya
3 reviews Ajax, ON
2/10

Custom railings installation

District Stairs is no more than a middle man between customer and average contractor and not trained group of professionals as we were let to believe. Their show room is just that for show. If customer is unhappy and asks for refund, mr Marlon forces them to finish the project by claiming breach of contract. If a review is posted, he simply requests Google to remove it. On the other websites his way of damage control is to discredit the reviewer. Thankfully we did stair treads and risers ourselves, so at least we were left with the damage that is fixable. Question remains why mr Marlon, as a stair professional, didn't let us know that the posts we picked aren't compatible with old fillet, instead posts were forcefully connected to metal or wooden rails pulling them away from pickets. We have to hire welding company to manufacture new posts connectors and steel fillet extensions and to fill extra holes. On a top of that every stair picket is burned from cutting them with the wrong saw. Replacing them could cause tread damage..

We picked this company for impressive portfolio and spotless reputation on Google, we signed a contract In February2022 and scheduled to start after Easter. We since then have changed our mind about expensive metal railings and requested wooden railings instead. We had to source hardwood ourselves as D.S.wasn't able to provide the one we choose on signing.We had to wait 4months for hardwood to arrive. D.S. installed originally requested oak treads on basement stairs.We didn't like how wood grain looked with light stain colour. We requested to change to maple treads and risers for the main staircase. While sampling stain
we've learnt that maple doesn't stain consistently. We then researched a
technique which require sanding first layer of stain off. This extra work
wasn't in the D.S. contract, so we decided to source, fit, stain and install
treads and risers for main staircase ourselves.

We then requested D.S. to install the supplied hardwood floors, install newel posts, pickets and railings. Given our changes, we suggested either
return deposit minus work done on basement stairs, or complete work
that was requested and still remains part of the contract. It took several
phone calls to schedule floor install, it then took 2months for D.S.to
come to make a template for custom curved nosings.

While installing newel posts at the top, one post wasn't in line with the other, moving it left marks. The custom curved railing didn't fit
correctly/was misaligned and needed to be re-cut. Finishing piece were
2pieces and were falling apart, we asked for new railing so we can find
the way to cover groove on the end of railing properly.

A different team came to install stair railings and pickets. After they left we didn't even receive a phone call from D.S. to check on the work done.I
then emailed a pic of defective part and they apologized and assured
someone will come shortly to fix It. I requested new part to be made.
Instead of advising new steel fillet was required, the old one was
modified. It doesn't fit properly under new railing and looks incomplete.

To be fair most of the defects were resolved after debate, but I don't feel they should have happened in the first place.

Review has 4 previous versions
Approximate cost of services:
$25,000.00
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Company Response

District Stairs is not in business to have unhappy customers; Nataliya and her husband Chris Devadason are no exceptions. District Stairs exists to please our customers and we continue to have extremely satisfied customers. This job had been ongoing for about a year through no fault of District Stairs. We will refrain from stating all the facts for now, as Chris Devadason personal communication with us is just that, private. Suffice it to say that these clients decided to do a large part of the work on their own, like installing the wooden railings, as if they were stairs and railings professionals, which they clearly were not, and which in itself was a breach. There were multiple other breaches by Chris Devadason and his wife Nataliya . Because, they insisted that they did a large part of the work themselves, which DIstrict Stairs had originally been contracted to do, the kind of completed quality work that District Stairs is known for was not attained by them. Yet, they have proceeded to present this mishmash of work as if their hands were not in it and as if District Stairs was not hindered from doing its work. In fact, from the moment the contract was signed, the nightmare started with scores of emails coming in each day, with numerous changes. As could be imagined, it was very frustrating to work with Chris Devadason and his wife Nataliya and the trades also complained of his wife screaming at them repeatedly. We tried our best to work with them in spite of the hellish challenges because it’s our duty to serve the customer and to serve the customer well, but, in spite of our efforts, the tyranny was persistent. They have posted reviews and removed reviews and keep posting and removing reviews when we reply to them. It’s a sort of destructively obsessive attempt to slander the name of District Stairs. We understand fully and we know fully that there is an issue that we can’t talk about as yet, because of privacy reasons, so we have to contend with the slander for the time being.

Martin in Whitby
Martin in Whitby
1 review Whitby, ON
0/10

Stair repair

Should have seen the warning signs. Went to store and picked out all the products. They wrote only one product down. Gave 50 percent deposit. A week before job they still had not come to take measurements and got a call that they will have to delay a week because they are behind. They set up an appointment to take measurements didn't come or call. I called they set another appointment with a 4 hour window and came 45 minutes after that. Then came to cut out old stairs and made a mess and stored waste in my garage. Well it goes on and on. The 6 to 7 day project was not half done on day 18 when I said no more. I had another company come in and four that what was done was wrong. Stairs not level and the 3 post that were installed were out by 3/4 8nch from plum. District Stairs us telling me 5hat I owe them money. Never happening

Approximate cost of services:
$10,000.00
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Company Response

Martin Krull is spreading false information and he actually owes District Stairs money. In fact, most of the work was done and when the guys showed up for the last day to have things finished up, he refused to give them access to the house. He has since received a legal letter and he has asked District Stairs to repay a portion of what he owes but District Stairs continues to refuse his settlement offer.

Private User
Private User
Private User reviews Mississauga, ON
10/10

Great Work - Great Price

It was time for an upgrade and I got Steve's name from a neighbor. The old bathroom with a tub/shower had seen it's day. Steve had a quick look, measured the room a gave a good price (finished job came under budget). Now I have the stand-up shower I wished for. The new tiles on the floor and vanity make the room look like a picture out of a magazine.
Job did take an extra day but the finished work looks so good.
Workmanship is really great.

Approximate cost of services:
$9,000.00
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Williams
Williams
1 review Ajax, ON

First Review

8/10

Staircase

Marlon, renovated our staircase after a previous reno job that was not very good. Marlon took a bit longer than he originally stated it would take but did a very good job. We even went with some of his suggestions which made the staircase turn out looking great. His pricing was fair and he stayed on budget.

Approximate cost of services:
$3,000.00
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Company Response

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to improve your home.

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