RJ in Danforth, Toronto

After a big rainstorm we found a leak in 2 walls. Claude from Clarke Basements came and did a thorough job estimating and walked us through every step of the way. We were worried that we had to dig around our whole house, but instead Claude explained to us that building a "Fort Knox" around our house is impossible, as water will always find a way to get inside. He said it's better to manage the leak by have small trenches that channel the water down the plastic insulating wall panels, through the weeping tile and out through as Sump Pump. He was also clear in explaining to us that we can just do weeping tile in the main areas that are effected; if we have any water issues in another part of the basement, we can then extended the weeping tile with more work in the future. He gave us several options; Clarke Basements have a complete print package and DVD that walks you through every step. After we decided to go with Clarke Basements, Rob and his came and did a thorough job jack hammering and tearing down parts of walls so that the job is done in a top notch manor. We were happy Rob and his team doesn't believe in cutting any corners and at the same time we could tell they don't believe in gouging the customer. Rob and his team are real professionals, even with dealing in a positive way with our one annoying "know it all" neighbour. They cleaned up quite nicely and made sure we knew that if we found any issues or if they missed anything, to give them a call right away. It's been about a week since the work has been done and as we start putting our basement furnishing back together we can still feel the quality of the workmanship and the pride that Clarke Basements puts in their work. While Clarke Basements may not be the cheapest, they give you a reasonable price and great quality for peace of mind. Hire these guys for something as important as your basement as water leaks are not something you want to cut corners on.

Max is great! We have nothing but great things to say about Aire Max. Max (owner of Aire Max), as an independent contractor and family man with his own business, gave us great personal care and attention. We woke up Friday morning with no heat. After calling a few people, we found him on Homestars and liked the ratings and reviews he got. We phoned him Friday night and he came to look at our problem the very next day. We were going to go with a bigger guy, the big red box store or big blue wishbook catalog company, to get a new furnace and install it, but after meeting Max, we had a feeling we were in good hands ... and we were right. He quoted us at $3300 (not including the 2nd $150 final energy efficiency inspection that we will do in a month so we can get all the energy rebates) … between $500-$1000 less than the bigger companies, as Max has lower overhead. He had an inspector lined up for Monday morning and started the work that same Monday morning. We have a 1200 sq. ft. house, so he recommended the new model of the smaller Keep-Rite 96% efficiency furnace (most are 95%) because a lot of the other furnaces are either end of life discontinued or are of lower quality. He told us that the Keep-Rite sometimes is just a bit more expensive to service, but the quality is better than the others ... we are quite happy with what we had installed. Max installed a new chimney liner, added hot water piping and exhaust to through the wall to the driveway (Max explained to us that the high efficiency furnaces have a few drops of water as a by-product of how they work ... which we confirmed with some other experts), turned on the gas and cleaned up after himself. He walked us through the Federal and Provincial energy rebates. For example one of the many rebates we got was a $790 rebate government energy rebate for work done by smaller independent companies (there is an approx. $1100 equiv. rebate if work is done by a larger company, but then we would have had to pay $500+ extra for the overall work by going with a bigger company). We entrusted Max and Max Aire with the warmth, safety and comfort of our family and you should too. Thanks again Max. Cheers! - RJ