D. K. in Scarborough

We hired Affordable Insulation & Renovation, Inc. to do my attic install after researching several companies online and in particular on Homestars. They did a great job! The difference in my home after the install was like night and day. They originally planned to come to my home on an earlier date but had a problem with their truck which caused them to reschedule. They were very apologetic and even upgraded my original install based on next years insulation rating for no additional cost. We are very pleased with the final work. The team was awesome, punctual and did their best to keep everything clean during and after the job. Thank you Jason & Syd and co. We would highly recommend this company. DK

We hired Northland Paving to do a lot of work around our home recently and must say we are extremely pleased with the quality and of the final product and the craftsmanship of the teams involved. We were a bit uncomfortable with signing the contract not ever doing anything this big before and with only our research (including Homestars) and the fact that we had seen the Northland trucks around the neighbourhood as a guide. We had nothing to be concerned about. The Challenge Here is a rundown of the task ahead of Northland. We had: - a cracked asphalt driveway - crumbling and unsightly asphalt in the rear lane way of the house - cracked and uneven concrete pavers - a mixture of dirt, weeds, hay like grass, and crumbling uneven pavers in the back/side yard - The back/side yard was barely useable and hadn't been used for anything in the 8 years we occupied the house - a wooden (insect infested) border around the house separating the lawn from the "garden" - wood inside a basement window well and a broken grey wood fence that was almost falling apart - crumbling front steps - 3 small tree stumps that we were unable to remove with just a shovel Act I - The Courtship From the very beginning the company (fronted by Giorgio the company's salesman and civil engineer) treated us with the utmost care. Giorgio took stock of the work to be performed, offered advice on what could be done and provided guidance on the best way to go about things. We went back and forth for about 3 weeks. Our original thought was to have them quote on doing the driveway and possibly the pathways around the house only. Or perform the driveway now and do the rest of the work at some time in the future. It became apparent that Northland had multiple areas of expertise and that it would make the most sense to get a quote on doing the complete job as a package. The clincher (and what made us sign) was when Giorgio offered to do our front steps. I signed the contract shortly after that. The job would include: - A New asphalt driveway - Interlock around the home pathways and side/back yard (Giorgio suggested the design) - River-rock around the base of a tree in the side/back yard - 2 retaining walls (one along one side of the driveway) - Steps front & back leading into the side/back yard And another thing: - Interlock garden border - 19 feet of wood fencing - concrete driveway border Act II – Enter the Xcavators On a hot bright sunny day (at around 11 am) the ground shook around our home. In came an army of trucks and an assortment of smaller construction vehicles along with a small army of workers. They spent the entire day at our home. Starting with pulling down the fence (and saving 5 pieces of wood that I promised my neighbour) they went to work removing all the dirt, wood, tree stumps, old asphalt, pavers and backyard concrete steps. They were very efficient. We have 3 large trees on our property, so the team and to spend some time cutting roots from the paths after the dirt was removed. They topped off their day by laying a mixture that looked to me like dirt and gravel and pressing it all down with a mini roller. All in a days work and then before I knew it, they were gone. The idea was that the mixture would remain to settle until it was time to continue for the next stage of the work. Act III - Inter-Lock Down I can’t say enough about the crew that did the interlock. I’m not sure where Northland found them but they were excellent. Their attention to detail and meticulous way of working was a sight to behold. They were about 6 men strong and they worked very hard. I can’t imagine the toll it takes on their backs to bend, lift the individual bricks and work the bobcat (which they used to move the interlocking stones that was delivered in front of the house on skids). But before starting they poured a mixture of sand I believe and rolled it to create a semi-wet sand like base. The bricks were laid on top of this base and each brick was lined up as they went along. They also had to put a pattern in the driveway so it took careful planning to place the brick and then put the edging (a maroon colour I think) along the length of the walkways & side yard. This edging was place in the front walkways, the back laneway and the side yard. Polymeric sand sealed the deal (literally). Everything looked absolutely solid and beautiful. They also replaced the steps leading into the side yard, put up the retaining wall, laid garden fabric down around one tree on the property, laid the river rock (a very nice multicolored stone). Fantastic job. The whole crew was great and the end product was beautiful. I can’t thank them enough. Act IV – Blacktop Down (or Smokin’ Hot) I wasn’t home for this. So I can only provide anecdotal evidence of their arrival and their departure and the excellence of their work. Legend has it that they were only their for 2 hours and did both mine and my neighbour’s driveway. When I got home one hot summer day I was presented with freshly laid asphalt. Whoever these phantom men were who did the deed I cannot say but it looked smokin’ … literally. The left instructions to cool the heated asphalt down for the first couple days. I obeyed the mystery men. All is still good and my driveway is the envy of the neighbourhood. Well I like to think so … it looks and feels solid and makes the rest of the are pop including a white carriage style garage door with black hardware accents which was recently installed. Act V – The David’s take on Goliath As I said above, the front steps were crumbling. We had two trees growing right next to them for the 8 years we occupied the house and who knows how long before that. We cut the trees down ourselves earlier this year. Due to the proximity of the trees to the front steps and nature (and the Canadian climate) being what it is, the trees and porch met in a marriage of rain, snow, ice, frosting and defrosting for I don’t know how many years. The brick behind the trees and part of the front steps started to literally disintegrate. The removal of the trees just left an unsightly mess. The paint on the stairs was also starting to chip leaving a combination of cement, chipping grey paint and red material behind the paint. Giorgio in our original discussion suggested Epoxy and said he knew a guy and added this to the quote. David arrived one day with his son … David and a couple other “helpers” who were in and out. I believe the job took about 3 days. Keep in mind that my house is not a mansion. Just a small bungalow. They worked for many hours cleaning and removing old material from the veranda and steps to lay a “clean” base. Over the crumbling brick they placed concrete board? And prepared the area for the final work of applying the epoxy and pattern to match the border / colour of the interlock work done earlier. In between, they covered the area with tarp to prevent any rain damage while they worked. The end result? Another job well done. The final epoxy pattern was a textured, wavy pattern with a maroon border around the top step. It looked excellent and fit nicely with the rest of the hardscaping. Excellent job! Act VI – The True Measure of a Man I’ve seen many quotes on the internet about the true measure of a man … here’s mine. “The true measure of a (business) man is his willingness to attend to his customers concerns without regard to his station”. I had the pleasure of meeting Bruce, the owner of the company due to a few small items that went awry with the project. There were three things really (minor in the grand scheme of things) but still requiring attention. 1. The interlocking sealed in my laundry dryer exhaust which was very low to the ground in the rear of the house. 2. My garage door was broken, the chain was off due to (it turns out) a missing “master pin” 3. There was a slight gap underneath one side of the garage door after the asphalt was laid. I could see sunlight creeping into the garage when the door was down. Like I said, minor. I called and let the company know about the issues. It took a couple days but I was visited by Bruce the owner. We exchanged “pleasantries” and I showed him around the house and pointed out the issues. I made a point of commending him on his company and the fine work all of his crew had done. Here’s the rub … instead of calling a guy to take care of the issues, Bruce actually got down on his hands and knees and a ladder to help fix each of the minor issues. He and I first went to work on the dryer exhaust. He worked to pull one of the interlocking bricks out of the ground and we struggled a bit to place a new & better exhaust tube (that I bought recently) through the wall into the basement and attached the dryer vent hose. He cleaned a little sand underneath he exhaust to create some space for airflow and that was it. Problem #1 solved. Problem #2 couldn’t be resolved. The garage floor wasn’t exactly level to begin with so when the company poured the asphalt, it settled evenly across but there was a slight gap on one side. We spoke about separate options including pouring more asphalt but eventually I just decided to leave it as is. Since the garage door has a rubber sweep extending along the length of the bottom, my idea is to fill the inside of the sweep with some sort of material. I bought a length of pipe insulation foam from Home Depot and plan to try that at some point. It’s still sitting in my home. Problem #2 deferred. Next, the broken garage door. This was a bit tricky. There are three components to the master pin. We were missing two. Bruce helped me attach the garage door motor chain to one of the pieces so that the chain was connected but if it moved the pin would dislodge easily. I was still missing two pieces. I thanked him for his help and he went on his way. The next day, I spent some time going through a few trash bags that were in the garage. I had swept up some debris from a garage re-org I had done recently so I did some CSI work to try and find the other two pieces of the pin ensemble. The work entailed digging through small bits of debris taken from trash bags and separating them into individual piles. On hands and knees I sifted through each pile … dumping them as I was finished. My search was rewarded when I found piece #2 in one of the piles. I was elated. However, I was still missing the final piece and the key. This piece was needed to lock the other two pieces in place. I tried Sears & Canadian tire to see if I could find a replacement. Sears said they could order the item for me but it would take a couple weeks to deliver. Obviously I couldn’t’ wait that long. Giorgio stopped by soon after and we were sitting in the back/side yard. We chatted about the garage door issue and he mentioned probably using a twist tie to hold the two pieces together. This was brilliant. After he left I immediately went searching and found a plastic tie in the house. It’s one of those things that you can drag through a small opening and it holds in place. It worked like a charm. I used three of these for good measure and cut off the ends so they would get in the way. Problem #2 solved! Act VII – The Verdict I can’t say how much I was impressed by the fact that Bruce (the owner of Northland) actually took time out of his busy day to come visit and actually tried to fix the issues himself. If there is anything that sold me about the integrity of the company it was this simple act. I can unequivocally recommend this company for any of the work I menteiond above and you may want to ask them about other work as well. Giorgio/Northland seemed to have no end of trades /products at his fingertips to take care of anything I needed done. Definitely 10+ stars. I hope to work with Northland again in the future to do some final touches on the outside of the home. Thanks again. One happy homeowner & customer. Giorgio, Sheila, I owe you both a coffee. D.K. & Family

I sent an email to The Fresh Coat Painting Company requesting their help in finalizing a kitchen reno project. The renovators of the kitchen took everything into consideration except the final painting which we understood. As part of the reno, a wall was removed from one side of the kitchen and new potlights installed so we needed to paint those parts of the wall that were affected by the removals as well as the kitchen ceiling. We also wanted to paint small bits of the baseboards so they would look “finished” as well. Shortly after sending my request for help to the company I got a response from Ramin (one of the owners). Ramin suggested that he would be in my area in the next couple days so we could meet and asked me to send him some pictures of the areas I had in mind. I accepted the offer and sent the pics. When he arrived I showed him the scope of work involved. Since we were only looking at doing some of the walls in the family and dining room plus the kitchen he suggested that it would look best if we did a fresh coat of paint on the rest of the walls as well. The quote he provided was reasonable in my estimation. At least it wasn’t outside of what I thought it would be. Once he left I thought of some other work that we wanted to get done at the same time (the bathroom ceiling over the tub where paint was peeling and the foyer which had scuff marks on the walls from the shoes we keep there). I also asked them to paint dual french doors that lead into the family room. Soon after receiving the final quote I scheduled the work. I had a busy week at the office and the kitchen reno had not quite completed yet so I waited about a week for him to start so the area would be clear and I could be home when the painters arrived. The work started on Tuesday (November 20th and was completed in exactly two days). The painters came onsite very prepared. They covered all the furniture, appliances lights counters and floors with a combination of drop cloths and clear plastic. The also spent some time taping along several areas. They moved some furniture to the centre of the room so they could get access to the walls and took down the curtains. I spoke to Ramin about matching the paint. Since I didn’t have a sample of the old paint nor any piece of the old wall, provided him with the swatch we used to pick the paint. While his crew was there I asked them to look at painting the inside of an Ikea cabinet that was displaced by the kitchen reno as well as painting doing some caulking work around the bathroom tub. I also wanted one wall in the front hall painted. I had done the wall myself earlier but not being a pro, there were some areas that needed touch up. Ramin suggested painting of the baseboards around the kitchen & family room which I agreed to. The crew worked diligently for two days. They started around 8am and left by approximately 6:30pm each day. The color selection was bang on and the paint lines were extremely clean and professional looking. Not a drop of paint was spilled anywhere in the house that I could detect. We are very, very pleased with the results and would work with Ramin and his crew again in a heartbeat and in fact might because of another project in the house. They were courteous, professional, efficient and my home was spotless when they left. Thank you Ramin and thank your crew as well. You did a phenomenal job!! Hopefully we get to work together again soon. D.K. & Family

What can I say. I think the company is great. They came when they said they would. Took a look at the issue and fixed it to my satisfaction. The plumber who visited was knowledgeable and worked hard to resolve a problem that was causing a blockage in my bathroom. He even offered advice on fixing another problem he found while at my home. I would highly recommend the company for any plumbing work.

Java Electric primarily upgraded the electrical panel at my home. We needed to convert from fuses to switches. I cannot say enough about the company and specifically about Antonio and Pierre-Paolo who performed the work. Above and beyond their expertise they were truly great people to know and to work with. The company arrived when they said they would and took great care with my property including cleanup after the fact. They layed tarp down on our carpeting and provided a convenient outlet to use if we needed electricity during the time of the upgrade. They were also very patient including working around another company doing landscaping work at my home at the time. We highly recommend this company. When next we have electrical work to perform at our home we would not hesitate to contact Java Electric. D.K. & Family

After doing some research online (including Homestars) we decided to ask North Shore Eavestroughing to quote on a job at our house. We have 4 trees on our property that in the spring gives the ‘gift’ of thousands of seed keys and in the fall a heavy ‘blessing’ of leaves. The eaves troughs are constantly in need of cleaning. In addition to that they were overflowing every time it rained and in some spots the downspouts were broken. We also had one downspout still sunk into the ground at the rear of the house. We felt there was increased risk of water damage to the basement because of the water overflow and saw evidence of this recently in the guise of wet carpeting near a wall in the basement. North Shore (Darren) came by the house and I described the situation. We talked for a bit and he told me about what his company could do for me. We discussed leaf guard for the eaves troughs, placing seamless eaves troughs around the home and replacing the facia. After a subsequent discussion with my wife we decided to also replace the soffit (for aesthetic reasons). My eye caught something on North Shore’s website where they described LED pot lights made by a company called Delphi Tech. I asked him to provide a quote on this as well. After several rounds of quotes we ended up having leaf guard, soffit, facia and new downspouts placed around the house and the garage. Also, we decided to install the LED’s and replace a couple lights at the rear and front of the house (and eventually the garage) with flood lights and motion detectors. Darren arranged for an electrician he worked with and trusted to do the flood replacement and installs. Well all of this came to fruition over two days recently (August 9th & 13th). On the 9th the crew came by and removed the old soffit and added additional ventilation to the attic. They were there most of the day starting at 8am. It rained the rest of the week and weekend. They returned on the 13th to complete the job and I must say I couldn’t be more pleased. The crew was there from a bit after 7am and didn’t leave ‘til a bit after 7pm. The entire house looks fantastic. If it’s possible for someone could fall in love with eaves trough it’s just happened. I can’t believe how good it looks. The company did a fantastic job. My neighbour commented on the look as well and really liked the LED’s. He also commented on how well Darren’s crew worked together. Darren stayed until it got dark so he could take a picture. I can say unequivocally that this was a great experience and a great company to work with. I can’t recommend them highly enough. I want to thank North Shore, Darren and his entire crew for doing a fantastic job. Definitely 10+ stars!!! D.K. & Family