Kay Oh from Ottawa

I recently bought a 6 piece sectional couch from La Vie. I found the place by chance on google so I visited them a couple of times before I decided to purchase the couch. I wanted a recliner and a soft leather. La Vie is a new company in Ottawa and they get their stuff from the Toronto warehouse. They have a variety of more modern looking sitting chairs, but I find the material is a lot more tougher. The one I bought was apparently the softest one in the showroom. Delivery period is usually 2-3 weeks after the order is put in the system. Make sure you ask about to care for leather if you are not sure.They also offer delivery for $60. They are known for custom work so if you want to do that, they have sample materials and designs. Pretty neat stuff. However, I wish the delivery guys would take a bit more care when they're putting the pieces together and a little more personable. Guess you can't have everything you want. Oh, make sure the legs on the couch are screwed in securely. It turned out one of the legs on my couch was pushed in without a washer inside and the delivery guys wanted to go home quick. They kind of shoved it in and left. Good thing I have a handyman in my house and went out to buy a $0.45 washer to fit it in. Just a headsup.

The guys from Ancona are very good at their job and knowledgeable. I had a few things here and there that needed a bit more attention after the workers did their thing, but the co-owners of the company responded pretty quick. I had them frame my entire house and added details inside (an arch inside the house, custom stairs through all levels, and moved closets upstairs). I wanted to change up the framing of the space on the 2nd level so luckily it worked out and didn't affect the structure of the house. The stair guys screwed up the installation of the stairs (there were some very large grain cracks from the drilled nails - used the wrong nails) so everything had to be ripped out and the material had to get replaced - including the stairs. That really delayed a lot of the work for the stairs. Ancona took care of it and I was given a small compensation, but all I really cared about was that the work was going to get it done the right way the second time. And it worked out. Again, just paying attention to some details that they may miss will help you avoid future headaches. These guys are human afterall and will take responsibility if they are at fault - unlike many other contractors. I asked them to lay down some wood (you can purchase these yourselves) for the back deck and they came by to do it right away. They did it for a reasonable price, AND even in the freezing weather! A job that would take a regular joe a week or two took these guys a couple of days. Not too shabby.

My PM had connected with CompacSol to get soil worked on due to instability of soil. The one in Toronto was not available so I had to go through this company (wasn't really given the choice as there were only two). They came by with their machines a couple weeks after I decided to use them. They had to bring a lot more stones. I definitely did not expect to pay so much for the service, but it turned out they could have charged a lot more because the surface area that they had to cover were more than the estimated coverage. They said they were doing us a "favour". They had to excavate deeper and wider to ensure the passing of the test before the foundation was poured. This is a father and son company and they would take turns coming in to Ottawa to supervise the work. They took pictures for their own portfolio, as well. After $35000, the area was ready for the foundation! The son said he'd come to check it out after a year, but it's been two years and I have no seen him just yet. Time will tell if the job they did was a good one.

I was referred to Culligan by a friend of mine, who had been using their services for a very long time. I called Culligan to come for an estimate and arranged a meeting with them at my house. The salesperson came by and supplied me with some brochures of their low to high end products. I'm not a fancy person and just wants something to work well, especially since this is the first time I've been on well water. The salesperson was helpful and offered to test the water. He brought in the "test tubes", collected the water, where it turned out I had a bit of iron and sulphur, and the water was obviously hard. He advised us that the iron and sulphur levels aren't very high, but we definitely needed a water softner. No big deal...kind of expected that. He said my neighbour across the street needed a sulphur filter - as soon as you turned on the tap, you could just smell that fowl sulphur smell. It just depends. So we were flipping through the book and found a decent unit for about 2400, unit+service. I tried to get a better deal but he wasn't budging. Anyhow, he did eventually dropped $50 (pretty sure this is the norm that he would give a customer if you tried a little bit hard). I'm sure I could get it for cheaper from another company, like Nelson, but I wanted to deal with a fairly reputable company and didn't want to waste time. Plus, this fellow was pretty good. Anyhow, a few days later, we noticed the sulphur smell! I called the salesperson a few days after the initial smell and asked about the filter. That's another ~$2600. Anyhow, I got everything installed together so the serviceman only needed to be in my house once. The units has been working well, no real big problem - aside from the sulphur smell once in a while when the levels fluctuates. One other thing: I'm a big believer of water testing, even if you have a bacteria killing system. I couldn't figure out why my water was still resulting in "high overgrown bacteria count". So, after I called the health inspector, I spoke with my salesperson and he guided me through it. It was pretty helpful since my water results came out clean! So, the service, as a whole, was great - whether it is about the units, installation, or simply a water problem! He was there by email AND phone. They have bags of salt to sell and deliver, for those interested. I mean, it's like $3 more for a bag than if you go to a regular home depot or whatever. It's not bad if you can't lug it down or up your house.

AMO came to do my basement, garage and back porch and it was a good job, but began to really crack after a couple of months. Perhaps it was because it didn't have a chance to settle properly or it was just settling, but there's a crack in my basement that can fit a quarter (thickness). I have been playing around with the idea of filling it due to the fear of moisture but i'm also looking to cover my basement with lamenent. Not sure what I want to do yet. Anyway, AMO came back and said they had not done the front porch yet. And how did they figure that out? By the fact that I had not paid them. The front porch was bare for a very long while before they realized it. Also, we had to pay another guy a couple of hundred dollars to drill ONE hole into the concrete. Not sure why AMO couldn't do it. Generally speaking of the other areas, it's fine, but I just felt that the work could have been more detailed. No more cracks, please.

It was difficult to rate these guys because I don't know if they were honest mistakes or they were just lazy. They did almost all of the plumbing in my house, including supplying and installing some bath/shower items and some fixtures. They did a horrendous job connecting the spout in one of the 3 piece bath tubs, as the pull mechanism doesn't even work well to transition from spout to shower. Sometimes a hard tug works and sometimes it doesn't (I was REALLY gentle at first but got fed up). When I asked them about it, they insist it was because we didn't buy the tub through them so they are not responsible. Who says that?? They screwed up the lining of the pipes along the wall in the basement and I had to ask them to rejig it to make it work. I would think they would know how to efficiently place pipes, even if it is in the basement. They hooked up my well water tank and decided to take the pressure nozzle from the softner with them so it made this crazy loud sound. I had to get my water guy to come back where he found out the problem. We had a service done to get that replaced. Just general piping around the house made me really nervous because water damage is the last thing that you'd want to happen to your house. The laundry pipes fell apart (disconnected) about a few months ago. Could have been a pretty big flood. Maybe my house was difficult to "work with" but in my honest opinion and through my experience with them, please (PLEASE) check their work if you are going with them. It's hard when you are not familiar with plumbing so find a friend that does know to check for you. Better to fix it before it's covered up with drywall, that's for sure.

I used Deslaurier for my kitchen design and matching bathroom cabinets. It took a few visits, what with the revisions to the designs and choosing materials. In a nutshell, I expected more what with the reputation Deslaurier had. I went with full granite covertop for my kitchen and it was nice at first, but the granite started to chip a bit. At first, i thought it was because of what I did, but then there were areas where it wasn't used as much started to chip a bit, too. They came once to fix it up, but explained that it is not a manufacture defect. They had to come over to service 4 times due to the wrong initial measurements, then the wrong pieces of cabinets were delivered. I had a hard time deciding whether it was good service or unorganized service. The guys that came to install/fix were exceptional, but how did they manage to miss the measurements/wrong cabinets 2-3 times?? It was frustrating when it happened but it was eventually fixed. Moral of the story: check and double check your order, measurements, and where the cabinets should be. Save yourself from the frustration.

Golden Windows is a little shop on March Road that will be easily missed if you are not paying attention. Having never been window and door shopping, I wasn't sure what to expect. Once I walked in, it looked a little disorganized but it gets better once you past the first few feet of the store. They have some samples of doors and a lot of catalogs to see what fits you best. The staff is particularly helpful. I wanted a double door entrance door for the extra width, but I didn't realized there would be so many choices (i.e., 1/4 glass, 2/3 glass, full glass). I liked one of the patterns, but wasn't sure if I wanted to splurge on the full glass or just the 2/3 so the staff member offered to show me what it looked like by taking me the only person who had this design in full. This extra step helped me decide to just take the 2/3 glass. It worked out great! They are flexible in payments. I had to put down 30% on my credit card, I believe, and then paid pull later on. Once it was delivered to be installed, they came and did their thing.I had a screen ripped a couple of times, though not sure if it came like that or one the guys working on my house got a little aggressive. They exchanged it, but it took a couple of months though. They said they hadn't put the order in for a replacement and not sure why it wasn't put it in. We eventually got it. I wished they would somehow seal the windows a little better, though. I can feel the cold air drifting (my house face against the wind). Also, make sure your subcontractors don't damage the casing or the window, because Golden Windows will not change it up for you. We had a huge crack around the plastic/metal and they said it was not their responsibility. Overall, nice doors and average windows, but onsite service could be a little better.

The company did all the heating, venting, fireplace, and a/c installation, as well as supplying them. The unit prices were just fine. The only unit I purchased myself was the hot water tank and all I had to do was make sure it was in the basement for when they are there. I paid for the installment which was included in the total cost of the entire job. Since my house was occupied in late fall, I did not have the chance to test out the a/c system. And when I did that spring, it turned out between the electrician and them, they had forgotten to hook it up to the electricity panel. I called and they came to confirm the problem and it was fixed before the summer weather started. Also, make sure you inspect every upstair vents to see if there is a cover. They were missing 4 covers in a few areas/rooms.

I went to Frank's in the wee hours before work (they open at 7am but agreed to see me at 6:30am as I start work early). They offer quite the variety for every taste. The quality of the work is pretty good. They had a good variety of french doors, which I needed one as well. Though, I find they had limited styles of the regular door but decided on our doors in a couple of visits. I had to get them to come back to replace the door knobs, as they were not the ones we ordered. It was a quick and painless ordeal. One big plus is that they take credit card payment, whereas a lot of the subcontractors don't! The highlight of their work would be the person who they subcontracted to work on the staining the custom stairs. Raquel spent a couple of evenings/nights to work on the stairs and it definitely showed. She is very committed to make it look flawless and it was really close to matching our hard floor! It does get pricey (i.e., $15/spindle), but it is worth it.

Casa was subcontracted by the person I hired to do the work. It was the later stages of drywalling when the guy doing the work had to work on the open arch to the family room. For some reason, the measurement was off and the pillars on both sides could not sit flat on either sides. There was a suggestion to "shave" it down but I was not open to this idea because it would throw off the look. He then suggested he can "rebuild" the edges to make sure it pairs up on both sides. Fortunately, it worked out and with a little adjustments to the pillars, it looks unnoticeable. Too bad the framers couldn't do this guy a favour and ensure it was done well in the first place. Second encounter where I had to call Casa was for the holes that the electricians decided to make in order to find some switches. It was inside the closet so it was a big deal, but again, I prefer not have any holes anymore in my house unless it is meant to be there. I had called Casa back to patch up these holes at no cost. The fellow was really cool about it and did it in about an hour. Easy to work with and I would recommend them if you have small jobs or big ones. Negotiable, as well.

I went to Tony Olsen after shopping around a bit at similar nearby companies. The prices are competitive and towards the moderately expensive side. However, their quality is good and service is good. It was easy to walk in (or drive in) and pretty well say what you want and how many you want. They offer delivery for a price (it's either 60, 80, or $120 for the entire order...I can't recall) and will also tack on a refundable per skid cost. I didn't know they had such thing because really, who would want to take a wooden skid? Anyhow, after the bricks were used, I decided to just lug it back into my car and return the skids to save a few bucks on pick up. Back to the bricks, they supplied the locking plastic gadgets and the stairs are still set so that's a good sign. I recommend checking out their catalogs for ideas and colours (there are some really nice one for certain styles).

I went to Lowe's to purchase a double sink marble top vanity that I have had my eyes since the last time I was there. After speaking to the worker there, it turned out that I had to put an order in because they were out of stock. I was disappointed but no problem, did that and it was to be picked up in two weeks or so. I received the call to pick it up. Once I got there, it turned out to be the wrong one and I needed it asap because of the availability of my subcontractor. The manager was called and he apologized. He offered to give me $180 for my troubles (I lived in the West and this store was in East, before they open one at my end). I had to put the order in again, but I think I can deal with it after the sincere apology and credit bonus. Overall, the customer satisfaction guarantee was respected and I will go there again.

I went to Ceratec after seeing the beautiful tiles in the Montreal location. There is a variety of tiles for all tastes - modern through vintage. I bought pattern tiles for the master bedroom and it was definitely beautiful idea. Just make sure you ask them to install it and not some discount subcontractor like I did. It was a waste of good tiles. The staff at the company was very knowledgeable and helped me choose the right type and the amount needed to cover the area I wanted. They always suggest the 10% on top of the tiles needed, incase of any breakage. I was able to inspect the tiles before I picked it up - which I highly recommend that you do. It is tedious but I had to make an extra trip back to exchange it when I realized a few small tiles had cracked in between the other tiles. Not a big deal though, the company did the exchange without doubting you. Very easy to connect with if you have any questions, both via phone and email. We had a staff member that spoke really good spanish and french but struggling in the english department. No matter...it worked out. In all, I recommend this Ceratec if you are looking for a creative way to enhance your bathroom and/or kitchen area.

I had Kott supplying almost all of the lumber used to build my new home because my project manager had subcontracted them. I felt the estimation that was given was fair, but once the work started, the estimation was quite off. That could possibly be my projector manager's mistake, but it definitely cost more than initial cost. In any case, the quality of wood was sturdy and as it should be. Billing was easy and was billed monthly for the wood delivered, though it is a little pricey. I wished they would leave the load in an area where it would be difficult for thieves to access because a few pieces went missing every now and then (I was there for the majority of the building). Overall, I think the quality of the product is fine but the price could be a little more competitive since I find other companies offer comparable prices.