John & Kathryn, The Beach, Toronto

Matthew arrived at the time he said. He did a thoroughly professional job on our stairs and family room in one hour. He laid out and removed his equipment very neatly and efficiently. He left a pair of slippers in case we needed to walk on the carpet before it dried. The price was reasonable. We are very satisfied.

Veselin spent about one hour inspecting our roof, explaining what he planned to do and what it would cost. Portions of our roof are very steep, requiring appropriate safety measures for him and his helpers. He stressed the importance of protecting our property, including the garden and those of our neighbours. When work began, it was clear that Veselin was going to lay every shingle himself. He had one, two or three helpers at various times. They were engaged in removing the old shingles and cleaning up afterwards. They left everything tidy. Veselin installed drip edges, an ice barrier covering all of the shallow-pitch portions of our roof and the bottom six feet on the steeper portions. He replaced all our plastic vent covers with raccoon-proof metal ones. The new shingles look great. We would strongly recommend V.T. Roofing.

I called Peter about an inkjet cartridge that had jammed in my printer. He arrived the next day punctually at the agreed time, removed the cartridge, installed it properly and made sure that the printer was functioning correctly in all modes of operation. He charged the amount that he had estimated on the phone.

Hossein and Bradia arrived on time, quickly diagnosed the problem with flickering patio lights on timer switches and redid the connections in two switch boxes. They work together very efficiently as a team. I recommend them highly. As Hossein left, he said, "Any problems, call me." There were no problems, I am happy to say. The only slight negative is that Hossein had originally said they would come one day earlier; however they were delayed longer than expected at another job. I wish they had phoned to tell me when they knew they would not be able to come until the following day. For that reason, I am giving them a score of 9; otherwise it would be 10.

Bob Steele (Guild Painters) painted our whole interior in two phases (November 2006 and February 2007). His workmanship, advice on, and use of colour were all superb. He carefully moved and protected furniture and cleaned up so well that we would have hardly been aware that he had been working if we had not seen the beautiful results. He filled picture-hook holes(except where we wanted the pictures in the same locations) and installed towel racks. Later, after we had suffered water damage on two occasions, Bob replaced drywall and baseboards, sprayed to prevent mould, and repainted, matching the colour expertly. On his last visit (September 2008), he did the work while we were on vacation. We came home to find everything perfect. We were very pleased. Moreover, Bob's invoices were always the same as his estimates, even if the job took longer than he had originally expected. Not only a painter-handyman, but a great guy!