Grace

RoadRunners Moving and Storage were professional in handling all aspects of my move. They were scheduled to arrive at 2:00 pm. Paul texted me to tell me they would be just a little later than expected. I needed a desk moved from the second floor of our home to the main floor. Paul and Brendan are very knowledgeable about dismantling furniture. They took their time in disassembling the desk, doing so very carefully; moved all parts of the desk down the stairs; and placed them on the main floor. Here they carefully reassembled the desk. They had even made a mental note of where all seven drawers belonged, replacing each one where it had been. The top layer of the desk had pried up from the rest of the desk. Paul and Brendan provided me with a tip on how to rectify this problem: anchor the surface with wood glue and then nail it down to make it secure. Paul and Brendan are professional and personable. I had a very pleasant experience with them. I would definitely hire them again!

Ismail from Ish's Finishes is very professional and helpful. I hired him to paint our basement apartment the walls of which were a pale yellow. My tenant initially wanted the walls painted white. Ismail had already given me a quote. But my tenant later changed his mind. He said he wanted an off-white for the walls instead. I still wanted all the doors, doorways, window frames, closet doors and baseboards painted white. The scope of the job had changed. Ismail was flexible enough to give me a different quote and proceed with the job as my tenant is moving in immediately. On the first day, Ismail dropped off all the supplies he would need for the job: primer; white paint for all the trim; special paint for the closet doors; and caulking to seal all visible gaps the doorways and window sills so that everything would look entirely seamless. He also brought paint chips and together we chose a colour for the walls. Ismail painted my apartment over the course of three days. He put three coats of paint everywhere—on all the walls; doors; doorframes, window sills and closet doors. He even fixed the cracked kick plate in my bathroom with caulking before painting it. He sealed holes in the wall where pictures and paintings had hung. It was only after Ismail had applied the third coat of paint in the apartment that I noticed the kick plate under the kitchen counter was in very bad shape. Ismail had actually noticed it. He said, "It's very badly damaged. It needs to be replaced. That's why I didn't paint it." However I have no time to hire a handyman to fix the kick plate before the tenant moves in. I asked Ismail if he would mind painting the badly damaged kick plate. He very graciously obliged. I inspected the apartment. Ismail had swept up the dust and left behind a very tidy workspace. More importantly, though, Ismail's work is impeccable! He's clearly a master painter who is very thorough and takes great pride in his work. The apartment looks so much brighter and lovelier now! I'm thoroughly pleased with Ismail's work. I would highly recommend Ish's Finishes for any painting job you want done.

I phoned Molly Maid from the Toronto West area to get a quote on cleaning my basement apartment. The supervisor, who never told me her name, came to inspect the apartment and promised she would give me a quote; and date and time of the cleaning appointment in an email she would send me. The email arrived but the quote was conspicuously missing from it. I had written her verbal quote on a sheet of paper. Two ladies came on the specified day and cleaned the apartment. I checked their work and noticed the area behind the fridge was very dusty. I said to them, "Do you mind vacuuming the back of the fridge please?" She said, "We're not allowed to move furniture." "I know," I said. "I'll pull it out and I'll put it back." By the time I returned downstairs, I noticed the ladies had vacuumed behind the fridge and moved the fridge back into place even though I had specifically told them I would do it. When I received my invoice, I noticed that the cleaning fees were higher than the quote the supervisor had verbally given me. I called the supervisor repeatedly to understand the discrepancy in the fees. First, I was told the supervisor had a death in the family. Later the supervisor herself wrote to say she had broken both her legs. I didn't hear from her at all until she wrote to say she had available spaces to clean my home. She simply wanted my business. Her two broken legs had healed miraculously. This woman wasn't honest with me. I won't hire Molly Maid again or refer them to any of my friends. Besides, their fees are simply exorbitant!

The Air Quality Dunrite crew listened carefully to my exact specifications with regard to where I wanted the air conditioning unit located. They executed my instructions to the very letter. They also tuned up my furnace. The humidifier pad had completely calcified but the technician didn't have a replacement for it. However, Marcello came over today and personally inserted a brand new humidifier pad! I highly recommend Air Quality Dunrite for ALL your furnace and air conditioning needs. They do EVERYTHING right!!!!

I bought a house where the furnace was 19 years old. I didn't wish to run the risk of having my furnace break down in the middle of winter. That would leave my tenant, who lives in the basement apartment, and me literally out in the cold. I phoned three companies to get quotes. The gentlemen who showed up weren't as friendly or informative as Marcello from Air Quality DunRite. I liked him immediately. He's very warm, friendly and has a very outgoing personality. He even brought me coffee and a Danish. Marcello patiently answered all my questions. He even said that if I ever run into any problems unrelated to heating, feel free to call him. I'm not Marcello's client. I am his friend. Now that's priceless! On the day of the installation, Rob and Mark showed up. They lay down a red carpet all the way from the main entrance of my house and down the stairs to the room in the basement where the furnace is located. They gave me the red carpet treatment. I felt so honoured. Both Rob and Mark are cheerful, friendly professionals who clearly enjoy their job. It took them a few hours to install the furnace. Mark even installed a new thermostat in my home and showed me how to adjust it. When their job was done, they invited me to inspect their handiwork—my brand new furnace. Mark patiently answered the questions I had about certain items on the invoice that I didn't understand. They did such a fantastic cleanup job that I couldn't even tell they had been there! If you wish to have a furnace installed, there's only one company to contact—the cheerful, friendly, professionals who care about you and do everything right——Air Quality DunRight! Grace from Toronto, ON

For years, I have owned a dining room table with four chairs which I had bought second-hand. One day I decided to take the chairs to Rob and Garry and asked them to reupholster them. When I got the chairs back, I was amazed. My chairs had become so old and worn out that I was actually sitting on plywood but didn't know it! However, Rob and Garry had reupholstered the seats of the chairs so that they were now thick and plush and extremely comfortable to sit on. Over the years I've taken more chairs for Rob and Gary to reupholster and each time they have done a splendid job. They pay such meticulous attention to details like helping me select the fabric I should use for the upholstering so that the colours will coordinate with the walls of my home and the table cloth. They determine just the right amount of filling each chair should have. They double stitched the cushion of one chair around the circumference. This enhanced the look of the chair. They sew piping on all cushions and install zippers in them. They even reupholstered an antique rocking chair which I had purchased from Kijiji. They added piping around the top and bottom edges of the cushion for this chair and a zipper. The chair is so comfortable that it has become my favourite chair to sit on. Not only are Rob and Garry conscientious in their work but they're timely in finishing every job I've given them. Their prices are reasonable. But most important of all, they're both very personable and a real pleasure to work with.

I had just moved into my new home. I was thoroughly disappointed with the previous owners. They had left their house in an absolutely filthy mess. The two fridges (one in the basement) were both filthy. The oven was filthy. So were all the toilets, tubs, bathrooms and kitchen cabinets I wasn't going to unpack any of my belongings into this filthy environment. As soon as I got my internet hooked up, I went to the Home Stars site and searched for Professional Cleaning Services. I noticed Aida Cleaning Services has excellent recommendations. I called them, described what I wanted cleaned and got a quote. They came the very next morning at 10:00 a.m. I'm so glad I hired them. Aida and her four-women crew scrubbed my home from top to bottom -- all three floors. They were so thorough in their work. Even the faucets sparkled. They completely transformed my house from a filthy mess into a splendidly clean home. I have never seen a house as clean as mine. Thank you very much, Aida, for your very high standards and meticulous attention to detail! If you want a very high standard of cleanliness in your home, call Aida. You'll be extremely glad you did.

I hired Bill of H & B Renovations to do about six phases of renovations in different parts of my condo over a period of several years. Bill is a soft-spoken gentleman who started out as a perfectionist in everything he did. However there were times when I couldn’t be at home while he was working so I gave him a key to my condo, trusting that he would be just as meticulous while I was away. That was a big mistake. I realized he was taking shortcuts in doing the work. For instance, I came home one day and found he had covered a hole in one wall of my living room with an electric plate. I phoned him about this. He came to my house, installed some dry wall, sanded and painted the hole. He also installed laminate flooring in my living room. My office area is about four feet higher than the rest of the living room. And there are doors that open up into a storage area under the office. Bill had to remove the doors to the storage area so he could install the laminate flooring in the living room. However, he did a very sloppy job in reinstalling the doors. They’re no longer perfectly horizontal like they once were. I’ve lost my trust in Bill and I will never hire him again.

I signed a contract with AR Tile (Alex) to break down two walls in my bedroom; install new walls; sand, plaster and paint the new walls; build a closet; install closet doors; install doors and locksets for my bedroom and bathroom and lay tiles on the hallway and bathroom floor. The new walls Alex installed were bowed. Moreover he didn’t sand the walls properly. Many areas in the wall feel very bumpy. One wall he installed is extremely bowed. Instead of installing baseboard trim, as I had asked, Alex installed casement trim at the base of the bedroom and bathroom and around the two doors. The 162 feet of casement trim he installed was cracked and badly damaged. The closet door openings in the bedroom that Alex built were 2” lower than the standard door height (80”). As a result he couldn’t install the closet doors. I had to hire someone else to do this. The wall he built to separate the closet doors were not vertical. There’s a gap now between the doors and the wall whenever I shut the closet doors. I had bought very expensive limestone tiles for installation in the hallway and bathroom floor. Alex did a very sloppy job of laying these tiles. But no two tiles lay flat. The salesman at Home Depot from whom I had bought the flooring suggested I purchase 20% more tiles than I needed just in case I ran out of them and then couldn’t find tiles to match what I had bought. I did as he had suggested. When it was time to install the tiles, Alex told me I needed to leave my condo and stay overnight at a friend’s so he could properly install the tiles. I trusted him and did as he instructed. When I came home the next day, Alex told me there was only one tile left. But I had bought 20% more than I needed! Seven hundred dollars worth of tiles had just vanished from my home!