lee in downtown

Lance from Hoerner was able to diagnose and fix serious leakage problem that was affecting our bathroom wall. The toilet had not been installed properly and it was leaking under the floor. This leak was causing serious black mold issues on the wall. He replaced the existing toilet with one that was the right size and Re cemented the drain area under the toilet.. which cured the problem. We are very impressed with Lances work and attitude he came prepared with all the right tools, was very respectful of our home and cleaned everything up and took all the old drywall, old toilet and garbage etc with him. Place was spotless. I would highly recommend Lance and his assistant Adam who came later for doing a great same day job it was a big fix.

I contacted Rafael at GTA Glass railings from a referral from a friend who knew their work.. Rafael was responsive from the beginning...he came out and assessed the railing we had installed by our contractor and confirmed that it was installed against code. They immediately took it down to prevent if falling off our third floor deck. Subsequently they installed the railing using the glass and metal components of the original railing...added some new structural components to bring it to code and did it all in a timely manner. The finished job looks great...is very stable and will last for many years. Rafael and his staff were very careful, detail oriented and fast. They had to bring everything through our house up 3 flights of stairs and did so without any incident. I would highly recommend GTA glass to anyone who wants a meticulous, safe job done on their railings.

I asked Rado to look at my front door to replace the existing old deadbolt and lock with a new keyless entry system.... was a very delicate install as the door he was installing it on was mirrored. he installed the lock .. but it was defective... had to wait for a new warranty replacement unit. Rado came back .. removed the damaged unit and reinstalled the new unit. He had to programme the new unit which was difficult because the instructions provided were inadequate. He was very fast... knew his stuff, didn’t damage the mirrored door.. which was very difficult. He was pleasant, efficient and went out of his way to make it a good experience. Would highly recommend his service.

I have a 10 year old Pella large patio door. Our contractor accidentally broke the glass on one side of it. I called Pella to replace it. They sent a service person to the house who looked at the window...measured it...took the serial number of the window and took pictures of it in order to replace it. They told me at the time that the whole door panel including the frame and glass would have to be replaced on that side and that it would cost $2700.00 to do that. It seemed very expensive but I agreed to go ahead. They said it would ready in 4 weeks. Sometime later I called Pella again to change the lock and check the integral screen as neither were working. They fixed them and charged me 169.00 for the visit. The screen still does not work. on the date they set up the delivery guys arrived with the new door and upon inspecting the existing door...said that the new door that they had would not fit in the frame. I told them that the installer that came to measure had taken all the info and that there was no doubt about the age, type of door or the replacement needed. They said that it wouldn't fit and that it would have to be built again. I called customer service at Pella Canada and talked to Flo. She said that they would put a rush on the replacement as it was Pella's fault that this had happened. She said she hoped it would be about 2 weeks as it was their fault. I didn't hear back from her for sometime...so I called again and she told me that the first available installation date was November 14, 2017. ...fully 6 weeks longer. I was very angry as we are trying to rent our place out and now can't as the window is broken. We will be losing a month's rent because of their mistake. I asked to speak with Flos superior and she referred me to Nardina the acting supervisor. I left a detailed message for her and she has not bothered to return my call. Obviously my concerns are unimportant to Pella. They are a big company and don't seem to care what their smaller customers think or what inconvenience is caused to them. I bought Pella because of their reputation. I was so angry I started looking online at reviews of their service. There are many, many complaints in Canada and even more in the States. Customer service is poor and there is a total lack of interest in their customer's concerns. I am shocked and disappointed in Pella. I can't believe that a company with their high profile would treat customers with so much disregard. Doesn't make sense to me.

We hired Drain works to come in to figure out why our house had been flooded in Dec. We thought that it was something to do with our drain that runs inside the walls of the house to direct rainwater from the 3 floor roof to the drain in the basement. I called friday...The owner I spoke to, who was very helpful, said someone would call back in 10 minutes to book the appt. They did call back in 10 minutes and booked the appt. for the following monday. Someone called from the company to remind us of the appt before they came. Armando was the representative that came to our house. He was very pleasant and knowledgeable and proceeded to scope the drains and pipes under our basement floor and within 1/2 a hour had isolated the problem. He came up with a plan to remediate the drainage issue and said they could start on Thurs. They came on Thurs and went to work. The staff were extremely polite and efficient. They all wore shoe covers in our house and put plastic over everything to protect it from cement dust. The work was done very quickly...they dug out the pipes under the cement floor and replaced the pipes with new PVC ones. By Fri they were cementing in the areas in the cement floor that they had to break into to get to the pipes and cleaning up the back yard where they had to excavate the pipes. Misha, the head guy, was so knowledgable and pleasant. Misha also put in new plumbing pipes under our third floor deck. This was one of the best experiences I have had with a contractor. They were clear about what had to be done...they came in a did it with minimal disruption and when they left everything was just as it was before they came. I feel 100% confident in their work and would highly recommend them for any plumbing or drainage issue. Thank you very much Armando, Misha and all the other staff for making this a painless experience. The prices were fair as well.

I called Gordon from Academia roofing to come to our home to try to understand why we were having flooding in our basement and 2 floors of our house built in 1885. The drain from our 3rd floor deck runs down the inside corner of the house between the outside brick wall in the inside plaster walls. We knew that the drain pipe had been replaced in 1970 when the house was gutted and rebuilt. During the ice storm in Dec 2014 we had flooding in our basement and the main and second floors of our house. We called our insurance company and they sent a roofer out and said that our newly installed roof was leaking and applied some temporary material to stop the leak. the leaking did not stop. we called them again and again the roofer applied materials to stop the leaking. the leaking continued. In the meantime we called Gordon at Academia to come out check out the roofing job we had just had done and he suggested doing an infrared scan of the drain to see if there was a blockage. He came promptly and looked at the roof and did the scan pointing out a blockage at 19'6" down in the drainpipe. He charged us $500 for the scan. We asked if we could have a receipt which he said he would email us. Gordon also suggested that we engage him to re do the roof for an approximate cost of $10.000.00. The roof is 8 x 16 feet. We paid $4500 just the month before to have the roof redone. We called a drain company that Gordon kindly found the next day and they came and did a scope and found a blockage where Gordon said it would be. They could not determine what the blockage was...ice or other material. They said that the pipe was cast iron and was cracked in a number of places...explaining why the leaking on 3 floors of our house. The drain company suggested we put a temporary plug in the drain to see if the leaking would stop. This led us to believe that the roof was not causing the leakage and the cracked pipe was. We temporarily plugged the drain Feb 3. No further leaking occurred in the house. We decided to wait until it got warmer to see if the blockage would melt if it was ice. In the meantime the insurance company sent out one of their contractors to do an infra red scan of the drainpipe again. The scan revealed no blockage. The insurance company then suggested we remove the interior walls around the drain on 3 floors to see if the pipe was damaged as suggested in the scope. that was done and to our surprise the pipe was not cast iron but PVC..in perfect condition. In May I decided to have a the same drain company come in and re-scope and remove the piece of pipe around the area that Gordon had suggested there was a blockage. They re-scoped and found a blockage at 26 ft. they cut out the pipe at that location and found the pipe to be full of organic material very densely packed. We still could not understand why the we had leakage on the upper floors. Finally the insurance company at my insistence sent their own plumber out and we found the problem. The drain from the flat roof on the 3rd floor had an aluminum flashing installed by the roofer with an attached 8" long drain pipe. the pipe had been set into the existing PVC drain pipe without a seal around it. when the drain got blocked the water backed up and came out from between the two pipes ...running down the PVC pipe and into our floors and walls on each level and flooding the basement. The drain pipe had a very large blockage of roots in the pipes below the basement level which we have had removed and the drain pipes replaced. I don't think we will have further water leakage problems ...at least from the drainpipe or roof areas. We were grateful to Gordon for his early advice of a blockage in the pipe. The existing roof, as it turned out has been great and completely watertight. Because we had a temporary plug put in the drain...the roof has been flooded for a number of months. there have been no further leaks in the house. it took months to find out what was really the cause and follow the insurance company's protocol.... I feel Gordon is a very knowledgable contractor and was helpful in pointing me in directions that I might not have thought of . thanks Gordon

i called Flavio after reading good reviews on Homestars. He was very pleasant on the phone and came over to measure the windows a couple of days after the phone call. He brought a big selection of colors for us to choose from and we found the exact color of the existing blinds that we had purchased a few years earlier from another supplier. He quoted a great price and said that the blinds would be ready quite quickly. He asked if we were in a rush to get them done...but we were not. In about 3 weeks Flavio called and said the blinds were ready. Because we picked a very popular color, it took a little longer to get than some of the other colors. We set up an appointment in a couple of days after Flavio called. The installer came at the time we agreed on and installed the blinds in less than half an hour. He was professional and polite. The blinds were exactly what we ordered, work perfectly and look great. we are very satisfied with Flavio's blinds. His professionalism is great...prices are great and we would not hesitate to recommend him. thanks Flavio.

We hired Wade D (Accel Aluminum) on April 30, 2009 to supply glass walls and interior windows for our bathroom and stairwell, to apply frosted mylar film to the glass, to clad 18 of our exterior windows with aluminum, put siding around the 3rd floor north window and replace the glass in the 5 small basement windows. His quote was 12,915.00. (Please see attached summary of the scope of the project) On April 30 we paid him a deposit of $3690.00 by cheque. Our bathroom was being renovated on the third floor. Wade said to us that he would clad the exterior windows of the house while the interior bathroom was being tiled and finished. He started the cladding fairly promptly in mid April and did replace the glass in the basement windows and clad them in aluminum. He also clad 2.5 windows on the west side 2nd floor of the house. Some of those windows are not finished…they have not been caulked. Then he said that he needed scaffolding to finish the job and packed up and left. On July 16 the contractor that was doing our tiling finished the job. This contractor, Frank, referred Wade to us. Frank’s crew made some mistakes in the tiling, -2- forcing him to redo the tiles in the bathroom which put us a few months behind and stopped Wade from installing the glass in the bathroom. However Frank retiled the floor at his expense and did a great job of finishing the whole job to his and our satisfaction. Wade had said that he couldn’t measure for the glass until the entire tiling job was finished. We had been calling Wade during April and every week from then on, to finish the outside work. He always has some excuse preventing him from showing up and doing the job. On July 20th Wade came over to measure the bathroom. At that time he said that he required another cheque to pay for the glass that he had purchased which had been cut and was at the temperer. We gave him another cheque for $3690.00. He said that there is a backlog of glass being tempered and that it might take a while to get the glass done, but that all the glass was at the temperer, waiting in line waiting to be done. The third week of August Wade came over to our house to install some additional replacement sealed units that we asked him for in other parts off the house. This job was to replace 5 sealed units in existing windows. For this job he quoted for -3- $1100.00 plus tax. He installed that glass and we were satisfied with the work. He told us at that time our bathroom glass and exterior cladding will be done by the end of August. He asked us to pay him for 5 sealed units. As we had already paid him $7380.00 we said that we wouldn’t pay him any more money until the glass is on site and installed for the bathroom and hallway. We do have hinges and handles for the doors for the bathroom and bedroom which he left on site, which he paid for. The end of August came and went as did September and October. I continued to call every week about our bathroom and exterior work. There were always more excuses. Still nothing has been done. In the third week of September he came over with the sliding door hardware and installed half the hardware over 2 evenings. We felt that maybe now he would finish the job. We have not seen him since. In October he calls for a meeting with me and my partner ‘ go over details’. We feel that the details have all been gone over many times but agree to the -4- meeting. He then tells us that he has to make templates for the hallway windows which are large. He had previously told us that once glass is tempered it cannot be cut or finished as it will shatter. We figured that the hallway glass had never been cut and sent to the temperer as he told us it had been back in August…. if he was just making templates now. We don’t know what to believe as the story is always changing. He makes appointments and doesn’t show up without calling or shows up 2 – 3 hours late without calling while we have to take time off work to wait for him. Wade has told us that he will show up and do the exterior cladding many times…He never shows up. He has only done a small portion of the work that he contracted with us to do. We have paid him $7380.00 of a $13,915.00 job (including 5 sealed units). He has been asking us for more money but we feel that we cannot pay him anymore until he finishes at least some part of the job. We want to pay him and we want him to finish the job. We have not been able to use our bathroom since February. Update: on November 11 Wade called and said that he had the rollers for our 2nd sliding door in the bathroom area and that he wanted a cheque for the cost. We gave him a cheque for $993.90 bringing the total we have paid him to $8373.90. He is now saying that he does not have enough money to buy the frosted mylar to put on the glass for the bathroom and hallway area. We have no idea if he has indeed purchased and tempered glass for our bathroom. Update: November 16...We are filing papers today to sue Wade de Souza to refund us the difference of the money we gave him and the work that has actually been done. We would like to put this very bad experience behind us and finally after almost 8 months be able to hire a reputable company to install the glass in our bathroom so that we can use it.