Al Ho

New Water was recommended by property management. First job was to fix a leaky kitchen faucet, we guessed correctly that the faucet was a Moen. Plumber came and changed the cartridge quickly. 2nd job was to fix a shut off valve that was leaking, and a toilet that was filling slowly. Called them, and they gave me a 4 hour window 10am to 2pm. They had all the parts on hand in their truck which was great. Plumber Matt fixed both issues very quickly. Received a written invoice and charged my credit card. Great for condo jobs downtown. Every plumber seems to tell me that Moen fixtures are the best, because of their free replacement cartridge service. But for some reason they charge plumbers for the same cartridges. Minimum hourly rate $170 then they bill I believe 30 minute increments. Warranty on tee labour of 90 days, and parts 1 year. I think things have changed from some of these negative review. I would use them again. Protip - If it's a Moen faucet, contact Moen to get a replacement cartridge shipped to you for free.

My wife and I had always wanted to get a custom closet made, and decided to go with a well known company California Closets (which is actually Canadian owned FYI). We received top quality service and the design consultant RP was able to answer all of our questions. Definitely go to their showroom a few times to get a sense of the colours and options that are available. First in-home consultation occurred Dec 21, 2019 and the installation occurred Feb 20, 2020. The in -home consultation is where they take exact measurements and start to design the closet and this takes at least 1 hour. The final designing and consultation process took the longest several weeks as the design consultant was very busy in January. Deposit of 50% to order materials, 50% balance upon completion of work. Pros Final product exactly matched the planned 3D blueprints. Completed within our specified budget with no unexpected costs. Site was clean after installation. Study construction and limited lifetime warranty. Cons Will need to take at least 1 day off work or work from home as installation takes at least 6 hours and they don't install evenings or weekends. California Closest does not include or offer removal or preparation of the closet. So we decided to complete this work ourselves which is time consuming removing closet racks, patching holes and then painting. Took at least 6 hours. Communication was a bit tedious, as the Designer RP was on vacation over the Christmas holidays and they don't provide coverage by another designer. It took about 40 emails back and forth to ask about different options and colours. Every small change required a new 3D design to be made and this changed the budget as different materials and options cost different amounts. I wanted to speak to the designer on the phone but because of the time difference of where she was on vacation and our work schedules we had to rely on email. Installer was not aware or did not have the parts to complete installation on the first installation appointment. I didn't notice until the installer had already left. The valet pins and scarf hook were missing, so we had to schedule a 2nd installation date which was frustrating when these were listed on the blueprint design. See the before and after photos. Paid $5K

Wanted to have 2 fan switches installed, and my condo is contracted to J & W. Called J & W in Nov 2019 and the admin B. is very forgetful. She said that they are busy in Nov and to call again in Dec. I call back in Dec then she says the earliest appointment would be in Jan. When I called back in Jan, she had no record of my confirmed appointment! Nonexistent or poor record keeping. The electrician Mike came on time and was able to complete the work 1 hour min is $160. They also provided a quote for an electric vehicle charging station installation. Was able to pay by e-transfer, cash or cheque. Would avoid using again as they are not organized.

El Cheapo is one of the ONLY movers that I know of that have a 1 hour minimum for $150. This is perfect for small moves. I have used this company in the past to move just a carpet and recently just a stove from Bayview/Sheppard to Front/Sherbourne. They were able to arrive within my elevator booking windows which is already very difficult. Would highly recommend and use them again.

I requested a quote from Ebadi, and he responded to the request within 1 hour by text! Wow that is a fast response. We were able to schedule a time to complete the work the very next day. He arrived on time took about 2 hours to complete the work. He installed two shelves in my shower, and fixed a light switch that was flickering on and off. I was also wanting to install an auto-off switch for my fan, but the wiring did not match the requirements for the fan. Pros Responds VERY quickly. Able to accept e-transfer. Cons Did not provide a written invoice prior to work being completed. New to Homestars, only been on the platform for 10 days. Would hire Ebadi again for any interior work.

As a loyal customer that has used Wow1Day and 1800 Got Junk I had high expectations, and my experience was not that great. Impeccable communication is key to a happy customer. I was able to book the You Move Me very easily by phone and they showed up on time and ready to move Sat Aug 24. This was a 1 bedroom + den condo to condo move within Toronto in the Bayview/Sheppard area. As I live in a condo, they are very strict about moving times. We thought we would be able to move out within 2 or 3 hours, unfortunately it took 4 hours. The moving team itself was friendly and Move team 1 Aug 24: Dave and Nicholas. They carefully loaded the truck, only a few small nicks which is expected. They came in uniform and provided 4 wardrobe boxes for free which was great. At the receiving condo I wasn't able to complete the move within our elevator booking time. The rest of the day Aug 24 the moving elevator was fully booked. Which resulted in a full truck and nowhere to put my items. Moving team Dave suggested I keep the items on the truck until Mon Aug 26. I agreed and would pay a modest fee for storage. My building does not allow any moving on Sundays. Operations Dave said this was not possible to leave items on the truck as it would take a truck out of service for an entire day Sunday. He suggested moving my items to a storage locker which was a great idea. This resulted in Move 1 charge for 6.5 hours. Move 2 was to occur on Monday from 3pm to 6pm. Move team 2: Nicholas, Anthony and Lex were supposed to arrive at the storage locker for 3pm. We get a call at 3pm saying they can't get there until 6pm. So you can imagine how angry that we rushed to get off work early, only to wait 3 hours!!! I called their operations phone number only for it to go straight to voicemail. We tried several times to get through and were unable to reach Dave and Tyler had no idea that their truck was even running late. They did provide a $100 discount, but better communication and better planning could have prevented this. For example leaving at least a 1 or 2 hour gap between jobs to account for traffic and delays. This also provides a break for your moving teams. Pros Extra boxes available for purchase. Hourly based moving which gives the customer some flexibility. Moving team is fairly careful and able to disassemble the bed frame. Cons Receipt provided Sept 9, 17 days after the service date. Communication with Dave and Tyler was not very good. I called their phone number several times and it would often go straight to a full voicemail. Customers need to be able to get a hold of the operations leaders quickly within 1 hour, not in 6 hours. You Move Me cannot accept e-transfers leaving only credit card as the preferred option. I believe cash and cheque are also options. I stated that both charges invoice 1 and invoice 2 are to go to a specific credit card, and I provided the credit card number. They ended up charging the credit card that was just used for the hold!!! I informed them they charged the wrong credit, they resolved this issue on Aug 28. I requested a 2 man crew and Dave promised to provide a 3 man crew at the 2 man rate ($140/hour). Guess what they charged? The 3 man rate ($240/hour). I tried to inform them of this Aug 26, 27 and 28 and have given up trying to contact them. I spoke with Tyler Aug 27 and he said he would correct the invoice. Corrected invoice Aug 28, but they overcharged my by $157. Amount refunded on Sept 9. Wasn't informed in advance that the mattress bag would be $10. This ended up being a surprise charge :( Protip - Always try and book your job to be first in the day, 2nd and 3rd jobs high risk of being delayed. Give them the same credit card number for the hold and that will end up being charged. They wont be able to keep track of which cards to charge things to. I would not use You Move Me again.

I recently heard about Spruced Up from my neighbours, and met with Eric to discuss some ideas for a house in the East York area. He came to the property and listened to the ideas of what I wanted to do with my property and get it ready for sale. Our semi-detached was in really bad shape, so we were just making mainly cosmetic changes to improve the value of our property. He came back a few days later with several ideas and a written quote of how to landscape the front and backyard. Some of the items were outside of our budget, but his ideas were amazing. The before and after photos of some of his completed jobs looked great. He even brought several sizes of rail ties to see what it would look like for our front lawn. Some of the items that he completed for us. Install 12 foot chainlink fence $1,700 Scrap, sand and paint porch $1,500 Pressure washing of exterior $600 Reinforced handrail, changed downspout and changed light fixture. Cons Pace of work was a bit slow, took about 3 weeks to get all of the work done. In comparison, Wow1Day painted the entire first floor in 1 day. Keep in mind this was in early April and there was still snow on the ground. So the ground needed to thaw before work could be started. Protip - If it's a vacant property, consider using a lockbox. He needs access to things like water, electricity and washrooms and I didn't want to be at the property all day. Would definitely work with him again in the future.

Scheduled the estimate online and met Pat at the scheduled time. He was friendly, courteous and professional. He explained the various options that we have. I am in the position of selling a property in the next 3 weeks so I did not want or need to have completely smooth and perfect walls. I anticipate the new owner will demolish a majority of this property anyways. My house is 100 years old, so it needed a lot of work and the walls are made of plaster. The cupboards needed 3 costs to cover up the old colour. This could not be foreseen yet Dan and the 5 man team was able to get the job done with no extra charges. Pros They ordered the paint colours we wanted and delivered the paint to the property. No need to make a trip to the paint store and lug the paint home. Online booking for free estimates is the single most valuable tool! No more playing phone tag to schedule a time to come. Detailed written quotation sent by email after the estimate. This is the only company with the reputation and manpower to schedule their crews weeks in advance. The floor was spotless, I was worried about getting drips onto the carpet. We had 2 other estimates and all of them would have taken 5 to 10 days to complete, and the other estimates were more expensive. Cons Their crew avail was not available until 2 weeks from the day we had our quote. This is something to keep in mind, I have not heard of any painters that work on nights and weekends. Since they have a big team and lots of equipment, it's best to have the house empty and nobody there while they are working. My bank does not allow e-transfers larger than $3K, so we ended up having to make 2 transfers which isn't Wow1day's fault but something that owners should be aware of. Protip Best tip is to schedule the consultation as soon as you know that you want to get first so you know how much it will cost.

Work completed Wed April 4 house in the Greenwood and Coxwell area. The office called and gave me 1 hour notice before arriving, Jamie and his partner arrived even though it was very windy and cold -1 degrees outside. They took a look and even showed me before and after photos to understand the size and scope of the problem. Really happy with the work, I initially thought it was raccoons and it turns out it was squirrels. They installed a one-way door and covered the gaps running along the roof line about 12 feet. The work was completed in about 2 to 3 hours. Pros 1 year guarantee on the work, if an animal gets through the wire screens they will come back to redo the work. Detailed written invoice showing the required work, limitations and guarantees. Clearly explained the work to be done and the price. Had booties to keep my carpets clean. Cons Did not inform me of the minimum fee of $150 before arriving, this is the office's fault. Protip - Some companies offer free estimates, only to charge more for the job later. Consider a company that can get the job done in 1 visit.

This was my first time using a home inspector before selling my 100 year old semi-detached house in the Greenwood and Gerrard area. John personally answered my phone call and spent 15 min explaining how home inspections work. I made an appointment for 2 days later. Very pleasant, and loves to talk about homes. Pros He spent 4 hours carefully examining all home systems interior, exterior and even went onto the roof. He gave suggestions on what needed to be fixed, which items could wait and shared his wealth of knowledge. Extremely detailed report about 20 pages which gave specific price ranges to repair and the current state of the home. Cons No company website after 21 hears in business. He says he is working on one.

Service performed Mon March 26 for 1 full load. They consider 3 factors: size, labour and time when making quotes. They arrived, looked at all the items and provided a no obligation quote. Use the sizing guide on their website for a rough estimate. I had more than 1 load, so I just said let's just take 1 load for now. They really packed the truck full to the brim! Just point at the items, and they magically disappear! I had 9 dressers, and about 20 bags of garbage. Pros: Emailed them a pick-up request for a specific date and time, ended up calling them and they were able to accommodate a same-day request which was amazing. They worked really fast and filled up the entire truck within 1 hour. Lucas and Jordan who were polite, clean and quite handsome :) They give $10 trash cash for ten dollars off your next order. Cons: Called 2 hours before the scheduled time, I was very close to telling them to stick with the scheduled time of 2pm as I wasn't ready to have my items picked up yet. It can be difficult to book same-day appointments as they are very busy and have only 3 crews/trucks. The guys were smoking, which ends up getting into the house since the door is open. Next time no smoking please. Didn't know about the 5% multi-load discount even though it's listed on their website. Protips: 1. Have everything labelled JUNK and ready to go. 2. Don't bother getting a quote from 1-800-GOT-JUNK, RID-OF-IT will be the cheaper option! I was quote $1,800 for the same volume of garbage with 1800GJ. 3. 10% off when you post a review on Yelp or Homestars.

I called Magnetite several times to ask questions about their soundproof windows. Debra was friendly and knowledgable about the products that they have. There are several competitors out there that did not have similar products that would fit onto existing windows. I called and got info and quotes from some competitors such as Indow, B-Quiet,The Quiet Room and So Quiet and Magnetite has the best product on the market! I have sliding doors that face highway 401. Within 1 week the installer came to my condo for a measurement and estimate which costs $50. I knew that the product would work because of the videos that I had seen on Youtube. Once I decided to proceed with the order, they emailed a link to a Paypal to give a 50% deposit. They do not take credit card unfortunately. About 4 weeks later, the 1/4 acrylic windows were ready for installation. The same installer came and Installation takes about 3 - 4 hours. The windows significantly reduced the sound, and my bedroom is nice and quiet. These panels are attached by a magnet, so they are still removable if needed. I would highly recommend them if you are looking for a sound reduction window.

I used Mirek from MT service in 2010 to fix a leaking dishwasher. He came at the scheduled time and was able to fix the leak. Fast forward to Feb 2015 and I have another dishwasher problem at another property. I called him Tuesday Feb 3 and left a voicemail, no response. I called him Wed Feb 4 and got him on the phone he said to try a power reset. I tried a power reset and the dishwasher still has an error code. I texted him since he says he texts, and no response. I called him Thur Feb 5, no response. I called him again Fri Feb 6 and no response. He does not appear reliable enough to pick up his calls or return messages. I called another repairman who is more reliable to provide service.