We hired Polar Bear snow removal last November to clear the snow from our driveway and front walkway. The price was reasonable (flat rate). Overall, we are very happy with the service provided. Never unreasonable wait times. Would definately recommend this company to others.
After completely renovating our home last fall, my wife and I (both retired and in our 70's), decided to give the exterior front entrance of our home a make-over as well. We called 3 companies for quotes. All 3 salesmen gave us similar prices, but, the one that stood out to us was Sureloc's quote. The reason? The salesman. His name was Adrian and we really felt comfortable with his polite demeanor and his knowledge of what he was selling and designing for us. He made us feel very confident in our decision and we also liked the materials that Sureloc offers. They seemed to have a wider selection of bricks and colours than the other 2 companies. After signing the contract with Adrian and giving him a 10% deposit, he assured us that we would get a call from the office and that the excavation crew would be there to commence the work within 2 weeks. Well, to our surprise, they showed up in 1 week! My wife and I were really impressed with this crews high end machinery and how efficient these guys were! They excavated our front entrance in about an hour, cleaned up and left. They cleaned up so well, it was hard to beleive that there had been so many workers/machines working on our property just a few moments before! The following day, the materials were delivered and a few days after, the installation crew arrived. These guys are very skilled workers and really nice guys! We really appreciated the fact that they communicated with us during the installation process and asked how we wanted things done when they weren't sure or there were different ways of doing things. After looking over the work with my wife, we were really impressed with the workmanship and quality of Surelocs work! We have even had lots of neighbours compliment our new front entrance! Another thing that I should mention is that after the job was done, we received a phone call from Adrian to make sure that we were satisfied with the work. This meant alot to us as we've recently used other contractors and none have called us to see if we were happy. We can honestly recommend Sureloc to our friends and family and will probably be calling Adrian when we're ready to fix up our backyard!
This is my experience with Stair Star. I have been re-doing all my upstairs flooring in laminate hardwood myself but was looking for someone who could do my stairs for me as I figured that would be too dificult for an amateur. My wife and I are both retired seniors in our 70's. I first contacted Stair Star inc for an estimate as I was looking to change my stairs from a carpeted finish to hardwood. After calling to request a quote, Gus came over, measured everything out and I explained to him all of my requests which included matching the finish on the stairs to the same height of the laminate that I was installing myself upstairs and explained that "my laminate" had a height of 12mm. "No problem" was his response. The next day I received an email from the office with the price. I accepted the quote. In our contract we agreed to do my stairs in hardwood to match the height of the laminate that I was installing myself, put a nose coping along the outsides and reinstall my existing railing. A few days later, Gus came back to re-measure everything out and I then handed him a 40% deposit as per the contract. After this, Gus was never to be seen again during the installation process. A week later, 2 workers came by and finished the job in just one day. Although I saw a few minor details that I wasn't thrilled about, to my untrained eye, I figured the job was satisfactory and paid the final balance on the contract. This is where my problems and suffering begins. When the job was done, I had planned to continue installing my laminate from where the top of the stairs ended. To my surprise, when I put the laminate up against the coping that stair star installed, I realized that they had not paid any attention to what was requested and the coping was 5/16 higher (thicker) than my laminate. This would be a HUGE safety factor for my wife and I (both in our 70's). I tried to see if there was a fix on my part but couldn't figure it out as I am no expert in this field, so my wife called Stair Stars office and was very rudely told that there are 2 different copings, one for hardwood and one to match laminate and that they had installed the correct one (which they obviously did not). After that conversation, I tried calling Gus several times on his cellphone but to no avail. After trying to get ahold of Gus for several days, I was finally able to get ahold of him one afternoon and I explained the main problem and also that we had found several other defects including cracked wood, uneven surfaces on their finish ect..His response to me was that the following day, he had an estimate to do in my neighbourhood and after that he would swing by my place and have a look at the issues. The following day I waited from 10am until it was night time and Gus neither showed up at my house or even bothered to call me back. At this point is when I began feeling very frustrated and ripped off by this company. I thought I may have to call another carpenter or stairs expert and pay them to fix Stair star's mistakes. I decided not to bother calling Gus or the office anymore. A few days later, my oldest son explained to me that since I had paid in full, their responsibility would be to correct any mistakes in workmanship. My son asked me for Stair Star's phone number and called them. He did not get an answer and left various messages about the issue on a voice mail but never received a callback or reply. After waiting 3 days for a response, my son called the office again and finally got someone named ROCIO on the line. My son explained that his parents are both seniors and that because of the height difference on the coping could very easily cause one of them to fall and get injured. Rocio's response shocked us all : "If they fall, that's not our problem". My son explained to them that neither my wife nor I have yet to fall, but that if one of us does fall, that Stair star could be in for big legal problems. After persistent insisting by my son with Rocio, she agreed to send out a crew to have a look "only as a courtesy" visit and nothing else. The next day Rocio called our house and said that we should stay home as someone would be coming by to have a look at the height difference at the top of my stairs and the other defects that we were not too happy about. The next day, Gus showed up and took a sample of my laminate and explained that in 2 days someone would come by and cut part of the coping to match the height of my laminate ONLY where we walk down the first step. This coping goes beyond just the landing for my step as it runs about another 6 feet into a wall along my hallway. 2 days later they sent someone over to cut the coping ONLY when we walk down but the other 6 ft run was reinstalled heigher than my laminate!! Now I have installed my laminate and it really does not look nice because of the poor finish and workmanship from Stair Star's team. I decided not to keep calling as I am just tired of this poor service and rude responses towards seniors from this so called company and decided I've had enough of them. After all these issues, we never received a call back from the office or company to see if we were satisfied with the end result of the job that we paid for in full. I beleive this company does not care about their customers or reputation as long as they get paid in full. I would not recomend this company to anyone as I had a very frustrating month long experience and I hope this review helps others avoid the problems that we had to deal with.
Customer was advised of the floor height difference, how ever he decided to purchase the most cheap floor in the market with the most lower quality. Stair Star does not use low quality product to manufacture the stairs. We proudly used the most fine material in the market. Therefore, it's impossible to match a low quality material purchase against our advise.
