Eddie in Redwood Meadows

CDL has a great selection of flooring materials and very good sales staff. Lots of helpful hints for installing the flooring tile I bought for my laundry room and bathroom. ServiceMaster had, in repairing my ceiling, managed to flood my house a little over a year ago and, frankly, the poor workmanship and cooperation I got from that company forced me to tell them to stop working before my house was completely ruined. But, that's another story. I purchased some vinyl tile. I have never before installed tile but, after talking to one of their installers and watching some instruction videos on the internet, I completed the job to the complete satisfaction of my wife! Compliments to the installer who helped me, he was very friendly and full of good advice. Where CDL failed was by promising me the product I ordered would be available by a certain date only to fail in their promise. Not that it was all their fault - the supplier stopped making what I ordered and never called the company. So my delivery was delayed and the time I had already arranged to take off from work to do the chore was wasted. Also, they company didn't do anything to compensate my wife and I for having to make another trip into the city to select tile again. Often, even a token amount off the final price or a little something thrown in for free when a company makes a mistake will make the customer feel a lot better about being inconvenienced. The tile we got was of good quality but they sold me far too much adhesive and far too much grout for the work I had to accomplish. It was their minimum size for each. So, if you have a large floor area that needs to be tiled, then I would certainly recommend CDL. For smaller areas it might be a good idea to investigate buying the grout and adhesive from some place that can sell smaller quantities. As for the other flooring products they have available, again, they seem to have a large selection and you should be able to find there something suitable for your home.

I reviewed Servicemaster somewhere last year but I don't see it posted. Now I'm posting this review on a few sites because I really want to warn anybody using this company to find somebody else. STAY AWAY! HIRE SOMEBODY ELSE!! Last year I had some water damage to my ceiling so my insurance agent hired Servicemaster. First they stripped the old stippling off my ceiling. Because they found asbestos in the stippling they had to be extra careful and set up a shower in my hallway. What I didn't know was that the drain for this shower went to my washing machine drain and they had removed our washing machine drain hose. Our laundry room is on the main floor. After a week of this, they finished the job and we came home that Friday and found we could access that area again. All down one wall the paper from the drywall had been peeled off by the workers. On Saturday my wife did some laundry only to find, after the washing machine had completed the rinse cycle that the workers had not replaced the drain hose so now the basement was flooded. I was out and my tiny wife struggled alone to save our belongings in the basement. She came to get me and I had to return home to call Servicmaster up and they sent a couple of people over to cleanup the mess. This involved ripping up the linoleum, and taking off the baseboards of the laundry room and our main floor bathroom. My wife and I also got to listen to dehumidifiers running for a few days. Back to the ceiling repairs - after two or three attempts to fix the ceiling and not getting it done properly then they decided to get a ceiling contractor. Why they had to wait to get an expert is beyond me - you'd think they would start with somebody who knew what he was doing. But, no, they had to do two substandard jobs before getting somebody who knows what to do in. They didn't bother telling the ceiling contractor what I was complaining about so,, when he came in and saw the substandard stippling job, he just stripped off the old stipple and did a much better job applying the new stipple. But the problem was they drywall seams were very easily seen - especially in the evening when the ceiling lights were on the cast a raking light over the seams. Once the contractor knew what the problem was, he got it fixed. Remember the wall that had the paper torn off the drywall? My wife asked the painter that was brought in to estimate the damage if he could paint it a different colour. She was told that was out of the question. When I talked to Servicemaster management about the ripped up linoleum and baseboards, they said that they would replace it with a better quality flooring but ... come time to fill their promise, they said, "no." They would only replace the material with something of the same quality. I would have to pay for anything better. In one way, I can see their point but, after causing us so much trouble, a couple of hundred extra dollars as way of an apology would definitely have been in order. But they did nothing – couldn’t even change the colour of the paint on the wall. Never once, during the literally months of trying to get a ceiling fixed did Servicemaster management call me. I did receive a few calls from an administrative assistant asking me to sign some forms saying that the job was complete though. Each time I told her that I would sign them when the job was done and told her to pass along to management my problems. But the only conversations I had with their management was one that I initiated. They never came out to see what problems they were having with my house. Finally, I got so fed up with having their people coming in and out of my house I took a cash settlement and did the work myself. It took two coats of paint to properly paint the wall they damaged. I replaced all the baseboard material and door casings and I did a better job than anything I saw Servicemaster people do. And I did it the first time too. The only good job was done by the ceiling contractor they hired and he was appalled by the work he saw when he came into my house. I will never hire Servicemaster for anything again.

They came out to my house and my mother's house and didn't charge for going outside the city. Great service and great price. He had the chance to really soak me but gave honest, truthful service.

I bought a kitchen faucet to replace my broken one. The clerk (sorry ... "associate") assured me that the one I had chosen would be easy to replace and that I wouldn't need anything else. Perhaps, if I owned a newer home, it would be so but I had to make a second trip into the city to get the parts needed to complete the job. At the price of gas these days it cost me an unnecessary extra $20

I was having trouble with my garage furnace not working sometimes. I called Southern Heating because his sticker was on the furnace (from my home's previous owners no doubt.) Even though it had been at least 6 years since he'd been here, the owner of this small business remembered my house and the previous owner. When he got to my home he could have told me anything he wanted but he made it clear that there was nothing wrong with the furnace - the pilot light was blowing out when the main door was opened. Total cost to fix: NOTHING! He proceeded to inspect my home furnace then went to my mother's home close by to clean and inspect her furnace. Most Calgary businesses charge a fee for coming out to Redwood Meadows but he told me it was too close to Calgary to charge this. While he was here he gave me some valuable tips about solar water heaters and, since he, like me, is a woodworking enthusiast, he also told me some less expensive places to buy hardwood in Calgary. Great service!!