Jan in North York

Reasonably new gas pool heater pilot light and burner ignition issues. Anthony was sent to help resolve the issue. He was on time, extremely personable, and delightful to deal with. We did some troubleshooting and the issue was fixed quickly. It was a pleasure having such a friendly, and knowledgeable service person from Tempasure. They are my go-to company for all HVAC and gas appliance issues. Len (owner) returns calls almost immediately and arranges for a service call as soon as possible. Thank you for such good service.

I found Vitaliy and VCS Aluminum just over a year ago on HomeStars and had him do a very custom eavestrough and downpipe rearrangement for the front of my semi-detached home. I was blown away by his promptness, his dependability, his workmanship and the overall quality of the job he did for me here. His price was extremely fair and his trustworthiness and honesty had me committed to using his services if I ever needed them again. About 3 weeks ago we had a big rainstorm in the evening. I was sitting in a second story bedroom watching TV and I could hear water crashing down on to what sounded like metal .... which would be the air conditioner compressor outside. I shouldn't be hearing water hitting that. I looked out the window and was aghast at what I saw. Water was shooting out of holes in the eavestrough like a fire hose. More water was pouring out from under the trough and at the end of the trough. This is not a new eaves, but I had the nails taken out a few years ago, and secured with hinges/clamps instead. I figured the trough had finally bitten the dust. Sooo much water was coming out of it. So, I called Vitaliy .... he was here approx. 24 hours later. I had expressed that I believed I needed a new back eavestrough because of all the leaking, which was putting water very close to the foundation wall. And that, of course, was what I expected him to say too, when he saw it. But while he was on his way over, I thought to myself, "I wonder if maybe the trough is blocked". I don't usually have any problem with blocked toughs as I don't really have any trees that close to the house. The last time I called a guy to come clean the troughs, he told me there was nothing in mine, charged me $40 anyway, but said he'd clean my attached neighbor's for free, and I could ask her for half of the money! So, Vitaliy arrives, puts up the big ladder, and takes one look and said....."It's all blocked!!". He grabbed a handful of "yuck" to show me...... I got him a bag and he filled it up and cleaned about 8-10 ft. of trough. I asked him if he wouldn't mind taking a look at the front of the house to see if that trough was clear, and he gladly went and looked. All clear. When he came down he told me that because of the blockage, the water just built up and came shooting out of the nail holes, since the trough is attached with clamps now. That's all it was, and he reassured me that I did not need a new trough or any repairs at this point, but gave me an estimate just in case I decided to do it anyway at a later date. Vitaliy is so honest, so wonderful to deal with, he would never take advantage of a customer. I was the one who called an aluminum contractor who ended up doing the menial task of cleaning 10 ft. of my eavestrough!! He did it with pleasure, and the price was very reasonable.....especially considering I dragged him all the way over here for nothing, really. I highly recommend VCS Aluminum for any trough, soffit, fascia, or siding needs. Vitaliy is A1 ...... and yes, if there was a higher than 10/10 rating.....he would get it. My call was basically a false alarm, but he rectified the problem for me anyway.....with his cheerful, gracious personality. Vitaliy, you are a gem. Jan North York May 2014

I had been considering having my entire front lawn grass taken up for the last 4 years or so since being infested with Chinch bugs, which destroy the lawn, and of course, the grubs, and the non-stop weeds and crab grass, and creeping charlie.....you name it. It was costing $200+ each year for fertilizer, corn gluten, seed, ......more seed, and the time of course to weed and water and try to maintain a beautiful lawn. Finally I got fed up and this was the year. I called FSM Landscaping Inc., (stands for Full Service Maintenance) and was very quickly sent the head boss, Louis, who came to give me an estimate for the job. I was very pleased with his quote to remove 2.5 inches of the sod on my all hilly front yard which is framed with two garden beds of limestone rocks, and a newly installed custom curb all along the long, curved, 4 car long driveway. I knew this would be extra work for them, because it would require a lot of sod removal by hand against all of these edges. The day finally came to do the job this July, on a blasting, scorching hot day, actually unfit to even be outside, let alone working hard labour like this. Louis came with his two work mates, and they started the job right away. It took about 7 hours of non-stop work. When the sod was all up, Louis went over the entire yard again with the sod lifter to soften up the top layer of soil. Then it was raked beautifully to smooth it all out. And then....with great thanks, for a nominal extra charge, they laid all 70 bags of black mulch for me (which I had intended to do). But it was so so unbearably hot out, and was going to continue to be for the coming many days,.....I couldn't imagine doing all 70 bags myself. In no time, the three men had all the mulch down and raked beautifully. If there had been a rain storm in the coming days, I would have been in big muddy trouble without the mulch. They cleaned up beautifully, all sod was taken away, yard was immaculate. The three men, Louis, Nathan and Paul were an absolute pleasure to work with. I am VERY pleased with the job they did for me, and now I have a gorgeous, black mulch pallet to create my new drought tolerant, sun loving, grassless front yard. FSM Landscaping does all kinds of home maintenance work, in addition to what I had them do. You can check them out at http://www.fsmlandscaping.ca Thanks for a great job! Jan Green North York, Ont.

Well, Vitaliy holds up to his rave reviews for every aspect of his company's fine quality for price, timelines and job satisfaction. He returned my initial call promptly and was at my home the next day to assess the job and provide a quote. I was thoroughly pleased with his firm quote as he had come in quite a lot below 2 other companies I had estimates from. He felt that he could use my current eavestrough (as it was not old and was of the newer seamless type). All other companies wanted to put a brand new trough up. I needed my eavestrough, which was shared with my semi-attached neighbor, split at the half way point, caps put on their end and my end, and my trough to be removed and re-attached so that it sloped the other way. There was way too much water for one down pipe for two roofs. I also required a new down pipe as the old one remained with the neighbor's portion of the eavestrough. Vitaliy was able to do the job the very next day for me and I have to say it was flawless. He also noticed two other areas of concern with soffit issues on another part of the house and offered to fix those at a nominal charge. That was also done flawlessly. He is a pleasure to work with and genuinely cares about the job you need done. You would never have known he was here....no mess, no scrap pieces of anything. Perfect job!! I thoroughly recommend VCS aluminum for any of your aluminum needs for your home, and have already got a friend waiting for him to do a job at her house. I am so very pleased with his work and his customer approach. I will certainly call him again for any related needs. Thank you, Vitaliy.

I have a giant pantry cupboard in my kitchen with 6 very deep shelves. The height between shelves is also nice and high. Because of the size, this cupboard has been stacked with stuff for over 25 years and got to the point where there was so much stuff shoved to the back, that it just went bad or expired. It was too much effort to take everything out just to check what was back there. I went to Space Solutions Showroom at Eglinton and Bayview to see what they might have as a solution. I was greeted immediately and was given a thorough, professional and polite explanation of what they had to offer. I was immediately taken with the metal storage bins on rollers with varying heights for the bins. I bought one for each shelf. But the installation, although appearing easy enough, did seem complicated to me as four holes had to be drilled into each of the existing wooden shelves to secure the tracks for the wheels. I couldn't figure how I would be able to get my drill inside the cupboard and to the back of the shelf to drill downward to secure the screws, let alone see what I was doing. So, I asked them if they could provide an installer. Absolutely! It was about $100 to do the job, but worth every penny. The installer had this special tiny power drill just for jobs like this. He was a wonderful man, and did the job flawlessly. I was so pleased. Now I have these great pull out bins on each shelf and a neat and tidy giant pantry cupboard. Excellent service, fantastic price (as the bins were on sale), and superb customer service. I would go to them in a flash for any storage organizing needs.

I decided to go with ADT for my home security system in Aug. of 2011. BIG MISTAKE! First of all, the installer did a lousy job. Couldn't find the telephone line?? so he had to install it wirelessly....added cost, of course. Then, he screwed screws into my plaster walls and broke off pieces of plaster and left the residue all over the floor. He didn't give a damn that he was wrecking the walls. What kind of installer screws into plaster without drilling first for a plug insertion? Had to pay over $200 for the hardware and then $47 per month for monitoring. It took them over 4 months to figure out the billing for the monitoring fee. Never heard from them for months. Finally, in January of 2012 I got my first bill for monitoring.... $46.32. So, what happened to the previous 4 months....they had no idea. Then I realize that they have changed (SOLD) my Canadian account to Protect Your Home in Indianapolis, Indiana. Why? Just because. They tell me that only 5% of Canadian ADT customers' accounts are in the U.S. So, I have to call (toll free) every month to pay the monitoring fee over the phone. Or, I could simply give them my credit card number and it would come off automatically? I DON'T THINK SO. I was promised repeatedly, that it was only going to be a matter of time before my account would be in Canada. At the set up, and initial payment, I gave the installer a void cheque so that my monitoring could be automatically taken from my bank account in Toronto. That was part of the deal. Well, that never happened, and without any communication to me, my account was moved to the United States, in Indiana. What kind of disgusting customer service is that! So then, I was told that by July of 2012 my account would be relocated back to Canada. Didn't happen. Then I was told it would be done shortly after that. Didn't happen. It is now 3 months away from July 2013, and it hasn't happened. I'm sick and tired of this non stop nonsense from them. I know it isn't going to happen. And I am not prepared to call every 30 days to pay my monitoring fee. That is ridiculous. Then, about 5 months ago, my son who doesn't live with me accidentally came in and set off the alarm. While the siren was blasting, he called me at work and asked what to do. I told him not to worry, that the house phone would ring in a minute or so, and if he tells them the secret word, they will shut it off. After 5 minutes, he called me back, ..... no phone call from ADT. So, I gave him the passcode for the key panel and he disarmed it. STILL NO CALL FROM ADT!! When I got home, hours later, I called ADT to complain that no call was made to my house with the alarm going off. They made some lame excuse that it was disarmed 2.5 minutes after it went off. That was absolutely not true. And to add my last piece of complaint, I have approximately 8 different phone numbers that were given to me from ADT to call if I have an issue. Eight!?? And whichever one I call they tell me to call a different number. That is absolute nonsense. I am now totally fed up with the whole thing. I called ADT and the monitoring company in the U.S. to cancel the service immediately and got a new system put in from another company, and disconnected the whole ADT system. This kind of service, and selling Canadian accounts to an American monitoring company is disgraceful. Beware of ADT home security systems from whatever branch of ADT you might consider. I see there are like 20 of them listed all with different addresses and phone numbers.

I came upon an ad for Canadian Design Wood Flooring in a mail flyer and was pleasantly surprised by the promotion they had for hardwood flooring/installation. I went to the Scarborough showroom on Midland Ave., (there is another one in Brampton). I was met by Siva, the owner, and Logan, the sales representative. It is a small showroom, with little overhead, therefore, able to provide great prices. They both came to see the job at my house to give a firm estimate. Siva and Logan are friendly, and knowledgeable and stick to their word, offering the best price I could find for this huge job. The showroom has ample samples of all types of flooring, and offers many more services as well... carpets, granite countertops, etc. I was very impressed with the selection of flooring available and found an almost exact match to the Oak hardwood I had installed myself with a friend the year before on the main floor. Never again! Not worth the pain, the strain, the mess, the duration.....and no savings. The job entailed removing all of the existing carpet and underpad, and moving and relocating all of the furniture from 3 fully furnished bedrooms. I also wanted all furniture fitted with felt pads and protectors. The existing baseboard required a trim piece to cover the necessary small gap between floor and wall. They said they'd do the job as soon as I wanted it done. And they did. Wood was delivered a few days ahead for acclimatizing, and the installers came as scheduled. The installers, Vino, and his assistant, Rajah, were beyond excellent. Vino is an absolute professional, with talent beyond words. I have never seen anyone work with wood floors like this before. It was like watching a magician. He is a talented perfectionist, and a fast worker at the same time. He had every possible tool to assist the job for flawless installation. I was blown away with how beautifully he worked around the 11 door frames, and the adjoining ceramic tile in the bathroom. He and Rajah were delightful to work with. I was so very pleased. They worked tirelessly for two days to move all furniture from one room to the other and back again, removing all carpeting and underpadding first. They put protectors on all the furniture for me and did a beautiful job finishing the baseboard trim. All the dust and mess were cleaned up as they were working. I would recommend this company and these installers to anyone who wants a great job and gorgeous hard wood floors! Thank you! Jan Green July 2012

After getting quotes from 3 paving companies, and then reading about the horror stories that others had with those companies, I came upon Ludwig Paving Co. on Home Stars. I contacted them and there was no looking back! William came to estimate and explain the service that I would receive. He was punctual, friendly, extremely knowledgable, and committed to assuring me I would be satisfied with the work. Well, every cent was worth it. The excavation and paving were flawless. (The white custom made curbs were not done by Ludwig Paving. After the excavation, the curbs were made onsite by ProTech Curbs, and then followed by the precise paving job by Ludwig Paving.) The team of pavers from Ludwig are A-1. The job was done on time, and was flawless! In fact, if a driveway could be considered gorgeous, it was that! William was here for the whole process and it was evident that the whole team strive for perfection. The job was done in July 2012 and I know that THIS driveway will last for a very long time. Thank you to Ludwig Paving for your excellent work, work ethic, and satisfaction guaranteed policy. I am VERY pleased with the job! Finally, a company that sticks to its word! Jan G. 2012

My kitchen cabinet painting reno is magificent. I have jumped from 1980 to 2010 in one week! I can't say enought about the quality of workmanship and the passion that the painters showed towards making this kitchen cabinet transformation , one which will forever be cherished...by me!

I contacted Dave at Red Robin as one of 6 quotes for chimney parging and repairs to the adjacent walls where mortar was falling out on my 50 year old home. When I met Dave at my home for the quote process, his first remark was that they would make certain to take very good care of the beautiful wooden patio which sits under the chimney area. That pretty much sold me right there! Dave's quote was the best of the 6, and the work was scheduled within one week. Mike and Jeff were here most of the day and did a fantastic job repairing ALL of the loose mortar as well as helping me out by putting a special cover over the "fake" chimney flue next to the real one (which did have a cap on it). I was MUCH appreciative, as I can't get up onto roofs anymore. Dave is in almost immediate contact with you for any questions or concerns ,either by phone or email, before, during and after completion of the job. THAT is AMAZING and RARE service !! Not only were Dave and Jeff efficient, neat, professional and concerned with meticulous clean up, they were just down to earth great guys. The day was cold, very windy, and even threw in a bit of drizzly rain/snow. They were not going to leave until I was satisfied with every aspect of the job. It was done as perfectly as I could ever have expected it to be. Great work, and thank you for such efficient service! I highly recommend Red Robin Masonry and would have them back in a wink.