diyanotherday

We live in a three-storey townhouse and wanted to get the stairwell walls repainted. The walls had accrued a lot of marks, stains, and minor damage over the years and the original paint was not very easy to clean. Normally we do our own painting, but this would have been a difficult and dangerous job due to the height (up to 20 feet on all three levels). We got four quotes from local paint outfits. JDavis was on the higher side (about 20% higher than the lowest quote) and wasn't able to do the work for a few weeks (not sure what the typical turnaround is though) but had the most comprehensive assessment of the space and what we were looking for. The free touch-up service really sold us, since we are guaranteed to mark or damage the paint hauling things up and down the stairs. We had a two-person painting team show up exactly at the agreed-upon time. They did a quick reassessment, did some additional sanding, and opted to use a specialized primer on some of the worse marks. They did the entire job in two days and checked in with us about things like the picture hardware that was staying in the wall. They put down cloths etc. so that no drips or anything got on the floor or stairs and cleaned up well. It looks amazing; it's a smooth, unbroken finish and a lot tidier than we could have done.

I closed the garage door one morning and discovered that it was slanted. It was on the ground on one side and about two inches off the ground on the other. It was impossible to open or close using the motor and the car was stuck inside. I assumed that the cables needed adjusting and called Fix It Right because I didn't want to mess with the spring. I was expecting to wait a few days before getting a service person out, but they sent someone within a couple of hours. They diagnosed a broken cable and pointed out that all of the door hardware was rusted out and likely to fail. They gave us three options: Replace the cable ($350), replace all the hardware ($850), or replace the entire door ($2600). We went with the middle option since the other components would have failed fairly soon anyway. They switched everything out in about 90 minutes and the door is now working perfectly. It's a lot quieter than it was before; I didn't know that doors are not supposed to sound like small aircraft but presumably that was our crummy hardware.

We hired Appliance Repair Genie to fix our washing machine, which was showing an A10 error (long drain). They called us just after we posted the request and said they could come right out. They offered to not charge us tax if we paid cash, which we declined. A technician came out quickly and said the pump needed to be replaced. They charged us $340 for the part. They called us the next day to say the technician wasn't working with them anymore and they'd send out someone else plus an apprentice. They looked at the machine again and said the pump was fine and it was now showing a F26 error and the motor/tachometer would need to be replaced. They said they'd try to get the new part in a hurry. They came out the next day and said that the machine was now showing a different F error code and they were giving up trying to fix it. When I inquired about a partial refund, they stopped returning my calls/texts. Summary: Came out three times, didn't fix my washing machine, charged me $340 for a part I did not receive, ghosted me afterwards.

I have a Whirlpool front-loading washing machine that broke down on the weekend. The motor to rotate the drum would not come on, so nothing could get washed. I wrote up a service request on Sunday evening and got an offer from Noble within the hour to come out on Monday morning. Adriano showed up right on time, confirmed the issue (worn out carbon brushes) within about 5 minutes, and had the parts on hand to effect a repair. Everything was quick and courteous, and I'm very happy to have my machine back. What made this a truly great service call is that I felt respected throughout the entire process. I'd already looked at the machine, run the onboard diagnostics, and sent over the error codes. Adriano didn't try to talk down to me or run all the tests again, he took me at my word and got straight to work fixing things.

We rent a water heater from Enercare, and one day it stopped heating water very well. Enercare sent someone out, who said that he couldn't fix it because it was the mixing valve on top of the unit (and not the unit itself). We hired A to Z to replace it. Communication was quick, though we had to reschedule the original appointment when it got unexpectedly pushed back on the day. The job was completed in an hour or two and the new valve worked well, but started leaking from the joints (brazed copper) a few hours after installation. A to Z came back the next day and fixed it, and it's been working fine since.

We hired Arby to move everything in our two-bedroom apartment across town, mostly on the strength of the reviews here and the fact that their quote was about half as much as anyone else offered us. In the end, we paid quite a bit less as they wrapped up the job quicker than predicted and only charged us for the actual time used. We were moving out of a high-rise and into a low-rise, and they sent three people in a big truck. They managed to clear the apartment in less than 90 minutes and unload in about the same amount of time, despite the heat and lots of stairs. Nothing got damaged, and they were careful about checking with us before moving fragile things (pictures, musical instruments, lights). We aren't planning on moving in the near future, but I would definitely use Arby again and would recommend them.

A few years back, we bought a new kitchen from IKEA and opted to have their subcontractors install it. Janovski was the countertop vendor/installer, and acted throughout the whole process like they didn't want our business. We had to constantly call and chase them for weeks to even get a quote, and they eventually said that our countertop was too complicated for them to do (it's an L-shape with a cutout). We ended up going with a separate manufacturer and installer, just so that we could get the thing done. Avoid.

We live in an older condo, with aluminium wiring and plastic raceways glued to concrete walls. Three out of the four outlets in one bedroom suddenly stopped working, so we gave Brian a call (he'd previously worked on a kitchen renovation we did a few years back). We were expecting to have to rip out the entire raceway, figure out what was wrong and then replace it with a different product. However, to our immense relief Brian managed to diagnos things quickly and effect a repair. Everything is now working well, and he left the work site very clean. We'd certainly hire him again for any electrical work.

We wanted to have our living room (about 20' x 10' x 8') repainted quickly and neatly, so that we could sell our condo in the near future. Finer Edge quoted us $400 and said that they could do it in a single day. We were really happy with the result. They asked lots of questions and came to check the place out before starting. The paint job was extremely neat, and they'd obviously spent some time on wall preparation as it was a lot smoother than before. They painted the ceiling at no additional cost, and I later found out that they weren't completely happy with the wall colour and added a third topcoat (again, at no additional cost). They even moved the furniture back afterwards, and the place was spotless. I'd definitely use these guys again, and will recommend them personally.