ponderingdave in Toronto

Overall I was satisfied with the work given the reasonable price. I should qualify this review by saying I think the job was trickier than Behrouz realized, and also that I have some idea about engineering and am pretty fussy about how things are done. There was an issue with rebar placement that the Building Inspector said was not correct. Also, Behrouz was going to have the ceiling inside sloping from one end of addition to the other, without mentioning this to me. It came out in a conversation but it meant some redoing and a not altogether satisfactory modification. On the other hand, Behrouz made a few good calls such as moving the beam placement because the architect had misdrawn a window. He also got steel columns with thicker walls than the Structural Engineer called for, and sunk the steel beams twice as deep into the house wall as the Structural Engineer called for. Behrouz would agree with my various requests, but sometimes his crew wouldn't do them and I'd have to chase after him to get it done. I asked the drywall guy who did the interior afterwards what he thought of the framing since I figure he's seen a lot and could be more objective. He said it was typical. In his opinion it rated a 7/10, so that is what I have given.

Julio and his helper did a great job and was a real pleasure to deal with. He went out of his way to be accommodating, and made a great suggestion.

Leo is a good guy to deal with, and his guys do excellent work. The only reason I took off one star is because the guys ravaged my front garden including killing a beautiful Japanese Maple.

Stephane is not a tradesman, he is a Master Craftsman in the Old World sense. He is fastidious with maintaining a very high standard of quality using better materials than what is commonly used. And his price is good. The framing on this job, particularly around the windows, had some problems and Stephane spent a long time adjusting the drywall to compensate for them. The finished result is amazing.

The tricky thing about spray foam insulation is you have to be out of the house for 24 hours afterwards. This means booking a hotel, so you want the contractor to do the spray on the scheduled day. Asher was pleasant to deal with, and came right on time when he said he would. It is hard for a homeowner to judge how well jobs like this are done because I am no expert. But the drywall fellow who has seen numerous spray foam jobs said SCI did a top notch job. So that's good enough for me to leave a top notch review.

My job involved some tricky stonework. At first I wanted my columns wrapped in brick, but there was nothing available that matched my house brick. Daniel and Greg strongly suggested I go with stone and I am glad I listened to them. The columns look great. The foundation the stone columns sit on was too small so the guys had to do some steel work. Then at the top there were gussets to work around, requiring some complicated cutting of the caps. Dealing with Daniel, Greg and Anthony was a real pleasure. Daniel is extremely personable, and I could tell Greg was very knowledgeable on the technical side of things. All in all, I would highly recommend this company.

Saba, an architect working for QBS Architects Inc., came to my house with, and at the behest of, a builder I was discussing a small addition to the side of my house with. Saba agreed to do the design, structural drawings, and obtain a building permit for $4000. I paid her $2000 and she did the design drawings which were good. Subsequently, I decided not to use the builder because he doubled his price from his original ballpark estimate. When Saba found out I would not use this builder, she said she would not complete the rest of the contract unless I paid more money than the agreed amount. I said we had a signed contract and I would not pay more. I then received an email from Saba saying: "Sorry am not willing to proceed." To sign a contract and not complete it is unprofessional in my opinion. I cannot recommend either Saba or QBS. It is a pity because the design drawings she did were fine. I asked her why the builder I use would make any difference to my contract with her? She never replied.

The two young guys were good at moving the furniture. But they used foul language between themselves which I thought was very unprofessional. Also, at the end of the move the time was 3 1/2 hours as predicted in the quote which was $700. But the company wanted to tack on an extra hour and a half for travel time. I thought "dock to dock" meant furniture pickup dock and destination drop-off dock. But the office said it was office dock to office dock! The actual time it took them to run back and forth from their office was only 40 minutes. I argued the point vociferously and they backed off, but I thought this was very poor practice and hence my low rating.