Rosemary TO

I needed a crew to deal with significant amount of dust throughout the house after our windows were replaced. Three people were sent out but really only two were needed. Patricia was in charge and she did a great job. She worked very hard and directed her two colleagues as well. They were somewhat less effective. The price was high and I'm not sure it was worth as much as I was charged. However, the floors, walls and shelves are clean and polished and I don't have to spend 10 or more hours of my own time trying to do it.

We were very satisfied with the quotation of our job and the installation quality. The actual time from order (and deposit) to installation was longer than we had anticipated, partly because of the time lag from the time we ordered until the measurements could be confirmed and then the actual order placed with the manufacturer. Unfortunately Northstar made a couple of errors on two of the 17 windows and we are waiting for these to be corrected. Frank and his team were great. In spite of us losing all of the original wood framing inside the house (our decision). He had been careful to photograph our original frames and so was able to create almost exact replicas with the new wood. Our home is 80 years old so this was definitely a creative effort. Frank's carpentry skills in replacing the framing resulted in minimal damage and all we need to do now is to paint the new wood. The job created a lot of dust and debris but they were meticulous in collecting and vacuuming up as much as possible. It would have been nice if they had cleaned the windows, especially the exteriors, before leaving. Overall we are delighted with the quality of the Northstar product and the Brock installation workmanship.

We live in an 80 year old home that has paint that is almost 1/4 inch thick in some places due to poor scraping and surface preparation by previous painters. Our disappointing experiences with painters led us to put off the work far longer than we should have. Triggered by the replacement of our windows and eaves troughs, the work could not be put off any longer. It was recommended that we paint before the windows were to be installed to ensure the least damage/impact on the windows. We met Aaron as his colleague was canvassing the neighbourhood for work. I was very impressed with Aaron's process for quoting on painting the exterior of our home. He scheduled an appointment to do a careful analysis of our needs, review the actual work and listen to our concerns regarding the need for proper preparation of the wood. Aaron spent a significant amount of time with us during his presentation. While the quotation was not the cheapest (we had received quotes from 3 other firms) we got the greatest sense of confidence from him that the work would be done thoroughly but workers who were dedicated to a high standard. The scheduling was tricky because we only had a tentative installation date for our windows but when the date was confirmed we contacted Aaron and he and Michael Holley came over the house to again review the requirements and agreed to reschedule another job to accommodate our timetable. Michael's team of women painters were amazing. In spite of the incredible heat and humidity they did not rush the job and were careful to properly scrape and sand before applying primer and two coats of paint. When they encountered very thick previous coats that could not be removed properly and would have resulted in an unsightly alligator texture under the new paint, they called Michael and he supplied them with a heat gun to remove that paint, right down to the original wood. They continued to use the heat gun when the scraping proved ineffective, without me having to point it out. Even though this caused the job to take a bit longer than originally anticipated, Michael honoured our previously stated expectations for thorough surface preparation and did not present us with a bill for the extra time. I wish I could post a before and after picture here to illustrate what an amazing job Briella and her co-workers did. This is definitely the best paint job we've had on the exterior of our house and I would not hesitate to recommend Pro Works Painters.

Prompt, efficient and knowledgeable service. We contacted Macklam's Chimney Cleaning after noticing some discolouration on the exterior of the chimney. They scheduled an appointment for 9am and the chimney cleaner showed up on time, inspected and cleaned the chimney and was done by 9:30. He was able to identify the reason of the stain (water damage from leaking eavestroughs) and assured us that repointing the bricks would take care of the problem. The cleaning was done efficiently with a minimum of ash dust falling outside the fireplace. Always very satisfied with Macklam's.