F,E&H in Toronto

Elysha, Nelson and Colin did a great job on our bathroom. The renovations we well done and true to our specifications and needs. They were open to design ideas and didn't shy away from requests or changes that improved our bathroom but resulted in more work. They found ways to solve problems - didn't give up - and made improvements upon our original design that make our bathroom nicer. Elysha hunted for chair rail tile and got what we wanted. What's really unique is their ability to communicate - which is not the norm for most renovators. Easy in-person convos. They responded quickly to emails and requests, no fuss and no rigamarole. We will definitely use them again.

Sixpenny have done a number of jobs for us. We get lots of comments on the custom doors, including the screen door on our front porch. Both guys are easy to work with, they communicate well and we would have them back again

We had Royal Crown out to fix work done by a previous company whose work amplified our ice damming and icicle problems. Alex and Damian from Royal Crown were communicative, flexible and prompt with calls and emails. The installer was conscientious, although the fact that a trough installer did not know what to do with the heating wire installed in our existing troughs was a bit bewildering. Royal Crown's work did help reduce (but not solve) our ice problems, however, since the install we've had drips and leaks in a few spots and two portions of trough that pool water and do not drain properly. Unfortunately, despite multiple requests, we have not been able to coerce Royal Crown into returning to fix these problems. We definitely prefer Royal Crown to the other company we've had in the past, but it looks like we will have to get a third company out to work on our troughs.

OTA TV antenna supply and installation: Prompt emails, good communication, clear pricing, open to modifications and changes to the job, tried a few setups, antenna works well. Would call again.

Last fall Green Gardeners levelled, replanted and resodded our front yard and made it look fantastic. They were ontime, worked the full day, and actively went out of their way to save us money. We were very happy with their work.

Amberwood were fantastic. My order was small but their service was excellent. The doors like great, quality is very good and they match the remaining original doors very well. Art in particular was very helpful and put up with my many questions despite our small order. Highly recommended

Belyea Bros West were recommended to us by a colleague in the architecture and property management field. We called Belyea Bros West in the morning and Darren arrived by noon. Darren was polite, helpful, answered a tonne of questions and was very respectful of our newly-installed floor. He did exactly what was asked, didn't sell us on extra services and we'll be very happy to call him again for our next plumbing services. They did not disappoint.

We were having new floors installed. They could have interfered with the plugs in our basement. So we called Eric in to advise and we're glad we did. Eric was a lifesaver.

The good: Decent product - Our blinds are in and look very nice. || Excellent installer – on-time, courteous and careful. || The not-so-good: Product confusion – We were originally quoted a price for a product not offered by our preferred manufacturer, not sure how that happened so we had to have a second quote done. || Slow, slow, slow - They didn’t ask for a deposit until a month after we ordered. Then they waited a few more weeks to charge us. It took almost five months from quote to installation. || Charged us more than anticipated – After failing to charge our deposit for weeks, the deposit was more than we were told to expect, and then they charged us a second time that same week (without notice), to the tune of > 90% of the contract value when both charges were combined. || Communication – No updated contract after payments and no receipts, despite multiple requests by phone. No response to emails. || Product confusion, again – The product is fine, but not of the quality/specifications we asked for (plastic hinges instead of metal, not fully all wood pieces). It turns out that the blinds aren’t the brand that we were told they were (which I could never find online anyway); the brand we received can be had at Home Depot or direct from the manufacturer and are regularly advertized on TV as a discount brand.

Top notch. Will definitely call these guys again the next time I need a locksmith. Spadina Security were prompt and professional. They came out for a quote the day after I called them, didn’t turn down the job due to its relatively small size and did the job at my convenience a week later. Neither one of their staff tried to upsell me on anything; they saved me money by realizing the limitations of the door system I had and not recommending super-fancy hardware that wouldn’t have added to the security of my home. They also took a look at some interior hardware that had been giving me trouble and did this at no extra charge.

Super easy to deal with. The company came by and gave us a written quote for removal of our 15 ft cedar bush whiel we were at work. We customized the job over the phone, Arborwood did the job while we were at work, took away all of the waste and left us the invoice. On their own volition, they determined that our front tree was city-owned and that having them prune it would be a waste of our money. That's class. Wenda and her crew were 100 percent hassle free.

This was our third job for Clint and the third time was a charm. Clint built a concrete pad in our basement so we could have all of our appliances on a level footing and raised to arm-level. He was on-time, cleaned up well, was easy to deal with and managed to extend the pad even where our irregular basement floor made it more challenging. We're happy once again.

We were very impressed by Clint when he fixed our foundation and our chimney, so we were happy to have him come back to attach some exterior fixtures to our brick house. Once again, Clint was a pleasure to work with. He had no qualms about working on such a small project; he showed up on time, with the correct tools; his price was extremely reasonable and we're happy with his work. The job ended up being a bit more complicated than we all expected and Clint proved himself to be a pretty good problem solver. Once again, we are very happy with Clint.

The previous owners of our house had re-wired the majority of the house, informing us that there was only a minimal amount of knob and tube left in the building. Eric was easy to deal with from the get-go. He was on-time for his quote, provided a very thorough assessment, and suggested a number of additional ideas, including adding potlights in our living room and a central fan in our upstairs hall. He quoted us for the possible worst-case scenario with a promise to only do what was needed. Eric was true to his word and re-wired only the cricuits that proved to be k&t - exactly what the previous homeowners had told us. His suggestions were helpful and we're glad we took his advice on potlights and ceiling fans. Eric and his crew showed up early, worked all day and had our re-wire done in two days. They acommodated on-the-fly requests with ease and were pleasant and easy to deal with. The plasterers who came afterwards in commented that the holes Eric had made in the hall and the ceiling were minimal compared to most other electricians they had seen. When it came time for the inspection, Eric arranged his schedule to allow for the ESA inspection to be done on his time, saving us a significant inconvenience. We're happy with Eric and would recommend him to others.

We needed plaster repair after removing the wallpaper from our 1930s plaster walls and having some electrical replaced to bring our house up to modern standards. Adding new light fixtures also revealed a number of nicks, dents and scratches in the plaster that weren’t previously evident. Plasterers were difficult to get in for quotes – we called at least ten tradesmen and their prices/advice varied. Kris came in for an initial quote about a day after calling him. One of the things that stood out was his ability to communicate what needed to be done and how he would do it. He avoided the ‘quick and dirty’ fixes that some other quotes recommended and his price was the most competitive of the bunch. He wasn’t in-and-out like others we had in for quotes; Kris and Pete were in for more than an hour, answering all of questions, presenting a number of options for our consideration and showing us before-and-after examples of their work. We had Kris and Pete in to patch, skim and paint our main floor hallway, upper floor hallway, our living room and a bedroom. They did an excellent job – you can’t find any of the holes the electrician put in the wall, you'd never geuss we used to have wall sconces, and the small imperfections that we could see under new lighting are no longer visible. They went beyond our expectations – taking care around our main floor gumwood, re-painting the baseboards on our upper floors to contrast well with the new paint colour and covering everything while working and painting. Our original plan was to have them repair the plaster and leave the painting to us, but we're glad we had Kris paint for us - he did a great job, the added cost was very reasonable and he handled on-the-fly requests without complaint. Highly recommended.

Getting someone to take on a small custom project is difficult in most cases - as I soon learned, trying to find someone to do some bronze work was even harder. The commercial/industrial foundries weren't interested, most of the retail-level service providers don't allow for much consumer input or customization and anything done overseas involves shipping costs that will can exceed the cost of the project. Brett agreed to take on my project - he produced a custom design, informed of all the steps in the process and provided an exptremely reasonable quote. He was creative, communicative and easy to work with. The final product was beyond my expectations.

Glenn came through when we needed firewood on short-notice; he was on time and on budget, accomodating and easy to deal with and provided good value for the amount of wood we ordered.

After servicing our fireplace insert and finding some deficiencies, Magic Touch reconnected the liner to the insert, swept the chimney and flashed the liner to the chimney to prevent rain and animals from entering our chimney. They were on-time, friendly, explained each job in detail and were once again easy to deal with.

We had Magic Touch out to inspect our liner and wood-burning fireplace insert. It was easy to set up an appointment with them, they called to confirm a day in advance of the appointment, they showed up on time and left no mess. They gave us an inspection of our fireplace and liner, identified where things were right and where they needed to be fixed, and provided us with advice on what steps to take next.

If only more tradesmen could be like Clint! We had Clint do a few jobs. His quote for the chimney was less expensive than other quotes we had; his quote for the foundation was slightly more expensive than others (not by much) but *way* better value - doing things Clint's way (e.g. the right way, no quick and dirty fixes like some other masons wanted to do) would take more manhours and more materials. In the end he charged us exactly what was quoted and he left the work site clean. Three things stood out about Clint: || 1. He’s a good communicator -- Clint was thorough when he came over for the quote. Some masons were on-site for 20 minutes – we kept Clint for almost two hours. He answered all of our questions about multiple projects and problems, many not relating to the job he was quoting us. He was friendly, helpful and easy to talk to. || 2. He fixed the problem the right way -- We had a unique issue with our double-brick foundation of our 1930s house. We had a heritage architect in for advice who warned that that the problem could be exacerbated if we used modern-day materials, and that the most prudent approach was to fix the problems new brick and lime-based mortar. We had a number of masons in for quotes and their recommendations varied, but Clint was the only one who recommended the same fix as our architect did. He repaired the foundation brick by brick and sourced old-style mortar which some other masons seemed unaware of. He also rebuilt our chimney, matching the new brick to the dated rug brick of our house. || 3. He was accommodating -- Other masons wanted to charge us per-wall minimum fees for things like tuckpointing or fixing the odd loose brick. Clint and René accommodated these requests, often on the fly, without charging us an arm and a leg. We highly recommend Clint and look forward to calling him for future projects on our house.