Marianne in Mississauga

Kyle replaced our 10.5 year old tankless water heater (Navien CR-180 natural gas) with a new unit (NPE-210S) in October 2020 (Mississauga). We were without hot water when we contacted Kyle and were surprised but appreciative that he was able to perform the work later that same day. He observed all COVID-19 procedures, respected our home by putting down a tarp from the front to the basement doors, and completed the work in about two hours. Kyle was clear, direct, and professional and we would not hesitate to recommend him.

Inline Fiberglass makes a beautiful product and we love the windows we had installed in November 2015. We chose fiberglass windows because we wanted black windows that were paintable in case we or future owners wanted to repaint them. We also appreciated what we'd researched about the greater durability and strength of fiberglass windows. Pros - The product is awesome - our windows seem larger as there is more glass space per window - The installation team was top notch Scope details - Fiberglass windows factory painted black inside and out - Brick to brick installation - Combination of Low "E" (Hard Coat 180 or Soft Coat 272, depending on location of window) with argon gas and Super Spacer - 3 1/2" Jamb Extensions (paint grade) - Standard black plastic hardware - 10 windows, mostly casement (1 awning); 1 bay window with side casements; 1 six foot wide patio door - 1 1/4" flat aluminum grills in a pattern at the top of the glass including a shadow bar between the inner and outer panes to simulate true divided lights on all products except the patio doors (which had grills only) - Install of mouldings that we supplied on all windows and patio door except for the bay window and kitchen window as those required custom details that we did ourselves Cons - Lead time was supposed to be 10 weeks and it took over 20 - Limited communication after the 10 week mark despite repeated follow-up Luckily we were persistent and the windows were installed before the winter in November 2015 (signed contract in July). Inline Fiberglass redeemed themselves with the top notch product and installation team. Some things that made our job more expensive were the custom paint job, number of casement windows, and the custom grills. We don't regret these extras but one can certainly save quite a bit by sticking with a standard colour and getting plain windows. Despite the issues we experienced we would still recommend Inline to anyone seeking a high quality fiberglass product and will contact them when we are ready to replace our basement windows. Job price pre-HST

Keating Roofing was a professional company to deal with and did a great job on our roof. We contacted them Spring 2018 asking for a fall 2018 job. We have solar pool heating and didn't want to lose our pool season. We contacted 11 companies but received quotes from about half. Because we had to pay another company to remove and reinstall our solar heating system, our priority was a quality job so that the roof wouldn't fail before the solar pool heating equipment needed replacement. We had a long list of requirements and Keating quickly became the benchmark. Supposedly "better" quotes became more comparable in price once we factored in the extras we wanted - e.g., ice and water shield in the area beneath our solar pool heating equipment, extra ice and water shield around the eaves (6' total depth), drip edge. Keating also offered the best warranty for the black Landmark shingles we'd selected: a Certainteed SureStart plus 5-Star Warranty. That sealed the deal for us as we wanted a roof that would stand the test of time. The roof was installed in October 2018. Vlad was professional and communicative. We believe our roof will stand the test of time and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. Job price is pre-HST.

Dri Seal was recommended to us by Pro Concrete, who installed our exposed aggregate concrete curbs, walkways, planter boxes, and steps in 2016. We initially contacted Peter in 2018 when we were due to have our concrete re-sealed but we were away for a substantial part of the summer and eventually missed the season when we were ready to proceed in the fall. We contacted Peter in the spring of 2019 and he honoured our quote. He did a quick and professional job.

** Work done June 2016. Pro Concrete did an excellent job on my sister's front walkway and had done a number of jobs in her neighbourhood. My other sister and I then contacted the company and each had an excellent experience with them. They provided a detailed written quote during the first visit, complete with measurements and a drawing. Our original scope excluded our front bricked planter boxes because we didn't think we could afford to replace them. We later had them come back to re-quote and are so happy we did: in the grand scheme the cost was nominal (a few thousand dollars) because the higher volume of concrete lowered the cost per square foot and the finished product looks incredible. Their on-site crew was excellent. Within a few days, they demolished our old walkway, cleared our old shed and greenhouse from the backyard, prepared the area, built the forms, poured everything, exposed the aggregate, and returned a week later to seal the job. They provided us with a catalog outlining many jobs, broken down by city, year of installation, and address. We were encouraged to look at the oldest jobs because they were indicative of the long-term quality of the work. Our scope included: Exposed aggregate front walkway/steps/platform and planter boxes with bullnosing, flat curbs on both sides of the driveway, a walkway that continued into the backyard, and a step to the garage, and a set of steps to our side door. We also had two small plain slabs poured in our backyard for a shed and pool equipment. We received many quotes from companies we found on Homestars and Pro Concrete's was the most competitive for our scope of work. The attached photos are both from 2016 when the job was initially completed (comparison shots) as well as one showing how things look today. We last had it sealed Spring 2019. I expect our concrete to last a good long time but if we ever needed another concrete job we wouldn't hesitate to hire Pro Concrete.

We were referred to Canadian Leak Detection Toronto to fix a suspected leak prior to proceeding with vinyl liner replacement. The premise is that you only pay for leak detection if they find a leak. They provide specific instruction to measure the volume of water leaking. In providing the report after detecting the leak they provided a no obligation quote to fix the leak and amark the area where the leak was found. We elected to proceed with fixing the leak and the technician was very professional and did an excellent job. Suggestions for improvement would be to engage a bit more in email as sometimes we were playing telephone tag. Second minor point was that I had to follow up for details of how the leak would be fixed. Neither of these things would get in the way of recommending the company to others. Great job.

Eagle Paving did a good job on our driveway straightforward double driveway (no sidewalk) without disturbing the new flush curbs we'd had installed. The reason I would be hesitant to recommend is that communication was unreliable. I even tried to refer them to a family member and dispite claiming that they would come by to drop off a quote they never did. We hired Eagle Paving because they were the City of Mississauga's paving contractor for our local watermain replacement project. The price paid reflects our share of the driveway cost; the rest was covered by the city.

No issues with the professionalism or service of the representative doing the work. They located the issue with our kitchen drain (calcification) and snaked it. The issue is largely with price, which included a service package to get a "preferred" rate. It cost more to unclog the drain than it did to get our air conditioner moved this year, and the latter appeared to be significantly more effort on the part of the company doing the work.

We were referred to Brock Doors and Windows by friends of ours who had had their windows replaced by them. (Our window company does not do entry doors.) We researched several companies and obtained many quotes prior to contacting Brock, as we were looking to eliminate a side lite and centre the same size entry door (36") in the existing opening (48"), and having the resulting gaps on each side capped. Prior to contacting Brock, only two companies we contacted were willing to do the full scope of work, and we were not interested in coordinating the construction work on the opening separately from installation of the entry door. Our sales rep was Matthew. We found him great to deal with - he was responsive and knowledgeable. We began the process with Matthew during a 20% off sale, and he honoured that as we signed our quote shortly after the sale had ended. The price was very competitive for the quality of the door we received. We know this because we received a quote on the same Dorplex entry door from a major retailer during a door promotion for the same scope of work, and Brock easily beat their quote. As a result, we added a side entry door and a side garage door as well. The product we selected was a 36" full lite Dorplex door with Lisbon glass, and we paid to have it painted black inside and outside. We also paid Brock to complete the construction work to shrink the entry and to cap the exterior gaps. Interior work was rough finish (drywall only, no mudding/taping), but we agreed to that going in. Our side door is a half lite Dorplex door with Lisbon glass, and we also paid for it to be painted black inside and out. Our side garage door is an executive panel door factory painted black on the outside only. Lastly, we added an Emtek Melrose handleset with Merrimack lever in dark pewter for the main entry door only, and re-used our relatively new handlesets on the side and side garage doors. The price below reflects the total price for the three doors, one handleset, and HST. As additional interior finish work was required, we agreed that we would handle our own interior trim installation. Our post-sales contact was Angelyka. She was great to deal with as well. We were particularly impressed with how she handled an issue that arose when one of the installers noticed that our handleset backplate was scratched. My husband, who was supervising on site, called Angelyka, and she immediately said that she would order a new handleset to be installed upon its arrival, and in the meantime the installer would install the existing handleset until the new one arrived. No back-and-forth necessary. Our one quibble would be that it would have been more convenient to be provided with an e-mail address for Angelyka rather than a phone number and extension. (I do not recall ever being given an e-mail address for her.) That said, she was still very responsive to our enquiries. We did have some issues with the installers themselves. Some examples... My husband needed to remind the installers to put blocking at either side of the entry door in the gaps that were created by centering the door - the lead installer was going to leave the sides hollow behind the flashing. To his credit, the installer did not argue with my husband and did put in the blocking, but it's worth mentioning nonetheless. One installer was unable to install the handleset (it needed to be done by the lead installer). My husband had to point out to them where they had missed cleaning spray foam from one of the doors. Lastly, my husband had to scrape out additional wood from the dead bolt opening post-installation in order for the deadbolt to operate smoothly. Despite these issues, our experience with Brock was on the whole positive, and we would recommend them to others. Attached is a photo with a "before/after" of the entry, as well as closeups of the exterior of each door.

We were referred to Robert and Canadian Garage Door Guys by my sister, who had just had her garage door replaced with a CHI garage door. She chose a Long Panel Carriage House garage door with Madison windows in Wood Tone Accents "Mahogany" finish. The door looks amazing, and she was very happy to refer me to Robert from Canadian Garage Door Guys as a result of his expertise, price, and service. We originally wanted dark painted garage doors (black or charcoal) but could not find a product or price we were happy with. (Black and Charcoal tend to be custom or premium colours that come at a premium price, and after much consideration my husband and I decided against a standard long panel garage door.) We did extensive research and obtained many other quotes from various companies before contacting Robert, and we can confidentally say he provided us with the best quote given the quality and style of the door we were interested in. We chose an Accents Planks door with four thermal frosted glass windows across the top in Wood Tone Accents "Dark Oak" finish. It's a unique look, and my husband and I couldn't be happier as it (along with subsequent window and door changes we made this year) have totally changed the look of our house. Robert delivered the product on time and the installation team did a great job. The garage door was capped by a separate person, referred by Robert. Very nice gentleman who did a good job for a good price, but we did have communication issues in terms of timing, organization, and follow-up. We are not factoring that into our review of Canadian Garage Door Guys, however, because that work was negotiated separately. We would refer anyone to Canadian Garage Door Guys who are looking for a good quality, high-end product at an excellent price. Robert was knowledgeable and professional and was great to deal with. Note that the garage door was the first exterior change we made this year. The windows are no longer cream.

The scope of the job was extensive, including: - Replacing an existing set of steps with a new patio area - Building a new set of steps in a different location for a newly-installed set of patio doors - Re-designing steps that lead to a pool - Extending the patio by building a new patio area on the other side of our house, which required escavation and a bit of a retaining wall as a result of the grading of our lot - Re-building an existing retaining wall, including the installation of a new weepage system to allow for proper drainage I contacted Burl-Oak after spending six weeks on the quoting process with another landscaping company. Despite several site visits, the first company was only comfortable providing a quote that was conditional at best, with the price depending on a number of noted variables. I contacted Burl-Oak on July 15. I was immediately impressed by Lou'ay Sulaiman's professionalism. He phoned me within a couple of hours after I sent my e-mail and was honest that Burl-Oak's schedule was full and that they were booking jobs well into the fall. Though we were hoping to complete the job during the summer months, we realized that many landscaping companies were booked and appreciated that Burl-Oak would have been able to squeeze us in at all, and elected to proceed with a quote. Lou'ay visited our home that night, discussed the particulars (such as the re-use of as much of the existing material as possible to keep costs down), and provided a quote broken down by major aspects of the job within 15 minutes. The quote was very competitive -- 20% less expensive than the best "conditional" quote provided by the first landscaping company we were working with -- and we decided to proceed with the project. The work took place the first week of November. I've posted an annotated picture of the "before" as well as a few detailing the results. The job took six days and we found Burl-Oak Landscaping to be very professional. Given the scope of the work, we feel we received very good value for money. Note that the price for the scope of work was tax-inclusive (just under $6900 before taxes -- that includes the last-minute change), and that we were able to achieve that price in part because we re-used as much of the existing material as possible. (e.g., from the sliding door steps, pool steps, and retaining wall). Burl-Oak did a great job incorporating the new sections into our existing interlock patio and we are very pleased with its transformation. We look forward to enjoying it next summer, and feel that the re-design will makes our backyard more functional. We appreciate the big part Burl-Oak Landscaping played in helping us to achieve our vision, and we would not hesitate to recommend them and use them for our future landscaping needs.