Karl Littler in Toronto

Vlad and team cut out and installed a window for a basement room. It is day one after installation but it completely changes the lighting and look of the room, which had been windowless before. The window looks great and functions well. Waterproofing PD is an easy company to deal with: a prompt visit and quote and sticking to their stated timelines. They are clearly busy (and I can see why) but friendly, responsive and professional. A special shout out to Katarina, who was quick to respond when I had any questions re timing and payment. Word Count: 96

Our furnace gave up the ghost on December 17, 2019 and the DeMark name came up first when I google-searched and I am glad it did. You always wonder whether companies are Astroturfing their sites with positive reviews but I can assure you that I had no connection at all and in fact, had never even heard of DeMark before this week. Mike (and Victoria, who I reached first) were great as were the guys who did the work. The price ($3,000+HST, so $3,390) was for a Goodman Model GMEC96, installed and with the old furnace removed. Not only did I find the price reasonable but there were NO add-ons, upsells or any other charges, plus it was arranged for the next morning after the evening on which our furnace died. Our house isn't big <1500 square feet, so you might need a bigger model if you have a significantly bigger house but it strikes me that this was a very reasonable overall cost and excellent service.

A mixed experience. The response was prompt and the service technician was friendly, chatty and still efficient. BUT the pricing is crazy. The basic visit costs $80, which is waived if they do any work at all. There is no hourly rate and you get a price for the job - $320 + HST In my case, I was told the usual bafflegab about reprogramming the electronics, etc and a whole list of other technical sounding work, so I agreed to have the work done. In reality, all the technician did on that front was to do the same reset I did myself. What he really did was pull bits of Freezie wrapper out of the deeper part of the filter. In all, the time spend working on it was less than 20 minutes and for that I had committed to paying $320+HST. It is cleverly priced. You're already committed to at least $80, so the additional $240 needs to be weighed against the inconvenience of a broken dishwasher and the cost of calling out an alternative service. I want to be clear that I think tradespeople should be paid decently and a base-cost of say $200/hr would have been acceptable to me even if that "hour" only required 20 mins work (the guy still had to drive here and so on). But $320 for 20 mins and no hourly rate seems like gouging to me, especially as they make the situation sound more dire and complex until they have your signature.