Stairs R Us.

We hired Stairs R US in 2005 to renovate our existing stairs from the main floor to the upstairs. A new hardwood stair was installed and the risers had a thin oak piece glued on so it looked like oak. A new railing was installed and the boxed in stairs on the right side in the pictures was opened. The problem began when we noticed the owner was not supervising his workers, who whenever I saw them had a cell phone to their ear. When asked where dad was, we were told he'll be here soon. When the job was finished there were definite problems. When looking from the front door, one stair half way up looked to be on a slant and the railing had two rungs on one stair. There was a hole that I could put my finger through on the riser where the two rungs were situated, unseen in the pictures. The bottom stair was not to code. The railings weren't flush with the handrail as seen in the pictures. We called several times asking Stairs R Us to look and fix the problems. Never came. A letter was mailed and never responded to. Fortunately, only a deposit was given and they never saw the balance. The stairs looked horrible and cheap. We hired a second company who ripped out completely the Stairs R Us stairs and replaced the poor quality work done by Stairs R Us. I would not recommend them as a company who supplies good quality or one that stands behind their product or service.

Unprofessional: They rarely showed up at the appointed time and rarely notified us when they wouldn't be coming.

Untalented: They rely on wood filler instead of on precise installation.. Almost plumb is good enough for them. They are very sloppy when applying stain; overspraying everywhere. They sand across the grain instead of with the grain which results in a pretty ugly stained finish.

Quality control is lacking. Not even the owner, Darian, catches the little details. The staircase they completed for me is definitely not a piece of fine furniture.

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The company came almost 2 years ago to do my stairs. Darrien seemed like a honest man. The job done wasn't complete. Darrien stated they would return to complete it BUT never did. I made several phone calls to get them back. They would book and then cancel, or just wouldn't return phone calls.
My stairs have to be repaired, ie cracked post, holes in steps, misaligned railing with visible seams, wrong stain etc. Darrien refused to finish the job so I took the company to court and WON!!! Beware!! I would never recommend this company.

Extremely poor quality, would not recommend to anyone. No attention to detail. Main posts on my stairs are out of level by over an inch!! almost all spindles are installed crooked and cracked material everywhere. They started the job 2 months late and said the whole job would be 2-3days and they took 2 weeks!! Absolutely NO customer service, and no care for finish quality.

Darrien seemed like a very fine, sincere and honourable man, his employees were curtious and tidy.

We had the carpet removed from our 14 stairs. Darrien promised me "A Fine piece of Furniture" I was told the job would take 2 days but the job took 5 days to complete over a two week period. The fellows usually arrived between 10 - 11 a.m. leaving around 5.

On the 5th day Darrien arrived personally to put back the spindles and - he wanted the job completed so he could collect the balance. Darrien and Luke were packing up around 7:30. I had to point out unfinished work so he pushed on until 9:30 p.m.

The oak spindles were splintered at the bottoms and were not sanded before they put them back leaving rough edges. 6 spindles were put back crooked and the spindles at the bottom do not match height wise. The carpet at the top of the stairs was cut back too far. Darrien has not kept his promise to come back to fix that with a strip of wood. I paid Darrien in good faith that he would honour his work. They have call display and an answering machine and do not return my calls.

Darrien promised me several times that the stairs would look like a fine piece of furniture but it is not. There are nail holes that were not filled in with putty, there are gaps where the wood meets on the stairs as well as the railings. The white casing was to be sanded and painted, they damaged my walls. We discovered after he left that the ceiling under the stairs that goes down to the basement has a 4" x 6" diameter piece of drywall cracked and protruding.

Darrien comes across as a very fine man indeed, however, I am still waiting for his crew to finish the fine detail work and rectify his promise and credibility.

Kurt and Rafael both arrived at my home in Oakville to provide an initial quote to refinish a scarlett o'hara sytle open face staircase and romeo and juliet balcony rail. They immediately suggested replacing all original oak spindles with new oak spindles stained to the new colour. They said if i wanted to save money, I could go with paintable pine spindles instead of oak. They provided a quote on the spot and gave me a start date upon my confirmation. They arrived and completed the staircase within the aloted timeframe.What impressed me the most is they recommended raising the nosing at the top of the staircase and around the romeo and juliet balcony in case in the future I wanted to install hardwood, the nosing would be at hardwood height. This was not in the original scope of the job and they did this at no extra cost. Also, they have a wood workshop in Brampton, they removed the solid oak stair treads, replaced them with temporary treads. The refinished stair treads were simply gorgeous. Having the shop allows this company to refinish at a comfortable working level, not sanding above your head and trying to stain up side down open face stairs. Rafael led the crew and he takes pride in his work. He ensured all the finished details were 100% to our satisfaction. I have professional contractors installing a new kitchen that truly admired the attention to detail and finished staircase completed by Rafael's crew. The overall price of job for the value received was exceptional. Another positive note, they cleaned up everyday and minimized dust from the sanding process. The only negative thing I can say about my experience is some of the crew members appeared to work a slower than what I would likely do myself, but I was paying for the job to be complete, so I did not care as long it was completed within the time frame, which it was. As far as payment goes, I visited their showroom in Brampton to conduct due diligence and ensure they are who they say they are. I was impressed with their workshop. I provided the company with an initial deposit to cover the cost of the new oak spindles and downpayment about 50% of the total job cost. I figured why not, I know where their shop is and worst case I go to the shop to get a refund if necessary. My instinct paid off, they never asked for money again until the job was 100% complete. I would definately recommend this company, specifically Rafael and his crew to do your stair refinishing.

We had our basement stairs refinished a couple of years ago by Darrian and his team. They were very nice and professional. Darrian promised to remove our existing oak spindles, treads and hand rail and re stain and paint them. They did a good job on the rail and treads but replaced the spindles with CHEAP PINE. When we asked him about this he said he did not tell us he would replace the original spindles painted white as he promised. We were disappointed by this and have/would not recommend them in the future.

A few months ago i contact Darrian to reface my main floor stairs. At first he was very professional being on time and answering the phone. But then he go the deposit and everything went out the window. He delayed the job three weeks from the schedule day, one time just not even showing up. While they were refacing the stairs they damaged my walls. But the promised they will fix it afterwards, NEVER happen.

In January 2010 we decided to remove the carpet and have the stairs rebuilt.Darrien, the company owner, arrived in a timely fashion to give us our estimate. It was inline with others we had obtained. He made some helpful suggestions, which we followed. It was important to have the stair treads stained prior to installation as we didn't want to have our cats stuck to the sealant. The work was completed within the time estimate, and in one day. The house was tidied before they left and the existing trim was freshened with new stain and varnish. This is a family owned business with more than 30 years in the business. They will soon be expanding into custom staircases and installing stair lifts.Great people, great price, great job. Even Mike Holmes would be proud!