R Mac Solutions Inc

R Mac just replaced the brewery ceiling on our outdoor patio and did a fantastic job. The final result was awesome and we would highly recommend them.

Fergus and his crew completely gutted and renovated the main floor of our 1950 built home. The main floor used to be divided into 4 separate rooms. We had him take down all the interior walls to create an open concept living, dinning room and kitchen. We also had him plus touch up the basement and upper floor. His crew were very professional and they completed the work on time. We recently sold this house and we were told that the quality of the renovations is what made the sale and enabled us to get top dollar. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend their services.

Ours is a typical East York row house, built circa 1910. In late 2014 Fergus and his crew excavated the crawlspace underneath the kitchen down to basement depth and then built new foundation and walls, effectively creating a new basement addition. We are very happy with the new basement space and even happier with the outstanding customer experience working with Fergus and his crew. We would not hesitate to work with Fergus and R-MAC again, and we recommend him highly to anyone about to do a renovation.

Project Details... There were four main activities agreed-to at the beginning: excavating under the kitchen and shoring; building foundation footings and walls; waterproofing the foundation walls; installing a sump pump; and pouring a concrete slab floor in the new space. This project had high complexity, required significant investment, and given the age of the house posed a high likelihood that we'd find surprises – certainly negative ones but maybe some positive ones – along the way that would impact the agreed-to scope, schedule, and budget.

Why we chose Fergus and R-MAC… We had several quotes for the job and all competitors were close, so the deciding factor wouldn’t be price. Several of his peers in the industry had recommended him to us, and that my wife recognized him from TV’s Love It or List It (Toronto) didn’t hurt. But right from the first consultation visit we could tell Fergus was the kind of contractor we needed – not transaction focused, but solution focused.

Outstanding customer experience... Fergus repaid our confidence in kind. When the inevitable old-house surprises happened, Fergus helped us navigate what to do next, just as we had hoped. For example, when the excavation uncovered a problem with the window well drain, we agreed with him the right thing to do was to add this to the scope of the basement addition’s drainage system. And as he advised, we agreed to install a back flow preventer for our sewer pipe (for which the City of Toronto gave us an 80% rebate), and upgraded the surface of our driveway – two non-project items that would have been prohibitively expensive had his crews not already been onsite. On the other hand, he also advised us against contracting him to frame the new room for us, recommending instead we do that work ourselves (which we eventually did).

Professionalism… At every step Fergus and the crew were all very professional. They made the financials predictable and painless. They kept my wife and I well informed throughout. They did high quality work. They managed timely city permit inspections. They even beat the original schedule despite additional agreed-to scope. And – critical to my maintaining good relations with my neighbours – they kept the job site tidy and safe.

If you treat renovations like a transaction, best for everyone if you go elsewhere. If you want a partner for good renovation outcomes, go to Fergus and R-MAC.

We have worked with Fergus, of R-Mac solutions, on two renovations: finishing our basement, and, two years later, renovating our second floor bathroom. In both projects, we were very satisfied with the finished product, and, just as important to my mind, the general management of the projects. In both cases we received detailed quotes that clearly explained what the job entailed, along with a price breakdown that was accurate and fair. Going into the work with a clear understanding of the cost provided me and my wife a sense of relief and allowed us to budget accordingly (payments were collected as the job was completed as outlined in the contract, there were no surprises in our dealings with Fergus). The crew and sub-contractors R-Mac worked with were pleasant, competent, and accommodating to our needs every step of the way. Plus, the worksite was always cleaned at the end of the day. Lastly, we were pleased with the frequent communication we had with Fergus during our projects -- any questions or concern we had was quickly addressed from a phone call, quick visit, or email. Our finished basement and our newly renovated bathroom have significantly improved our home, and we would definitely hire R-Mac for any future renovations.

It is without hesitation that we would recommend Fergus and his crew for any job big or small. We bought our house in February of 2012 with the intent to completely redo the basement to make it more functional for our growing family. A year and a half later, our home was flooded during the devastating storm that struck our city. We contacted Fergus in hopes that he could transform our existing basement (which was a self-contained apartment) into an open concept practical living space for our family to relax in. And he did. Fergus and his crew were amazing. They were professional, friendly and helpful. Fergus kept an open-line of communication at every step of the process. He provided great advice for our design, as well as realistic choices for products and materials. The end result was exactly what we had envisioned. It goes without saying that we would hire Fergus in the future for any renovation projects.

To start I will say Fergus and his crew are hands down some of the best people I've ever worked with, period. After buying a new house that required some fairly substantial renovations my wife and I found ourselves in need of a reliable contractor. After seeing so many TV shows that pointed out how many bad contractors there seem to be out there we did not take this task lightly. After a number of interviews and inquires we happened to stumble across Fergus as a referral from another vendor we were using. After having him review the job and put together a bid it became very obvious that he was the one we wanted to work with. To put a couple of things in perspective, our initial bids from other contractors and companies involved removing a couple of walls. Fergus was the first to point out that none of the exterior walls in our 100 year old house were insulated and it would make a lot of sense to take the opportunity to take care of that since we were already ripping apart our main floor as part of the wall removal. What made this even better was that Fergus’ quote to remove the interior walls and frame out and insulate the exterior walls was actually less than what the other contractors had quoted for the interior wall removal alone. Given the cold weather that we’ve had since the move I can honestly say the decision to insulate was right one and I thank Fergus for thinking outside the box of our original plans.

As we went through the contract process we quickly saw that we had made the right call. Fergus clearly outlined what his team would be doing and on what schedule. He also laid out a reasonable payment program that revolved around the completion of major parts of the project. This made a lot of sense to me as Fergus and his team need to be paid for work completed and we weren’t paying for anything that wasn’t completed. What was even better was that this plan did not require a substantial amount upfront and even withheld a percentage until the entire job was completely finished. Once the contract was signed, Fergus and his team wasted no time getting started. Having never been through this process before it was remarkable how quickly Fergus and team operated. Tasks that we thought would surely take days or weeks were usually done in a fraction of that time. Having now done some framing and dry walling myself we’re still amazed at how quickly they framed and subsequently dry walled our entire living room.

During the entire process Fergus was very good at giving us updates on the status of the job. Given that we were interested in the details of the work, he was always very willing to explain what his team did and why. He was also very good with working within our schedule and, given that we were doing some of the work ourselves, he even took the time to provide guidance and instruction on how to approach certain jobs. In addition to this advice we also found Fergus very reasonable when it came to any changes we wanted to make to the work. In many cases if the changes were small jobs he would take care of them inside the bounds of the existing contract. This was very refreshing as it was obvious that he was more interested in getting the job done right and making us happy than in nickel and diming.

On a personal note, Fergus and all the members of his team were extremely friendly and personable. When you’re inviting people into your home there is always an underlying concern as you don’t know anything about them. Fergus and team quickly dispersed any uneasiness to a point where we provided him with a key and had him, and is team, coming and going when we weren’t home.

In the end the job was done on time and on budget. The overall experience was better than we ever could have imagined. Seeing that we were so happy with the first job it’s no surprise that when we started round two of our renovations we immediately went to Fergus. By then we didn’t even bother getting a quote as we knew Fergus’ rates were reasonable and that his team was hard working and did not waste time. Needless to say, Fergus has been added to our little black book of contractors and tradesmen and will be our first stop in future renovations. In addition, one of the biggest perks from working with him was his trusted network of tradesmen. Not only did he introduce us to tradesmen that were needed for the contracted job but he’s since referred us to a number of other tradesmen for other jobs that we were handling ourselves.

Since working with Fergus I have referred him to at least five of my friends and neighbours. Given his working style and reasonable rates I have no hesitation referring him to anyone I know that is looking for a trustworthy, speedy and quality contractor.

Ferg and his team did a professional, finished, high quality job. The job site was kept clean and safe at all times. The materials used were great and procurement did not slow the job down. The timelines were tight and the project had many moving pieces (basement demolished and replaced from dirt floor to finished with trim and paint) and Ferg kept it all moving, consulting with us along the way and giving us lots of notice when decisions had to be made and keeping us in the loop on progress.

In sum: the work was top notch, the communication was great, we were confident the job would be completed to our satisfaction and we are very very happy with the result. Ferg is a great choice for friendly, experienced, comprehensive, professional work.

Fergus and his team were amazing....always punctual,hard working and extremely reliable.The workmanship was top quality and above and beyond what we have experienced in the past.We have and continually will recommend R-Mac Solutions to everyone.Thank you Fergus and his honest team for a phenomenal job extremely well done.The happy Sullivans

Very professional company and employees that were helpful with suggestions, but allowed me to make the decisions on style and size etc. Workmanship and quality is built to last. Highly recommend