Wood & House Inc.

I'm so happy with the work the Wood & House team did on my front walkway and stairs! Michael helped me choose the perfect stones, and the results are fantastic. Pete and Brian were always on time, neat and tiding and a pleasure to work with. This is my second project with Wood & House and they've been amazing both times. I highly recommend the company for their great service and skill.

I have already recommended the crew to neighbours and friends!

We had Mike and Al in for a main floor overhaul and house-wide fixup - resurface and rebuild a fireplace, rip out a staircase, restain other staircases, refinish a laundry room, install new flooring, build custom trim everywhere, repaint everything, install pot lighting, etc.

Naturally we sat down with a half dozen other teams so we could price compare and find people who seemed trustworthy - this is expensive stuff and we'd be living in the house during the renovation. They were open about how their pricing model works and our options to self source some materials to save or buy through them. Estimates were timely and they were open for negotiation - add this, remove that, redo chunks as we went through the process. Other teams were appealing as well but late on estimates, or seemed fishy, whatever.. W&H were solid all the way through, start to finish.

Mike and Al do the work as well - they're constantly on site, not one of those teams who sells you and never shows up - and along with their crew were top tier professional with excellent and clear communication (very important to me!), clean operation (always protecting any area they might be in), to watching out for my family (ensuring things would be safe for kids after school while workers are home), and going the extra mile with attention to detail, even fixing up a few unrelated things when they could.

At every stage they knew what they were doing and planned things out for a beautiful turn out. They subcontracted a few things with our blessing and managed the project efficiently; Costing came out as the contract projected.

One of the subcontracts was problematic, but Mike and Al took care of pushing things back into the right direction. They made a stressful project managable. With any large projects you'll find some gotchas here or there, but usually they were already aware and fixing things up, or happy to listen; we changed directions a few times as we saw things coming together, and they were happy to pivot when possible or point out design constraints.

The entire team was dialed in the whole time, not 'phoning it in'; after having unsatisfactory contractors in the past it was an enormous relief working with Wood and House, and we certainly will be reaching out in the future. Theres probably cheaper teams out there, but when it comes to our house we wanted quality and warranty that we could depend on.

Last year we hired Michael & Alan to do a renovation for our top two floors of our 3-bedroom house. They were very open with us, before we signed the contract with Wood & House, that they had never done such a large-scale renovation before, however they claimed that they had all the required knowledge, skills and experience to compete the required work for our contract, and assured us they would complete it on time. They were open to disclosing their basis of pricing and were quite friendly.

To our surprise, they decided to self perform most of the work, which we did not expect from a general contractor. Their tiling and woodwork were okay, however they lacked other skills like painting and floor finishing. They attempted to refinish our floors three times before they subbed it out to a specialist company. Another surprise was that they had no cost-effective supply chain. As an example, their tiling contractor discount they offered us was higher than the retail pricing we found on our own, and the quartz countertop place they directed us to was double the cost of what we ended up purchasing, for the same product, elsewhere. In the end we sourced and purchased most of the materials on our own, from bathroom fixtures, toilets, sinks, mirrors, lights, countertops, etc.

Michael and Alan had a hard time to keep track of the details of our project, even though we hired a separate designer that provided them with detailed information and drawings.

They hired what appears to be an unlicensed plumber to do our project and neither Michael or Alan were able to recognize the problems which led to a fridge leak that went all the way to the basement, ruined our new hardwood floor under the fridge, destroyed the side of our new wood kitchen cabinet, cracked and discoloured part of our basement ceiling, and thus caused us major problems and delays.

Another small example of deficiencies was that they were unaware what material of caulking they should use around our kitchen backsplash and bathtub, and it cracked and separated almost right away. There were many other areas where they failed. Everything from not putting in screws to secure our wall oven in place to reworking our front door new locks many times so it could be closed correctly. To their credit, they tried to fix the deficiencies but seemed to lack the necessary skills and did not want to sub things out.

What we didn't realize when we hired Wood & House, as our general contractor, they had no ability to plan the sequence of events properly, which is critical for any renovation, especially one of our scale. This led to massive delays which caused them to be two months late on a three-month project. There is still work to be done, by outside trades (hired by us) to fix their mistakes and omissions.

When it was clear that they were no longer finishing the work and wanted to be paid, they had the audacity to initially ask us for 5x of what the remaining balance was, only to correct it to 3x of the actual balance. In the end, after many unpleasant emails back and forth, we settled on the actual balance that was due for the work completed.

Michael and Alan overstated their, and their workers, capabilities in doing the necessary work to get a good outcome on a large complex job. At best, they are handymen, and fall far short of what a general contractors ability to manage a large project should be. We will not be giving them our second contract to finish our basement.

Wood & House Inc. deserves my 5 Star review!! I had Michael do a concrete pad for me 3 years ago and was so happy with his work ethic and the quality of his work at that time that I contacted him for an estimate to renovate my ensuite, repair my kitchen ceiling, and re-face the ugly painted brick fireplace in my family room this year. As so often happens, the renovations crept into other areas and my entire family room was updated with new flooring, new lighting, new fireplace hearth/stone/mantle, and a beautiful new colour on the walls.

Michael was so good about my creeping wishlist. He and his crew addressed many other things in my home that had been needing attention for quite some time (replacing a stairwell light, a ceiling fan, and the dining room light, repairing the back fence, stone cladding at front of house, etc.) Wood & House has a crew of talented and personable people. It was actually really nice having them around.

At one point Michael needed to address a time sensitive job at another site (something he very much did not like to do), but he made it up to me and made sure I was happy.

Michael stands by his work. He assured me that he would match the warranty that the insurance company contractor would give me for this work (it all started as a result of a leak from my ensuite toilet into my kitchen). Not long after my job was completed, my powder room toilet started to leak. Thinking it was a result of their installation, Michael made arrangements to come repair it and fix the floor. It actually wasn't their installation, but he and his crew replaced the flange on the toilet, replaced a moldy subfloor section, and installed a tile floor (instead of the wood that was there). He gave me a good deal for the work and it is now repaired and looks beautiful!

Thank you Wood & House Inc. for an incredible renovation. Their work is high quality and beautiful. If I wasn't satisfied with something, Michael would make sure it was done to my liking. However, it never came to this because if Michael wasn't happy with it, it was redone before I could even say anything about it. I love my new bathrooms and family room!

Michael, Allen and their crew made a fantastic good job to transfer our old, outdated bathroom to a brand new, beautiful one. We highly recommend this company, your satisfaction guaranteed.

Mike and Alan and their crew were fantastic and very good to work with. They converted a big room into a self-contained one bedroom apartment, including a new kitchen, bathroom and laundry area. The job was done to perfection and on time! Highly recommended. You won't be disappointed.

Michael and his crew did an amazing job putting up my fence. Their attention to detail was amazing and they stayed within their quote and timeline. I would definitely recommend them to anyone looking to do renovations.

The guys were great. Very knowledgeable and had great ideas for the build. Workmanship was excellent and they were very accommodating of our 2 very crazy kids. They stayed on budget and did an amazing job. I would highly recommend them!

Thanks a lot Wood and House Team.
Very happy with the new planters you built and installed.
On time and on budget. Professional and neat.
Good luck and wish you lotsa success!

I've done two renos with Alan over the years and both have worked out well. In summer 2022 he renovated my basement apartment - new sub-floor & flooring, kitchen and paint. Good quality materials and workmanship. He did the kitchen install himself and subbed out the flooring. Quote and invoicing was detailed and well managed. He includes materials in the quote (except appliances) and you pick the finishings (cabinets, countertop, sinks, backsplash, flooring, etc...) based on the budget in the quote. There was no cost escalation unless I added features or chose to upgrade the material. These changes were clearly quoted and documented. As an added bonus he has a good eye for design and materials so his suggestions were valuable. It did go beyond schedule, but I also added scope.

The 2015 reno was a much bigger full gut of the main and second floor right down the the brick. Rebuilt everything new - walls, floors, ceilings, kitchen, two new bathrooms, windows, all plumbing and electrical/panel. He acted as the general contractor and he and his direct crew did the carpentry, and subbed out the electrical and some of the plumbing. Again, quoting and invoicing was organized and transparent. Only upcharges were for agreed scope changes and a few discovery items. Quality and workmanship was good. There were a couple issues (to be expected on a job this size) which he fixed under warranty in the first year. House was completely transformed and still looks great. Schedule did go over.