Jim in Toronto

Worked with Kingsway on a large fully finished garage project. All in all I think they are an OK company. I think they want to do a good job but lack the organization to complete large projects. I can see how they would be a great company for a small 1 or 2 day project. When we met I described what I was looking for, I provided pictures and a drawing I made through an online design application. My goal was to hire a company a could handle the project as a whole. Start to finish. I didn’t want to micromanage each aspect of the construction. That is not what happened. After being delayed for months I took a more active role in micro managing the project. The original completion date was September 2019. Actual completion of the project was January 2020. Original hire date was August 2019. I am happy with the end result, but I paid a premium to not have to manage this project and in the end that’s what I had to do. At about 75% complete Kingsway actually just backed out and had me go to the individual contractor’s directly, which in the end was for the best. Other things which were not positive was the complete lack of follow through. I understand they were dealing with other contractors who affected the scheduling but they would say someone would be onsite to do a specific part of the project and no one would show up. Or they would show up for like an hour or 2. I took off countless days from work to sit at home for hours on end just to get a no show. One day I wasn’t there and they framed 2 windows instead of 3 windows! Another day I wasn’t there they installed the garage door which when I went to open them they didn’t work! I ended up hiring someone else to come out and repair my brand new garage doors! Another mistake was the electrical. I provided details on all the lights and electrical requirements, how many amps each light would draw. End result when I turn on all the lights the breakers trip. When I called them about this problem they said that they only quoted 3 breakers. The question is if you knew ahead of time what the electrical requirements would be why would you quote and install a system which is not capable of handling the needs? Major mistakes! Between the mistake which cost me additional money and the collateral damage done to my property during construction I would say if you use Kingsway make sure you are there for every aspect of the job. Also get EVERYTHING in writing!!!!! Every aspect of the project we discussed that wasn’t in writing for me to refer back to was a problem. For example Seth said he had a guy that could install the HVAC unit for a few hundred dollars. When the time came the person had me order $900 worth of additional hardware then after the hardware arrived quoted me a price of $1200 for the install! That’s a big difference from a few hundred dollars. I ended up calling another company from Dearborn that did it for half the price! In hind sight I would have negotiated price. I accepted their much higher quote because originally, they were supposed to handle the entire project but they did not. I could have gotten the same end result for much less money had I known how involved I would have to be