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.
