Luke from Toronto

Harry did a great job refinishing our dining room table and carrying out a minor repair on it. He was cheaper than my other quotes, and very attentive to my questions from start to finish. The job was completed earlier than promised and it looks great. Absolutely no complaints!

Quote and pickup arrangements handled well. Cheaper than other quotes we found. Took all blinds down, took them away to clean (ultrasound?), and reinstalled them a week or nore later. Took several days longer than I expected, but installation was good and painless (including a particularly tricky large, high blind that required some lateral thinking and balancing on a table!). Pleasant to deal with.

Painted kitchen cabinets a new colour, and repaired sone of the old water damage. Matthew fielded my questions pretty well, and Dean (who I think was brought in for this specialized job) was great. It wasn't cheap, but as I say it was a specialized job, involving taking the cabinet doors off to be spray-painted elsewhere (toxic fumes?) and then reinstalling them, and spray-painting the cabinet sides and pelmets on-site with a whole hermetical sealing procedure. Maybe I wasn't quite expecting that much upset, and I wasn't really ready for so long living out of boxes, but the final product was very good.

I've seen a lot of negative reviews for Reliance, so I thought I'd add my positive review. Sales guy Prafull was very helpful on quoting and installation of a new furnace and heat pump, and answered all my questions quickly. He was very knowledgeable about heat pumps, government rebates, etc. He even arranged for the required third party energy audit (needed for heat pump rebates) at short notice. Communication was through a rather bewildering mix of phone, text and email, but hey, I'll take communication over no communication any day. Installation happened very quickly (within a couple of days of me deciding). Khalil and ? (sorry, forgot your name!) arrived on time, did the job with a minimum of fuss and mess, regardless of snow and sub-zero temperatures. It took a bit longer than anticipated due to some unforeseen circumstances out of their control. They explained the system and the smart thermostat. All in all, pretty happy with their work, and Reliance in general.

Matthew responded quickly and answered all my questions promptly before the job. The team of painters, supervised by Jimmy, did a good job painting the outside of our house. If they were in any doubt about anything, they asked, which I appreiaated, and they asked me to check after different sections were finished, to be sure we were happy. They cleaned up well, and everyone was pleasant and polite. All in all, a good experience. And what a good idea to restrict all the hassle and upset of a major paint job to just one day!

We needed repairs to a front porch and upper deck damaged by a monster vine and water over the years. It was a tricky job, and Stuart was the only guy willing to have a go at it without cutting down the vine. Stuart was flexible, attentive and answered my questions well. His team showed up on time (after some weather delays), and carried out the job as required, despite some necessary adaptations to the circumstances. The only reason I do not give a 10 is because Stuart himself was not here on the job (working on another job elsewhere), so when things were found that needed to be accommodated, he wasn't here on the ground to react to them. However, he did his best with Skype and odd visits, and the job did not actually take too long in the end.

Dave was great in corresponding and answering my questions by email (before, during, and even after the work), and was quick to come and give us a quote. The actual work was delayed slightly due to the horrible summer weather this year, but Dave and Jerry arrived punctually on the appointed day and carried on until the work was done (about a week). They were thoughtful and clean, and neighbours seemed to love them. They even threw in the odd tree, and a re-grading of our interlocking brickwork because it was needed. The final job was just what we needed, and the workmanship was everything we could have wanted. Written In Stone may not be the cheapest company in the industry (although they are far from the most expensive), but they are good, reliable, flexible, pleasant, and easy to deal with. They do what they say, when they say they will do it, which, these days, in this business, is really worth something.

Reliable were in fact reliable. They answered all my emailed questions promptly, and fitted me in very soon after my first enquiries. They arrived exactly when they said they would, and they did the job they said, for the price they said, with a minimum of fuss and hassle. The operator was personable and friendly, and left no mess. No complaints.

Finer Edge gave us a much better quote than the two other alternatives I followed up, and quoter and point-man Ben was pretty good about answering our questions and keeping in contact, before, during and after the job. The actual painting crew were three Hungarian-Canadians (apparently Hungary is renowned for its painting expertise and training - who knew?), who were pleasant and amenable throughout. They completed the job in the budgeted time, and kept the place pretty clean while they were doing it. There was a certain amount of dust from the ceiling plaster repairs they did, despite their attempts at plastic covering the furniture, and I ended up having to pretty much clean everything from top to bottom after the painting was finished, but I think that was pretty much unavoidable. The team managed to overcome any complications (e.g. moving built-in shelving, reaching high or awkward areas, scheduling repair work and painting work as needed, etc) with a minimum of fuss. I was able to go around with the team at the end to check that everything had been done well, and they carried out a few little minor touch-ups there and then. Both the repair work and the painting was completed to a good standard and on the whole we were pretty happy with the results.

I needed to temporarily move eight PV solar panels and one large hot water solar panel from a flat roof so that the roof could be repaired/replaced. Neither of the original installers seemed able to do this for me, but I was given Aaron Goldwater's name and so I contacted him. Aaron came promptly, dealt with two different solar panel systems, neither of which he had installed himself, overcame a few complications with little or no fuss, and charged a reasonable price. He also came back at reasonably short notice to reinstall the panels after the roof repairs, did a bit of pump maintenance while it was easily accessible, and left everything in a good condition, all while maintaining a good sense of humour. All in all, I was pretty impressed.

I found Fixer on the Roof through our local paper, while I was looking for someone to repair a flat roof on our house in the east end of Toronto. It seems they act as agents or brokers for a bunch of roofing companies and individuals. Trish listened to my story and recommended a couple of companies, who she contacted directly, and they then called me (within a day) to arrange a site visit. When I had trouble getting in contact with one of the leads, Trish then gave me an alternative, which turned out to be the one I eventually used. I even asked Trish for advice on whether the competing quotes I had received were in fact equivalent services, and she talked me through some of the jargon involved. She answered all my emails and questions promptly. So, it was through Fixer on the Roof that I found my roofer, who ultimately did a good job for us. I think this is a valuable (free) service, and takes at least some of the uncertainty and stress out of the process.

We had a good overall experience with Jamie Wickens and his Got It Covered team, as they replaced a couple of flat roofs on our house in the east end of Toronto. Jamie’s quote came in significantly lower than the other two I contacted, and he was prompt and reasonably professional in his approach throughout. He pointed out several shortcomings in our old roof work, and seemed to genuinely care about doing a good job, using the right materials, finishing off properly , protecting surrounding properties, etc. We had to wait for some good weather before he was able to get the actual work done (not his fault, of course), but he was very prompt in returning emails and answering questions. When the weather finally cooperated, Jamie and his team arrived promptly at 7am on the two days they were here, and they got the work done with a minimum of fuss and hassle. On both days they left the area clean and tidy, and there was always a guy on the ground clearing up and looking after the truck and the skip. One or two minor unforeseen problems were dealt with without complaint or charge. The work as a whole was completed in slightly less time than originally estimated. As for the quality of the work, I don’t really know enough about it to comment. As far as I know it is fine. Ask me again in a few years’ time…