Rob M.

Alex and his team did great work on the fence! They made sure to consult with me when there were concerns and finished things up very nicely. Great people to work with!

We'd been living in our 1920's-built house for 15 years, with all of the associated problems: no insulation in the exterior walls, not-even-6-foot-high basement ceiling, no weeping tile, and so on. We decided it was finally time to fix the place up properly, and we were very lucky to find The Reno Coach on Homestars. Reiner helped us from the start, when we weren't even sure exactly what we wanted to do, all the way through to the end. He guided us through getting prices for options, setting the scope of the project, putting bids out to contractors, selecting the one we wanted to work with, and then keeping things on the rails through to the end. We were on time, and we were on budget, and everyone I've spoken to about that can hardly believe it's possible. I've already recommended him dozens of people asking about our reno. The thing that blows their minds most? You can get a contract where your contractor pays you $100/day if they're late finishing! Yes, it can happen, if you get yourself a Reno Coach. So do that.

Gordon and his team at Academia are amazing. I had them do our roof 10 years ago. At the time, my neighbour made fun of me for not going with a cheaper quote. Now his shingles are showing wear even though they were done more recently, and mine look like they could have been installed yesterday. The roof has been completely solid. You get what you pay for, and Gordon is worth paying for. So why am I writing this review now? Because a couple of weeks ago when the cold snap ended I noticed water draining down from behind the fascia at one point along the side. I pulled out my contract with Academia, and lo and behold I still had a bit of time left in the 10-year warranty. I called Gordon, gave him the 30-second summary, and he said his guys would be there in the morning to check it out. It was that simple. No fuss, no hassle. His guys not only came and checked the roof (run-of-the-mill ice damming after all that cold and the sudden melt, first time we've ever had it), they took the time to squeeze through my miniscule attic hatch to check things out there as well. That has to be the most thorough barely-under-warranty call I've ever heard of. So I'm going to use Academia to do my garage roof this summer and have them put in a couple of extra roof vents as well. My old house has brick walls that go right up to the underside of the roof on the sides, so the soffits don't help to ventilate anything. The existing vents likely got completely buried in all the accumulated snow, and that's why we had an ice damming issue this year. Gordon says he knows what will fix it, and I'm sure he's right. Thanks, Gordon!