Aris in the Beach

We live in a 4 story townhouse that uses a combination boiler and high velocity air handler to provide the heating, cooling & hot water for our house. We've been here nearly 6 years, but from early on we had issues with our NTI boiler. We went through at least a half dozen different companies for our HVAC needs, and while most of the companies' intentions were good, they just didn't have the knowledge to deal with our hydronic system. I've used two "expert" hydronic companies in the past. One recommended from the manufacturer of our high velocity system, and one that we found on the internet. They came in, did some work, and we paid them money. Sadly, they did patchwork type jobs, and never really fixed the source of the problem. Clearly not the "experts" they claimed to be. In late March we had no heat or hot water in our house. We looked up HVAC companies that had good reviews on HomeStars. AccuServ caught our attention. We started reading the reviews, and were impressed enough from what we read, that we gave them a call. James (the owner) answered. We were surprised that they were open on a Sunday and that we reached them directly - no answering service. We told him about the issue and asked if someone could come by to take a look, and asked how much it would cost. He said it would be $99.00, and he can have someone there within 2 hours. Aaron and Rahul showed up in less than two hours. Aaron took a look at the set up, and was in complete disbelief at how it was all put together. When I told him which companies I used in the past to do work on our boiler, he was absolutely shocked. The two companies are AccuServ's main competitors, and while he had nothing negative to say about them, he couldn't believe they hadn't noticed the obvious shortcomings of our set up. Aaron took apart our boiler and explained the way our system was set up, the issues with the set up and the damage that had been done. It was all bad news, with very little hope to salvage the unit. Even though all the news was bad, Aaron explained it in such a way that made it easy for a lay person to understand. He gave us some pointers on what we could do in the meantime, but basically explained we were on borrowed time. He said that he would come back to us tomorrow with some options for us to consider. Even though our heat and hot water were working again, Aaron provided us with some options very quickly. Aaron come back to our house later that week, as we wanted to discuss the fix he proposed. We also asked if were okay for our neighbour to attend the consultation, as she too was having issues with her combination boiler. No problem at all he said. One of the first things we noticed about Aaron is he's a people person. He's articulate, he's passionate, and THIS GUY REALLY KNOWS HIS STUFF!!! His knowledge, work ethic, his demeanor, and you know this guy just wants to do it right, and will do whatever it takes to do that. The consultation went well. He was at our place for well over an hour, and patiently answered all our questions. At one point, he had mentioned that he was thinking about our application the prior night (Wow! This guy is so passionate about HVAC, he eats, sleeps and dreams HVAC!) A proposal was sent out a few days later from James. We had some questions about the proposal, which James promptly answered. I then told James I have no problem moving forward with the proposal, as long as Aaron will be the primary lead on the install. On the day of the install, Aaron and his very competent crew showed up right on time! They were very thoughtful about how to install everything, given the limited space in our utility room. They worked hard and diligently to get it all done, taking the time to show us how things were coming along throughout the day. I couldn't believe how much more professional everything looked, compared to the previous set up, when they were done. Aaron then walked us through the complete install and helped us to better understand the system and how it will work - once again in a way that made it easy for us to understand. Although replacing a heating/cooling and hot water system is very costly we felt confident that AccuServ had the best technical expertise to provide us with the best option to suit our needs and install it properly. Every interaction with James, Aaron, Rahul and the team was professional, knowledgeable and very responsive. Aaron went above and beyond to provide assistance on components outside of just the install. Aaron also assisted our neighbour with an issue she had with her system that another HVAC company had not been able to resolve in over a year. Aaron resolved it in less than 30 minutes! AccuServ is definitely the elite in HVAC services including demonstrated expertise in hydronics. We were so impressed with AccuServ that they will now be the only company we trust to look after our HVAC needs. We gave AccuServ a rating of 10, only because 12 was not an option.

Our house is a 3 story townhouse. We had a deck built in the summer, and initially thought we would be having our downpipe drain into a rain barrel, so, we had the person who did our deck, re-route the downpipe over our gate so that we could, eventually, get a rain barrel to have it drain into. Well, the job looked awful. The colours of the elbows the deck contractor used, didn't match, and the even worse, it leaked when it rained. I realized I needed to find someone who knew what they were doing, so, I started reading reviews on Homestars and called a few companies. Of the 4 companies I called, two eventually responded saying they don't do repair work, only full replacements, and then there was Pierce from Tip Top Trough. Pierce responded promptly, and said he could stop by later in the week to have a look at our situation. True to his word, he had come by, left a card in my door, and followed up with a quote a few days later. One of the things Pierce suggested was to replace the 2 x 2 downpipe to 3 x 3. He didn't say it was necessary, but, based on his experience, he had found that the 2 x 2 downpipes, while still in use, tend to get clogged a lot more frequently than the 3 x 3 pipes. Well, he was right. We did have issues with it clogging, so, I agreed with his suggestion. I discussed the quote with my wife and we thought of another option that had the pipe being re-routed along the top of our gate, and to come down on other side of our walkway. I mentioned this to Pierce and he said he would have to come by again, see if it was do-able, and provide a revised quote. My father-in-law had come to stay with us for a few days, so, I took the opportunity to ask him what he thought, as he was quite the handy-man himself, and he suggested having it re-routed so that it ran under the deck, and then drained away from the house. Both my wife and I liked this idea very much, and, once again, I mentioned it to Pierce. He came by once again, and confirmed it could be done, but explained they needed to lift a deckboard, and that they could only go so far under the deck because drilling through too many joist boards would compromise the integrity of the deck. He sent us a revised quote, and I asked him to go ahead with the work. My wife and I were both very pleased and very impressed with the work Pierce and his crew did. Pierce was very polite and professional to deal with and his work was top-notch. I'm glad I found Tip Top Trough on Homestars and would not hesitate to recommend his services to friends and family. Aris in the Beach

I found Dennis's company through Home Stars when looking for someone to install a humidifier in our home. I narrowed my choices down to three companies, and called each one. Canadian Indoor Solutions was the only company that answered. And despite leaving messages at the other two places, no one ever did call me back. Dennis was very pleasant on the phone and took the time to answer all my questions without ever making me feel rushed or making me feel like my queries were stupid or a waste of his time. He was very helpful and right from the start, I got a really good vibe from him as being a caring person in general. I hired him right away! When Dennis showed up at my door to do the work, I quickly began to realize what all the positive write-ups were all about. He was very friendly and personable. He took the time to explain things, and even made some suggestions about things he wasn't even there to work on. One of the things I mentioned to him had to do with our heat always coming on then going off, then on and off, all the time. He checked our settings and everything seemed fine. What he did mention was that make of thermostat we had was not necessarily one that was known for doing a good job of maintaining a particular heat level. He recommended another brand and had the utmost confidence that we would definitely notice a difference and that we would be pleased. He was right! We have a high-velocity type of furnace in our home. It was a bit of a challenge for Dennis and Charlie, as we had to try different angles to get it to work effectively enough to raise the humidity. I was very pleased with the work both Dennis and Charlie performed and would highly recommend Dennis's company to anyone looking to have any HVAC work done. His honesty and genuine desire to help, is a refreshing change from the usual grumpy and one-word replying HVAC workers, but when you combine that with his expertise and "customer first" attitude, Dennis truly is a rare breed of HVAC workers currently out there! Thanks Dennis and Charlie!