Ryan in Toronto

Hired for concrete work. Retaining Wall, porch with overhang and entire driveway. Simple clean form work. No stamps. Contractor failed in every way. Didn't use agreed upon smooth forms throughout. Promised straight clean lines, Lines are crooked, driveway was supposed to be black with embedded color on truck, Ali informed it was when it wasn't. Put down black color hardener causing grey finish very blotchy, looks very bad. chips in concrete show color below. Large piece of concrete chipped off, ali attempted to patch with bagged concrete leaving green/grey patch on white concrete. Nails left in concrete from forming causing rust marks. Ignored agreed upon portions of work Let chips and cracked old concrete that was to be parged as agreed work. I have taken quotes and hired many contractors in my field of work. Alis price was decent, he provided a designer that did some renderings. And Ali was very likable, something that I, having experience never thought Id be taken by. Ali added 10% for a wall that was always required, was part of the original drawing and model we discussed. Before I agreed he went ahead and installed the foundation stating I need it but he could remove it if I didnt want to pay, so that was an extra 4k. The final product was not consistent with the plans I provided nor the rendering that was created. The work had to be stopped and restarted. The elevations were changed because of errors resulting in slope toward new concrete and towards house that should not have been. The concrete top of porch has an over hang I designed however its crooked making whole job look horrible and I called ali to see if I could get him to build a planter in front of slope to hide it, he tried to charge me 10k for a planter that I never wanted. Again, I really liked the owner of the company, trusted him he is very personable and I feel embarrassed, and taken advantage of without a thought. Msg me, Ill elaborate further and post the icing on cake is that my house is Black stucco, less than year old time of concrete work, ali did not properly mask and as result my entire frontage will have to be painted now. Who wants paint on brand new stucco. He refuse to fix it stating he would seal the driveway instead or nothing at all. Once your deposit is in you are done with this guy. Dont do business with them. They sound good and then leave you with disaster.

Simply put, I don’t usually, if ever, recommend people in the trades to friends. I have had great experiences, and bad ones too, but it seems in the past that every time I have referred someone, things have gone south in the way of pricing or quality of work. I have worked in property management for about 17 years. I have utilized a variety of companies big and small from craning in air conditioning units on the roof of high rise buildings, to tenants who thought it was a good idea to put kitty litter down a drain 1 too many times. I managed a 400 unit portfolio in aging downtown areas that sprawled from Lansdown and Bloor to Danforth rd in Scarborough. Simply put I have seen and dealt with every property issue you can think of and the companies that serve them I stumbled upon forge mechanical 2 summers ago when I had an emergency with a simple valve on my gas bbq. Eddy the owner/operator was prompt, personable and affordable. It was a quick interaction but I was left impressed. As this was an emergency, I hadn’t gotten any quotes, the price he threw at me for the simple job was fine even if I was left thinking I could find the work a little cheaper( because I am cheap). He was a nice guy and it was in and out job. A couple months went buy and I was in process of buying all new appliances. The house I bought came with all old stuff and as they were disgusting, after 2 years it was time. I decided to save by buying all the appliances in one shot. This time I had 2 others gas Fitters and Forge come in. My desire was to get rid of electric stove and dryer and replace both with gas. Forge came in 20 percent lower than the next best quote and was far more detailed than both of the other companies. It was a no brainer simply based on price, but I have to say that even if forge was a bit higher than the next guy, I might have chosen them. Eddy was clear, drew me pictures and explained things that in spite of me thinking I knew everything, made it clear I did not. I had just spent 10gs on new everything and I was happy to save some money. The fact that I got exactly what was explained quickly and from someone who seemed to understand what I wanted without me having to know every aspect of gas fitting, was why this company is worth a good review from me. I know what it’s like to need something done and not know all the nuances of that particular job/work. I felt comfortable sending forge to my grandmother’s house to quote her furnace. she barely speaks a word of English and she loved Eddy. Forge got the job because Nonna loved him, but more importantly because he beat the price of a guy I had do work for me for 7 years, even after slipping the “hey don’t ream my grandmother”. I can go on about the money I saved and the fact that my neighbor used forge or my grandmother or my brother, but really that is not the true extent of it. Like I said I worked in property management, dealing with difficult tenants and difficult landlords. Being great at what you do these days is not enough, I don’t think it’s ever been enough. Being intuitive, knowledgeable and personable is what makes this company/owner stand out. Like I said, I don’t do recommendations!but if you are looking for anything related to heating and air, try this company and then msg me to say thank you!