Fong in Toronto

After reading excellent the reviews on Homestars, I bought a coupon through Teambuy for a duct cleaning package. Let me note for all future customers that if you are planning to buy a coupon through social media for this service, the vent cleaning of every single vent in your home is mandatory. My deal had 10 vents included but if you have 20 vents (including returns), you’ll have to pay $10/vent for the additional 10 vents and you must pay for all vents over the included number. You cannot opt out (I did not know this and this was not made explicitly clear on the social media coupon site and I only found out when I was making the appointment). So if you live in a larger house with more than 10 vents, be prepared to pay for the additional vents. I had booked my appointment three weeks in advance over the phone and received an email confirmation of the date and approximate time right away – so far so good. I was also told over the phone that I would receive a call the day before to confirm the exact time they were arriving. The day before came but no call by the end of the day (I waited until midnight) so I emailed their general email address to inquire. Ihsan got back to me via email very early in the morning saying that my appointment was still on but it had been moved from the morning to the afternoon time slot. The last minute change in time annoyed me a bit since they did not call me to tell me this, but instead was responding to my email and we had to cancel our afternoon plans. However, Ihsan was apologetic and polite over email so I was still positive about the duct cleaning. They arrived within their new appointment time slot. The assistant came to the door and said she was here for duct cleaning. Then a man came in and they set to work. They proceeded to hook their huge vacuum to our basement ducts and started sanitizing the vents. I was disappointed that there was no thorough explanation of what they were doing as some of the other customers noted in their reviews. I asked about the video inspection and the man let me peer through his iphone camera into the duct in the basement connection spot while he smacked it. The assistant had a hose with a metal rod with which she squeezed through our vents to blow air through. The sanitization involved her spraying it with a spray bottle. Each vent cleaning took about 10 seconds max. We live in a 60 year home with very tightly weaved vents and the assistant had to really pry the vents open to squeeze the metal rod into the vent. They do not remove the vent plates to spray inside. After she sprayed all the vents, the man started doing the “return” bit. It was my husband who explained to me that’s what he was doing and I thought that it was strange that they didn’t wait to do the return vents. The idea is that while they connect the vacuum to your basement, first the “supply” section, then the “return” section; they spray air through the vents upstairs and that’s supposed to blow all the dust down into the basement for their vacuum to suck up. The process took about 1.5 hours and since we had our 1 year old furnace inspected recently already, we told them that they didn’t have to do the furnace inspection. I did not get an “after” video confirmation but assumed it was at least cleaner than before since they did a lot of smacking of the vents with a rubber mallet and using this little plastic tube looking attachment that spins and hits the insides of the accessible parts in the basement ducts to get the dust moving. I did see him look through his iphone camera to check it while cleaning but I was in the next room watching my 5 year old and did not run over since I thought he would call me over before closing the duct up (unfortunately he didn’t). Another reviewer commented on how they left their jobsite spotless. When they smacked our ducts in the basement, a lot of dust and old drywall bits from previous demo work fell onto the floor from the tops of the ducts. Granted our basement is not a magnificent piece of work (it's semi finished), but the floor was clean when they arrived and they left it full of debris. When the man gave me the bill, he gave me his card and that was when I learned he was Ihsan. I was surprised that it was him since he didn’t introduce himself originally and we had been communicating earlier. Perhaps I caught him on a bad day. His assistant was very polite. They were professional and did their job but perhaps I expected too much after reading the reviews on Homestars? In the end, I still think I got a decent deal for what I paid.

We called three plumbers, first was a friend's brother, the second was another plumber from Homestars and the third Mister Plumber. Mister Plumber was the only one who called us back or answered the phone. We are renovating our basement and wanted to install a shower, kitchen sink, move the laundry area, toilet and sink and Vlad gave us estimates of what each would cost over the phone. When we asked if he could come over to give us some ideas and a more detail quote, the very personable Igor came over within a couple of days and recommended the backwater valve and replacing the clay pipes in our basement since we were digging and installing so many new drains anyway. We thought the price he quoted was very reasonable and given the reviews on Homestars, we didn't think we could do much better elsewhere - Plus we didn't want to waste time calling more plumbers who may not even call us back. Once we were ready for the work to begin, their plumbers came within two days (no waiting around!), dug up more than half our basement with trenches, installed the drains, filled everything back, and was done within a week (half of the time was waiting for the inspector). It was absolutely amazing to see how quickly and efficiently they worked. They were also friendly, courteous and on time. Vlad made sure we kept the info needed for the backwater subsidy application and answered our questions promptly and quickly. I don't know when or if Vlad sleeps since he always answers the phone and responds to emails late at night. The level of customer service and quality of work is simply superb all around. I'm so relieved and happy we went with Mister Plumber.

We got three quotes, one from the IKEA recommended company, another from a Homestar company, and the third from the Ikea Kitchen Specialist (Lee). Not only was Lee the most affordable, he also gave a detailed itemized quote so you knew exactly what he was charging for what service. During the consultation, Lee came by the house and carefully measured and doubled checked our online IKEA kitchen plan before we ordered our cabinets. He helped us revise our order to make sure everything would fit. When the over 140+ boxes and what seemed like thousands of pieces of hardware were delivered, I was doubly grateful knowing that Lee was going to put them all together. He and his crew arrived on time at 8am and put in long hours to finish our kitchen in three days. Being a 60+ year old house, our ceiling and walls are not levelled and he was able to customize the trim, level all the cabinets and made our kitchen look absolutely fantastic. Being a DIY'er, this would've taken me weeks and weeks of frustration to do the kitchen myself with half the quality. Lee and his team were a pleasure to work with from beginning to end. We paid exactly what he quoted, not a penny more. He is honest, professional, and very personal. I would recommend him to anyone looking for a kitchen installer.

When a contractor friend came by our newly bought house, he noticed the 9x9 vinyl tiles that my husband had just revealed after removing the old carpet. Our hearts sank as we worried that we had exposed family and friends who helped out with the demo to harmful asbestos. We called three companies and we were able to make an appointment with Manny from GreenStream the very next day. He reassurred us explaining that the levels of asbestos in the tiles were very low and since our tiles were in good shape, there was little risk at all. He also gave us what we felt was a very competitive price. The crew of four showed up a couple of days later, on time, and worked for two days (mostly clean-up on the second day), removing tiles from the front entrance, upstairs bathroom, and the entire basement. It was a big job since the subfloor had to come up with the tiles in the upstairs. They made sure to put barriers up and had a negative pressure fan to clean out the air overnight. My husband was doubly reassured when he saw the set up when he went on the second day to open the door for the crew. Finding asbestos in our home was scary and could've been a real nightmare but Manny & his crew made this experience a truly painfree one!