Sonoma Contracting

Scope of Project:
1) Lowering and framing an approximately 500sq ft basement.

2) Leveling and Tiling a new kitchen floor.

3) Associated HVAC and Plumbing.

Opinion: We were exceedingly happy with Mike, Aldo and the rest of Mike's team. They showed up for work early, worked hard, and were very communicative and easy to deal with during the renovations. Paul, the HVAC installer, was also particularly efficient. Mike was very professional and was amazingly prompt at responding to any and all questions we had. A couple of (very) minor issues that arose during the work itself were corrected quickly and without protestation, which is a sign of excellent professionalism.
On top of all of the above, the price for the job was excellent for the work done. We will use Sonoma Contracting for any future renovations that we do on our house.

I recently had my basement finished. It was a large job...approx.1500 sq.ft. Mike and Aldo were very professional, attentive to details, always ensuring that the job was done right and the utmost in quality. Sonoma have access to a number of trades that build the quality in. As well, I found Mike and Aldo's suggestions re: style and functionality very helpful. They believe in providing a high service level and that was reflected in my finished basement.They were always there to answer questions and give us updates. My neighbours and relatives all noted how professionally finished the basement was and the high quality of the work. I would strongly recommend Sonoma for any renovation.

We had Mike and his team work on our 475 sq ft basement. Mike and Aldo were very trustworthy and a pleasure to work with. Mike's best quality is his responsiveness - he will respond to your messages, day or night, and will take the time to come out to your house if you have concerns. Other contractors are not as diligent. We were, however, disappointed that the job took as long as it did to complete, given we had inserted a completion date in our contract and we had a small basement. If it wasn't for the timeline, we would have given him a perfect score.

If you are only going to read the first paragraph of my review then know this – Mike is great at what he does and works with an excellent team of specialized people. They are all professional, respectful, trustworthy and extremely hard working. They feed off each other and come up with some great ideas. Mike is a super nice guy and aims to please, and he did a great job at making us very happy. :) We are first time homeowners and this is our first time working with a contractor – what a great first experience! We would gladly recommend him and his team to anyone we know, and he has already met with our friends for their basement. I’ve included some before and after pictures with this review.

Mike and his team recently worked on completely finishing our basement – from the framing to painting. We first connected with Mike in summer 2011 (we didn’t start the job until summer 2012 – and our quote did not jump up at all!). At that time we met with 5 other companies. We decided to go with Mike because his quote was reasonable, we felt comfortable with him and he is extremely responsive to all types of communication. As both my husband and I work full time it was very important for us to have someone who is comfortable with contact by phone, text or email. From the get go Mike was great with this. When he was working on our basement we could get a hold of him pretty much any time of the day (early in the morning and late at night too!), by any communication. He answered all our many, many questions (without any signs of annoyance!) and if he didn’t know the answer he went away and came back with an answer in a timely manner. Also, as mentioned, we work full time and were rarely home while work was going on. I trusted Mike and therefore trusted the people he brought into our home – I’m happy to report there was absolutely no problem with this on any level.

Working with Mike took away the stress of a big home project. Of course there were bumps in the road, as there are with all major projects, but most were minor. The one major ‘bump’ we had was to do with our floor. However, Mike’s immediate handling of the situation, and his liaison with the flooring specialists meant that the floor was completed to our satisfaction. I was extremely happy that any stress caused by the situation was decreased greatly knowing that I could leave it in Mike’s hands. Also, you should know that you will be made aware of any impact/change in budget before it happens – there will be absolutely no surprises at the end.

The job did take 2 weeks longer than expected, however we were in no rush to finish and expected it to take longer than the quoted time due to the nature of the work/scheduling issues. Towards the end we had people work on the weekends to get the job completed in a timely manner. I would have liked to have had a bit more notice to choose the floor (as we had to visit Mike’s supplier’s store which was not local). Additionally, I would have liked to have known whether or not we need floor levelling at the beginning of the project as it was a large chunk of change. However, those are really the only constructive criticisms I can give – and they are definitely not deal breakers.

One bit of advice I would give to everyone is to ask questions. Mike will always have an answer, or find out the answer. He is very willing to make sure that you are 110% comfortable with every step – and he will go out of his way to make sure of it.

While at our home Mike and his team gladly helped us out with other issues that we had around the house – it was a huge help to us. I know that I can turn to Mike in the future to refer me to specialized contractors that I may need and also just for any advice. Mike is a family man, and him and his team worked on our basement as if it was their own – I couldn’t have asked for any more.

Thank you Mike & co… we love our finished basement!

Mike and his team(s) are very professional, do amazing work, flexible, accommodating and personable. A real pleasure to see every day. I don’t hesitate recommending them at all. Mike was always available to us with updates and answers to keep the job moving, electronically and in person. He was on site most days as well.

As things progressed on our job, if timing or budget were impacted, due to additional asks of us or unforeseen issues in the job, he’d let us know and we’d adjust. We requested many things outside of the original ask/budget, which they were able to make happen – electrical, flooring changes, floor plan changes, external plumbing etc. Mike kept good records and was always fair.

He has a wealth of experience between himself and the key people on his team and can therefore walk through decisions, issues that may arise and recommend an appropriate course of action, always arriving at a solution that gives you the perfection you want in a new reno. Special shout out to Aldo, the two Tony's (Framing & Carpentry), Paul (HVAC) and Marco who all felt a bit like family by the end.

It's clear that all of his trades respect him a great deal, and will do what it takes to get the job done for him, making everyone happy with the results. That says a lot!

Overall, a happy experience and we're very pleased with the final result.

We chose Sonoma Contracting to renovate our 425 sq. ft. basement based on Mike’s clear, comprehensible and reasonable quote, professional feedback, his extremely prompt replies and the overall quality of the pictures on Homestars. We definitely got what we were looking for: our basement is beautiful, functional, the work is of high quality. We are first-time home-owners, and first timers working with a contractor, and we had a great experience with Sonoma Contracting.

Our basement is a smaller space, and we needed to fit in a 3-piece bathroom, office, TV watching area, laundry, and some storage if we could manage. Our house was narrow: 14 feet at the wide end and 10 feet at the narrow end. We were also on a limited budget, and had just purchased the house.

When we invited Mike to take a look at our basement in our new house, he was very quick to respond. We had a quote within a week based on some drawings we produced with Autodesk Homestyler. Mike also connected us with True North Underpinning to discuss some height and waterproofing options for our basement. We solicited several other companies to quote on our job, and Sonoma’s was the only one that was clear, comprehensive and trustworthy. When we met Mike, we liked him: he was down to earth and straightforward, and we knew he was someone who we could work with.

We worked with True North Underpinning and Sonoma to waterproof (weeping tile, sump pump, delta wrap), redo the plumbing (install a backflow preventer) and replace our concrete floor. All the trades worked extremely well and both teams went above and beyond to do the work necessary. Mike was completely on top of all the layout needs, and made it right when something was overlooked on the drawings. Everything was done to code, and thoroughly inspected by the city.

Once the framing started, we were extremely impressed with Mike’s team, and all the various sub-trades that Mike employed to get the work done. Mike’s team were extremely professional: prompt, produced good work, and were sensitive to our needs as the client. Whenever we were concerned about how a certain aspect of the job was being executed, Mike always took our feedback very seriously and addressed it immediately. When there were delays due to external factors, some of the trades worked on the weekend to get the work done, like the electricians and carpenter who installed new railings and pickets. We had knob and tube electrical in our place, and electricians did a great job of tracking it all down. The HVAC guys were very accommodating given that we did not move our furnace location for the renovation: we had to reroute a section of the HVAC to accommodate the layout. We had gas lines routed to the outdoors for a BBQ and roughed in for a stove. As for the flooring and tile, the suppliers were very good, and the quality of materials recommended was high. There was a moment where Mike went out of his way to get the vanity we wanted, despite it only being in stock in Mississauga.

We would definitely use Sonoma Contracting again.

We obtained three quotes for our basement project and are very happy that we went with Sonoma. Mike's estimate was detailed, reasonable and accurate. His team of workers were professional, reliable and on time. Mike was responsive to our questions and easy to communicate with. We highly recommend his company and would use their services again in future.

800 square foot basement was finished - framing, drywall, electrical, plumbing (3 piece washroom, laundry room, drains), tiles, flooring, most painting. Quality of work done was extremely high. Lots of extras above original quote. If I were to do this over, I would have gotten an exact breakdown of what is included in the bathroom, doors, floors and tiles (all severely low budgets to work with). The bathroom budget only allowed for the lowest end fixtures. The tiles and floor budget were the lowest end as well. Know these budgets ahead of time before you book. The head contractor always made himself available for questions and concerns. We had a scheduling issue where I believe time was wasted if planned out better.

We initially contacted Mike for a quote a couple of years ago because of the positive reviews on Homestars. Not only was he a genuinely nice guy, his quote was extremely competitive. When we had saved enough money to get started, we contacted him again along with 2 other contractors. He honoured his original quote with a few additional requests on our part. Within a month, the work started.

We live in an old house (built in 1920) in the West end of Toronto. The scope of work included the demo of the existing DIY reno that the previous owners had done; digging up the concrete basement to replace all of the drains; spray foam insulation; adding a bathroom, laundry room, bedroom, furnace room and living area.

We had a few issues trying to finalize the layout given some beam/height restrictions but Mike was very patient with us. We also had a few scope change requests (decided to replace our furnace and upgrade some of the materials); he was very reasonable and did not charge a premium for out of scope items as some contractors do. On the flip side, there were a couple of things included in his scope that we decided not to do which were credited to us without us even needing to ask.

The quality of work was outstanding. Their trades people were very pleasant to deal with as well.

In terms of timelines, the project was estimated at about 8 weeks and it took about 10; some of the delays were a result of the change requests that we had made so completely our own doing.

Mike was always very approachable and reachable throughout the project. No significant issues came up during the reno which is surprising given that it’s an old home.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Mike and the Sonoma contracting team.

In terms of budget comparison to other contractors, Mike's budget was higher than other contractors. Was worth it in my opinion for the quality of workmanship. His crew was very professional, on time, and did high quality work. Plumber, electrician, tile guys amazing, tony the carpenter was a fine craftsman - I was very pleased with their work. I am pretty particular about details, too. They didn't hesitate when I asked for detailed changes.

In terms of unforeseen issues that happened during the reno, on my side there were a few delays due to custom orders which caused a delay in our timelines. One thing I would specify and clarify with mike ahead of time is your expectations for the details of the budgeted items are (I.e. materials, premium or not, type of tile). Know the details of the type of material that you want for him to budget for.

Mike was an excellent communicator with a positive can-do attitude and was a real pleasure to work with. I would love to work with mike and his crew again. Highly recommend this excellent team.