Elite Renovators

We are interior designers and this is our second time working with Steve and his crew from Elite renovators and just like before their work is A+++. From being on time, competitive pricing, speed and precision to clean up they have never disappointed. We highly recommend Elite renovators to anyone who is looking for any renovation work and/or load bearing wall removal. We have recommended them to other clients and they never let us down.

Thanks Steve and team for the outstanding work and we'll be calling you for many future projects.

We choose to go with steve and his team and i am so happy with that decision. I took down a good percentage of my load bearing walls on my main floor and when interviewing others, some looked at me like im crazy. Some were confused and didn’t know my options. And some just qouted me an insane amount just because they knew what i wanted was a slight bit more complex. Steve was honest and gave me fair pricing. Him and his team did the job properly and in a timely manner.

He explained everything as i wanted to learn and understand and I probably know know more then some of the GC i initally interviewed.

When it comes to wall removals i highly suggest going to someone that specializes in it, and steve will be your best bet!

We hired Steve to update our home's dated layout to an open concept design. To get the look we wanted this project involved the removal of a load bearing wall and its replacement by a roughly 20' steel beam flush in the ceiling.

It is clear that Steve is very knowledgeable and experienced. The work was done to a high standard and within budget. My project was very time sensitive, and Steve not only met, but actually beat the schedule we had agreed upon.

I also found Steve to be a pleasure to work with. He was very communicative, answered any questions I had, and kept me up to date with the progress of the work. He also went out of his way to come up with practical solutions when we encountered the unexpected inside the existing wall.

I would definitely recommend him.

Steve and his team are very experienced in framing and load bearing wall removal. This is the type of Contractor you want performing the work on your house. Being a structural engineer myself and working in the field for 15 years, I found that Steve was extremely knowledgeable about structures, loads, framing and using the right materials for the job.

Steve turned my 8 ft ceiling high bungalow into a vaulted style ceiling which allowed me to remove my load bearing walls and open up the floor plan from exterior wall to exterior wall.

The framing was mitculaous. The roof line dimensions lined up perfectly and I had no issues installing my drywall along the roof rafters.

Highly recommended Contractor. One of the best I've worked. A hidden gem in this line of work. Hope to work with you on future projects, Steve.

Feed back on our project with EliteRenovators - Steve F & Team

Excellent team to work with - highly professional, courteous, very clean (job site is suer clean each day after work), no - nonsense team to work with - on time, within quoted budget and very skillful in what they do.

Our Project - Remove one load bearing wall and one non load bearing wall to transform our ground floor to open concept - our requirement was specific to have a steel beam against wood LVL option to have a flush ceiling across the floor - we did our home work by engaging an engineer & architect for floor plans and structural drawings with changes required to submit for building permit (opened up portion of the walls, ceiling for the engineer and architect to measure and take details). We also engaged plumbing, electrical and HVAC trades ppl to get plans on rerouting the existing fittings in the structural wall thru alternate route per code.

Our initial approach to hire contractors was thru a bid site where contractors reach out to your project ad and submit quotes

# of responses thru the site - 36
# of written quotes received after in person consultation - 6 (all of them pushed us to include kitchen, flooring, painting and other stuff that we mostly did not want) All of them refused to just do load bearing wall removal
# of contractors who did not followup and get back - 18
# of contractors who delayed their response between 4 to 8 weeks - 10
# of contractors who pushed and frightened us to use wood LVL against steel beam - 2 with astronomical quotes

How we ended up hiring Elite renovators -

After our above described experience, I started a simple good old google search “Load bearing wall removal GTA”
Eliterenovators was the 5th result after the paid Ad’s listing in real results
I reached out to the two other results (prior to Elite) along with Elite in the order of the search results (did not check Kijiji listings as they mostly will involve a lot of scrutiny and vetting usually)

The top company never responded to my request or answered my calls or returned my voice mails
2nd company calls results in leaving voice mails and sent emails to which there was no response for a week or so
Steve from Elite picked up the call and spoke to me and heard my project details patiently and answered all my queries and gave me a ball park quote and requested for a visit to give a firm quote. He showed up on scheduled day (3 days after our call) - Steve provided a firm verbal quote (followed by written one in a day) within 7 minutes of visiting our place and did not complain about the steel beam requirement we had (as alll of others did).

Work started right on time as scheduled and completed within a total of 6 days with inspections by city inspector coordinated as per the permit requirements. Two new footings were added in the basement and two columns for the footings in basement to transfer the load along with the steel beams in the ground floor.

Attached photos will speak of the details and excellent job Steve and team did for us. We really appreciate Steve going the extra mile to adjust our angled walls (not part of the contract) as Steve mentioned that it does not take much time to do it as they know how to do it quickly. It really speaks volumes about the work ethics and client focused ethics. The same would have been an additional charge by any other contractor that I have known.

Steve also suggested how best to lay our new flooring and have given details with examples from his past experience.

If you are ever thinking of doing structural work at your home, you can reach out to Eliterenovators without second thought.

Next year we are planning on an addition to our home (room over garage) and will definitely engage Steve.. no second thoughts about who will work on it!!!!

We had a large renovation project planned And we had difficulty finding a contractor that was capable of opening up our space the way our designer wanted We had 3 quates and were not satisfied. We were told that what our designer specified was overtly difficult, luckily we found elite renovators. We spoke with Steve He set up a consult date with us We descried what we would like and he took us from A to Z and explained the whole process very clearly He showed us in his portfolio other projects with the same layout, and a technical solution for our projects challenge. We would My husband and Myself are in the industry and were impressed with his knowledge. In particular to residential structures We would highly recommend elite renovators To any of our colleagues and friends

Elite Renovators completed work on 3 load bearing walls on my property. While the newly installed beams conformed to engineer specifications, the delivery of this service was well grossly behind schedule. The contractors left much to do behind him as well as much debris. While our contract was signed very early on, and was very clear on time lines as well as the work to be completed, Steve Ficarella did not conform to the contract. Avoid this unreliable firm.

We are renovating a house and wanted to open up the living room, kitchen and dining room. Our GC, suggested we call Steve and we are so glad we did. He is a little hard to get a hold of initially but do not let this put you off, he is just busy and focused on the job he is working on. (A good thing) Once we were booked Steve was amazing about making sure everything was on schedule. He got us in touch with his engineer as well. We had an unreasonably short amount of time to get this done in and he was right on top of it all the way. He also worked around us having a demolition crew in, which is very accommodating. Plus he is a really nice guy.

My wife and I had just bought a house, and wanted our first upgrade to it to be opening a few walls and leveling an outdated 70's style dropped floor to put brand new flooring throughout the house. We had initially found Elite Renovators through homestars, and with such great reviews, we decided to go ahead and have them quote us for the work.
Steve came by and, as has been expressed by so many others on homestars, he was very knowledgeable and expressed exactly what he planned on doing to get us to our end goal.
We chose Steve to do the work, and he did exactly that. No delays or issues, Steve and his team got the work done exactly on time.
Throughout this, I had gotten to know Steve, as most people would because he's a very approachable guy, and can say without question that he holds his work and conduct to a very high standard. He's a master at his craft and a genuinely good individual, and would trust him with any project. I will definitely be using Steve again for work in my home, and would recommend him to anyone.
Great experience, and great company.

Thanks Steve!

I encountered a nightmarish situation. I had purchased a home a little over two years ago, where the previous owners had removed a load bearing wall and a post in my living room. They hadn't reinforced it in any way and my entire home (no exaggeration here) was on the verge of collapse.

I was officially in panic mode. I reached out to a few contractors who had half decent reviews on this site. None of them had the experience I was looking for, or fully seemed to understand the gravity of the situation.

I contacted Steve, who immediately provided me with a solution using steel beams, all others had proposed LVLs. He came in at about $5000 less than the lowest quote I had received, and really seemed to be compassionate toward me and the situation, wanting to resolve it immediately. He continued to work with me throughout the permit process, worked with my structural engineer, the city, the electrician and the design architect, and the insurance company, until the job was completed.

Although things kept changing, Steve never got frustrated with me and always kept a cool head.

He is an expert contractor, a master at his craft, and an overall great guy, who helped facilitate this entire process.

Thanks Steve!