Wellcore Corporation

Alex and his team at Wellcore made my vision become real. Just imagine one of those ancient downtown multi-tenant wrecks with "good bones". I had no idea I was in for a gut job! Thank goodness Alex was smart enough to anticipate what we would encounter and bid an adequate budget -- which he was vigilant about monitoring -- to make sure I always approved any "extras" before proceeding. My goal was to end up with 3 bedrooms, while turning another into a master suite/walk-in closet. This meant we had to fortify an attic floor and replace a dangerous staircase. Alex came with me before I bought the house to confirm this plan was feasible. It was only possible because he had the brilliant idea to flip the direction of 3 flights of stairs to provide safe, well-positioned access to all levels. The quality of the construction (yayyy Vince!) and the craftsmanship of the interior finishings is top-notch (and I am a very demanding customer). The team take real pride in the beauty of what they are creating. Alex never made me feel stupid or unreasonable, and always greeted me with a smile and a "can-do" attitude even when he knew I was going to ask him to adjust something! He always found an "in-budget" way to include a restoration feature, and affordable ways to solve a problem. And many thanks to Natalia for wonderful and endlessly patient design assistance. Plus, Wellcore handled all the drawings, permits, and inspections. I was so lucky to find this company and will definitely use them again.

This was a large undertaking by our family. We essentially kept 3 walls and the roof. Everything else is new.

Alex and his team were awesome. They guided us through the process (from inception, budgeting, permits, and construction). Of course, along the way, there were small hiccups that occurred (partially our fault) that required extra attention, but the Wellcore team guided us through everything and provided assurances to our family and our neighbours who were impacted by our project.

The work was completed on time and on budget, which is a rarity in today's age. Thank you Alex for helping us reshape our house. We're pleased with the results and look forward to settling down in our modern home.

I am writing this review for Wellcore Corporation who completed our custom house (Scarborough images on their website) in June of 2017. This may be a lengthy review for some, but I feel it is necessary to convey our experiences with Wellcore over the course of this project. If you find it's too long, I've summarized the review below.

Summary

This summary is what you should read if you want the quick rundown on our experience. Overall, I would highly recommend Wellcore. They are genuine and caring and will ultimately ensure that you are satisfied at all steps of the project. It's honestly easy to hire a contractor and have them build a house, but the question that remains is what type of relationship will be built between the individual and contractor throughout the project and what level of quality is maintained throughout the project. At the end of the project, we developed a strong relationship with Wellcore. We are 100% positive that we made the correct decision and not because our house was built by them, but because we hired professionals that brought experience and quality to the table in a timely fashion. Right from the beginning, they outlined the steps involved in undertaking this project and reassured us that every step would meet our expectations. We know that the house is well built and will last just as long as our 93 year old house.

As a side note, during this project we hired an urban planner in Newmarket for the permit phase (we found the urban planners thinking they would help us get the permits quicker; they were separate from Wellcore) who were deceitful. I want to bring this up to show that our project certainly wasn't without it's hiccups, so we've met individuals throughout the project that we would never hire again. During the lengthy time of trying to acquire the permits with the poor performance of the urban planner, Wellcore continued to back us up (help us acquire permits) and reassured us that we would be successful in acquiring permits. With Wellcore, we would definitely hire them again.

Before I finish I would like to say that I've posted this review on multiple websites and that the level of detail of this review reflects what I think of the company. Furthermore, you should do your research and read reviews in detail before hiring anyone, we interviewed several builders and decided on Wellcore. Should you decide to go with Wellcore, you definitely won't regret it. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

EDIT - It's been a few years since out house was built. The house is structurally sound however wellcore did not come back to finish several of the warranty items they mentioned they would perform, such as a hole in the drywall next to our fireplace. As well, we are not satisfied with the brick work, the front stone area next to the stairs is missing stone. It's easy to gloss over these details when you have a new house, but the more I look at it the less I am thrilled; to fix this would be very costly. Additionally there are some interior bits that could have been finished with greater attention to detail. I redid my front lawn because the grass died and noticed a lot of debris like plastics and shingles beneath the top soil, I can't say that I am happy with this.

With three kids and one on the way, we had no choice but find a solution to our space constraints. Moving was not an option, so we contemplated renovating and expanding our existing dwelling. We interviewed numerous contractors and increasingly felt discouraged and defeated... until we met Alex and the Wellcore team. We signed a contract and soon realized that we made the right decision. They were professional, courteous, honest and responsive. Most importantly, we were on budget. We would recommend Wellcore to anyone with home renovation needs.

We have interviewed a dozen of small and big contractors and when I met with Alex with his very detailed contract, my wife and I decided to go with Wellcore. More I hear about horror stories from people around me with their contractors (there are 2 houses on my street with 2 different builders have stopped building for more than 6 months), I realize that I was very lucky to find Alex. They not only built my beautiful house (almost) in time but also ALWAYS show up if there are anything to be patched/fixed even months after the house was built. Alex is extremely responsible which I believe is the MOST important when you are building a house. Anyone can build a house but I haven’t met that many responsible GC. Thanks again for building the beautiful house. I’m (almost) sick and tired of people taking pictures of my house and yelling “you have a beautiful house” daily. :P

Special thanks to Vince, Nat and Eugene. It was fun building house with you.

We engaged WellCore Corporation for building a new house in Etobicoke. We interviewed many builders prior the start of project and WellCore was the most transparent and opened in the initial estimate allowing us as owners to have an influence in all phases of the project and in choosing all house finishes. During the project we were amazed with their patience regarding some neighbours that constantly harassed the crew during the building process. We as owners learned that building in our part of Etobicoke could be very challenging with hostile neighbours resisting any changes and city bureaucracy and their inspectors that are unreasonably picky in this part of the city. Honestly we really admired WellCore's professionalism dealing with many unreasonable requests from the city that were not based on written standards. Overall they provided excellent service and we are happy we went through this endeavour with them. We cordially recommend them for any major projects - new houses or major renovations.

Very professional service provided by Alex, Vince and Natt. The quality and service exceeded our expectation. All the staff provided best suggestions and recommendation when in doubt. The team was ready to explain in details if you had any questions.
I am glad that I chose WellCore for this job. When I started this project I was scared, but Alex and Vince were always there to make me understand and help me through the project.
I only have good things and good memories. I will strongly recommend them. Very reliable and honest.

With Wellcor we avoided the usual nightmare of building the house on your own. Vince's expertise as a builder and Alex's efficiency to get all the trades on time made possible for us to move back 8 months later. Prior to hire Wellcor as a general contractor we've interviewed other builders and none was even close to the budget we could afford. Wellcor built our dream house and saved us a lot of money!

We have completed two custom construction projects with Well Core Corporation

Staff is skilled, competent and have good customer service.

They have completed everything in a timely manner, within budget and in a professional manner.

We are very happy with their work and would definitely recommend them as a general contractor for private and industrial construction.

After interviewing numerous contractors, we chose WellCore to take on our project which included a rear and second story addition of our 1.5 story house. From the design stage, thru the permit process and then construction, they were always on top of everything and worked with us every step of the way. We started designing in July, construction began in October and we had our newly built house by March. ON-TIME & ON BUDGET!!!

They are professional, honest and the most hard-working crew we have ever met. We had such an amazing experience with WellCore that we would not hesitate to hire them again for any future projects and without any hesitation, recommend them to all our family and friends.

Thank you Vince, Alex, Nat and crew for a job well done!