Ollie in North Leaside

I originally noticed at the foot of my skylight well that there was some brown water staining on the corner of the drywall ceiling. I originally assumed it was a flashing issue around the skylight. Our house always had uneven heating and cooling in different rooms on our second floor. I was referred to Gordon by Insta-Insulation as a ventilation expert and someone I should contact due to the low pitch nature of my roof. Gordon was able to come by within 20 minutes upon returning my phone call for a consultation to spec out a statement of work to tender out. Both unfortunately and fortunately he was able to thoroughly walk-through all the red-flag issues with my attic, duct work, and the soffits. He took the time show me all the problem areas and went over similar remediation solutions from previous projects that would apply to my house. And also outlined the bandage work-around that would cost me more money in the long-run. The breadth/depth of his knowledge and experience was incredibly valuable.

My neighbor mentioned they smelled a gas leak from our backyard BBQ (rotten egg smell). After an initial investigation, I assumed there was a leak after the shutoff somewhere between the joint coupling and the quick connect sleeve. I'm generally comfortable with doing basic plumbing, but working with gas was more daunting. After receiving a bunch of quotes from some well known HVAC companies, the bids came in at around $200 to an insane $450 to fix the leak. One day I was home from work, and randomly searched Kijiji and found Joel Zhou, a TSSA gas technician. I called him up, and he said he could by in a couple hours same day and quoted me $100. He came and a did a leak for the gas flow chain, and found numerous leak points with the BBQ itself. The hose was cracked and the coupling at the BBQ was loose. So this was more so a user error than a real problem with the gas shutoff and quick connect. But he still replaced them at my request with the newer parts. (My original shutoff required a crescent wrench to turn on and off). Overall, I found Joel courteous and thorough and I'll call on him again for future gas related home issues.

I found Kevin's company through a Kijiji ad while looking for some lawn care options to help with our lawn. He responded quickly to my email with a phone call. We set an appointment and he came on time. His two man operation was courteous and respective of our property and neighbors. In and out under 30 minutes. Gave us instructions on watering to ensure the seeds would not bake in the sun.

I found James Li, the owner of Bestview Landscaping, through Kijiji. I hired his two-man operation to replace an existing asphalt driveway with block pavers (interlock) and add a walkway, retaining wall, and redo the porch steps/landing. About 500sqft of work altogether. First note, James bids considerably lower versus the competition. For most this may be obvious alarm bells. I knew something would have to give, but I accepted the tradeoffs, as at the same time I couldn't justify $15K to $20K bids (3x more) I received from other contractors due to my neighborhood. Once they were finally onsite, due to weather and delays in his other projects, the excavation was done manually. No Bobcats. This is back-breaking work. He did not redo the base of the existing asphalt, so it's unclear if the existing base was deep enough to hold up the pavers in the long run. Positives: the driveway looks decent. It's not the work of a craftsmen or artisan, but the curb appeal of my house has definitely increased. Not so positive issues: 1. They dry cut the soldier course in place (versus wet saw or guillotine), which creates tons of cement dust. My neighbors were hating me. Never mind that's is pretty hazardous in general (Silicosis). This dust sticks to everything once when wet. Not surprisingly, it rained off and on through-out the project. So what was suppose to be a city red, all the laid pavers have a pastel ashy/white film which I'll need to chemically pressure wash or wait a year for the weather to wear it off. 2. Our Unilock Ledgestone steps, which is $50 per unit, was installed with a sizable chipp when doing the mitre cut. 3.There is a section of pavers where the grading is flat producing a small pool standing water with rain. So in the next freeze/thaw cycle, I'm pretty sure we're going to have heaving. 4. The original quote was for radius steps which involves far more cutting and labor than square. Once the work began, James did a bait-and-switch and asked us to change our design to square. I compromised and had them doing a bigger landing. 5. They left behind a mess. A quarter of our front lawn is dead, because they kept garbage on it for two weeks. The sod they replaced some of the areas also died overnight. And they left a pile of bedding sand at the side of my house. 6. They didn't leave us a single extra paver for future repairs. But left us the stack of old pavers from our original porch because "They matched our backyard pavers, and they would be hard to find." ?? Extending that logic, why wouldn't you leave us a handful of the new pavers?? James run a cash business. He provides 80% of the quality for a third of the price. There is zero warranty to his work. I've tried reaching him regarding these issues, but so far he's been a no show.Take the good with the bad.

We gutted and reno'ed our entire first floor. As typical, our contractor had many subs come in and out. It was pretty much a parade of amateur hour,revisiting the same mistakes over and over. Update Precast on the other hand were probably the most skilled at what they do. They came at 630 in the morning, clocked out at 3 in the afternoon, to cover 200 linear feet of walls. If there's one thing that took our reno to the next level it was the addition of their plaster crown. It is absolutely phenomenal. We also had them put plaster crown on our kitchen maple cabinets so that we had a continuous flow through out the open first floor. The choice to go with plaster, by far, was better than the cheesy wood crown options from our cabinet makers.

Went to KWA looking for gas ranges, but my wife fell for a discontinued but new Viking 36" counter-depth refrigerator. Worked with Marco who gave us a fair price and we got the top grille kit thrown in to give it more height. He held it at the store for us for two months while we were going through renos. And he worked with us and delivery company to ensure it went smoothly on day of delivery. Thank you.

I have one of those gimmicky thermostatic mixing valve showers. It would either be overly hot or luke/cold, no in between. Got the replacement part from Riobel. Emailed Valentin and he booked me in 9am the next day. Came on time and muscled the mixing valve off to replace it. Showed me how the check stop and valve worked, as well mentioned that sentiment from the City supply eventually clogs these type of mixers. Overall, an easy experience.