Monika in Surrey

I called 3 companies to get quotes for a sprinkler system installation. The requirement for the companies I chose was irrigation certification accreditations. The first company I contacted (highly rated on homestars) was quite rude in email and telephone conact until I mentioned Homestars, then the tone changed and the person gave me an over the phone, site unseen estimate. Not going with that company. Two companies came out for site inspections and provided an estimate. One company's representative was quite 'rough around the edges'. He changed his answers / descriptions of work to be done such as: - accessing a portion of the yard on the opposite side of driveway - use of my home's existing 1/2 copper piping vs. installing 3/4" water supply to accommodate better water flow - drilling through the concrete house foundation vs. going over the foundation (avoid drilling) based on questions I asked I learned from research and other installers - variance in the estimate pricing for items crutial to a system installation. Not going with this one either. The third company I chose for an estimate was UNIVERSITY SPRINKLERS. Chad was my estimator, he was VERY INFORMATIVE, HONEST, OPEN, REALISTIC and very detailed in his discription of what the job would entail - location / types of sprinlkler heads, access lines and control boxes. Chad provide honest / realistic answers to ALL questions I had and never made me feel like I was bothering him with my 'need to know the whole process brain'. Chad even contacted the city on my behalf to request the curb stop house water supply be repaired as it was broken (had been since I lived in the house, 13 years). I felt VERY comfortable with the information Chad provided and the estimate was very appropriate for the amount of physical labour and the materials required for the job. The installers came out on time, cleaned up after every days work (so well that I could not tell they were even in my yard!), did an amazing job with the grass relacement (could not tell where they had lifted the sod and laid lines), placed sprinkler heads in very strategic locations and so much more. They even locked the back gate so my dog would not get out. I felt like they cared. I have had many companies / workers in my home over the years and I can HONESTLY say that this was THE BEST EXPERIENCE I have had with work done on my home. I am looking forward to a long and happy relationship with University Sprinklers. Thank you University Sprinklers!

Last month I had Centra replace all windows and the balcony door. I am VERY IMPRESSED with the service and product received from Centra. All of the employees were professional and committed to doing the job right. I love my new windows. My home is quieter and I already notice the difference in the temperature in my home. We have been experiencing a few weeks of warm weather. With my old windows my home would have been uncomfortably warm and the fans would be brought out of storage. With the new windows my home is very comfortable, I still have my heavier blankets on the bed! I also have A LOT OF RESPECT for the company because ALL EMPLOYEES ARE SHAREHOLDERS! What a GREAT way to improve quality of workmanship. Very good experience from start to completion of the process. THANK YOU CENTRA.

I hired Gardeners for Hire to do some garden clean up, bring in garden mulch to apply 3" mulch to all garden beds, do lawn work including aeration, moss kill and removal, fill in a large hollow in front lawn, top dress rest of lawn, weed kill, fertilize and seed new lawn. The garden clean up was ok. There was not a lot to do it was more a tune up prior to mulching. The mulching was done on same day. I had specified I needed 3" over all beds to aid in water retention and weed suppression. When I arrived home from work I checked the work. There were ares that had no cover at all and most of the garden has 1" or less mulch. Some areas have just a light covering of mulch. I mentioned the lack of mulch and they did bring in more but there is only about 1 " - 1.5" mulch. The lawn is just as bad! I had to ask the gardeners if weed kill was done because there was no die off happening. They did come back and do weed treatment BUT it did not work. The weeds wilted a bit but are now growing vigorously. They did offer to do one more weed kill but I declined because there is new seed sprouting / growing. Everything I have read states not to apply weed treatment until after the 3rd mowing. The new grass had not even been mowed once when they were to do the treatment. Three times I had described and shown the gardeners where I wanted the dip in the front lawn filled. I wanted the lawn levelled so it is easier to mow. The dip was not filled in / levelled with surrounding lawn, the soil they brought in was placed around my tree INCREASING THE SLOPE and excentuating the dip! How the area around the tree got built up I do not know because we discussed NOT doing that because the roots will just grow through again. I feel like they were just doing their thing and not paying attention to my specifications. I also am disappointed with the statement on their web page that says 'no job too small'. I wanted a task done in my back yard and they were not interested in doing it. They said it was not a job they wanted to do. Their timeline was poor as well. There were excuses for not being able to come and do the work as scheduled which delayed the completion of the job by 3 - 4 weeks. For the work done and the minimal soil / mulch / lawn treatment material provided the price was extremely high. I do NOT recommend this company.

Our house is approximately 30 years old. The cabinets are all original oak. They are very solid, in great condition and very functionally laid out. Because of this we could not justify tearing them out and replacing with new. Our designer suggested checking out Kitchen Makeovers. After having Tanya come in, give us an estimate and discuss the process we decided to have Kitchen Makeovers paint our kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Tanya arrived on time Monday morning and promptly went to work. Day one was removing the cabinet doors and drawers then masking the areas not to be painted. The masking job was amazing! I have NEVER seen such a great making job before, she missed nothing and her lines were perfect! The doors and drawers were then taken off site to be sprayed. Wednesday Tanya returned (on time) and went right to work transforming the kitchen and the bathroom into ‘spray booths’. Then it was time to get to work on the cabinet frames. The cabinets were cleaned, prepped and sanded where necessary. We were changing the cabinet handles so the old holes needed filling as well as some 1/4 - 1/2 inch holes that previous owners had drilled into sides of the cabinets. The next step was the spraying of the cabinets (We had the inside of out cabinets sprayed as well. Everything is so fresh and clean and a pleasure to look at). Tanya sprayed and rolled then sprayed and rolled again. We went from a reddish oak colour to White Down in the kitchen and from a creamy white to a cappuccino colour in the bathroom. The colours are GORGEOUS!!!! (A real big bonus with this process is ANY colour can be chosen. We were not limited to the colours available to new cabinetry installs.) Finally the doors were hung with the new hinges and beautiful handles and the areas were all cleaned up. The transformation is amazing. Guests come to our home and cannot believe that these are the original cabinets. They all say that they thought they were new cabinets installed. We had the work done in May. Over the next 6 months renovations continued with many different workers coming in our home. Due to carelessness of some trades workers our cabinets received a few nasty and noticeable gouges (one being a 2” x 3/4” chunk removed from the side of a cabinet). Tanya came back and filled all the gouges and did painting touch ups. The cabinets are perfect! Tanya is very passionate about doing a great job for her clients. She was ALWAYS on time. Out of all the workers in our home this last 7 months Tanya is the ONLY worker that always arrived on time AND finished the job on schedule. Tanya NEVER left a mess behind. She always cleaned up and took all her tools home at the end of the day. Again she is one of the few workers that were professional enough to care about how they left their client’s living area before going home. Tanya also does house painting. We are so happy with the job done on our cabinets that we are having Tanya back to repaint 2 rooms that the previous professional painter messed up (the paint company he used did not have consistent colour tinting throughout cans of paint. We have 3 different shades of the main colour used in our home. He did not correct this! He hid the paint error by using different cans on different walls, and did not mention this! Now we cannot do touch ups because the paints do not match even though they are supposed to be the same colour.) Then next summer we are also going to have her come back to paint the outside of our home. Thank you Tanya!