Patrick Bowman from Toronto

Our house has three gas fireplaces - apparently the previous really liked them! Imran has come out a few times over the last eight years to replace valves, sensors, and remote controls. He is meticulous, carefully laying out a large blanket and precisely placing the cement logs and grate on it before starting to work, then carefully reversing the process and vacuuming up anything that has escaped afterwards. He is courteous and professional. We would hire him again.

Trex costs more and there aren't many people who work with it. Art and Andrew were up front about their prices. We asked for several changes, and they accommodated them professionally and without overcharging for the upgrades, a trick that some contractors use. The results look excellent. We've been dining on the deck nightly since it was completed. Andrew and Art are dedicated workers who arrived at a regular time each day and worked solidly. We would hire them again.

Left message for Keith at 1:30. Got callback 1:40. Arrived 2:05 (yes, 25 minutes later). Work done, very professionally, by 2:45 including re-lighting our fireplace pilots. Fastest response time ever. And as a bonus he's been doing this a while and has some very interesting stories.

Our farmhouse is about a hundred and fifty years old, and we'd like it to be around for as long again. So when the time came to replace the roof, we put on a metal one. Rick from Metal Roof Outlet gave us a reasonable quote and was refreshingly open about what could and couldn't be done. The work was done exactly when they said it would be, without damage to the gardens around the house, and they cleaned up well afterwards. I've found a few roofing nails and a small strip of old shingle in the garden but nothing else (I should add that they didn't need to strip the old shingles so there was much less opportunity for mess.) I happily recommend them.

When we moved into our 1930s-era house two years ago, the old electrical panel had been patched so much it looked like something out of Frankenstein's castle. Of particular interest was a one-inch copper cable that had been sawed off, but not capped, at the exit point of one of the panel boxes. We got three quotes and chose Maple Leaf Electric to replace the electrical service panel, upgrade to 200 amps, run several more circuits, and fix a few other electrical oddities. Alex's team (who arrived exactly when they said they would) were courteous and articulate, and the job was done very tidily and in the time frame estimated. It turns out that, owing to the odd layout of the house, fishing some of the extra circuits was harder than he'd thought (one of his guys told me that) but, although I offered him a chance to re-quote, he stuck to his original price. I have recommended Maple Leaf Electric to several friends and will cheerfully do so again.

Noticed a leak in our roof, based on internal water stains. Spoke to three roofing companies. All had a similar minimum charge, but MRR could give an estimate and do the work in one visit. Very convenient. I was particularly impressed with the professional quality of the roof assessment they provided as part of the service. This includes a roof rating based on several factors, an estimate of how long it will be before the roof needs replacing, and numerous photos and comments. I suppose I should add that I won't know for sure until spring whether the leak is actually fixed! But their professionalism leaves me very confident that it is.