Jack and Shayla in Thornhill

I can't rave about Phong and Brick Aid Masonry quite as much as other reviewers but I am still quite happy with the job they did. I hired them last autumn to repair several areas of our house where the brick was crumbling. Their quoted price was slightly lower than the others we got but not the lowest. Because of bad weather and a few health issues on their side, they were only able to spend one very long day here before it snowed and the weather got quite cold. We mutually agreed to defer the rest until spring. Frankly, I wasn't totally happy with their initial work. While the chimney repair and some other parts looked quite good, there were other areas that looked either incomplete (a few of the cracked bricks weren't replaced on the side of the garage) or not well done (the bricks on the window ledge weren't all cut to the same length). To be fair, they were working in the dark for the last hour or two. I took pictures and sent them with the list of my complaints to Phong. In spring, about a week ago, Phong came back with his son and they fixed all the problems I had pointed out as well as finishing the parts they didn't have time to start last fall. That's when the reason for all the past good reviews became clear. Phong cared a LOT about keeping me happy and didn't argue at all about fixing the parts that didn't look good, even including a few parts that I just noticed on that day. While the initial quality problems stop me from giving them 10/10, I have no qualms about recommending Brick Aid Masonry to those who want an honest, competent masonry company for a fair price.

Somehow, my garage door had gotten out of alignment and the wheels were rubbing against one side of the track, sometimes getting stuck on it. Danny realigned it and lubricated everything, leaving me impressed with how smooth and quiet it was. That was back in June. Now, 6 months later, it's still working well, although perhaps not quite as smooth and quiet as it was originally. The cost seemed reasonable but I did not get other quotes to compare. I would definitely use them again.

It took 3 visits to fix 3 separate problems with our fridge (bad freezer fan, dirty condenser, bad compressor relay) but Joe only charged labour for 2 because that's just the kind of guy he is. He carries a lot of parts with him so he had the ones he needed with him when he diagnosed the problem. I will definitely use him again for our next appliance repair.

Having Chris do our outside paint job was a pleasure from beginning to end. To begin, his quote came in slightly lower than the 2-3 other quotes we got from companies on Homestars. A lot of the wood we were painting was somewhat damaged because we left the job too long but he seemed to do a good job of prepping it and the painting was clean and in the lines as you would expect from a professional. Chris was always pleasant and cheerfully accepted our changes with only modest increases to the quoted price where appropriate.

I considered only two companies for the job: UHS and one other highly-rated one from Homestars. In the end, I went with UHS because my friends, whom I trust, used them and because UHS was willing to give me a guarantee for the flat roof while the other company would not. They showed up when they said they would and were super-fast, finishing by around 4:00 pm on the same day. I wish I could give an intelligent comment on the quality of the main roof job but all I can say is that it looks good to me and after 2 months, there have been no problems. The garage job was to repair a shoddily done flat roof (by a company now out of business) that has been leaking in one spot for several years. Jason gave me several options and in the end, I opted for the cheapest which was to repair that one spot for just over $1000 and get a 5-year guarantee on no leaks there. The first guy who did the job seemed to know what he was doing but it still leaked when it next rained. Of course, I let Jason know and he promised to send an expert (he said it was the guy who taught him). That guy was incredibly thorough. I didn't expect them to go right down to the wood but that's what they did, replacing the rotten planks and then putting layers on top. I'm very happy with the work done. The garage roof repair obviously turned into a bigger job than Jason had thought but he stuck by his price with no push-back or hesitation, and that's one big reason that I wouldn't hesitate in recommending him to friends. *** Edit on Dec. 3: I had originally commented that Jason hadn't stopped by to look at the work but later found out that he had and just hadn't stopped in to talk to me which is not a significant issue.

I bought a GE fridge from them in 2008. There's no super-friendly service to rave about but the price was really good and the fridge is still working well 9 years later so I would definitely consider going to them again for our next appliance. (We haven't bought any appliances since then.)

Anil and Arby seem to have a very customer-oriented attitude. When booking the move, Arby suggested a 16 ft. truck and I explained that I was very nervous about getting a truck that was too small because of two bad past experiences. Arby said something like "I don't want us to be one of those bad experiences -- let's make it 24 ft.". No need to convince him it was needed or justify it. (In the end, I think it was needed but I'm not sure. There was still room in the truck but it didn't seem like very much.) Our move was done by Anil (a partner?) and another guy whose name I've forgotten. As far as I could see, both worked almost non-stop for the entire 7.5 hours without the long break mid-way that I've seen other movers take. Anil, in particular, impressed me by his cheerful, helpful attitude for the entire time. I was a bit disappointed by the amount of time it took for the move but I think I just underestimated the time needed to go down long hallways and use the elevators in both buildings (one of which was quite small and slow). The only negative thing I can say is that they arrived 45 minutes early. I suppose some people wouldn't mind that but it made an already stressful day a bit more stressful. But of course, that is better than being 45 minutes late.

Summary: I believe that Amilcar and his crew want to do a good job but they made some mistakes and, originally, I had some trouble getting them to stand behind their work once paid. In the end, they do seem to have fixed all the leaks. <p> Details (written Nov, 2010): <p> Things started off well with Oxxo. Their quote was about $1000 cheaper than the next cheapest and I found Amilcar very friendly and easy to deal with. The price difference made me a bit nervous but Amilcar explained that as their business was new, they had to charge less than others in order to attract customers. <p> My office overlooks the garage so I was able to watch the crew do a lot of the work and to my untrained eye, it seemed like they were doing a good job. However, now I know that they did make mistakes. <p> I noticed the first problem right away. Amilcar had promised to slope the roof so that it would drain well after a rain and they did that but there were two spots with large puddles that weren't draining properly. That turned out to be caused by the top of the existing drain pipe being a couple of centimeters higher than the roof. That wasn't their fault but a good roofer would have noticed the problem and fixed it before putting the bitument on top. However, we talked about the situation and considered various solutions and he was able to almost completely solve the problem by digging out from under the metal cap of the drain pipe, pulling it down and screwing the side of it to the wall to hold it in place. At that point, I paid 90% of the bill. <p> I can't remember the exact sequence of events but I believe it was at the next heavy rainfall, I noticed that the roof was leaking at almost exactly the same spot as before, although not as badly. I called Amilcar and he surmised that he just needed to caulk the area around the drainpipe and came over to do that fairly soon. I couldn't test the repair right away because it had to dry but a few days later, I went up with a hose and sprayed all over the roof, only to find that it was still leaking. A little later, I narrowed down the location of the leak to one small area. Over the next 6-8 months, I called Amilcar 4-5 times and left messages but he never answered the phone or returned the call. So, in October, I left a message threatening a bad review and possible legal action, but still got no response. <p> Update (December, 2010): <p> A day after this review was originally published (saying pretty much what you see above but with no response from them), Amilcar called to apologize for not getting back to me and explained that he has been away for months dealing with an urgent family matter (which I won't go into here). In my opinion, the family issue may have justified not being able to work on my roof but it doesn't justify not returning calls. <p> Anyway, Amilcar showed up today and surmised that the roof was leaking mostly at the nail holes so he patched all those, and more, with plastic cement. He said that if that doesn't work, he'll come back and torch on a patch. I'm not thrilled that my new roof has to be patched already but at least now he seems committed to keep working on it until there are no more leaks. <p> Update (June 2011): <p> Amilcar's attempts at patching the roof with plastic cement were unsuccessful and then the snow came and he couldn't do anything. In spring, about a month ago, he came back, ripped out a small section of the bitumen and torched down a new piece. I'm not 100% sure but I think that finally fixed the problem. When I felt the underside of the roof after the last heavy rain, it was completely dry and I have not seen water dripping since then.

I was skeptical about all the good reviews but I have to admit that Kevin was pretty good. I called him Sunday night and left a message. On Monday morning, he called back and was able to come within the hour. He patiently answered all my questions, left some poison for the wasps and, as far as I can tell, they're now all gone. The only doubt I have is that he made it all look so simple that I wonder if I couldn't have done it myself. However, he used a poison that killed them while most recommendations on the Internet were to spray something like Raid. I don't know how that would have turned out.