Doug from St. Catharines

As a part of the St. Catharines Flooding Alleviation program, in June 2015, we got 3 estimates to put in a main sump pump, a water powered backup sump pump and the sewer backup value. Jamie’s quote was the lowest. He installed the Hydromatic VA-1 sump pump, Liberty water powered sump pump and Mainline Fullport backwater valve. The work was done on time and they cleaned up everything. It has been 8 months and all is working well. So in Feb 2016 when we renovated the kitchen and 2 bathrooms we asked Jamie back in to add shutoff valves to all the sinks, install new faucets and sinks and install the dishwasher. We are very pleased with the quality of the plumbing work done. I would recommend him to family and friends.

We used Custom Granite Ltd for 2 bathroom counter tops and 3 counter tops in the kitchen. I really like their selection and quotation process. At the front desk they take your drawings and measurements. They took us to the showroom where we were able to wander around viewing the granite slabs by ourselves without a salesperson looking over our shoulders. While we were viewing the granite slabs in the showroom they prepared the quote sheet for each of the 8 price groups of granite and 4 price groups of quartz. Tom brought the quote sheet to us, introduced himself, answered our questions and then left to let us continue viewing the slabs. Each slab had a price group labelled, so now we had an idea about what it was going to cost. The samples we were allowed to take home were large at 6 inch by 6 inch. After 3 visits to the showroom to view the various granite slabs and then take home samples we selected Giallo Ornamental Light for the bathroom counter tops and Azul Platino for the kitchen counter tops. The measurement process went smooth. The person showed up on time and was done in 2 hours. The men who came to install the granite did a good job. The granite counter tops fit correctly so the person doing the cutting followed the measurements. I would recommend this company to family and friends.

Mike showed up early at the house in St. Catharines, which we had put a conditional offer on. As my wife and I followed Mike around the house he explained what he was looking at, what was normal wear, what was minor but should be repaired (ie window caulking), what should be repaired ASAP and estimated what it would cost (ie 7 basement wall cracks). His thermal image camera showed me that the house was well insulated around the corners and windows. He verified that the skylight was in good condition with no hidden leaks. He did a complete job of checking out the entire attic including the hard to reach side where the skylight was. A nice touch that my wife liked was that he used a portable vacuum cleaner to clean up the insulation pieces that had fallen from the attic entry hole into the walk-in closet.

I had a small chimney of yellow bricks that were chipping and needed to be replaced. I also had some red bricks in the garage wall that needed to be replaced. I contacted three companies in the Toronto area. One would not come to the house to view the chimney but instead based on the size of the chimney gave me an estimate to fix the chimney and 70 bricks on the garage. Two companies did come to the house and gave me their estimates. Ernie Wilkens of Wilkens Contracting was one of those companies. Wilkens was $180.00 more than one company and the same price as the other one. I selected Wilkens to do the chimney and the garage because they would replace 100 bricks on the garage instead of the 70-80 bricks the other two companies would replace. Secondly Ernie listened to my concerns about not disturbing the flat roof membrane around the chimney and explained what they would do to address my concerns. Frank and his sons showed up on time on the appointed day. Frank viewed the work to be done and then went and got the bricks. He believed that more bricks were needed but said he would not charge me for the extra bricks he was getting. That was very nice of him as some places charge $15 for each extra brick over the estimated number. The work was done in 1 day. The new bricks matched the old colour very well. The work area was cleaned up. They even put mortar in several cracks on the inside cement block wall of the garage. Ernie contacted me later to see if I was satisfied with the work. I am very happy with the craftsmanship of their work and will recommend them to my neighbours.