Rob

Giancarlo serviced my Trane furnace and removed an old humidifier. He explained what he was doing and how my furnace should be operating. He answered all my questions in a way that addressed my household's HVAC needs. I found Giancarlo friendly and trustworthy. I will have him return in the spring to service my air conditioning.

Valentin gives me excellent value everytime I hire Strong Plumbing. Past jobs have included replacing the water supply shut off, and installing a more robust solution for the exterior tap to prevent freezing. Today, I needed to replace two taps, one on the kitchen and another in the bathroom. These jobs are always more difficult than they look. Valentin encountered seized fittings, a counter that needed reinforcing, and awkward DIY installations. He had the know-how, experience, and tools to get through each challenge. The work is guaranteed and I know it is going to hold up. I will definitely call Strong Plumbing again for my next renovation or fix.

I had a bunch of electrical jobs piling up - install a thermostat, replace a dimmer switch, install a new ceiling light - so I called Langstaff & Sloan. I had used them to rewire my house 9 years ago and found they were excellent. Vic came to my house the day after I called and completed the jobs in 2 hours. I had the items I wanted installed ready to go, and Vic finished them efficiently, while taking time to explain what he was doing and looking for signs of any other problems in the circuits. Hiring Langstaff & Sloan is money well spent.

I have used Strong plumbing before and found Valentin does excellent work. In this case, I had a "frost-free" tap that was leaking after the winter thaw. Valentin explained that these gadgets don't really work for more than a couple of years and when they break they can do real damage inside the house. Valentine replaced the tap with a shutoff valve and a bleed valve inside the house, on a separate stem from the rest of the house plumbing. He was skilled at working in the tight confines of my 100 year house's walls. Valentin showed me how the system works and the work has a one year warranty.

Valentine arrived at the agreed upon time, finished the job efficiently, and left the work area clean. This is the second time I have used Strong Plumbing and I consider the company good value for money. Job specifics: Last summer, the city did some work on the pipes in my neighbourhood. Afterwards, I noticed banging pipes in my walls when taps were shut off quickly and the toilet completed its cycle. I surmised that that the city had increased my water pressure. Valentin confirmed the pressure was too high. He installed both a quality pressure relief valve and a pressure gauge reader. The complicated set of joints neatly assembled with good copper soldering. After the installation, he patiently walked me through how the valve worked while I wrote down notes. He checked that the valve had solved the problem by monitoring places where the noise had been most noticeable. We ran a cycle of the washing machine, flushed the toilets and ran taps, making sure the new pressure setting was adequate.

Valentin did an excellent job replacing a leaking main valve with a new lever-style main valve. He called me back after I sent him a message (note: use his telephone or company email for quicker service) and explained the cost to me and the steps I would need to go through with the city in order to have the water shut off. He arrived on time, and waited two hours for the city water works to show up. Because the city was very late, Valentin went on to another job he had scheduled, but returned later that morning after the city had shut off the water supply. It was a tricky repair to make due to an external problem with the water line, but Valentin solved it and did a very clean job. He stuck to his original quote, despite the fact that the job took longer and was more complex than expected. Excellent service and good value. I will use Strong Plumbing for other plumbing work in the future.

Paul Hannah is an excellent technician, friendly and professional. He knows his HVAC systems, and even when he encounters something unexpected, he seems excited to solve it. The Duct Cleaning Specialists is a small company, not a franchise, so you get the guy you spoke to on the phone when you schedule a cleaning. My house is a 1920 era three story storefront, and it always has a surprise or two for contractors. Paul found the furnace humidifier had never been cleaned, and disassembled and cleaned it, telling me how to maintain it properly. He noted that an earlier duct cleaning company (hired by the previous owner) had not cleaned the return ducts, and he made sure all the duct work was cleaned thoroughly. He also cleaned my dryer ducts and replaced a poorly functioning vent. The biggest surprise was his discovery that the top floor air return had been used as a garbage chute by the previous owners. Five feet of paper,cans and other refuse was piled on top of the return vent opening. Paul improvised a extremely long vacuum hose for this problem he had never encountered before, and lifted out the pieces a few at a time. Despite the job being much more difficult that Paul had quoted on, he stuck with his original price and even sold me some filters at far below Home Depot prices. he left the house completely clean upon finishing the job. I absolute recommend Paul to anyone who wants to breathe better, and know what's happening with their HVAC systems.

Total price: $9500 roof/$2000 insulation plus taxes. My flat roof job was not an easy one. My neighbour wasn't interested in replacing his roof, but I didn't want his equally lousy roof to undermine any work I paid for. I had frost-ruined brick along the parapet wall and two crumbling chimneys which needed to be replaced by masons. My insulation was nil. This is a situation where you want to pay for experience. Company head Mike had a working relationship with my masons, Quality Restorations, so they were willing to talk to each other about what sort of brick was needed to fit with the roofing project. Adjustments had to made during the project, and the two companies interacted as true professionals. When it came to the insulation, Mike's original solution to add 2" ISO boards proved to not be the ideal one. Once the crew had the roof boards off, it turned out that the ceiling had no insulation at all. Mike had the knowledge to adjust his plan. His crew filled the house rafters with top-of-the-line R-31 fiberglass bats. They left the job site clean, as well. Michelle the receptionist was always quick in getting my questions answered. The company provided a photo log of the entire job as well for my scrutiny. Gable are proud of their work. I have worked with contractors over the past six months who expect me to do all the running around for them and have answers to questions that I, as a non-professional, shouldn't be consulted on. Hiring a contractor who has his own experienced crew, can work with other companies and has the knowledge to adjust quoted was such a relief. I got to see first hand what my job could have been like with another company. My neighbours across the alley had hired a different roofing company, Shaddai Roofing, who did their roof at the same time as Gable. This crew left the entire neighbourhood covered with tar paper. Gable's crew took photographs of Shaddai's crew working in case they (and by extension, I) was blamed for trashing my neighbours' gardens.

I asked for an estimate from Quality Restorations on removing the top of a crumbling facade on my building and replacing two old chimneys. Company owner Doug Pearce called me and we discussed what needed to be done. he clearly had experience and knowledge, and knew what the best course of action would be, and also, what red tape would need to be dealt with (my home is on a busy artery). Once I signed off on a detailed three page quote, Quality Restorations got the permits and dealt with disposal issues. Doug has been in business long enough that he knew the roofing company I had hired for the next phase of this job, and called them to make sure the masonry work on the building edge and the roof work would tie together properly. It took a few weeks to get the job done, due to Quality being in high demand, and some delays with permits. Once the crew arrived, they were in and out of the job in two days. They cleaned the site up, hauled away the bricks, it was as if they had never been there, except the building looked great. I have dealt with many different types of contractors in the past six months, and the sort that I have grown to resent are the ones who expect the client to repeatedly explain the job to the workers, talk to the city, dispose of material - all things that the client has no experience with. Quality Restorations were in control from the moment I signed up with them. If I did have questions, I called the head office and they would page Doug for me right away.

The upstairs bathroom and washing machine were backing up out of my basement drain. Asking around, many of my friends suggested it was just a clogged pipe problem and suggested renting a snake. Mike Yuffa of WaterWorks saw that the problem was more complex. He deduced that the bathroom and laundry sink drains were being routed directly into the basement drain instead of into the outflow pipe. Mike explained the process for fixing the problem, quoting me a price from the WaterWorks fee schedule, and booked a plumber in for the next morning. In addition to doing the drain work, Mike suggested additional work to consolidate the system at no extra cost. He had my laundry tub replaced, new taps put in for the washer and drier, and the laundry and furnace outtake plumbing rerouted. The drain problem was exactly as Mike had predicted, only uglier. Not only were the pipes incorrectly attached, they were attached with severely below code methods and with too narrow a pipe. The contractors working for Mike had the new system ready to test three days after the job was started. Unfortunately, when I used the sink later that day, the drain was still having trouble with backing up. Mike returned on the next working day with his own tools and a man with a snake, and troubleshooted the whole system again. They did not leave the job site until he was sure the problem had been fixed. Mike is concerned about his company’s reputation and the satisfaction of his clients, and it is very apparent in the quality of his customer service. Rosanna, WaterWorks receptionist, was very professional as well, calling me to tell them Mike was on his way, and relaying messages quickly.

My new house is an early 20th century store converted into up and down apartments and then converted into a single family dwelling. The structure of the building, and the wiring inside the walls was a puzzle. Rob gave me an honest estimate of what all needed to be done and what it would cost to do it right, and how long it would take. He told me to get my new fixtures lined up and he would install them at the same time he pulled out the wiring. My estimate also included all the holes being patched when the job was done. My house was full of surprises, but the crew just kept finding solutions. They completed the job is four days. When Langstaff & Sloan were done, the house looked great and paint-ready. The best thing about Rob and the rest of crew is that I always felt they knew what they doing and the final result would be high quality and safe. They arranged the permits and the inspection as well, and mailed me the Certificate of Inspection when it was completed.