Sullutuk in North Toronto

The project involved stripping and replacing shingles from the roof of a 15 year-old addition and the original house. The project was a disaster. The crew used overweight hammers and broke about 20 percent of the roof boards on the original part of the house. In retrospect, I should have taken them to court for the damages but waited too long. They saw the damage, but had no excuse other than to say that the boards were probably dried out and brittle. (Our neighbours have not experienced this issue with other roofers.) There were major leaks to the low slope roof of the addition. The first was associated with the vent along the peak that was replaced as part of the contract. Eventually, they did replace the new vent; however, they initially suggested that a vent was not necessary even though specified in the architectural drawings. Clearly, this was an effort to cut costs. There were persistent leaks around the joint of the roof with the skylights. The first leak was so bad that I had to place pails under each skylight to save the wooden floor. To their credit, they did visit us on four occasions over a period of four years to address persistent leaks. At one point, they repaired the blisters on the ceiling of the addition and repainted it. However, the problem of blistering has reappeared. A call to the company of a few months ago did not lead anywhere. The original roof (installed as part of a major addition) never leaked during a period of 15 years so there was no design fault. On the basis of exceptionally poor workmanship, I would never recommend this company to anyone. If you love your home, avoid these people and select a professional roofer. Our neighbour used this company to install roofing and eaves troughs and was not too pleased with the work, especially with the troughs.

Magnus recently serviced our gas-fired boiler. Never before had I seen such thorough work. He actually removed the burner unit from the furnace in order to clean it and undertook a series of instrument readings to ensure that the flue was operating properly afterward, that all seals were sound, and that carbon monoxide levels were within acceptable limits. His work was far better than previous contactors who charged almost twice as much and whose work did not approach Magnus' standard. Most simply vacuumed the burner quickly while it was in place without doing much else. To cap it off, "Mags" is a very pleasant person and very trustworthy. I would have no hesitation in recommending him to others. In fact, he was recommended to me from a very highly rated heating contractor who is listed on HomeStars. It doesn't get better than that.

Recently, we decided to replace some carpeting in our basement following a major renovation. On the basis of previous positive experience with HomeStars, we decided to ask Mark Ayden for a quote. After hearing many horror stories about carpet sales/service, we were amazed by Mark's exceptional service and attention to detail. We appreciated his sage and practical advice re types of carpeting and methods of installation. His workmanship was fastidious. We will surely retain Mark to install carpeting in other areas of our home. He is very honest and a real pleasure to deal with - a class act.

Mike and Aldo really care about their customers. They delivered on their promises. Their subcontractors were equally good. Their expertise is ensuring that there are "good bones" to a house - unlike some contractors who emphasize "exterior flash" to the point where basic flaws such as moisture express themselves in later years. As one indication of the quality of their work, they enjoy an excellent relationship with building inspectors. One contractor we had in on small carpeting job commented on the quality of their work. We're asking them to do more work for us. We would not hesitate to recommend Mike and Aldo to others. They have done work on three houses on our street and our neighbours have only good things to say about them.