lynn - corktown-5476

I live in an old row house in downtown toronto. James was doing work on one of the houses in the row and came by my house to ask if I wanted a quote to replace a rotting sill and tuck point bricks on the front of the house. He gave me his card and a quote. I looked him up on homestars and gave him the ok, since the rotting sill was something Id been meaning to get fixed for a while now. The work took longer than probably either of us expected. The sill wasnt as rotten as thought - most of it was solid and very difficult to remove. James brought to my attention that his worker pierced some aluminum trim at the bottom of my window and that theyd replace it. I really appreciated that he didnt wait for me to notice it, or just fill the holes with caulk. When the new aluminum was put in, James noted that the caulking was messy - he brought that to my attention and said it would be fixed before the job was done. As I was looking at the sill during this conversation I saw that it was sloped toward the window (just a bit) instead on away from it. James said theyd put filler on it to reshape the slope, and then paint. Not ideal, but I was ok with the proposed patch. He noticed that our tiny chimney looked rough and asked if it was ok to go up and give us a quote. I was fine with that. The next day, another man (James father, Mark?) came by to show us pictures of our loose chimney bricks and a section of damage on the roof. He came across as a slick sales guy and quoted us $8000 to get the chimney and roof repaired as well as tuck point some other areas on the front of our house. I balked and said Id need to get an alternate quote at that price before proceeding. He kept saying that water would get in between my bricks, freeze and destroy the bricks this winter. I held firm. He then said he could do just the chimney and roof repair for $4500. I still wanted another quote. He said he needed to know by the next day because they were a Pickering company and would be finished their other work soon - it wouldnt be a job theyd want to come back for. None of the other places I called could get me a quote in the timeframe I was given. James called to ask if we decided and I told him it was a no until we could get another quote. James asked for payment for the job they completed and I paid it, happy to be done with the company (James was ok, but the father was off putting ). I didnt check to see if the sills slope issue was fixed. It wasnt (and the caulking was still a mess). I reached out to James and he said hed contact me once they are back around the area. That was a month ago. Im not sure if they have a plan to be back in the area. I did get another contractor to do the chimney and repair the roof for a decent price (Half of what Mark was quoting). He looked at the sill and also noticed the slope issue saying that once the caulk gets old, water will enter my house. He also noted that the price I paid for that work was around what he would have charged anyway. I waited to give this review, hoping that the sill slope would be fixed and I could review based on that. But here we are. Overall, James seemed decent. The other guy felt like a high-pressure sales guy. The sill job wasnt completed (slope) and Im a dolt for not checking before paying.

We have a narrow Victorian rowhouse and needed the upstairs hallway painted (ceiling, walls, trim, doors) as well as the bathroom, some of the floors and the hallway on the main floor as well as our front door. The process of getting a quote was very straightforward. They came to the house and itemized what we wanted done, then provided a very detailed written quote with a reasonable price. The upstairs was difficult, especially the floors, because we had no place to put the furniture. They managed to move it aside, paint, and repeat until it was done. They were here for 4 days, were friendly and polite, and made sure we were happy with the result. Were having them back to do the exterior.

When we had our roof redone, we got a skylight installed. To our surprise, the roofer only did exterior work and we had to find someone else to frame the interior of the skylight. We’ve hired Trent in the past and now he’s our go-to guy. He came, gave a reasonable quote even though we both knew I wasn’t going to shop around. Our house is from the 1800s and the ceiling is lathe and plaster and cracking. So we had him install drywall in the hallway ceiling (where the skylight was installed) as part of the job. Trent did a great job making right angles out of the wonkiness.

We have an old house. Inconveniently, but not surprisingly, the ceiling in our guest bedroom started to sag. Originally it was just in one spot, and we put off doing anything about it. But shortly before we were to have overnight visitors we checked on the room only to see that a much larger and fast moving sag had emerged. We had hired Trent before with good results, so we called him and he found the problem (raccoons in the attic, plus a leaky roof). He and Jimmy were able to fix the attic and replace the old ceiling with new a new drywall ceiling while we had a roofer handle the roof. It was like a magic trick -- presto -- everything was repaired, repainted, and cleaned up good as new in time for our visitors. Trent and his team are reliable, tidy, respectful and we're always quick to recommend him to friends.

My neighbour recommended Whiteshark to me. I called to book an eavestrough cleaning and to get a quote to have an extra downspout put in. I called in the beginning of June and was told the cleaning would occur between June 19 and 30th. It's July 7 and I'm not sure whether or not they've been cleaned. I haven't been invoiced, but one downspout seems to flow better. I'm still having water spill out of my eavestrough in one spot, though. They made a separate appointment for a quote for the downspout. The appointment was for between 2 and 4pm. They got there at noon. I wasn't home, but that was ok because I told my sister (who was home) exactly what I wanted. Not that it mattered because the Whiteshark guy went to his truck, got his sign, put it on my front yard and slipped a quote in the mailbox. It gives me a general idea of the cost (almost $250...for 1 downspout on a 2 storey home) - but I wanted to talk about placement and having it connected to a rain barrel. I can't believe I had to wait 3 weeks for that - surely someone could have given me a similar quote over the phone. Not impressed.