Mike in Oakville

My 3 year old Dryer was making a lot of noise when starting/stopping. After looking for several companies on Homestars, I called Rick Appliance Repair due to the many positive reviews. He answered right away and based on what I told him said that he needed to come out to determine what was wrong because it could be one of several things. He came out the next day and after taking apart the dryer he showed me that the plastic blower fan had cracked where it mounted onto the post that it spins on. He spun the fan and that's when the noise could be heard. After calling a couple of his suppliers it was determined that the part was not in stock and could take a couple of weeks to come in from the Manufacturer. I said not a problem because it was still working and I'd live with the noise until the part came in. Two days after his initial visit, Rick called me and said that he had the part. He had asked his supplier to put a RUSH on it and it came right away. I was home that day and asked if he could come over to install. He was able to squeeze me in during his other calls and the dryer now works like brand new. Rick wore protective boots inside the house and vacuumed all the lint from inside the dryer while it was disassembled, as well as behind the dryer where we don't normally see because it is enclosed in a cabinet. He was very careful not to damage any of the facings of the appliance while he was working on it. Pricing was reasonable. Great communication and service, and will definitely call him again for other repairs.

After using Taylor to re-grout floor in my house, I asked him to re-grout my shower stall with epoxy grout because the existing grout was flaking off. Taylor arrived on time to do the work, and then returned same time the next day to do the final clean-up. The floor tile looks AMAZING. I wish I had taken a picture of it before the job was done to post it. It totally changed the shower stall from looking old and worn to now looking like a brand new bathroom shower. We love it so much that Taylor is now going to do the other shower stall in our home. Thanks Taylor for the great job.

I called Sam the Plumber to get a quote to run a new waterline to the exterior side of my home. I told Sam that my existing water pressure from another existing hose bib at the back of the house wasn’t very strong and wanted to know what could be done to increase pressure. Sam came by that night to take a look and provide a free estimate. He used a water pressure gauge to determine how strong the existing pressure was and suggested we install the new line using a 3/4” water line all the way to the outside which should give the maximum amount of water volume and pressure. The price was very reasonable for the parts and labour, and Sam was able to schedule me in quickly since it was a relative small job. He arrived on time the day of the installation with two employees to assist. They all wore boot covers and finished the job in the time he estimated it would take. He tested all the connections and explained the procedure to prepare it for the winter and they cleaned up the work area. The water pressure is better than what I had expected, and I love the new hose bib and have been using it every day to water the trees, wash my vehicles and outside deck. Sam is very organized and knowledgeable, and did not pressure me into doing the job at all. Great guy and a pleasure to have met him and his crew.

We moved into a new-build corner lot home in an older neighbourhood and needed a wood fence to replace the existing chain-link, along with a metal/iron fence at the side of the house. I searched on Homestars as I always do and contacted 3 other fence installers for a quote. The pricing they were quoting was quite high, and I wasn't totally convinced that the outcome would meet my expectations. While procrastinating over which company to go with, our Landscaper suggested Target Fence. He said that he worked with them in the past and they are the best fence installers in Mississauga/Oakville area. I had initially by-passed Target Fence since they had a couple of bad reviews, but decided to call them out based on my landscapers recommendation. Best decision I could have made....Scott came and he was the most informative person that had come out. He provided recommendations based on the fact that were are looking to have a swimming pool installed and knew all the municipal codes. Scott's price was the lowest of all the companies I had contacted, and was he assurances made me feel confident that I was choosing the right installer. Scott runs the Wood Fence installation, while Doug runs the Metal fence side of the business. I showed Scott a picture of the metal fence I wanted, and he coordinated everything with the metal side of the business. Scott said he would start in 3 weeks, and was true to his word. The fence was done in 2 - 3 days. Both the wood fence and the metal fence look AMAZING. Scott was easy to reach at all times, and he even contacted my landscaper to coordinate things during the installation. I can honestly say that Scott has integrity and will do whatever it takes to ensure that you are completely satisfied with the end result. Don't look anywhere else....call Target Fence. They will not disappoint.

I moved into a new home in January, and the grout in the main area of the tile in the foyer and in the master bedroom kept flaking off. I tried re-grouting both areas by completely removing the old grout and applying new grout, but within a couple of days it would flake off in the same places and look awful. A friend told me that it was likely movement of the tile due to improper mortar when the tile was installed. He suggested using epoxy grout, but to ensure I called someone who was proficient because it was really difficult to apply since it hardens quickly. I looked on Homestars and found a couple of companies that had good reviews, but Taylor from Grout Expectations really made an impression on me. He was very knowledgeable and came out to give a free estimate within a couple of days. Although I was prepared for him to re-grout everything, he suggested to just do the areas that had the issue and if all went well we wouldn't need to do it all. Great....saved me money! Taylor came on time on the 2 days that he scheduled with me to remove the old grout, apply the new epoxy grout and then to do a final clean-up on the 2nd day. He was very clean and a true professional. It's been 6 weeks and the grout looks fantastic. I highly recommend Taylor from Grout Expectations...you won't be disappointed.

My hot water tank was not firing up on a consistent basis. A previous technician had fixed the tank about a month previously, but it started happening again. Gurpal (NWG) showed up this time to diagnose the problem. He cleaned the sensor and it started working right away. He told me to make sure that if it happens again, not to reset the tank before taking a picture of the LED lights that are on the control unit, as that tells them the error code to help diagnose the issue. Great advice which I will make sure to do next time. Gurpal was very professional and made sure to put his boot covers on as soon as he entered my home. He was very proficient and polite.

I use Homestars to review and hire most, if not all of the companies to do work on my home. During the winter a large crack developed on the stone front of my house. After searching on Homestars I found a company with many great reviews and sent them a picture of the crack, asking them if they would come out to give me a quote to fix it. They responded with an electronic quote by just looking at the picture. I found the price very high to fix one crack, so I continued my search on Homestars and found Damski Masonry had quite a good number of reviews and all were very positive of his work. Paul answered the phone right away and came over to my house the next day after I finished work to give me a quote. During the inspection Paul pointed out many other areas where the mortar was loose and falling off, including the backyard where 4 corners of the brick wall had cracks from the ground to the roof. Paul's quote was HALF the price of the company that quoted to just fix the one crack I sent a picture of, AND he would be doing so much more repair work than just the one crack. My home is 13 years old and the cement on the foundation has started to erode to the point I could see the re-bar in some areas. So when Paul finished his inspection and quote I asked him for a price to parge my cement foundation. He explained that he doesn't just parge over the existing cement, as it would fall off in a year or two and would need to be done again. Paul said that he uses a grinder to make cuts into the foundation to help the parging material bond better to the cement for a longer-lasting job. The quote was very fair so I agreed to have the parging done as well. Paul called on the Sunday of the week he was going to do the job to confirm the date and he showed up on time with his employee to perform the work. I cannot compliment the work that Paul and his employee did enough....it was excellent workmanship and the mortar matched the existing one exactly. Regarding the "cut's" that they did on the foundation to help it bond, I thought they would make a few saw cuts every few feet or so....but what they did was make criss-cross cuts along the whole foundation wall. Imagine that it looked like a checker board or a chess board all along the wall. It took a lot of time, but that preparation is sure to make for a strong parging bond....I was EXTREMELY IMPRESSED with that extra step that they do. Paul and his employee ensured that they cleaned up the work area after they were done. We are extremely happy with the work that Paul did and would definitely hire him again to do any masonry work, as he is very professional and has fair prices. Our neighbours commented right away on how nice the parging looks and they asked for Paul's contact information. Do not hesitate to hire Paul, as his work is amazing and you won't get over-charged.

My 11 year old A/C stopped working and rather than spending a lot of money sourcing the leak and replacing the coil, I decided to replace the unit with a larger one since the old one was under-powered for the size of our house. After checking various reviews on Homestars I contacted 3 companies and decided to proceed with Spring Home due to the excellent advice given to me by Cy and Cheryl, along with the fact that they had a large number of technicians working for them, rather than just a single owner/operator. The price I received was very competitive compared to the other quotes I received. The technicians, Ali and Victor arrived on time and explained what they were doing throughout the installation. Although my basement was finished, the installation took longer than what it normally takes due to the difficulty in the way my hidden joists were running for the new piping. One thing that I really liked was that Spring Home was the only company that insisted on running new pipe rather than cleaning out the old piping that had the old style Freon. Ali explained that if you don't clean the tubing properly, then you could have problems down the road. I think most installers would not have cared as much and just taken the easy way out. Ali and Victor had a great attitude even though they finished at 9:30 pm due to the complexity of running the new tubing and also the tight space they had to work with outside where the A/C unit was located. Phenomenal workmanship, and they cleaned up their work area like they were never here. I would definitely recommend Spring Home and will contact them again for future needs.

After 10 years of much use, the spring on my garage door finally broke at 7pm at night. After looking at reviews on Homestars and calling several companies, Nazaar was the only one who answered my Friday night call, and offered to come the next day Saturday to fix it. I asked if he could make it out tonight and he said he was beading to another service call but could make it for 9::30pm. He quoted the repair over the phone and showed up as promised. Fast and great service. He tightened all the bolts on both doors after the repair and lubricated all moving hardware. A pleasure to deal with and I will definitely be recommending him to my friends and will call him again for any other repair or new door quote.

Patterned Concrete completed our Driveway, Front porch and side walkway about 6 years ago. We chose Patterned Concrete due to the fact that they really do have the best product on the market. Other companies' finished work really doesn't compare to the driveways I've seen from Patterned Concrete. Based on my experience, they are priced very competitively, and what is most important is that they stand behind their work and product. We were extremely pleased from the initial contact to completion of the work. The advice given to us was invaluable, especially the advice given towards overall aesthetics. As mentioned, it has been over 6 years and whenever we have had questions or concerns during that time, they have ALWAYS responded and taken care of whatever we needed. Dino the owner is extremely knowledgeable, and has a great deal of integrity. Some of my neighbours decided to go with a different company, and were very disappointed with the work, and one even didn't pass code on their stairs which had to be torn down. The company that did the work was gone and they had to pay for it themselves and have redone by a different company. Even now, the driveways that were done by a different company look AWFUL. Bottom Line: Go with a company that has been in business for many years and is so confident with their workmanship that they stamp their name right on the driveway. You won't be disappointed with the end result, and they will be there for you in the long run. I always recommend them to friends and at least 2 of them have used them and are just as pleased.

I called Andy after reading so many great reviews on this website. After explaining that I needed a basic Queen mattress set to be used only over the next 3 or 4 years, Andy provided his recommendation which turned out to be exactly what I wanted, which was much better than my current set, and also much better than another set I had seen at a local mattress store at double the price. Andy always returned my calls promptly, and delivered my Queen mattress set the same day with no delivery charge. He is courteous, prompt and provides excellent Customer Service. He helped me remove my old set and install the new one. Thanks Andy...you are my go-to guy for mattresses from now on!

I returned from vacation late at night to discover that my furnace was not working. After several attempts to fix it myself I checked Homestars to find an HVAC company that would come out to fix it that night. I contacted AtlasCare and the dispatcher told me that a technician would contact me within the hour. The technician called within 5 minutes. He asked what the problem was, and then asked what the current temperature was in the house. He then explained that the service call for after hours was 50% higher than during business hours, and that it would be more cost effective for me if I could wait until the next day for a technician to come out. He reassured me that the temperature should not go down much lower and that he would send a message to the dispatcher to contact me by 8:00 am. I thanked him and said that I would wait. Sure enough, the dispatcher called at 7:45 am and said someone would be out between 12 - 2:00 pm. The technician, DAG, arrived promptly and after doing preliminary servicing quickly diagnosed that the problem was not with the furnace, but was with the electronic thermostat that I had installed a few years ago. He recommended to go with a higher-end Honeywell, that the Home Depot carried, or with a White Rodgers brand. I was very impressed that he did not try to push me to have him do the install. In fact I was the one that asked if he had a thermostat in his truck that he could install. He had a White Rodgers brand and although the price was higher than what I wanted to spend, I thought that by the time I bought one myself and spent an hour or two installing it....that it wasn't that much after all. I also thought, what if the furnace didn't turn on after the install...I wouldn't know if it was because I installed it incorrectly or that it wasn't the thermostat after all and I'd need to call for them to come out again. DAG installed the new thermostat and the furnace kicked on right away. DAG took time to explain how to use the new thermostat and was very courteous, competent and professional. I would definitely contact them again based on my experience with them, as I didn't feel like they were trying to jack up the price by pushing repairs that were not necessary. Everyone that I dealt with during this ordeal was professional and I felt that they were truly trying their best to help solve the problem as quickly and as cost effectively as possible.

I contacted Alex after finding his contact information on HomeStars. I booked an appointment to install 8 - 10 exterior potlights in my backyard. Alex and his crew arrived on time and after looking at the back of my house recommended that 6 exterior potlights would be best and would provide sufficient lighting. I found this to be very honest of him, as he easily could have just gone ahead and installed the 8-10 lights I had initially requested. His crew was very clean and proficient. They finished the job quickly and professionally. When he was finished the job, he told me that he noticed that a couple of the housings on the potlights at the front of my house which were installed by the builder a few years ago had dropped down, so he had one of his employees fix the lights. I would recommend Alex to anyone looking to have any type of electrical work done on their home, especially potlights. The exterior potlights are perfect and have made a huge difference for our home.