arthur in Toronto

The main drain decided to back up and flood my basement office ... as usual, it started on the Saturday morning of a long weekend! I called Strong Plumbing because they had done work on my drainage system more than 5 years ago. Even though Valentine was out of town, he made a great effort from a distance to organize one of his colleagues to come on the holiday to clear the drain and conduct a diagnostic inspection (which fortunately found no other problems). Denys was as friendly, knowledgeable and efficient as Valentine has always been. The problem was fixed; the camera inspection was explained to me clearly and the price was entirely fair with no "emergency" markup. I am pleased give Strong Plumbing my whole-hearted recommendation. I have learned my lessons: now I will get them to come more regularly to service my drain system!

During the covid-19 lockdown period, I needed a new dishwasher installed to replace the old one that had broken. The vendor did not have in-house an installation service so I had to find someone. The problem that worried me was that the old one seemed to be hardwired while the new one had a standard plug. One way or the next I thought we might have to deal with the unused electrical cable. I called several appliance installation businesses. Some did not respond to me at all, some were closed on account of the lockdown and some simply did not understand my problem. I found Yevhen using my Homestars account and gave him a call. He answered me right away and clearly understood my concerns. Even better, he was able to come by within about half an hour! It turned out that he had lots of professional experience installing dishwashers of the same European brand that I had purchased. Everything went completely smoothly getting the old machine out. The electrical connection turned out to be pretty easy. Yevhen installed the new one efficiently and professionally - no wasted time, no rushing, no uncertainty. He had all the parts and equipment in his truck, took great care of the premises and explained everything to me as we went along. Client communication is very important; I really appreciated Yevhen's straightforward approach. I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone for complex appliance installs.

My house in the west end of Toronto developed a water leak into the basement at a specific spot near an old exit door some years ago. It seemed to have started after I had a new deck built but I couldn't be sure. I tried some exterior fixes as before the deck, but they did not work. For 3 years, I talked to several waterproofing "specialist" companies. None of them offered a clear explanation of what was going on but they all recommended very expensive interior waterproofing procedures instead of the obvious solution I asked for. Then I found the Umbrella on Homestars! Vlad was the first to give me a clear and sensible explanation of what had happened: the deck builders had dug too close to the house and damaged the exterior membrane. Vlad looked very carefully at the situation both outside and inside. He identified the problem on a completely different wall than the other people I had consulted. He explained three different solutions, an exterior one and two interior ones, the first using the existing drain and the other a new sump pump and clearly explained the pros and cons of each. The interior solutions only half the price other companies had tried to get. Together we decided to use the sump pump to avoid overloading the old municipal drain, but Vlad did a camera investigation anyhow to ensure that it was in good condition. The Umbrella installation team was excellent. They arrived promptly, were extremely tidy and efficient and by mid-afternoon everything was completed. I waited for two good thunderstorms before posting this review. Everything worked flawlessly! My sincere thanks to Vlad, Bohdana in the office who answered all my questions quickly and clearly, and the installation team. I cannot recommend Umbrella too highly to all my friends! ay

Some wiring upgrades had been carried out in an early 1980s reno. But I did not realize how limited they were until finding active knob and tube when I tried to replace an upstairs light fixture. I immediately called KNT who are highly rated on Homestars. I could not have been happier! Bill and his team are by far the most professional contracting firm I have dealt with. Bill made time the same day I called to come by for a site visit which was carried in a very systematic way. At the end of the visit he was able to give me a complete briefing on the work required as well as a time and cost estimate which turned out to be completely accurate! The written quote was complete, well laid out and quite easy for me to understand. Having engaged NT I appreciated their ability and willingness to meet my preferred start date. Bill's project management was excellent throughout and everyone on the 4 person team was efficient and pleasant to deal with. (Remember that rewiring is about the most invasive renovation work their is because it has to be carried out on all floors almost simultaneously.) A much larger new electrical panel was installed; all knob and tube wiring replaced on 3 floors as necessary; new outlets and exterior lights added to meet current code and all the new lighting fixtures I had on hand were installed. I noted only two small errors in the course of the project and they were immediately corrected. I was extremely pleased with both the work and professionalism of KNT Electric, have recommended them to family and will certainly use them for any of my electrical needs in the future.