Mike from Mississauga

Hired Red Robin to remove brick where previous owner had raised the grade of patio and covered those brick below grade. Installed 4 inch cement blocks instead and raised weeping holes as well. Also removed part of garage floor and poured new concrete to correct where old concrete was breaking up with exposure to outside weather. Quoting process was very good with estimator explaining the details and understanding the issues. The masonry work on the concrete blocks was very good. The poured concrete garage floor finish was not as smooth as I expected when poured so was disappointed with that. The owners of the company are very approachable, honest, do care about the workmanship and will try to make things right if they can. For this reason, I gave them a 10 star rating.

This company actually cares about their reputation in the marketplace, which is very rare in this business. And you know what, that is why we hired them off Homestars in the first place. But you never know how it will turn out when you hire any contractor. We do feel comfortable that they will be around should we need them back for any repairs in the future. That gives me piece of mind. Definite pride in workmanship.

This is a reputable, honest company. We had an nagging electrical issue in the panels of an older 4-plex we own. The problem required a few visits as the source of the issue was not obvious. Tony and his team stuck with the issue over a long period of time, and it eventually got fixed. Other companies would not return your calls once they ran into a problem. Thanks for fixing it. We now have hot water every morning.

The company did a good job. They troubleshot the issue, and the technician was in touch with others in his office for assistance. They solved the problem. Did not overbill. Good followup on the work. Always returned my calls.

My wife used Carl and Son to install a new boiler in her commercial building in Dec 2011. The original installation went reasonably well. She then contracted them to install a new ductless air conditioner in the spring of 2012. It was after that when it became apparent that there would be no after install warranty on these big ticket purchases. The problem began as soon as we started to use the air conditioner. Water started to drip from the inside unit onto our hardwood floors, causing the floor boards to swell. We called Carl and Son at least three times indicating that water was leaking. Each time we were told that someone would be coming soon, no one ever showed up. We ended up having to hire another contractor to fix the problem, only one month after the original installation. The water leak turned out to be a faulty installation which caused an air lock in the condensation drain pipe. Carl and Son never called back, followed up or showed up. Recently we placed a service call with regards to the boiler installation. Once again we called Carl and Son hoping to get service on this $8000 installation, calling them less than one year after the original install. We left a message. No one called us back. We didn't expect they would, but we tried none the less. Once again, we had to hire another contractor to fix Carl and Son workmanship. In our experience, the after installation service is sub-par, and there is no warranty on their workmanship, so we cannot recommend this company for heating or cooling work.

I hired Mike from Acorn Landscaping to remove an old interlocking front entranceway landing and install a new one along with installing interlocking accents cut into my driveway. Mike's quote was fair and Mike seemed genuine. I paid a deposit and the Acorn crew started work in the spring of 2011. The work on the driveway was nicely done, but when I arrived home from work one evening I noticed that the front landing they installed was not squared to the door of the house, nor was it square at all. In fact, my neighbours started to comment on it. I called Mike immediately and at first he told me that it was not straight because the walls of my house were not straight. I told him that made no sense, and that the old interlocking landing was square and aligned with the front door, as it should be, so why couldn't the new landing. I proceeded to put a chalk line on the front landing to show how it should be squared to the door. It was out of square by almost 2 inches. After a few phone calls, Mike agreed to send out a different crew to correct the work of the first crew later in the season. So, I waited a couple months. This second crew finally arrived and did square up the landing properly, but two steps leading to the front doorway were not redone. These were also not squared to the front door, in fact, the joint on one side of the step was tight to the ajoining bricks, but the other side had a one inch gap filled with sand. It did not look professionally done at all. I called Mike again, and he seemed reluntant to correct the problem and he again contended that the house was not straight. I again told him that the old steps were fine, so why can't the new steps by lined up as well. He finally indicated he would fix the problem. On his word that "he warranties his work and would not be in business this long if he didn't", I agreed to pay the balance on the job before the crew arrived to fix up those steps. At first, I received no word on when the crew would arrive. After a couple followup phone calls by me, he indicated he would be there "next week". Next week came and went and he didn't show up. By now we were into the fall of 2011, and I called him again and asked him to correct the problem, and he said he would send a crew out shortly, but again no one showed up. Since the winter was now upon us I decided to wait until the spring of 2012 to contact him again. This time my wife called him, and he started to get perturbed with her and said " I said we would come out and fix it", and he then ended the call abruptly. It is now the fall of 2012, and Acorn Landscaping never did come out to fix the steps nor did they ever call us again. I am not a satisfied customer, and considering I paid nearly $8,000 I think I should be. The warranty that Acorn offered was not delivered as I expected. It is too bad, because most of the job was fine and it would not have taken much to fix up those final steps, but that never happened. My word of advice to anyone reading this is never, ever pay the entire balance until you are entirely satisfied. Contractors will say anything to get paid, but sometimes they will not followup on their word as they have moved onto the next job.