Jian in Calgary

Orazio and his crew from Tora replaced our side walk and back yard patio and we are extremely happy with the result! It's a relatively big home concrete project, with over 60ft long side walk and around 600 square feet patio! Our house is in an established neighborhood and that pose some challenges. The existing side walk and patio are all big 24X30 slabs, which are really really heavy. We have a basement window well along the side walk, which is lowest spot on that side of the house. Our basement got flooded a few times during heavy rain fall. Besides, our back yard is all fenced off, so big equipment (such as Bobcat loaders) can't get in, most of excavation and concrete work have to be done by shovel and wheelbarrow. In addition, our house has an extended roof that are supported by three posts sitting on the big slabs, which we wanted to replace. Did I mention we have a big hot tub sitting on patio as well? Orazio is very nice and willing to help. I've never hired any concrete contractor in the past so I reached out to a few concrete contractors with great reviews online to get some quote for my side walk and back yard patio. They all initially responded. Once most of contractors that I contacted got more details on my project via emails, never heard from them again, even after a few follow-ups, they didn't even bother to give me a rough estimate through email. Only Orazio actually went on site, did walk through and made measurement. Also, he made some very good recommendations on how to fix my basement flooding issue and on the design of the side walk and patio. Orazio mentioned that it could take about 3 weeks to start the project depend on the weather, and he started the project right around that time! We were also looking at a few different options such as stamped concrete vs. exposed aggregates. After talking to Orazio, with his expert opinion and experience, we eventually went with exposed aggregates due to the natural beauty of the type and also the slippery concerns with stamped concrete in the winter in our situation, which turns out very nice! Orazio is not only the expert in the concrete field, but also he has a lot of knowledge in other area of construction. He designed the side walk in such way that my basement window well would never get flooded ever again from the heavy rain fall. Also, he and his crew took care of the posts that support the extended roof, put up the temporary posts and removed all the slabs underneath to have a good foundation for the new patio, then installed the new posts. In addition, he took care of the hot tub as well, moved it off the patio and get slabs removed underneath! Orazio and his crew are very dedicated and work very hard. Orazio was on site entire time throughout the whole project with his crew to make sure every step was done properly. As I mentioned earlier, the crew had to remove all those super heavy slabs by hands and excavate manually with shovel and wheelbarrows. That's more than eighty 24X30 slabs and a full dump truck load of dirt! Couldn't imagine how would they be able to handle that in two days but they did it! One thing I have to point out, in order to get the aggregates properly exposed, Orazio and crew came on site at 1:30AM in the early morning, after already a long day of tiring work pouring concrete, worked until 4 AM to finish the process and still came later that day to do the clear-ups, that's what we called dedication, professionalism and excellent services! Tora would definitely be my go to contractor for any concrete work. I highly recommend that you consider Tora for any concrete work, at least give them a try to see for yourself how great they are!!