Mike in Cobourg

My wife Ann and I just moved to Cobourg a couple of months ago. We own a mid-century bungalow which we are excited to put our mark on and make our own. One of the things we have dreamed about for many years is a nice gas fireplace, so after only being here for two weeks, we went to Friendly Fires on King Street, right downtown, to get things in motion quickly, especially given the supply chain issues Canada-wide. Hayley gave us a thorough introduction to gas fireplaces, demonstrated several models in the showroom, and then us walked us through all the technical and aesthetic options possible with the units we liked. She has a broad knowledge base, and explains it easily and personably. It was easy to settle on one that was perfect for us. We had not expected our unit to be ready until February, but here we are in mid-January and it's all installed and we are loving it! Installers Jamie and Bobby set it up precisely according to code and the extensive documentation in the manual. We were delighted to work with them, they were very friendly and patient in briefing us on what they were going to do before getting to work, going over some options that we could choose for our particular setup. They installed the fireplace unit and hooked it all up smoothly and efficiently, then spent time with us to walk us through how to operate it, and recommended certain settings and a follow-up maintenance schedule. We were most impressed by their knowledge base, they know their stuff. A super smooth, no-prob install. We have a guy coming in on Monday to do the framing surround, and he will be well briefed by the manual's detailed documentation. It's an elegant unit, and so relaxing to sit in front of and savour. Friendly Fires is highly recommended! We're delighted.

Alex and his team did a superb job replacing our dated, wooden patio door and side windows with a beautiful white vinyl set that functions far better and looks gorgeous. I was a bit hesitant about the material, vinyl, but Alex showed us some designs that integrated well with older, more decorative trim, and explained how well they insulated, totally beyond the elegant look. The install took over a half day, but the job was a quality install, and a close look at how the sealing was done underscores how well they insulate. We are super pleased with the look of them now that they are installed, and definitely they helped clinch the sale of our home, so buyers must have been equally impressed. Kudos to Alex and the team!

We are in the last stages of a total home reno that was running out of time before our house goes up for sale. I called the painting contractor we dealt with previously, but did not even get an answering machine. So I cast about here on HS for another company to paint 2 bedrooms and a stairwell for us. Lauren came over same day as my call, to look our place over and put an estimate together, which we downloaded later the same day, a Friday. Price was fair, and she said her team was ready to roll Monday 1st thing AM. George and Laslo arrived right on time, and Lauren walked them through exactly what we discussed, and the full parameters of the job. They were friendly, personable and professional, asking a few technical questions to verify details, and then they got rolling. They did an absolutely superb job for us. There was an unusual ugly plaster defect that had appeared in our stairwell, over 2 feet across, and they plastered it in to perfection. Not an easy fix. Done. My office window needed 4 coats of paint, as it was maroon, and we needed all trim painted white. No problem. They moved furniture with great care, covered everything well, cleaned up afterward scrupulously, and were a genuine pleasure to interact with. Their painting was thorough and expert, very smooth, top notch. The whole experience was excellent, and completed in our two day window. Well done, George, Laslo and Lauren! Highly recommended.

The kind of experience and results a homeowner hopes for. Our bathroom had been tiled years ago, and was sloppily done, to be kind. We are now selling our home, so we needed our bathroom to be a gleaming selling feature, not a liability that would cost us. So we called Len. He came in, gave us a detailed written estimate, had great knowledge and made suggestions that worked out superbly when all was done, that I never would have thought possible. Greg and his assistant came in and worked a day and a half. The result was transformative. Ugly dark grout was lightened precisely to the soft colour we wanted, which was close to the tile colour. Greg explained what he was going to do, and while I was still not sure it was deliverable, I marvel at the results. We had tiles around our tub that did not fit precisely to the tub, and he used a flexible, coloured grout to extend subtly the look of the tile to meet the tub surface. Never seen this done before. Executed with precision, looks amazing. Flexible and durable as well. The caulking was absolutely precision work. I am handy, but no way I could lay down as clean and consistent a line as that. Beyond that, they cleaned the tile and fixtures to a level of polish that made the entire environment sparkle. Our bathroom now looks sophisticated, spacious, clean and light. GREAT job. Highly recommended.

Ozan at Reliable Drain & Plumbing was recommended to us by another plumber who was unavailable at the time. Our drain clogged shut and it was a disaster, we really needed help. Ozan tried to snake out the blockage but the drain was over 50 years old, clay/asbestos, and had finally given up. He called in to arrange an excavation, and the team from Reliable were hardworking, friendly and professional. They recommended installing a backwater valve which will make sure sewage will never back up into our basement, which I recommend highly. They excavated, showed me via camera what was going on in the pipe, and did the drain pipe replacement and valve install very efficiently. The admin staff were excellent, and guided us through each step of getting a rebate for the backwater valve installation. Lots of paperwork that, but they guided us through it all smoothly, with great attention to detail. Later, we had Ozan re-configure the plumbing underneath our new quartz countertop, which was installed by the amateurs who owned our house prior to us. He's a super nice guy, was a pleasure to work with, and talented. All in all, a great experience working with Reliable. Recommended highly!

We are thrilled with our new quartz countertop. After checking out a couple of other stone companies we discovered StoneMasters, and are glad we went with them. Very professional throughout the whole process. They have a massive selection of stone. Dan helped us narrow down our final selection to a short list of 3, based on our criteria. He explained how the stone is cut and made into a counter, how the installation process will go, and highlighted some possible issues that would come up, and how they deal with them. They sent a guy to measure our kitchen space with a cool high tech system that laid out our countertop's dimensions literally perfectly. We were a bit nervous when they came over with the counter, but it fit with precision into our walls, and they were quick and efficient. Our house had under-the-sink plumbing done by the amateurs who owned the house prior to us, and it needed reconfiguring. They handled the whole thing super smoothly, bringing in some long-trusted plumbing talent who finished the whole project professionally and was a very nice fellow as well. Very happy, highly recommend!

We found Kiya through HomeStars, and consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have engaged his services for extensive electrical upgrades throughout our house. He has extensive experience leading a team working for builders and working for other contractors before opening his own business, so he knows what he is talking about, and what he is looking at when assessing a home's electrical. He is also honest in his estimates of exactly what is required to complete a project, and what is necessary vs what is optional. Example: we called him in to replace our electrical supply and panel. We thought we would need a 200 amp service. He immediately asked why we'd need 200. Did we have an electric car, a pool pump, or other heavy current-draw items to power? None applied, so he emphatically suggested a 100 amp replacement of the box, and installation of LED lighting throughout. We now have loads of power, safe wiring (he replaced/upgraded several dodgy connections in the ceiling of our house, invisible to us and installed by the previous owners) and a beautiful array of LED pot lights plus kitchen cabinet lighting and hanging fixtures throughout our house. He makes well-designed layout and smart product recommendations, and installs them to code, very time-efficiently. He prices very fairly. He is a warm, personable guy, a real pleasure to work with. If you are renovating your house, get him on your team! Highly, highly recommended. Update: Further to the above work, Kiya saved us several thousand dollars in major excavation work when he replaced an old rusted out main power switch in our basement. The line into our house came through an old metal pipe that fed the wire into an ancient circuit breaker switch box, preceding our new main panel. That box clearly had to go, but the complication was that the feed-in line also needed to be replaced to comply with code. In most houses the line comes through a rounded right angle pipe which allows the electrician to fish a new wire through smoothly. Not at our place. We had an elbow pipe, with a sharp right angle that made an easy threading of new wire into our house physically impossible. A new line and pipe had to be installed, but looking at it, the only viable option seemed to be a very expensive dig at the side of the house, and our metal window casement would take a big hit and likely have to be replaced as well. Big bucks. Kiya solved it, however. He drilled a new hole out of the basement through the concrete cinder blocks. Dead-on accurate, the hole came through to the outside at exactly the right spot to join up with a new feed-in line with an exterior smart meter. The new line is encased wthin a flexible waterproof hose which he was able to snake through the hole into our basement and properly hook up to the panel. A clever, elegant solution that saved us a lot of money. It was then signed off by the city inspector, Hydro came and hooked it up to the street service, and we now have a safe, 100% up-to-code line into our home. Kiya has done lots of work for us and was as always, great to work with. He is a stickler for safety, works strictly to code, bills fairly and legally, and does quality work. I just this week recommended him to a good friend, and will pass his name on to anyone who asks if we know an electrician.

I found Kelvin here on Homestars, and consider myself fortunate to have hired him. He and his team did a wonderful job for us on our basement. Framing, drywall, door installations, flooring and concrete repair. If you're looking for someone to renovate your basement, I strongly suggest you give him a call. He's experienced, having worked on both industrial and residential properties, he's a real nice guy, congenial and easy to work with. His team was fast, accurate and polite. Very high quality drywall work, smooth, clean and precise. Beyond drywall, he’s an effective contractor for related services, he's good at sequencing workflow smoothly, and has a personal list of tradespeople he has worked with who have not only top notch technical skills but are very respectful and pleasant to work with. He has good advice when planning, far beyond the usual drywall trades, extra valuable when the inevitable surprises pop up. We had a situation where a drain in the basement had to be moved, involving plumbers jack-hammering out a big chunk of concrete. Afterward, he said leave it to me, I have worked with a couple of concrete guys. I'll get them in and they will restore the floor. They were true pros, really nice, fast and accurate. Done. And on with the next stage. He is in demand, so call him earlier rather than later, that was our only issue, was having to wait for him putting the finishing touches to a couple of other projects first before he could work with us. But as problems go, that’s a good one. He looks after his clients, and now, we're very happy with our basement.

I dreaded the demo and removal of old stuccoed drywall in our basement. My back simply would not allow me to tackle the job myself, so I turned to Junk Canada Removal. Tim came in to analyze the situation and had some questions to determine exactly what to take out, and what needed a touch of caution to avoid damage to elements that were best left intact. He exceeded expectations by far. It was a huge relief to have the basement, in one day, both demoed and cleared. Professional attitude, an experienced eye and enormous energy make Tim and company the guys to call for a careful yet quick clear-out.

We had a concrete walkway right in front of our house. It was old, it was ugly and it sloped slightly towards the house, not good for drainage, and the source of some dampness on one wall of our basement. We wanted a specialist craftsman to create a beautiful new slate walkway and beautify the curb appeal of our home. Found Rick here on Homestars, and he did a superb job for us. What he built is not only aesthetically pleasing, (he had some solid ideas for what would work in terms of pattern and design) but he engineered the slope subtly and perfectly to manage drainage (our driveway slopes down to our house, a tricky problem to work with). He knows his materials, has an excellent sense of pattern design, and he works very hard. He is a consummate pro, and well worth hiring for your project. Give him a call!

Highly recommend John and his company. Very professional right from the get go, when John came out to quote our project, and provided a written quote on the spot. He has an excellent team, and Ricardo and Carlos were hardworking, skilled and friendly; experienced pros. Really enjoyed working with them. The back office functions smoothly and was very helpful in scheduling a perfect timing for us, and taking care of billing conveniently, properly and ethically, something most people looking for a painting company never consider.

We bought an oven from Faulkner's a few years ago and it was both fairly priced and performed superbly. So when we decided to upgrade our refrigerator, dishwasher and laundry washer, we headed for Faulkner's. They had exactly what we were looking for, the technology, the brands, sizes and finishes. They were delivered by Anthony and Tyrone, on a muggy Toronto summer afternoon, and despite what must have been an exhausting day moving heavy products, were courteous, friendly and careful in their work. They were well prepared for potential moving glitches such as door clearances, and had things set in place quickly and precisely. Later that day Bob, the fellow who sold us the appliances, set up our dishwasher with painstaking attention to detail, and dealt smoothly and effectively with the prior installation's shortcomings (including the wrong water pipe which was also damaged: he had a code-compliant braided hose on hand and updated the dishwasher correctly). Everything has worked beautifully, and we're glad we went to Faulkner's rather than the usual suspects.

Megacity did a clean, precise job on my driveway. It had 4 sections sawed out of it by a geo-engineering company who straightened my retaining wall next to the driveway, and needed to dig trenches to bury steel plates beneath the asphalt. The job was a bit technical in the sense that the paving had to butt right up next to the retaining wall, and I did not want any damage to it. They executed perfectly on it, nice clean line, carefully done. Mark and his two assistants were very pleasant and professional. They had to dig out a lot of unsettled dirt from the excavations and cleaned up after, leaving a beautiful smooth surface flush with the existing drive. Good guys who deserve lots of business.

Extremely pleased with the job Clarke Basement Systems did to salvage our retaining wall. It was old and leaning more and more with every passing year. We knew we'd soon have to get it worked on or taken down and replaced. CBS gave us a fair estimate and did not over-promise as to results. They ended up righting it to within a few degrees of perfectly vertical. Lovely. They used a unique geo-engineered solution that involved putting steel plates on the exterior of the wall and linking by means of 3/4" steel rods to a set of steel anchor plates buried under the driveway. Don, Austin and Nolan were punctual, pleasant and did it right.

Highly Recommended! If you have a tree that needs to be removed, and want to deal with a friendly, knowledgable professionals, call these guys first. Aaron Hill and his team were a delight. We had two trees that grew like weeds and were crowding out a prized Spruce in our backyard. We procrastinated way too long to get them taken down. I dreaded it. Had I known how hassle-free the whole thing would be, I'd have called them in way earlier. Ever had contractors either in your home or on your property who left a mess behind, or even worse, damaged your property? Not these guys. Very pleasant to deal with, had the whole thing done in about an hour! Aaron walked me around the site after taking them down, and all was clean and tidy, no mess left, and a beautiful job indeed! Whoever else you call to get a quote or whatever, you must give these guys a call. You'll be glad you did.