bruce borysiuk from Old Toronto

Michael from Vohgel Construction specifically asked me to write a review on HomeStars. (He might regret that request) In August 2017, I hired Mychael/Voghel Construction to renovate my bathroom. He scheduled the job for two weeks (I planned for a month). The renovation was plagued with problems, and was still not completed in March 2018 - seven months later! I found his ambition, fell short of his abilities. (Unfortunately for me). Some of the problems were: - Workers using Sharpie pens on marble tile. - Hexagon tiles being laid subway style? - Mychael’s daily fights with the electrician, who refused to install non-code fixtures. - a heated floor that never worked. - not removing all tile and just tiling over existing tile because ... I don’t know why. - etc. In February of 2018, without notice, he removed the toilet and sink. I was anticipating work to commence. Nope, they did no work in the bathroom for a month. (I spent a lot of time at the gym) After the non-heating floor was re-ripped up, (twice now) Mychael/Voghel Construction installed the wrong size, and wrong colour of tile. Mychael/Voghel Construction has a plenty of time to correct the situation, but chose not to. Months passed with no communication from Mychael/Voghel Construction (even though they claim to contact everyone within a week) - so I sued in small claims court. I won twice. File # SC - 18-00003612-0000 Mychael of Voghel Construction is a provincial guy who really is trying to make a go of it. I admire his gumption. Mychael would often use an excuse, “I’ve never seen that before”, for things he didn’t understand. Unfortunately, Mychael settles for the lowest common denominator. In all honesty, I cannot recommend Mychael/Voghel Construction. BUT, if you hire him/his company: 1) Keep a large, 50% hold-back. 2) He has a bit of a temper - ignore it hold your ground. 3) Stand firm on design features, if you want X, don’t be pushed into getting Y. 4) do your research – he is not the ‘expert’ on many things as he claims. 5) double check that what you ordered, is what you got.

I’m sure their motto is “Over Promise – under deliver!” I ordered 11 windows, and was offered a 3 month deferred payment plan for $39.95. I decided to take advantage of the offer. Once the order was placed, the finance people at the Brock office took over. Big mistake. She was completely unable: 1) to comprehend why I wanted the 3 month deferral if I was going to pay it off within the three months, 2) to provide me with 3 month deferral forms, and 3) unwilling to correct, or provide the new forms, once I pointed out the forms were incorrect. The salesman was good, and understood what needed to be done. The Brock office financial person was “incompetent”, to say the least. She never was able to rectify the situation (nor wanted to). I’m not sure if it was ignorance or stubbornness, or a combination of the two. It never was resolved – her ‘insolent attitude’, and ‘haughty air of superior financial intelligence’ wore me down. I just paid the windows off immediately. I am happy with the windows and the instillation team. Very unpleasant experience dealing with the Brock office financial person.

I first met Josh when I was getting quotes to lay flagstone in my backyard. Every masonry person said they couldn’t do it. Finally one person said, “Call Josh at Modern Impressions, he is the only person who can do that”. And he did. This summer, 2015, I hired Josh again from Modern Impressions to redo my basement bathroom, and like many renovation projects – it kept getting larger and larger. Josh was very accommodating, I.E. one Friday night I decided that the old kitchen tiles needed to be replaced as well, I called Josh, and he was removing all the old tiles Saturday morning. Josh has great ideas that make spaces work better – changing placement of appliances to moving light switches. And as a bonus, his work is very clean. The totally renovated basement is stunning, and Josh is great to work with. Without a doubt, I will be using him in the spring of 2016 for my upstairs bathroom renovation.

I had two small jobs for a tile setter – The laundry room and an open closet area. Giovanni came to house, appraised the situation, and provided a written quote. He double checked the amount of tile I would need for the job was correct, and we set a date for the project to begin. Because of my schedule changes, I needed him to start 2 hours earlier than we agreed – this wasn't a problem for Giovanni. He has great attitude. He had to rip up all 'peel and stick' flooring and baseboards, then tile, and add tile baseboards. The jobs were done expertly, the site was clean, and it looks amazing. I would definitely use Giovanni again!