Izabella in Toronto

Lots of 10-star companies on this website didn't even bother to respond to my queries for cleaning (not enough $ in it, I suppose). But Tip Top Trough was very responsive and friendly. They did a great job, were very personable and quick. Plus, they let me know how my system looks (all good - no pretending I need repairs when I don't). Also flexible with the payment. I will contract them next time I need cleaning and I recommend them to others.

We had an acrylic dome skylight that was acting like a magnifying glass in our 3-storey townhouse. We wanted to replace the skylight with an energy-efficient, low-e, glass skylight with an integrated shade. With other companies, we received one quote by phone, and then an inflated quote when the representative came out to see us. I guess they sized us up as being able to "afford" a premium for the install. Not so with Skylights Unlimited. Their quote was competitive, consistent, and when we added extras (solar-powered shade, venting) the cost only went up marginally (only by the amount that Velux charged for the extra -- not a special, nice-home premium). To top it off, the team was professional, efficient and (we could hear them on our roof) took extra steps to do the job well. We needed an extension rod for our cathedral ceiling (we opted for the manual venting skylight, not electronic) and someone from Skylights Unlimited drove it over to our place the next week. No extra charge.

My flooring situation has been a bit of a journey. The original hardwood flooring installed by the builder of my brand new home was defective / installed poorly. The short story is that I was compensated for this as I wanted to go my own way and have it done right. I spent a lot of time and energy ripping out the original flooring myself to make sure damage was minimized. I explained this all to Paul when we spoke. I had indicated I was very nervous about getting this done due to my past experiences and the time & effort I spent to remove the old flooring. I also indicated the type of wood I had was extremely hard and was a "structured" -- sort of engineered, but still solid wood. I also indicated the new flooring I had was extremely expensive (about $10/sq ft) and so I wanted it done 100% right. I must have said this 5 or 6 times. He assured me that he was okay with all of this. The quote provided was fairly high, but I was fine with that as generally you pay for what you get. They showed up exactly when they said they would and the actual installation is very good -- it is more of the care that was taken. They were POUNDING the boards together to make them fit. This left a few boards that now have visible cracks in them along the side that was pounded & stapled. A lot of boards are scratched... and they left a huge gouge on two boards. Considering the material that was installed is 3 times harder than Oak, I am not really sure what they did to cause so much damage. I thought this was all "normal" and even gave them a callback to have some more flooring installed. They were fully booked and could not make the dates I needed so I found someone else on Homestars. The new installers were considerably less expensive and overall did a considerably better job (in terms of care taken). They installed the exact same flooring (it was even the exact same run) and did not *POUND* the boards in place. They also used a waste board as a buffer to tap the new boards in place. And to top it all off, I showed them the flooring done by The Floormen and they fixed the two gouged boards no problem. I'm sure these guys (Floormen) do excellent work when the flooring is unfinished... but if you are doing pre-finished and are particular about scratches, etc then I would not recommend. Especially considering what they charged. Again, the actual installation is very good... it is just the care taken that irritates me. Especially considering what they charged and the price of the flooring I had installed. Sorry guys, no referrals from me on pre-finished flooring installs.

We called with a last-minute floor installation request and Khody was able to squeeze us in between some other jobs because of the small surface area that needed to be installed. He and his apprentice took great care to tape down the floors as they worked so that their tools didn't damage the newly laid floors nor the ones in adjacent rooms. They were very clean and conscientious -- even sawing the boards on the front steps to reduce the dust in the house. The installation was immaculate and Khody took care to make sure the boards were spaced optimally so that your eye wasn't drawn to any imperfect boards or patterns in the board distribution. Plus, the threshold to the tiled bathroom was perfectly level. On top of it all, I believe they were cost effective. A bit more than budget installers -- but we did have extremely hard exotic wood floors, which carry an installation premium. But for the quality of the work and the fact they made a few minor repairs to the flooring installation we had on the upper level, well worth it.

We called with a last-minute floor installation request and Khody was able to squeeze us in between some other jobs because of the small surface area that needed to be installed. He and his apprentice took great care to tape down the floors as they worked so that their tools didn't damage the newly laid floors nor the ones in adjacent rooms. They were very clean and conscientious -- even sawing the boards on the front steps to reduce the dust in the house. The installation was immaculate and Khody took care to make sure the boards were spaced optimally so that your eye wasn't drawn to any imperfect boards or patterns in the board distribution. Plus, the threshold to the tiled bathroom was perfectly level. On top of it all, I believe they were cost effective. A bit more than budget installers -- but we did have extremely hard exotic wood floors, which carry an installation premium. But for the quality of the work and the fact they made a few minor repairs to the flooring installation we had on the upper level, well worth it.

We had unstained oak stairs in our 3-storey (plus finished basement) townhouse and needed them stained to match our pre-finished oak floors. Demetris' quote was not the cheapest, nor was it the most expensive. But this quote covered sanding, staining, and finishing with 3 coats of urethane for the steps, risers, posts and sides. And we have a lot of stairs in the house. He managed our expectations on how closely the colour would match given the differences in the staining process (rubbed-in for the stairs; sprayed on for the floors) and was concerned that the veneer along the sides might not take the stain evenly. That said, he did an excellent job colour matching, and the veneer took the stain perfectly. The stairs look great now. And Demetris even cleaned up our basement and vacuumed the stairs to get rid of fine sawdust so that the finish was flawless.