Jon Phipps in Carleton Place

A couple of years ago we had our central air conditioning fail at almost the same time that our oil tank was decertified. We shopped around and initially chose another contractor based on price, who shipped the wrong system and then tried to dramatically increase the price on the day of installation. We contacted Carleton Refrigeration and they got us a system in a hurry, installed it quickly and efficiently under difficult circumstances (our crawl space is an extremely tight fit and nasty to work in), and at a reasonable price too. Over the last couple of years we've been very happy with their routine maintenance services, and pleased with their courtesy and professionalism. We're very, very happy with both the equipment and the service -- they're good people to work with.

Journeyman Carpentry is the best carpentry contractor I've ever worked with (I've worked with quite a few), and they did a fantastic job replacing the roof on our house. Not just the work was superb, but the level of professionalism is impeccable -- clear communications, letting us know when he would arrive and when he wouldn't; on-time performance (even getting it done early); flexibility in both pricing and specifications with written change orders to make sure everyone understands what has changed, and what it will cost; a reliable and sober crew (which on our job included Dan's highly skilled father as a bonus); effective and creative problem-solving (no job goes entirely smoothly); nice folks too, fun to have around, and Dan even returns phone calls! I’ve worked with quite a few contractors because my family and I have owned a number of houses, cottages, businesses, and apartment buildings, and over the years I've experienced many of the reliability and quality issues with the building trades noted in some of the reviews on this site. It took many years and a lot of aggravation (I could tell you stories) to find a crew I could rely on. When I moved to Canada a few years ago, I left that crew behind and so decided to do most of my work myself, that is until we decided to replace the roof on our house. Initially we thought it would just be a shingle replacement, but after a more thorough inspection it was clear that we needed to replace the entire roof, rafters and all -- more than I could handle by myself. I started working with another contractor, ordered trusses (that contractor wouldn't do that) and then he put me off for the entire summer before telling me that he wouldn't be able to do it after all (at least he returned some of my calls). I seriously reconsidered doing it myself, but then I stumbled across HomeStars and Dan's reviews. I gave him a call, we worked out a deal, and he and his crew did a really great job. As in so many of the other reviews, Dan 'saved the day', and my wife and I feel incredibly lucky to have found him. We actually look forward to working with him again in the future, something I couldn't even have said about the carpentry crew I worked with in the States for so many years.