Has anybody used handycanadian.com to find a decent contractor? I've tried to use the BBB accreditation system but it's a bit hit and miss. Being new to Canada I've yet to accumulate a network of friends who can recommend 'GOOD' local contractors. I went to a recent home reno show and collected a ton of business cards and after showing them to a friend who has lived in my area for 20 years she would only recommend 2. Paul Holden Kitchens in Stirling was one if iaink is watching. Any of you guys have websites that you trust for contractor recommendations?

No. We bought this 1 and a half storey house with the idea of chopping it off at the top of the front door and adding another full floor, a reasonably ambitous project for which we need a contractor to do the exterior work, to build a weatherproof shell. And, before that, to take our idea and make into drawings and permits. We searched the internet for contractors and invited lots of them to bid, most of them didn't respond, some came and seemed to be full of shit. One came and seemed to catch the idea completely, "turn the roof line this way and it'll work". We asked them for a formal proposal and liked what we saw:

- it named their subcontractors and they were traceable at the BBB and had websites

- their payment schedule was clear and tied to specific project points

-they projected an air of professionalism, their proposal arrived on the day promised in pdf format, they responded to emailed questions within the hour

We asked them for a reference for a similar job and they offered the address without consideration, we were able to drive by the same day.

We chose blindly inasmuch as we didn't have a recommendation, but these things are about trust. They seemed to want our business, they seemed to know what they were about, we trusted them from the outset and we were not wrong.

No help to you I suppose but should anyone want a quality contractor in Kitchener/Waterloo, or places nearby, we have one.

I can relate to the contractors full of shit part. One guy reckoned he could do everything from re-tarmac the driveway to install the new kitchen. After a bit of research he turned out to be a 'yozzer hughes' type with lawsuits against him by the bucketload. Keep looking I guess.

I think you're too pessimistic. I've likely had about a dozen contractors for various things over the years, I've had two which I wasn't 99% satisfied with. In one case the price increased over the original estimate (not by much, but still), in the other case he put in insufficient insulation under the floor of a conversion of a backporch into a sunroom. As a result, it's not used in winter (a very sunny season as we know).

As my wife would say, my glass is not only half empty but it has a chip in it and could probably benefit from a second run thru the dishwasher. Call it OCD or just me being a bit anal but I like the job to be 'spot on' especially if I'm paying many thousands of dollarage. Maybe I should stop watching cowboy builders and Mike Holmes I don't cut corners or produce shoddy work in my own line of business ( or aircraft would fall out of the sky ) so it's not too much to expect these so called 'tradesmen' to do a decent job eh!

Sounds like your mate has already recommended two. How many more do you want?

Yes but they are windows and kitchen 'specialists' and I need a new driveway and a decent builder

We had a similar experience some years ago when looking for contractors do do paving, landscaping and fencing. One terribly earnest and smooth young guy claimed that he had dozens of crews working for him in the area and quoted the whole shebang for about half the cost it needed to be. Something wasn't right so I declined his offer. Next time I saw him was on the local news where he was in court for defrauding his customers!

In short, if it feels wrong, or too good a deal, it probably is!

Word of month is always the way to go...

Wasnt Powers was it ?

Yes indeed.

Wish we had talked names before I had my shit driveway done then

I thought he was banged up before you had your driveway done?!

he may have been out by then - Dennis Powers from Powers Landscaping if we are talking the same guy

My bad, I was talking about Corey Winters who was jailed in 2008 for ripping off customers. He quoted for work in 2006 & as I say, his responses set off all my alarms so I declined his bid!