Review for Canada restorations.
I had a water problem in my basement and discovered there was a fair bit of mold so I contacted Canada Restorations to (1) identify the source and (2) rid my basement of the mold problem. For (1), I have to give them a 0/10 as they failed to identify the source. For (2), I struggle on the rating, but I guess I would give them a ~6/10 as there was good and bad. I was very surprised with my experience after seeing so many 10/10 reviews on Homestar which led me to choose this company. I was under the impression that this company was the best choice to identify and repair my water damaged basement.
For the mold removal, the small area in the basement they sealed off and treated was done immaculately and quickly. My main issue was outside that area. They repeatedly reassured me that the rest of my basement was fine, as they fogged the entire basement multiple times, but I ended up uncovering much more mold in another nearby room that they suggested was not an issue since I had a dehumidifier running in that room. When they first came with their infrared cameras, they did spot moisture in the walls there, but given the we're the experts, I followed their advice and did not treat the other room. I decided to pull up some flooring to let the area dry out and discovered mold on the flooring and later a lot on the wall behind the baseboard. As this was a relatively newly basement, this was all due to the same problem. I discovered the problem after I had paid them already, and my email with evidence fell to deaf ears. Prior to giving them my business, every one of my emails was responded to very quickly, which impressed me...clearly, after they are paid and on their way that's a different story. In the end, I took care of the other area myself as I never heard back from them and I am sure they would argue it was not part of their work plan, but it left a very bad taste that these guys did not take care of the problem.
The even bigger issue was that they failed to identify the source of the water damage problem. After they finished the job I was very surprised that they had ripped up my walls and part of the ceiling, but did not have a cause identified. They did send someone back to find the cause. They were poking around at some temperature deltas in the walls and eventually sounded very convinced I had an insulation problem in an exterior wall that was causing the problem. They claimed this (condensation from insullation) was 100% the problem and said they would have their reconstruction group give me a call (never called by the way) to fix up the basement. Being skeptical of this diagnosis, I expressed my concern to my main contact, but I did not push this as I needed another opinion before closed up my basement. To make a long story short, I had an insulation expert come and they quickly looked at the water stain marks and said the water clearly did not come from the external wall and suggested the insulation was fine. I had another trusted contractor come, who quickly identified the source of the problem being associated with the basement shower in the middle of all the affected areas. This was not even mentioned by Canada Restoration folks. There ended up being some cracking in the grouting under the step into the shower and all the water eventually came from there. This took longer to identify, but our other contractor always answered my call and took good care of us as always. I should have called them first but I really thought Canada Restorations would be the expert in water damage...I am not so sure, based on my experience.
