Brush Works Renos

We used Gill from Brush Work Reno’s to finish our basement. We are super pleased with how it turned out! Communication was great and we can’t find anything to complain about. Gill is very personable and friendly, we were totally comfortable having him in our home - his prices are fair and he sticks to his timelines. We are definitely happy that we chose him to complete the basement reno. We would use Gill for any future renovations and would recommend him to anyone else looking for a reliable contractor. Thanks Gill!!

So grateful to Brushworks. Gilles managed to take my tiny bathroom and make it look like an elegant spa experience. I highly recommend them for your reno's big or small. Very reasonable pricing and wonderfully patient and creative about working out any challenges along the way.

Gill and his team were respectful and friendly. They renovated my basement, completing it promptly and beautifully. Gill’s attention to detail is incredible, he definitely takes pride in his work. Hands down the most stress free Reno I have had. I highly recommend Gill and his team.

Brush Works Renos are not only skilled, talented and reasonably priced but also amazing to deal with. Gilles smiles through everything, he makes you feel very at ease during what could be a stressful time. He had exemplary patience for a first time renovator who made some changes as the reno went along. AND I was shocked at how fast he got the work done, none of these nightmare stories about it taking twice as long as planned! You won't regret booking Brush Works.

Brushworks is unbelievably professional, affordable, dedicated and talented. I am amazed at his talent and his incredible customer service. Looking forward to having Brushworks come back to reno our outdated kitchen. I can't even properly express how happy we are with the work we had done. I can't imagine anyone being unhappy with Brushworks and we are recommending them to anyone we know that needs a reliable, talented contractor!

Last summer we had our crumbling cement front porch re-surfaced...and it was a very big job that included digging out the front garden and retaining wall, installing a drainage system, waterproofing and finally recovering with beautiful stone. It was a huge job, in he heat of the summer but we were so impressed by entire project that we had them back to quote on our main floor bath room last month. We had the bathroom gutted due to some mold and water issues and the fact that it was original to 1964...we now have a beautiful, functional, safe bathroom and are just in awe of the quality of work. The workmanship is second to none, we have no complaints, he is meticulous to every detail and was amazing with his ideas to fit not only our budget but also our tastes. New plumbing, fixtures, drywall, ceiling exhaust fan, pot lights, a gorgeous custom vanity and cupboards, new tub etc...and its all beautiful! His quote was more than fair, and the completed project was within the estimate, He pays special attention of little details and while here was very willing to complete odd jobs that we also needed help with like fixing a sump pump, and crawling around our attic to install baffles for ventilation. We have a number of small jobs hes coming back to do shortly, like installing a steel door in the mud room, and a fan system in the kitchen and we will not hesitate to have him do the complete reno on our basement this fall.

Brush Works Renos provides very professional services, at exceptionally reasonable pricing. If you need a good general contractor, who can handle most of the work around the home, Brush Works Renos can't be topped. Added to that, this is a company that you can trust to work unsupervised, freeing you up to manage your daily responsibilities. Renovations and remodelling is typically quite stressful, and they make it as hassle free as it can be. I would highly recommend them.

Brush Works Renos has recently completed the renovation of our kitchen, powder room, main and ensuite baths, and front hall. It is impossible to say how thrilled we are with the results.

Gilles had previously done work for us in Bowmanville, and so when we decided that our new home needed work, he was the first person we called, even though Bowmanville is 100 km from where we now live.

This was a larger project than our previous one, but it only confirmed our high regard for Gilles both personally and professionally. His own work is meticulous, and he demands the same high standards of the suppliers he works with. His kitchen supplier, for instance, was terrific. The people there helped us design a kitchen that we still can’t believe is ours.

Gilles was very efficient in coordinating the kitchen installation so that the cabinets went in almost the moment that he had completed the preparatory work – and the countertop, just a couple of days after that. It was Gilles – not us – who noticed that some of the cupboards were missing the correct hinges. He got the replacement hinges from the supplier and offered to install them for us.

Gilles gutted our main bath and then retiled, replaced everything, and repainted. It is now the tiny perfect retreat of my dreams.

Likewise, the ensuite bath. Gilles installed a new whirlpool tub and did a lovely job of retiling the floor and tub enclosure. We had an electrician run a new electrical circuit for the tub, but, again, Gilles did everything he could to coordinate with the electrician and make his work as straightforward as possible.

Installing the whirlpool meant having to rip out part of the wall and ceiling in the powder room below. Gilles re-drywalled the holes, and the patches are undetectable, however carefully you search for them.

I should mention that we learned in the course of the renovation how shabbily built this place is. Gilles fixed whatever he ran into along the way that required fixing – and even though there is no cure for no square corner in the place, he played with the tile placement and sight lines to minimize these imperfections. His tiling in our front hall is just a masterpiece and a fine representation of this.

Gilles completed our renovations beautifully in almost exactly a month. In previous homes, projects that were of similar complexity, with other contractors, lingered for three to seven times longer than that.

We would not hesitate to recommend Gilles or to use his services again. I’ve mentioned his meticulous work, but again this time, we were grateful for his professionalism, his thoughtful suggestions and solutions, and his sense of humour.

Hiring Brush Works Renos was an absolute regret and mistake. The amount of $ and time that my wife and I have wasted is insurmountable and lost as "sunk costs". For someone that gleefully advertises on his truck that he was featured on Oprah Winfrey's Million Dollar Neighborhoods show, his amateur workmanship and unprofessional conduct leaves much to be desired. Even his assistant was left flabbergasted at his finishing and I have numerous pictures if anyone wishes to contact me. I wouldn't want another honest person to be taken advantage of for their hard earned $. His sanding, mudding, and painting job in the basement is pathetic. Tape, scuffs, dents on the drywall are all visible. (Yes that’s right; tape wasn't sanded properly in several places before he painted). He has no concept of perpendicular angles. I have an entire wall that is crooked that needs to be ripped out and re-built to correct the faulty wall angles. Two boxes covering duct work are NOTICEABLY irregular in shape. I later found out from his assistant that he hired a professional 3rd party to do the mudding and taping on his last basement. I wish he had the same 3rd party come in for my basement because his finishing touch is non-existent. Furthermore, my entire bathroom needs to be gutted and rebuilt since he did such a horrendous tiling job in the shower. When he was initially building the shower and laying down tiles I noticed that some tiles were popping out and their layout was jumbled in placement with no care whatsoever for angles or proper symmetry. When I asked him to fix it he yelled at me and stated verbatim "I am sick and tired of being here". In retrospect I should have kicked him out and taken my issues to small claims court. He later apologized and agreed to fix it. We patiently waited for the finished product after grouting. What we are left with now however is A SHOWER THAT DOESN'T DRAIN. Water sits in the middle of the base, and tiles are still popping out on all 3 walls. I demanded $ back at the end of the job and explicitly told him that we will be re-doing the bathroom. He agreed to give $1500 back while proclaiming that I would never find a better basement bathroom. He even threatened to take us to court (which I should have agreed to at the time). Let’s see if the 5MB photo limit on this site can allow multiple pictures to be uploaded - you can judge for yourselves. Oh and by the way, after installing and painting the bathroom drywall and tile, he FORGOT to account for the piping behind the walls for the toilet. So he had to break through the walls in order to connect the piping after the fact. So I now have a brand new Kohler toilet installed with virtually no pressure to flush with. What else...the laminate flooring has badly buckled to such an extent that I cannot open the doors in my basement. The doors hit the buckled floors and can't open! He didn't account for the 1/4 inch expansion gap for the flooring and now I have buckling in 3 locations throughout the basement. I called him up and asked him to take a look at it since his contract guarantees quality workmanship. He agreed to come and take a look at it but never bothered calling back - which has forced me to write this review. I also have my fireplace gas shut off valve on top of my support beams in the basement. This guy restricted access to the gas shut off valve by entirely enclosing it underneath the drywall!!! When I asked him if he was going to enable access as he had originally promised, he sarcastically responded with "Do you really want to have access to it"? What he left me with is in the attached photo. An irregular cutting through the drywall with a vent cover placed over top of the jagged hole. Notice that he sanded off the edge off the vent cover that was hanging over the edge of the duct work. In all honesty I could add a few more issues to this feedback review but I digress. Stay away. This has been a nightmare.

*Update October 2013: I uploaded 2 pictures clearly depicting the severe buckling across the flooring (with a level laid across the floor - see attached pics), and the direct impact against the french doors. Still no follow-up from Brushworks. No mention of it either in their rebuttal apart from the picture they uploaded of the doors and flooring immediately after their installation. Also, their apprentice was assigned to finish shelving and building a wine rack. The apprentice "subcontracted" the wine rack build to his teenage girlfriend. The finished product was a joke and we refused to pay for it.*

We are extremely pleased with our recent basement renovation completed by Gilles.

His approach from quote to completion was easy going and collaborative. The entire process was well planned. He came when expected often working late into the day to ensure everything was on track. Gilles' skill and experience was evident and much appreciated, often making suggestions along the way which ultimately surpassed our expectations. We would highly recommend Gilles for any renovation project.