Homestars Testimonial - Whole House Renovation

Greening Homes renovated our house this year. A full gut job that we started in January 2020, just before the pandemic. We bought a small house in the Kingsway a few years back; a small 90 year old home with tons of potential. The home had lots of the original features mixed with some dated 80s design. Our goal was to have a home with an efficient, elegant modern design, a small environmental footprint, close to amenities and easy to keep clean and organized.

We met Chris and his team at the home show a year before we started our project and really connected with him and his team at the first instance. Chris is most passionate about building materials and your homes ultimate envelop. While his passion for environmental construction is technocratic he smartly surrounds himself with a great team of professional and amazing designers, project managers and trades to make your dreams come true. With Greening Homes you don’t sacrifice design with an over the top environmental project that will blow your budget. Chris helped us achieve all our goals helping us build our dream home and ensuring that we’ve improved our carbon foot print significantly.

Greening Homes truly took ownership of our project as if they were building their own dream house. Sure there were problems that came up from time-to-time but Greening Homes always took ownership of any issue or unexpected concern we had and worked with us to a resolution that was fair and reasonable. If you think you will hire any builder and there won’t be the occasional issue, you are dreaming. You need to work with a builder that will work with you to the end, admit mistakes and provide solutions. Greening Homes owned this project to the end as they said they would and built our dream home.

But what impressed us the most about Greening Homes is that they ran our project through the start of the pandemic. Their team kept it together when it felt like the world was falling apart. Our renovation happened during an unprecedented time and Chris and his team didn’t miss a beat. They altered the schedule and our plans when we had building material supply issues, and government guidelines that demanded reduced workers on site. They managed the project to the schedule with incredible project management skills and only handed us back our keys one month past the original schedule they gave us. Which is an incredible achievement in a Pandemic when the schedule was planned well before the health crisis started.

And what they gave us was the home of our dreams, for a fair price and a reduced carbon footprint. Our home is beautiful, elegant and everything has a purpose just as we ask. Through the design process they even met with our kids and asked them what they hope for in their future rooms and made sure to consider their hopes in the outcome. We have worked with many builders in the past and Greening Homes is the only one I would ever recommend.

As a side note – pre project – our homes energuide rating was 225 and post project it 105 – improving our carbon emissions from 10.2 tons per year to 4 tons. A huge improvement. Hire Chris and his team. You will not be disappointed.

Jason

Main Floor Renovation

We are so pleased that we chose Greening Homes to take us through our first major renovation — they really exceeded our expectations of a contractor experience.  Greening Homes worked with us to devise and maintain a scope that would make best use of our budget.  The regularity and transparency of their billing process was a great communication tool and brought us peace of mind throughout the process.  Most of all, we were impressed by the professionalism, skill, organization, and patience of the crew who worked in our home day in and day out.  Noel and Pat are exactly the kind of professionals you want working on your home: they take great pride in the work that they do, they respect their workspace and the people around them, they do what they say they are going to do, they are excellent communicators, and they are always willing to answer any questions or concerns with a remarkably amiable demeanor. Greening Homes renovated our main floor, updated the mechanics of our entire home, and waterproofed our basement.  We are thrilled with our new main floor, and love that our home is now dry and more energy efficient.

Matt and Amanda

Basement Renovation in Trinity Bellwoods

We wanted to add a shower to an existing 3’ x 8’ two piece washroom in our basement and replace a poorly installed tile floor.  Bryan and Connor came up with a great plan for installing the shower without compromising space in the basement, were also able to troubleshoot a sump pump that was draining into the sewer line and salvage our existing floor heating mat during the installation of the new floor.  All of this was done within our requested budget.  Steve, who was the onsite manager/crew did a great job executing the plan, ensuring the sub-trades arrived when they were supposed to and updating us daily to ensure that we were happy with the progress of the work.

This was our first experience with a contractor and we are really happy with the final product.  We have some future renovations that we would like to do and we would definitely use Greening Homes again and continually recommend them to anyone who needs renovations.

Andrew and Tara

Addition and Basement Renovation

“We had a fantastic renovation experience with Greening Homes. Everyone who worked on the house was skilled and did an excellent job. They were all punctual, unfailingly polite and helpful with any questions we had and kept a very organized, tidy work site. Our wonderful project manager gave us regular updates in writing and both the process and billing were completely transparent. We lived in the house during the renovation process and they were really terrific about it. I can honestly say I have nothing but praise for Chris Phillips and his great team.”

Kelly Rossiter

First Floor Renovation

I highly recommend Greening Homes to anyone who wants a conscientious, transparent and completely reliable contractor. And they truly practice the “green” they preach. They did a first floor reno that was done on time and below budget. Unlike every other contractor we’ve hired, Connor and Chris made the budget process transparent and made every effort to address any questions we had. The crew was even better. They understood that their workplace was our home. They obviously cared about what they were doing and did everything to keep us happy. And their attention to minimizing the environmental impact of the reno was everything we could wish for. Finally, the quality of their work is excellent. They did what they said they would and now we have a beautiful first floor! Thank you Greening Homes!

F. Hartmann

Upper Beach Second Story Addition

We met­ Chris at a home show and were sold on the transparent billing process and focus on sustainable building. We added two bedrooms and relocated our bathroom on the second story. This involved removing 2/3 of our roof and the floor below. When you walk into your front door to look up and see blue sky, you have a critical moment where you learn if you trust your contractor or not. We trusted them and weren’t disappointed. From start to finish, it was an enjoyable although dusty process, which is saying a lot when you’re still living in the house! Our team were professional, courteous and highly skilled. They are very respectful of your home, were good with our dog and take great ownership over the work done. The whole team gets along very well, making the work environment a positive one. They work with safety in mind and keep the work area as tidy as is possible with tools stored when not in use. We received weekly receipt packages and a budget report to let us know exactly where we were financially. We also received daily reports on progress and a list of homework tasks. This was incredibly helpful in understanding the process and our role in it. One hiccup with our budget was due to an extremely high Tree Security Deposit ($13000) required by the city. This wasn’t in our original budget, so we had to reduce the scope of work. The team will be back to complete our siding and porch. This is only possible because of their billing structure. If we had gone with a fixed quote, we would have had to find the extra cash. We’ve learned that GH now includes a Tree Deposit line item in their estimates for all new clients. We honestly can’t say enough about the quality of the people who work at GH. We can’t imagine using another company and we will have them back at our place when we can afford to do our main floor.

K. & T. Dyer

Homestars Testimonial: North York Bungalow

Greening Homes truly lives up to their slogan of “Renovations Done Responsibly.” They respected our budget limitations, encouraging us to reduce the initial scope of our plan to be more realistic. They also tracked our weekly progress against expenditures, and suggested opportunities for us to save money by performing labour ourselves when it was safe and reasonable to do so. They listened to our priorities and were helpful in maintaining the big picture focus on overall environmental impact, health implications of materials used, and energy efficiency. The crew was creative and flexible in terms of providing design recommendations, such as salvaging and re-using existing materials. The project manager went to bat with sub-contractors to oversee costs and maintain quality – we really felt that he worked for us, in our best interests. In the case of any mistakes or errors Greening Homes took responsibility immediately and offered appropriate compensation. They were very conscious of timeline considerations and worked hard to stick to their original prediction for completion. Communication was incredibly easy, with detailed daily email reports, in addition to phone calls and in-person meetings as needed. Overall we had a feeling of partnership; transparency in the entire process gave us confidence that their motivation was doing our renovation right, not maximizing profit.

Julie and Mark

HomeStars Testimonial: Forest Hill Whole Home Reno

Greening Homes is the embodiment of the integrity of its owner, Chris Phillips. They not only completed our full home renovation on time and with exceptional care and skill, but we actually had money left over in our budget to do some extra work (a back patio). Their crew are conscientious and considerate, knowledgeable about green building and skilled. I would use them again and have already recommended them to friends who have told me they are so glad I did. These guys (and gals) are the real deal.

Bettina Hoar

Junction Triangle 3rd floor addition

I wanted to make a point to write a review, I know how important it is to have the right contracting company when it comes to your home. If Greening Homes is a little more expensive than other contracting companies you have searched, let me assure you, they are worth every penny!!!! We would not have found another company to have done a better job! They are very professional and yet it is obvious they put their heart into the job too. They do care about saving you money and communicate your options. Their workers are not only highly qualified but very respectful while in your home. They completed the job within the timeline and our budget. They took down our roof and built a whole new support structure for a 3rd floor. Not just anyone can build a new structure for another floor. They did an excellent job!!! We were so impressed with their workmanship, we wished we had enough money to have them complete the interior. We plan to build a house in the future, guaranteed we will be calling them back!!! Thank you Greening and all Staff!!! We miss having you around here too.

George and Maria

Cabbagetown Interior Reno

After having our house renovated by the wrong company, we were fortunate enough to find Greening Homes Ltd. Their knowledge on green materials and building practices was exceptional. They completed our renovation on time, they showed up when they said they would, when they left our place was spotless. They were extremely professional, and they finished the job on time and budget. I will always recommend this company to anyone renovating- they know what they’re doing, and it helped put my mind at ease knowing I was getting the best green building materials and the builders that worked with the highest professionalism!

Quinton