Absolute Draining & Plumbing

So my parents wanted to upgrade their water supply. My dad is a life long «do-​it-​yourselfer», so they don’t have much experience dealing with contractors (they only deal with contractors for major stuff that he can’t do himself). I on the other hand, am a «hire a professional to do it-​er» (even for minor jobs) so I have dealt with many contractors. So they enlisted my help in finding someone to do the job when I was in Toronto visiting them. We ended up going with Absolute Draining and Plumbing and we were very happy with them.
When I initially called them for a quote, someone called me back the next day. Then they sent someone the following day and gave me a 1 hour window period in which he would come. He arrived when he said he would. (Another company gave me a 5 hour window period!)
When Andrew (I think he’s the owner) arrived he looked around the front of the house and inside the house and told us exactly what they would do. He seemed very confident, like they had done it many times before and were experts. He told us about how the plumbing was built in older homes (my parents’ house was built in the 1920s) and how it doesn’t make sense anymore in 2014. He told us what they would do to with the water pipe to make it «make more sense.» He told us how we could tell if a house has had its water supply upgraded. He was very knowledgeable and seemed enthusiastic about his work. (This is in stark contrast with another company we called that didn’t seem clear at all about what they were going to do. They couldn’t even tell us how many holes they would have to dig (Andrew told us 3). They said they were going to dig up the concrete in the driveway, dig up the concrete in the garage, and possibly dig a hole in the finished basement floor (laminate flooring) and possibly other holes. And they were not going to backfill the hole they leave in the driveway — we would have to hire someone else to do it! Andrew told us there was no need to dig up any concrete. He said they would just have to dig up the dirt on the side of the house. And Andrew told us that Absolute Draining and Plumbing would coordinate the whole project from start to finish, and backfill all holes they make. Since the other company wanted to jack up concrete, obviously their cost was higher as well. So you can see why we chose Absolute Draining and Plumbing and not this other company).
Anyway, Andrew’s guys came and finished the work in 2 days. They were very nice and hard working. They did things exactly the way Andrew described and everything went smoothly. We were incredibly happy with the work.
Also, for this job they didn’t require a deposit. We just paid in full after the job was done. This gave us confidence that they were an honest and trustworthy company.
If you get a company proposing to dig up your concrete, I think you should call Absolute Draining and Plumbing and get a second opinion. Digging up concrete is a major undertaking (and expensive) and it may not even be necessary.
I would definitely recommend Absolute Draining and Plumbing to anyone who wants to upgrade their water supply. Actually, I would recommend them to anyone looking for plumbing services, because if they can do something as complicated as upgrading the water supply, I’m sure they can unclog your toilet too :)