Specializing in home additions and major home renovations in old Toronto neighbourhoods, MENATWORK provides integrated engineering, design and professional construction services to help solve home space problems for Toronto families.
Since 1989, we have been involved in over a thousand renovation and addition projects on Toronto homes of every imaginable description, style, and budget. Our team has received numerous local, provincial and international awards and acknowledgements for outstanding design and workmanship, and for delivering exceptional customer satisfaction. With in-house design professionals, Ontario Building Code trained project managers, carpenters, and technicians with specific experience and training in renovating old houses, we are uniquely qualified to help you through the complex process of a major home renovation project from start to finish.
Our team members are highly trained experts in their respective fields. From our engineering and design staff—all specialists in residential design—to our project managers, carpenters and carefully vetted subcontractor professionals, you'll find that all of them are knowledgeable, courteous, responsive, and work well together as a team.
One of our trained project managers is assigned to you from the very beginning of the design process, and stays with you to the very end of the construction project. They're in constant communication with you every step of the way, and ready to answer your questions, help with decisions, and coordinate all other resources and partners to ensure your project is a success.
We have a sophisticated cloud-based project management system that you can access 24/7. Project scheduling details, documents, drawings, files, photos, product information, and a detailed and organized To-Do list is always up-to-date and available to you at all times.
We provide you with highly detailed monthly cost reports so that you always know your project finances. No surprises!
As long as you meet the deadlines for decisions that we set out for you at the beginning, we guarantee we’ll complete your project on time or we’ll pay a penalty for every day we are late. The penalty is written right into our contract agreement.
With all required insurance coverage, including $5 million general liability, auto, professional liability, builders’ risk, and WSIB, we're fully protected for your peace of mind.
We provide an exceptional four-year, no-nonsense warranty on everything we do. In business for nearly 30 years, you can trust that we'll be here to take care of any problems that might arise down the road.
Most of our business comes from past customers and referrals. We’ve learned over and over again, from almost three decades in business, that truly satisfying our customers is the best possible marketing strategy to sustain and grow our company. If you entrust us with your project, you can be sure we will do whatever it takes to earn your valued repeat and referral business as well.
According to R.S. Means—one of the largest international publishers, and authorities on the construction industry—more than 70 per cent of construction companies fail within their first 7 years in business.
Here’s a timeline of our journey since we started in 1989:
Creative couple—musician Paul Gallop and artist Sherret Nosanchuk—decide to move in together and build a peach coffee table. How hard can it be? They buy a drill and a saw. Now they design a pedestal dining table. It’s beautiful. But careful, lean on it and it might fall over.
In 1988 they decide to get married.
Dear friend and serial business-starter, Malcolm Krebs, inspires Paul to join him on his self-study, DIY home renovation journey. They read books (there is no internet yet) and learn about drywall, tiling, plumbing and general carpentry. How hard can it be? Paul discovers how much he likes hitting things with a sledge hammer.
Paul & Sherret buy an 1880’s Victorian row house on Annette Street in The Toronto Junction. Needs work. How hard can it be to do it ourselves?
One Saturday afternoon, Sherret is relaxing on the couch reading a book, and can’t understand why she’s having a hard time seeing the page properly. It’s a fine mist of concrete dust permeating the air. Paul is sledgehammering the basement floor, “I’ve decided to lower the basement.” It can’t be that hard to do it ourselves.
A few weeks later, Sherret’s at work (she’s working as a professional make-up artist). Paul walks in. “I quit my great job at the CBC to become a professional renovator.” he announced, “How hard can it be to start our own business?”
Men At Work General Contractors is born.
Men At Work has been developing a reputation in Bloor West Village as the neighbourhood renovator doing kitchens, bathrooms, and basements. Paul enlists local architect, Roy Brown, to work together with customers for home additions in the neighbourhood.
Maxwell Gallop is born.
Maturing as a professional renovation company Men At Work joins the Greater Toronto Home Builders Association (formally known as BILD) and becomes active on the Renovator’s Council.
Paul and Sherret explore the use of concrete as a finishing material, crafting custom fireplaces and countertops themselves and then working with local specialists to fashion high-grade custom bathroom basins and kitchen counters for ever more sophisticated, bespoke projects they’re involved in.
Men At Work develops an informal partnership, that would continue for eight years, with local architect Chris Montgomery, to focus more on home additions and major structural renovation projects. Chris provides Paul with an invaluable education in all aspects of home architecture, the Ontario Building Code and the City of Toronto zoning by-law and permit approval processes.
Local natural gas distributor, Enbridge, creates a program to market decks, kitchens, basements, and bathroom renovation projects to its customers, offering ‘Authorized Enbridge Contractors’ and the opportunity to finance projects through the gas company.
They recruit Men At Work as one of their vetted, trusted contractors to serve a portion of the Toronto area. Another company recruited into the program, Brayview Construction, operated by partners Jorge Rodrigues and Tyrone Nickel, merge their operation with Men At Work as limited partners, and Men At Work becomes the largest authorized contractor in the Enbridge program. Suddenly processing incoming project inquiries at the rate of more than five thousand leads per year, the company must scale quickly and a large force of estimators, project managers, and administrative staff are hired.
HGTV Canada is launching around this time, and local production company REO has developed several programs including Let’s Build, Kitchens & Bathrooms, and Pools, Patios & Decks for the network. Paul and his partners are invited to feature their projects on these programs and become regular guest TV personalities. More than 50 Men At Work projects are featured on the programs, giving wider recognition to the Men At Work name.
The company is involved in a variety of interesting projects, including construction of the largest deck in Canada on top of the Globe and Mail building in downtown Toronto.
Robyn Gallop is born.
The Enbridge renovation program suffers various problems and begins to wind down.
The past two years have been a fantastic, whirlwind experience, broadening the Men At Work name, completing hundreds of projects, and developing a huge network of contacts and associates. But favouring the pursuit of quality over volume, Paul and Sherret decide to buy out their partners and return to having full control of Men At Work as a smaller, service-focused operation.
Men At Work continues to define itself as a boutique, premium design-build renovator, specializing in older Toronto neighbourhood homes. Sherret begins to take a more active role in the company supporting customers with interior decorating consultations.
Recognized now as a longstanding, trustworthy, experienced member of the Toronto home renovation community, the company is being invited to participate in more exotic projects with numerous prominent Toronto architects and designers, including Donald Schmitt, Ian MacDonald, Neil Ironside, Mark Sterling, Catherine Friis, Connie Braemer, Daniel Leonard, Linda Boorman, Andrea Kantelberg, Brian Williams, Jay Hodgins, and many others.
The opportunities to work with, and learn from, these creative professionals gives Paul and Sherret the inspiration to further their study and exploration of residential design and architecture, locally and through extensive international travel.
BILD creates the Renomark program to help consumers to distinguish professional renovators in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Men At Work is one of the founding Renomark contractors.
Keith O’Brien joins the Men At Work team and the company takes another step towards integrated, in-house design build services.
Approached by other production companies interested in Paul’s expertise and experience in earlier HGTV productions, he declines the opportunities in favour of continuing to focus on developing the business. He introduces an outstanding pair of carpenters actively involved in many Men At Work projects to the production company seeking on-air personalities for new programs. Eddie Richardson and Fergus McLaren go on to become the on-air carpenters for the hit show Love It Or List It. Many other Men At Work team members participate regularly in the show as well.
Men At Work adopts a cloud-based project management system allowing customers to login 24/7 for access to all information about their projects, substantially improving the customer communication experience.
Men At Work becomes a member of Maryland-based Remodelers Advantage roundtables to join North America’s elite home renovation contractor business training organization. With now more than 20 years of direct experience in the Toronto home renovation market, Paul and Sherret decide to leverage their experience and brand goodwill into a next-generation, long-term vision for the company. Adopting best practices in all aspects of the operation, with a major emphasis on training, Men At Work begins investing heavily in recruiting and coaching a team of exceptional, passionate, educated younger construction professionals, including customer-focused project managers to help deliver the kind of personalized, attentive service that Paul has been known for personally, to a wider base of customers.
BILD Renomark recognizes Men At Work with prestigious Renovator of The Year award for outstanding customer service and for significant contributions to the industry.
Max Gallop, now a university business major with strong analytical and technology skills, starts to take an active role in researching and implementing business and technology systems to streamline operations for the company.
Men At Work commits to bringing a full-time designer on board, to work with Keith O’Brien and provide more comprehensive design services for our customers. Talented young designer, Natalie Venalainen, joins the team.
In just a three year period the company claims more than a dozen local, provincial and international design awards and nominations and is also nominated again two years in a row for the BILD Renovator of the year award. Customer satisfaction ratings are higher than ever. Volume has increased more than 200 per cent and the team continues to learn and grow. The design team has been joined now with a full-time professional engineer, Ben Torkan, to help improve capacity, expedite the permit approval process and aid the project managers with prompt support for site issues and inspections.
The long overdue step is finally taken to officially change the name of the corporation from Men At Work General Contractors to Men At Work Design Build.
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An active member of The Building Industry and Land Development Association of Toronto (BILD) since 1994.
An accredited Renomark Authorized contractor since the program started in 2001.
An award-winning member of the National Kitchen and Bathroom Association (NKBA).
Authorized by the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) to provide engineering services to the public.
Compliant with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario (WISB).
Intimately familiar with the processes for building permit applications and zoning variance submissions to the Toronto Committee of Adjustment.
Licensed building renovator & drain contractor with the City of Toronto.
Compliant with the requirements of the Ministry of Labour and Employment Standards.
Remodelers Advantage Roundtables Accredited.
