the GTA and Peel Region, Ontario
Why TopQuote exists
Homeowners have no way to know what a job should cost. There is no published price for a patio the way there is for a car, the work is different on every property, and the only people who know the real numbers are the people selling you the work.
So the price of a renovation is not really set by what the work costs. It is set by what the market thinks you will pay — how confident you sound, how urgently you need it, how many quotes you have, and whether you can tell a fair one from a padded one. TopQuote exists to close that gap for the homeowner, and to be paid by the homeowner for closing it.
Three quotes are not an answer
The standard advice is to get three quotes. It helps less than it sounds, because three contractors will often quote three different jobs: different base depths, different materials, different amounts of the awkward work included or quietly left out.
Comparing them tells you which number is smallest. It does not tell you which one is right, or whether the smallest one is cheap because it is efficient or because it is missing the part that stops the patio heaving in three winters.
What is actually missing is a reference price and an independent reading of your own site. That is the thing we sell.
How we arrive at a number
We look at the property, because most of what a project costs is decided by things you cannot see in a photograph: access for machines, grade, drainage, soil, and what has to come out before anything goes in.
We price the work in parts rather than as a lump — excavation, base, materials, labour, disposal, and the items people are most often surprised by — and then state a range rather than a single number, because a single number would be more comfortable and less true.
Then we show the reasoning. A verdict you cannot argue with is a verdict you have to take on faith, and taking things on faith is what got the market into this state.
Why the advice costs money
Free advice is paid for by someone. Usually by the person who benefits when you spend more, or when you hire at all.
A flat fee from you is the only arrangement where our income does not move with your decision. It is a smaller business than the alternatives, and it is the only version of this business worth running.
We say the unwelcome thing
A verdict of not viable is a real outcome and it is not refunded, because it is the answer you paid for. It is also, often, the one that saves the most money.
The same rule applies to our own services: several of the pages on this site tell you who should not buy them, and the consultation report recommends nothing further when nothing further is needed.
How we stay independent
These are commitments, not aspirations. Every one of them can be checked against how this site is actually built and priced.
- We accept no commissions, referral fees or advertising money from contractors, suppliers or lenders. Not now and not later — the moment contractors pay us, we work for contractors.
- We perform no construction work of any kind, so we never benefit from recommending more of it.
- We are paid by the homeowner, by flat fee, for a defined deliverable that is the same whatever the answer turns out to be.
- Prices are published on the page. Nothing is quoted only after you hand over your contact details.
- No urgency mechanics, no scarcity, no countdowns, no pressure of any kind. If the right decision is to wait a year, we will tell you to wait a year.
What we are not
Knowing where we stop is as useful as knowing what we do — it saves you paying us for something we are the wrong people to give you.
- Not a contractor. We do not build, and we do not subcontract building.
- Not a marketplace or a lead-generation site. Nobody buys your details from us, because we do not sell them.
- Not engineers, architects or surveyors. We do not give structural, code or safety opinions, and we will tell you when your question needs one.
- Not lawyers, and not a mediator for a dispute with a contractor you have already hired.
- Not an insurer, and not a guarantor of work that anyone else performs.
What we have not earned the right to claim yet
This section exists because every other page on this site asks you to take our word for something. It gets shorter as things become true, and it does not get deleted.
- TopQuote is not yet a registered business name in Ontario. Registration comes before we take a payment, and the footer will say so until it is done.
- We publish no track record, no project count and no client testimonials, because we have none that are verified. When there are real ones, they will be real.
- The price figures in our free guides are our best current estimate for this market and are marked on each page as unverified until they have been checked against real local quotes.
- We name no individual advisors, credentials or years of experience on this site. When there is something specific and checkable to say, it will be said specifically.
See what it does for your project
A consultation is $150 and covers the GTA and Peel Region, Ontario. You get a written verdict on whether the work is worth doing, the reasoning behind it, and a realistic range for what it should cost.
Or read how a consultation works first, including who should not book one.