K H Davis Engineering Consultants Ltd

The firm is terrific. Expertise and reasonable turnaround. I would highly recommend them. They were able to show which walls were structural and which were not.

Reviewed on Home Stars

Great experience with K.H.Davis, many issues with the city but project manager assigned to my project (Mike Shirzadfar) made navigating through it easy to understand. His patience with my asking possibly too many questions kept me calm and gave me a better understanding and prepared me for what's to come during the construction process. thank you Mike,
definitely would reccomend and use again. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

Originally came across KH Davis via homestars and couldn't be more fortunate that I did. Worked with Mike S on a small project to enclose my front porch. Extremely professional and organized with timely responses to any questions I had. Great experience with other members of their team as well. On one occasion, I dropped off some drawings for their reference and what would have been a quick hello turned into a great working session with their structural engineer and architectural technologist to come up with a solution for a unique insulation situation. To me, that's the sign of an excellent team that is not hesitant in coming up with solutions any way they can. I fully recommend KH, and to me it's obvious why they're top ranked on Homestars.Will be working with them again shortly on a bigger ground up build, looking forward to that! More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

We moved into a 70+ year old home last year, and booked an appointment with the company to confirm whether there were any structural areas of concern. Jeremy provided a detailed review at the house, answering various structural questions and advising on what to look for in the future that would be a sign of structural stress. We also received the summary report with his findings a few days later for further reference. Thanks for putting our minds at ease! I'd definitely recommend KH Davis to friends and colleagues. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

Ken is a great guy, and an excellent engineer. He took a very messy situation, in which the neighbour who's a developer was trying to push me out by using the city as a tool to put an order on me to prove my place was 'safe'. Unlike other engineers, he had the relevant experience in Toronto to understand what needed to be done and put it in an easy to understand report so that I could get the matter resolved with the city. In addition, understanding my budget he was looking for cost effective solutions that made sense, overall the best experience I could have hoped for out of a muddy mess. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

I hired KH Davis to do all of my structural designs including underpining the basement and incorporating an existing enclosed porch into the house. They prepared all of my drawings based off of existing drawings I had (saved me money). They also helped walk through submitting my own drawings for the permits which was extremely helpful! They have also been very accessible for required site visits for the permit. Overall, they have provided the exact service I needed and for a fair price. I would definitely use them again and I would recommend them to a client or friend. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

Over a year ago a dubious contractor left me in a situation where the underpinning and waterproofing system they did for my home was not up to code. With Ken Davis' engineering expertise and guidance I took on the job to correct it myself. Ken Davis also created detailed drawings to reinforce my back staircase, which was also questionable until corrected by his engineering practices. I can now say that my home has passed all standards to code and this was only possible with the experience and knowledge that Ken was able to provide. He has high standards but is very approachable. He is truly a professional, sincere and honourble person. Having met so many people in order to complete my home I have to say I did not meet anyone as honourable in the construction field. It is no wonder that so many people agree with me that he
truly scores 10 out of 10. Review by Filomena in Richmondhill More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

I contacted K H Davis when we needed drawings for permits to move the windows in our basement. Mike from K H Davis was on time, knowledgable & professional. He knew immediately that we would not be allowed to do what we wanted, but he had a suggestion for a different plan that would work well and follow the city rules.
Mike was easy to get a hold of and returned calls and emails quickly. We got our permit within days of submitting the drawings. I would recommend K H Davis to anyone who needs drawings for
permits. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

We went through the full process with KH Davis with Kevin providing the structural eng consult late fall to working with Luis, projrct manager, to get the city permit for the underpinning and the underpinning itself. Our work required coordination with disconnecting and reconnecting Enbridge, which was a complex bureaucratic process. Luis prepared with the timing of Enbridge calls for a target start this spring. They also consulted a geotechnical engineer to ensure the reason why our front extension shifted and appropriate underpinning depth. Luis was customer focused, responsive, communicated clearly and able to manage our expectations. I highly recommend this company if you need the type of skillset they are able to offer. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

mark_bilas@yahoo.ca
M4K 2M2The team from KH Davis was excellent and instrumental with not only our design plans, but in navigating the bureaucratic hurdles we confronted with our project. We live on a property under the purview of the TRCA and had not imagined the difficulties we would be confronted with in getting this project from vision to reality. But, Mike S and the whole team from KH Davis lent assistance time and again to keep the project moving forward. Many thanks from our whole family! More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

The team at KH went above and beyond to help me out with a rather challenging issue with the City of Toronto. You expertise and knowledge of the system really set us up for success with our underpinning project! Thanks again for the great skill and service! More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

I paid for a site visit to assess a load bearing wall removal. What I liked: The engineer arrived on time. We spent over an hour talking about different parts of the house. I had lots of follow-up questions, and altogether he spent over an hour on the phone with me on more than one occasion. He answered all my questions. Because of our detailed discussions, the 2-page report contained all the details I needed. In the end, I feel I got good value for my money.What can be improved:I've never hired an engineer before. I was expecting the inspection to be more thorough. I hired them to confirm things 100%, but unless the ceiling beams are exposed or someone climbed into the attic, he could only guess. I was informed only at the visit that engineers typically don't go into attics. The process should have been clarified at booking, so me and the engineer could make the most of it.In my case, the structure later turned out to be very different than what we expected. I was lucky to have an experienced contractor in my home later to climb in the attic and provide concrete solutions. The final solution I received from my contractor was more practical. I wished the engineer provided the ultimate solution. That said, the engineer was available at the office to receive my updates, and I am very satisfied with the service and the final report and approval of the plan. He consistently came across as friendly and helpful on the phone. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

Site visit, drawings and building permit (no variance required) came in with no delays. Mike S. is a pleasure to work with, polite, checks in and keeps us informed each step of the way. I have every confidence in Mike being a good interface with the building inspector. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

After being strung along by our previous contractor we contacted another underpinning company for a quote and they referred us to Mike at KH Davis for the structural drawing for permitting. He rushed the job for us to fit the new underpinning company schedule. He was quick, easy to get ahold of, filed the permits once the drawings were complete and within a month of first contact we have everything we need from the city and are digging out our basement! Thanks Mike! More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

I had a custom design for an L-shaped detached garage and home workshop with an integrated pergola over the adjacent ground. Mike from K. H. Davis helped take my design idea to fully specified engineering drawings and an approved building permit. His guidance was invaluable when dealing with the planning department and zoning issues, as well as our decision to proceed with an application for a minor variance to stay true to our initial design vision. We're very happy with the resulting plans from K. H. Davis and now look forward to commencing the construction. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

I contacted KH Davis after finding them through a google search. We are removing some of the walls on the ground floor of our house, and didn't want to pay the high fees of an architect / design firm. Luis and Mike at KH Davis were super helpful - they sent someone to the house to make the drawings, and then after a few emails and phone calls produced the necessary plans. We also hired them to submit the plans to the city, and they got our construction permit super fast. I would highly recommend them. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

After a slow start and many delays with another firm, I contacted K H Davis Engineering to do drawings and submit applications for several renovation permits from the City of Toronto. Mike answered the phone and promised permits within 3-4 weeks and he made that happen. They also submitted a HVAC design from another company on our behalf. We are very pleased with the outcome, would highly recommend K H Davis Engineering, and will use their services again. THANKS! More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

KH Davis Engineering Consultants Ltd. were quick in their response to my enquiry, an appointment was made in a very reasonable amount of time to attend and provide a site inspection. The report that I received and the follow up after the site visit was both thorough and efficient. This company has a real grasp on communicating with their clients and ask all the right questions all the while providing a response to each of the clients concerns. I would definitely recommend KH Davis Engineering to anyone that I know. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

My previous contractor made a critical error; rather than call in a structural engineer when needed, he followed his own instincts putting the integrity of the staircases in my 3 story house at risk. When it became apparent that the stairs/landings had become significantly out-of-level, I went to homestars.com for help. I found that Mr. K H Davis, a structural engineer who specialized in old homes like mine, had the best ratings and reviews, and booked an onsite consultation.It was apparent from the start that Ken was an expert. Following a long and informative onsite visit, he provided a very detailed and helpful report including his recommendation to give it some time to see if it stabilized or got worse. When the stairs/landings continued to shift, I contacted Ken again hoping to hire his company to fix it. Ken took the time to further analyze the problem and explain exactly what was needed to stabilize the structure, but then suggested I find someone else because their schedule was full and they wouldn't be able to get to it for months. So, I got other estimates to put in a “cranked beam” and build two new staircases. When the new contractor repeatedly failed to show up, I called Ken again, almost begged him to do the work, and he finally agreed. Although H K Davis is by no means a bargain operation, his quote for the work was about two thirds of what the other guy wanted to charge. Ken then had an idea that would save me even more money. Rather than build two new staircases, he suggested trying to rebuild the old ones using the original stairs as much as possible because they were oak with a lovely patina. It was, as he put it, “a labor of love.” While I was prepared to pay between $25,000 - $30,000 for the cranked beam and new staircases, in the end it cost only $17,000. Unfortunately, while my project was underway, Ken injured his back and was temporarily incapacitated. Yet, things proceeded nicely throughout the project because Ken appears to have the talent for hiring excellent staff. I’d like to take a moment here to mention that project manager Luis was amazing. He was on site daily making sure that I was happy with each detail — and there were many details! While’s he’s clearly very knowledgeable and professional, his full commitment to the project was apparent from the start. In fact, on at least two occasions I text messaged him on a weekend night and he answered both texts that same night. He wanted to take care of whatever I was concerned about so that I wouldn’t worry about it over the weekend. I think that’s pretty rare.There were, however, a few times when I wanted Ken onsite to help work through a particularly complicated problem. He never failed to show up, and,despite his obvious back pain, Ken maintained full focus while finding creative solutions to some of the more quirky problems.My stairs are now level, safe, and look beautiful. I also find it a comfort knowing that this structural issue has been properly corrected, and enthusiastically recommend K H Davis Engineering Consultants Ltd without reservation. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

Mike did a fantastic job preparing the engineering drawings for our main floor and basement renovation. We're having extensive work done in our basement, including underpinning, structural beam work, and new walk out. Not only did Mike provide a sound engineering plan for our basement, he also worked with us to create a new basement floor plan that suits our family needs and maximizes every single square foot of our urban small basement. As for the City permit approvals, Mike over delivered in every way! He was able to get the permits approved in one day, including approval for the contentious new windows for our living room. Overall, we're extremely happy with K H Davis. Mike is great to work with, is attentive and goes above and beyond to help his clients. We highly recommend K H Davis. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

Mike at KH Davis was great. Friendly and punctual from the start, they came quickly to take measurements and helped make recommendations for changes to optimize the structure of our house as well as do drawings to bring an old staircase up to code. He gave us an approximate completion time that included the length of time to recieve the permit from the city (they submitted this for us at an extra but nominal fee). His approximation was bang on. Highly recommend! Thanks for everything. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

Ken Davies and Mike Shirzadfar have been very methodical and helpful in both the engineering, permitting and committee processes. The Firm is professional and prompt in every stage of my project.
At some stages of the project we needed to make revisions to the structure in order to save space and money. Mike and Ken reacted promptly to these revisions and really made a difference to the project and tradesmen. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

On the advice of our contractor we engaged Mike and his team at KH Davis. Mike is a very easy person to work with and was very prompt to reply to our questions. He and his team were thorough and worked great with our architect to ensure the integrity of the design was structurally feasible. Mike was also very quick to ensure our permits were processed ahead of the potential city strike. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

We engaged Mike @ KH Davis earlier this year to do structural drawings for our upcoming underpin and interior alterations (removing walls to create an open concept). Mike really considered our needs in his designs and offered ways to maximize our space. Kevin also did a site visit and helped find solutions that were within our scope of work and budget. Although our reno has not begun yet, so far it's been a great experience and we would recommend them for this type of work. *And, amazingly, Mike was able to get our permits approved in 1 day! More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

we met with Mike for over an hour and reviewed many options which we may not have considered and also lined us up with a designer to review further options . this was all free as an introduction - don't see that very often!! thanks Mike. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

We engaged K. H. Davis on the advice of a local contractor and met Mike to help us with our renovations. We gutted a 3 story detached house and wanted to open up the main floor, add a 2 story addition to the back and a new 2 car garage, plus the addition of several bathrooms, new staircase openings, dormers, window openings etc. . Mike was easy to deal with from the get go and it is clear the office is set up to advise us in the best ways possible. Mike was willing to make revisions quickly and is clearly informed on the best way to deal with them as to not hold up a timeline.
We have done several large renovations like this in the past and have finally found a team we look forward to working with in the future. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

The team at K.H. Davis went above and beyond for my project. I am delighted by their genuine interest and support in my initiatives and would use them again in a heart-beat. I worked with Mike from K.H. Davis to prepare drawings for my building permit submission. Unlike most permit submissions, my project was particularly difficult given the complexity of the property and zoning by-laws. I successfully obtained my permit thanks to Mike's commitment and dedication. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

We hired K H Davis for the following:
* Inspection of underpinning
* Specification of load bearing beams in the basement and on the main floor
* Specifications for a wall and walkout, and
* Installation of the beam on the main floor.
Ken and his team were professional, prompt, and answered all of our questions thoroughly. The workmanship was also top notch.
We would highly recommend K H Davis. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

my 100-year-old townhouse still has a crawl space for part of the basement. I was referred to KH Davis Engineering for the structural plans to lower crawl space and basement. Yu Ching Lai and Mike Shirzadfar provided me with an excellent service. They also helped in reassuring the neighbours that the project is safe. They have made the planning of this project easy - now I'm waiting for the actual renovation to start! More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

We were referred to KH Davis for plans to our front porch extension. They were thorough and responsive in the design process and were proactive to get us our permits in a timely manner. Mike Shirzadfar and his team were great. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

We had a foundation crack at the front of our house that developed over this past winter. After consulting with a few contractors they all said to repair the leak the washroom and the utility room would need to be gutted to find the leak. Then we would need to dig it out from the outside or the inside and waterproof it. Our basement ceiling is 6ft high and the layout is awkward. After getting rough quotes from the contractors we decided to waterproof internally and transform the interior living space to meet our needs. When I asked for recommendations for this work 3 different contractors recommended KH Davis for our structural drawings and permits. Based on this feedback we decided to use KH Davis and we are very happy that we did. By getting the drawings and permits through our own engineer we would be able to ensure there were no corners cut. We would also be able to send it out to get a quote from whoever we wanted to get accurate apples to apples quotes to compare from all the contractors. Then we could choose the contractor based on reputation and price. We contacted KH Davis on the Friday and were called back on the Monday. Mike Shirzadfar and the team went through everything and I had my permits and drawings within 3 weeks. I have used these drawings to show underpinning contractors that we are serious about the work we want to complete and the contractors are all happy with the drawings, responsive to my inquiries and I am able to quickly eliminate 5 quotes that are 20-50K above a group of quotes all around the same price. This is money very well spent!. The comments we get back from contractors quoting on our underpinning and walkout are "how did you hear about Ken Davis?" "he is really good" "these are very thorough". I am very pleased with service and happy that I used KH Davis for my Engineering drawings and Permits. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

We have been gutting the basement walls to improve insulation and after removing existing drywall we discovered what seemed like potentially serious structural issues. I contacted KH Davis. Ken was extremely prompt in getting back. He was able to make an appointment with my husband very quickly. He did a very thorough inspection including a drawing to help us understand some of the structure. We were so relieved that the issues are either non issues or minor fixes. We feel a lot more confident about insulating and putting up new drywall knowing the structure us sound. As we are having replacement windows put in in a few weeks, it was so helpful to have the inspection done before that to give us time to make any repairs prior to the windows going in. Money well spent. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

KHDavis was recommended to us by friends, based on their actual experience. We needed solid advice and guidance throughout a residential project that involved lowering basement and crawl space and underpinning party wall that was done by our new neighbour in a semi-detached situation of a1894 Victorian house. There were many serious issues during the lengthy project but Ken provided excellent and timely advice from the very beginning, did several inspections and mediated with neighbour's structural engineer and the city. His reports were professional and extremely helpful and he always answered all our questions. Everyone at KHDavis I spoke with was efficient and friendly. Mike was able to provide prompt and valuable guidance for the Committee of Adjustment hearing. We will be using this company next year for our own structurally complicated reno of the back of our house, and I can recommend KHDavis wholeheartedly for any structural and/or architectural residential project. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

We hired a contractor to convert our 1st floor to open concept and had our building permit application rejected. It turned out that some of our walls were load bearing after all. A friend recommended that we go to KH Davis for a structural design. Mike and his colleague met us and discussed what we wanted and measured the house, and produced the drawings we needed on an accelerated timeframe so that we could approve before leaving on vacation, and applied for the building permit while we were away. The design was very clear what type of lumber and even the size of screw that our contractor should use to sister our joists. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

I had Ken in to provide suggestions to my future plans to renovate my kitchen and bathroom. Ken was professional, non-judgemental and provided solid advice on what structural issues my 125 year old home had. He took the time to educate me on what needed to be done and in what order. The report I got was wonderful. I highly recommend his services. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

Ken and his team is amazing. I highly reccomend using them. They provide excellant advice on a timely basis. In addition, I was told by the Town of Richmond Hill planning examiner that Ken Davis has a very strong reputation and is known to produce excellant work so the planning examiner didn't expect any issue with granting my permit (and there wasn't).

Reviewed on Home Stars

When we purchased our 1920s home, we knew right away that we would alter the layout to make it a little more open concept. We took special care to ensure that the walls were not load bearing when we opened them up before removing them altogether. However, after removing these particular walls, we noticed that the joists seemed to bow and the floors were soft - especially in a part where they had been notched for ventilation ducts (original to the design and build of the house). While certain that we did everything 'according to the rules', we wanted an expert opinion.After speaking with several firms, we chose to meet with Ken Davis because they specialized in residential buildings, were located in our area, and VERY familiar with our style of home. Ken came to our house, looked at the joists in question and explained to us the reason for the deflection: our joists were overspanned for the width of our house and while the walls we removed were not load-bearing, they were what he called 'load-sharing'. He was also very thorough in examining other parts of the home, and we are so glad he did because he identified the same problem of the joists being overspanned for the ground floor and improper support for the 2nd floor bathroom (done by the previous owners). Furthermore, Ken was very friendly, professional and gave great attention to detail. His report was very clear and outlined everything (down to the screws to buy!) that was required to fix the deficiencies. Now our floors are very solid and we have the peace of mind that our big investment in tiles and other flooring won't be damaged by deflection in our joists. We both agree that this was some of the best $500 we spent on this renovation! More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

Ken Davis provided excellent, professional service and mediated in a difficult situation with an unscrupulous contractor. He came to my rescue when the basement lowering and underpinning by my contractor did not pass inspection by the City of Toronto building inspector . He was able to mediate with the subcontractor to get the job done properly. His professional demeanor and calm approach to the problems of old houses was reassuring. I would highly recommend him to consult about a renovation project BEFORE you start any project requiring structural work. I have consulted him several times over the past 8 months and will continue to ask for his valuable advice. He is reliable, trustworthy, and honest. For your most important investment, he is the sort of professional you want. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

Ken surveyed our older home for structural issues. He quickly identified the source of our floor sag-which stemmed from the original construction! He was thorough, patient and answered all of my questions as we did an indoor and outdoor review of the building together. I would gladly use this company again. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars

We had 2 other engineers out before Ken. They were scarred of our home built in 1887 which leaned 8" top to bottom.Ken and his team came in and created a plan to fit our circumstance and were always available for questions and revisions when needed. I have recomended them many times since our project concluded. More...

Reviewed on Home Stars