Howe & Bassett Company

R K

2 years ago

I hired Howe and Bassett for a bath remodel. Communication was very challenging. They did not read emails, including the design drawings I had sent them weeks before they started. Phone calls and texts were not reliable either. I never knew when to expect them (including on the first day of work). I asked them to let me know by 9am on days they were planning to work. They never did this and apparently caused them a lot of confusion. They would only send one or two guys for a few hours of work each week which resulted in them coming to my house for about 6 months. They eventually stopped showing up once the project was almost complete. The shower was not installed correctly and required several attempts to stop leaking around the base, door, and shower head. The toilet was installed too high on the floor and also did not have adequate flushing power (I hired another plumber to come out to solve both issues). Trash bags were left in my house which leaked sewage on the floor, and I had to clean up. I had to remind them each time to lay floor protection down (they scratched the LVT flooring outside the bath and left the carpeted stairs a mess each visit). I asked them to provide dust control at the door and eventually provided my own since they did not. Tools and materials were left in the house and garage for weeks or even months. They mixed concrete on my neighbor’s lawn and left chunks of dried concrete in his yard. I disposed of a couple of pick-up truck loads of trash and debris to save them time. They also left the water turned off to my kitchen for a weekend, and I wasn’t sure if it was okay for me to turn it back on. I let them order the plumbing fixtures through their supplier which resulted in initial delays of placing the order, a broken sink upon arrival, and an empty faucet box upon arrival. I was not given an arrival date and just happened to be home when it all arrived. Luckily I was able to quickly make space for them in my garage where they sat for weeks. They boasted doing electrical work too. It took several attempts to install a dimmer switch to work properly. They were unable to color match new outlet covers to the new electrical outlets they installed. And after several months, missed attempts, and many excuses of them trying to match an existing outlet cover, I ordered it myself on Amazon for $7 and received it in 2 days. They gave a lot of excuses, but the main excuse they consistently gave was that it was only a “basement bathroom.” I had tried to make it clear to them from the beginning that we wanted the bathroom to feel like an extension of the upstairs. And although the quality did not need to match the upstairs, we wanted it to match the quality of the rest of the finished basement. I did not press them to complete the job quickly because I understood they were busy. Sometimes I wouldn’t hear from them for weeks. When someone would show up, it would be unannounced, and they would only stay for a few hours. Most contractors recognize this is an inefficient work plan because several small trips are more costly than a full day of work due to a redundancy of travel, set-up, and clean-up time. Contractors can save money by planning full days of work. Overall, I would not recommend Howe and Bassett. I cannot endorse the quality of work, professionalism, or reliability.

Justin Power

3 years ago

Best plumbers in town

Michael Green

3 years ago

It used to be great and had been my go to place for plumbing for the past 30 years. But in the past few years, their service has nose dived. I don’t know if it is because Steve retired, but I no longer find them reliable. It was a great company with great people but, unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

Juangofett seth

3 years ago

Very neat and courteous would use them again in the future

Ronald Schutt

5 years ago

They kept promising to come and never showed for 2 weeks, after several calls to Mike. Now they don’t answer when I call. I do not understand, but I am done trying to be a loyal customer. It is a shame.

Joe Blough

5 years ago

We had a couple plumbing issues that my husband couldn’t solve. When the guy arrived, he covered the options and then ended up fixing all the problems before he told us how much it would cost. Then he charged us the minimum charge because, he said, “it wasn’t really that big of a problem”. So impressed with their fairness and honesty at Howe & Bassett. I will keep them on my list. Thank you.

Betty Drew

5 years ago

I called these guys about a really slow draining sink/slow flushing toilet. They came in and analyzed the problem via camera in the drain. To make a long story short they had to cut holes in ceilings and walls to get at the pipes to see what was needed. In the end they ran a whole new pipe to the sink which solved the slow draining bathroom/venting problem. They cleaned up after themselves and even patched the holes. Perfect. All we had to do was touch up paint. The whole job took 2 days to complete. I was impressed.

Wendy Legler

6 years ago

Terrible!!! Wouldn’t return calls…ever! And that was the owner!! Took forever to get the work done and didn’t submit everything properly to the home warranty company so we had to schedule and pay an entirely different company to take care of the problem. Don’t ever use this company…I wouldn’t ever let them back in my home again!