Howe & Bassett CO

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.

I called Howe &Bassett to help figure out why I have fissures on the inside and outside walls of my 1929 stucco. Randy (who is some kind of manager) spent about 30 minutes taking a look. He spoke with great authority as to what the problems are. I unfortunately believed what he said. He claimed another company had done a very poor job setting up the existing drainage system. (I have had almost no flooding in my basement since this system was installed back in 2002). Randy however painted a doom and gloom scenario of further problems if I didn't address the ones at hand.

He told me with certainty his company could right the situation. I was charged $100 right off the bat for his assessment. I asked for a written contract for the proposed job and got a VERY INFORMAL letter (nothing like any contract I had ever seen) that claimed they would know more about what had to be done once they dug a hole to take a look. They claimed this needed to be done to see exactly how inept the previous company's work was.

The 'contract' stated that once the problem was accurately diagnosed, it would cost between $4,000-$5,000 to fix. However, many loopholes were included for unforeseen additional costs. (I did not ask how much it was going to cost to dig this exploratory hole). Ultimately I decided not to proceed with the proposed repair. I was charged $364 for that hole.

A credit for the $100 I already paid was not applied to the cost of the hole. I feel like I was duped. I'm going to pay this bill as a way of teaching myself a lesson. From now on I'm going to vet contractors way more carefully in the future. I am awarding myself one star out of 5 for allowing myself to become a victim of this 'gotcha'. Needless to say I would never hire or recommend this company to anyone.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Recently moved into my home and have been slowly dealing with inevitable challenges of home ownership. Ended up with a shower blockage and used my home warranty to arrange for the plumber service. They sent Howe & Bassett. Initially I was impressed by their flexibility and customer service. Mike in the office is always super friendly when answering the phones and handling dispatch. Anyway, this was a month ago - Solomon came out assessed the situation, fixed a couple leaky toilets but left without fixing the leaky faucets (one in the guest bath and two in the master).

I waited to hear back about what next steps were necessary to finish fixing the leaks - 1) is it covered by warranty, 2) if not, what will it cost. About 10 days later I realized I hadn't gotten any calls back. (I'm a single mom.this wasn't my top priority.) I called Mike, explained the situation and was told Randy would get back to me.

I called every day that week each time hearing "Randy said he was going to call" or "Randy hasn't called you?" Finally connected with Randy on a Friday who said he'd talk to Solomon and find out what needs to happen. Spent another week calling every day being told (again) Randy would reach out and answer my questions. Last I heard from Mike was Randy is "very busy" but would stop by to see for himself what next steps we should take.

That was last week. Still nothing. Also, Randy's not the only busy person out there. I'd love to not have leaky faucets. Thinking maybe because it's a home warranty job it's not a priority.

We have always used Howe and Bassett. We have been pleased until recently. We had them replace a water heater and the plumber was messy. He removed the water heater and moved it to our finished part of our basement, which is carpeted. This caused significant stains in our rugs. He soldered on our concrete driveway and left permanent marks. He used our restroom and left black muck all over our towels. I'm not sure if we will use them again.

I recently had to make a call for my home warranty and this is the company that they sent. I put the request in late on Sunday night a representative called me first thing Monday morning and a repair man was there and fixed the problem early afternoon. They were very fast and the problem was fixed to high standards.

We recently had a storm drain, a water filter, hot water dispenser, and a new bathroom faucet installed. Price was very fair, the workers showed up on time and everything was left clean and ready to use. Prior work for us had likewise been done to this same high standard. As good as it gets.