Blue Ribbon Plumbing

I had another project going on at my condominium. I had concerns. Owner came over to inspect basement and noticed leak in toilet. He said that he would send someone next week. When the work by his plumber. The owner gouged me. I wasn’t happy with $1,900. 00 and only reduced bill by 50.00. Called me after stop payment was issued. Called me in a threatening voice. Next morning called again in morning stating he was coming for a check. I was under duress to sign the invoice. Finally gave invoice. Stay away from this company! Rotten experience! After reading another review, I see that he takes advantage of elderly. I’m on disability.

Worst plumber ever. Paul ripped off my elderly mother. I saw his invoice and know what he paid for materials and what his markup was. I attempted contact multiple times and he just blew me off. He should be ashamed of himself. He is an embarrassment to all the honest plumbers out there.

Bottom line up front: Blue Ribbon Plumbing rips off little old ladies! Owner Paul LeBlanc came over and charged my elderly mother $750 to swap out a toilet, no breakdown of material or labor on the invoice. No senior discount. No reply back when I tried multiple numbers multiple times from their business card…lousy customer service!

Blue Ribbon Plumbing transformed our pink, 1960’s bathroom into a modern, luxurious master bathroom. The project also included combining two back to back closets and a small room into a large walk-in closet When we were gathering bids, Kim came to our home to discuss the project which included moving the toilet, installing a window in a new location, building a shower with two knee walls, and moving the linen closet door to open in the bathroom. This allowed us to eliminate two doors in the hallway between bathroom and our bedroom. We were impressed with Kim’s understanding of the plumbing issues and her suggestions for the project. Blue Ribbon’s estimate was comparable to others we received. One reason we had put off this project, was my fear of selecting the wrong design/materials for the bathroom. With Kim’s help and a showroom that had quality products, but not so much to be overwhelming, we completed the selection in about an hour. We were happy that the project could start in early May, so it would be ready when house guests arrived in late June. We emptied out the bathroom, four closets and most of the decorative stuff in our adjacent bedroom, and moved upstairs for the duration of the project. The workers always left the work areas and adjacent halls in good shape each day. The demolition, down to the studs, including the removal of the square, pink bathtub, took about two days. The electrician and plumber did excellent work. Jerry was the main contractor and was very skilled in all aspects of this project including tiling, construction and installing vents and hardware. His assistants worked well under his direction. We decided to keep the hard wood floor in the new walk-in closet which required their professional floor installer to add boards and refinish the floor which came out great. Kim found the perfect large crank-out awning window for the bathroom. The window, along with the shower glass half walls and door, allow us to look out and see the trees when showering. The “Shower Door Guy” installed the glass in a timely manner. The window installation required new shingles to be installed on the exterior of the house. After the vanity had been installed for a few days, I realized that the wrong sink was installed; it was oval, not square. I emailed Kim and she was quick to assure us that this would be corrected. As she said many times, the bathroom would be exactly what we wanted. We decided to wait until after our house guests left to have this done. The original time estimate was four weeks and we had a few weeks of buffer before our house guests would arrive. When the project ran over six weeks, and guests were arriving at the end of the seventh week, we were stressed. As with any home project, extra work can be found when walls are removed and this happened in the linen closet. An upstairs vent ran through it and had to be removed and replaced so this added some time to the project, but it all could have been easily completed in six weeks if work days had not been missed. When the project was starting, Kim stated that they were “down a crew” maybe due to injury, I think. There were a few weeks when no workers came for one or two days or the worker did not have direction or the skill to do the next job, so the project did not progress as expected. They did work a few weekend days to make up some time. During the 7th week, when the pressure was on, they worked long days, but some mistakes were made because the assistants did not have experience in what had to be done next. All problems were corrected and the bathroom and closet were completed the day before our guests arrived. The cleanup and removal of all work related items was excellent. All in all, we are very satisfied with our new bathroom and closet, which got rave reviews by our house guests and family and friends. I would recommend Blue Ribbon Plumbing, but make sure you have extra time built into the project, for unexpected problems and work related issues. Kim, Jerry, the professionals and all the assistants worked very hard and were easy to have in our home. Thanks for creating our beautiful bathroom and great closet, we love them!

I stopped by the showroom to inquire on possible renovation as i have been hesitant due to cost and quality. in meeting Kim, I immediately gained confidence in their expertise and knowledge. the estimate provided every detail of construction and cost so there were no surprises. the design and install is superb quality. I highly recommend Blue Ribbon.

Good: The initial process of picking out things in the showroom was pleasant and low pressure. Kim was there to make suggestion as needed but was also comfortable with letting you look around and work things out for yourself. The workers that came to the house were professional, friendly and generally easy to be around while they worked. The foreman had a good head on his shoulders and was easy to work with and was good at "making it work". They handled existing house problems found along the way quickly without much delay to overall timeframe. When all was said and done Kim did work to "make things right". The bathrooms when completed looked good. Not amazing, but good considering the issues. Bad: It appeared that there was a lack of design and planning with this project. This felt to me like a very new company that had never taken on a remodel of this scale before. Starting from the initial estimate all the way thru to the end they seemed to be winging it. There seemed to be a lack of communication within the company. There was more than a few times I asked the foreman about something that was supposed to be done and the response I got was "Kim never mentioned that". They were about a week over when they actually got done vs the time frame we were given. That is also taking into account about a day's worth of extra work for existing house issues that were beyond their control and I will not include in their time overage. While they did clean the space at one point during the process, work that was done after their initial cleanup was left uncleaned. We found saw dust on the floor in the basement from where the electrician was drilling holes, drywall dust all over the new vanity and fixtures and wire scraps where outlets were replaced. Bottom Line: The whole process seemed way more chaotic and stressful then it needed to be. Between all the things that were missed or not taken into account, I felt like if I wasn't there we would not have gotten what we intended. The employees however, genuinely seemed to take pride in their work and worked to make things right. However the time that was required to improvise to make things work left them rushing to get the job done. Overall if they can work on their planning and internal communications this could be a good company. Details: The timeframe we got was a week and a half for the full project. We did say we wanted permits to be pulled and the estimate was still about a week and a half to two weeks. Day one foreman and helper showed up and I started showing him where he would be working. He seemed confused when I was showing him the kitchen and guest bath. All he knew about was the master. They were there for about 2hrs, did some demo and left. Later that day Kim did showed up with the electrician to pick up the check and show him the electrical that needed to be done. They were in and out in about 15min. I don’t know where the disconnect was but even with the instructions from Kim he still put in the wrong type of lights. Thus started the process and over the next 3+ weeks we ran into multiple instances where people just didn't seem to have the big picture and the foreman had to "make it work". Some of the issues we hit… Electrician didn't install the LED recessed lighting because he didn't like the look of them and the regular bulbs were cheaper. The foreman had to replace the fixtures with the LED lighting. Concrete backer board was not used when tiling the guest bathroom even though it was called out in the contract. They credited us for cost of backer board. Guest bath vanity top was ordered too small and had to be reordered. Reordered top still seems too small as the closed draws stick out past the counter top. Desire for a larger than normal shower nook/shelf was never communicated by Kim to the foreman. As the wall was already framed by the time the foreman asked where the shelf should go there was no easy way to put in a larger than normal shelf. Foreman had to improvise a double shelf by making a taller nook and shelf out of tile pieces. Master vanity was too big for the space they constructed for it. They ended up having to cut into the wall to get the vanity to fit. Then half of the draws wouldn't open and needed to be cut down to fit against the wall. Now vanity draws have a smooth finish on some sides and rough cut spray painted black sides where they were cut. The baseboard heat was also an issue with the new vanity. This however was known prior to the start of the project and there were discussions with Kim about dropping the pipe into the floor or raising the vanity so it would fit. This information was never communicated to the workers and as they had already retiled the floor and jammed the vanity in place they were forced to put the pipe in the outside wall. I could go on but I think you get the picture.

I had to find another plumber last minute. I had put in a complaint to the State of CT to no avail saying I didn't have any claim. Years later I was contacted by the same state department telling me that they received many complaints about this company and that now I had a claim and I told them at the time I couldn't find the receipt for the second plumber. When I did find it I chose not to bother.

unknown

The job was fantastic. Such nice people to deal with. They arrived on time, worked everyday until completion. Very clean, nice and friendly. I would recommend them to anyone. They keep in touch to make sure that all is ok. I am very happy upon the completion of my bathroom. Beautiful.

Very professional workers. Job done in 4 1/2 days as promised. In store designer helpful in recommending options. Removal of all old fixtures.

Mr. LeBlanc hires unlicensed people who perform plumbine, carpentry and electrical work which is inferior. One of the employees took out my old tile bathroom floor and put down a wood subfloor to prepare it for new tile. Somewhere in the interim, there were 12 holes made from nails that were too long, in my dining room ceiling which they tried to cover up with mounds of plaster. It was unsightly and unprofessional. After the left the first day, there were leaks under the sink and a pipe was leaking in the basement. These people do not know what they are doing, but they know how to intimidate you into paying them before any of the damage was replaired.

Initial visit was personalbe and professional. First day of work was late. Completion of work was timely but work was poorly done. I had to call them back to fix the bathtub faucet that was installed upside down. The mirror/cabinet was not secured and half haning off the wall. They came and fixed it but soon after the mirror/cabinet completely fell off the wall into the sink and the other one had a defect in it as well. They decided to discontine that model, so I had to go find it at another retailer in order for it to match what Blue Ribbon design had installed. Now, the grout around the bathtub is coming off and I called to have it redone. He came to look at it and never called me back. I have called him back with still no return call.