JTB CONTRACTORS INC

We had trades hesitate to do work at our project when they were told that JTB were the plumbing contractors. You really don't want to hear all of the details. One of our consultants on a miscue called JTB after we terminated our contract with them to request a replacement for a tankless water heater that they ruined. One of their (JTB) representatives actually called me.....the first time after over 12 months "on the job" asking what they could do. I told them that I could not speak with them on the advice of our attorney and reminded them never to try to have one of their plumbers step on our property again or I would execute the legal proceedings that our attorney had prepared against them with overwhelming evidence documented of JTB's incompetence and misconduct. The damage regarding our tankless water heater, sump pumps, improperly fitted plumbing fixtures, missing plumbing fixtures, parts from expensive plumbing devices thrown away rendering devices useless (top of the the line Incinerator disposals) etc. had already been done, that there was nothing that they could do other than to never speak to me again or risk an adversarial relationship in court. Our building consultant requested that we not prosecute because he knows the owners, one which I was told was very sick--for which I am sorry for, so grace prevailed. That said, this company remains the worse contractor that I have ever experienced in my career. When, my inspectors would inspect their work and reject it because it didn't meet specifications, their common practice was to remove their faulty work and then try to re-invoice us for their next performance attempt. Now that we have finished the project (still fixing plumbing mistakes weekly), our chief counsel suggested that since we choose not to take legal action ourselves, all of the documentation exists of incompetence and abhor ant business practices we should at a minimum file a brief with the Attorney General's office. Don't take my review simply on it's own at its face value. You owe it to yourself if your are considering employing this company to carefully check references. I bear the responsibility for accepting the referral from one of our building consultants for contracting initially with this firm.

The heat the pump was under warranty I should have been billed for the service. This is not the first issue that I have had with this company.

I would use their services again. Everything was done and the area cleaned before he left.

They did a good job. Every once a while they would send somebody and I would go to make sure to know what they were doing. I have a new furnace and new air conditioner from them too. I got parts that I've ordered sometime ago and they can't seem to get it from buyers. But that's unusual and I would stay on until they get it. Its working okay but they don't like chronic filter. The electronic filter was working but little red light would come on and makes me know it was. Then the red lights were not coming on and it might have been working fine but I wanted the light on. They have different names through but a man here wasn't. They were doing a good job. If somebody comes and he was new or I didn?t feel good about it, I apologized and told them no offense against them but I would need somebody to come out who was familiar with my equipment. I called up Kim there and they were always been there. She would understand and set me up with somebody who had seen it. They were prompt. They always called and came before I ran out calling them. They were always on schedule and they would give me one of those schedules with 3-4 hours window. They would really come home and work in front end which was nice. They had never come late than the schedule and I appreciate that. They had fixed thing permanently and some things at no charge.

Within one year of installation, JTB has had to come out 5 times for warranty service. The sump pumps were installed without being cleaned out and with incorrect back flow valve. They replaced both sump pumps and plumbing and did do an exceptional job on the replacement service. Two showers also did not work shortly after installation and required separate service trips. Main line to house was not properly sealed, causing basement to become flooded. Finally, a service line to the master bath sprouted a leak after 10 months. When calling for emergency service, I was told by JTB technician that it wasn't an emergency since you can turn off your main line (which was the definition of an emergency actually), and didn't schedule an appointment same day or even next day until after several calls to builder and JTB. Bottom line, their work required 5 warranty calls including two that caused major damage to the house and their service was terrible. UPDATE: In response to the company response, 1. the service repairman who replaced the two sump pumps stated they were installed incorrectly and should have been cleaned out prior to installation, and I saw first hand the debris that was inside the sealed sump pits. Since the pits are sealed, the debris was in the pits prior to installing the pumps. Saying the debris was already there is only stating the obvious, and obviously the debris needs removed from the pits as part of the pump installation. Saying its someone else's job doesn't avoid the problem, which could have been serious in a fully finished basement. The fact is the failure to do so resulted in two brand new sump pumps having to be replaced within 10 months. Furthermore, the service man pointed out the backflow valve was installed incorrectly. 2. Obviously, you need to flush the lines before installing fixtures, which is the plumber's responsibility. 3. The builder's construction supervisor stated this was JTB's responsibility, and just saying its someone else's problem again doesn't fix the problem. If you own the interior plumbing up to the main, then you have a responsibility to ensure the main is hooked up properly to the interior plumbing, even if it is someone else's job to fix it. Obviously this didn't happen, since the main was drywalled over without being sealed, and this happened on other homes in the neighborhood as well. 4. As far as the impropertly installed shower line, this was clealry installed improperly due to the cut on the PEX line not being even therefore not flush. It looked as if the PEX line was cut by hand with an XACTO knife resulting in an uneven cut rather than using the proper tools. Without a perfectly flat cut, the fitting will not be flush with the PEX, and the resulting pressure resulted in it coming off -- again the service repairman told us this and showed me first hand. As far as a point of use shut off, JTB did not install A SINGLE SHUTOFF other than the main valve, so this is an outright fabrication. I was amazed that no shutoffs exist, which results in having to shut off the entire house just to repair a single faucet. As I mentioned, the defintion provided by the builder for what consituted an emergency is when you have to turn off the water main, which we did as no "point of use" shutoff valves even exist in the system. Obviously no point of use shutoff valves is cutting corners in the first place, then to use the non-existent point of use shutoff valves after the fact to justify why our water was shutoff for 72 hours before being fixed adds insult to injury. Just to be clear, we left serveral messages stating this was an emergency as defined by the builder as the only resolution was to shut off the water main. 5. As I mentioned, the repair work done was exceptional, but the install crews they used obviously let stuff slide to install sump pumps without cleaning out the pits, install fixtures without flushing the lines, install the interior plumbing to the main without ensuring someone else sealed the gaping hole, and obviously install the PEX incorrectly which resulted in a leak after 10 months -- doesn't instill a lot of confidence. UPDATE 7/28: In addition to the multitude of issues above, 2 weeks back we noticed water stain on our garage ceiling (again) and after tearing out a 10'x20' section of insultation and drywall discoverd a constant flow of water below our bathtub, and mold. Taking the bathtub access off, there was a leak from the pex connection on the cold water connection to the tub. Just to be clear, a plumber replaced the T-joint and recut and crimped the pex tubing that connected to the T-joint. The issue was *not* the tub plumbing fixtures, since I know that is often what causes leaks, and are indistinguishable from the pex itselfself leaking. We hired a professional plumber to determine it was in fact the Pex crimp that was loose and replaced the T-joint and pex and it no longer leaks, so clearly this was the cause. This cost us $1000 in mold remediation and testing, and over $1000 in insulation, paint, and drywall repair. Again, there were no shutoffs installed in the entire house (other than on the hot water on the water heater, and since this was a cold water leak wasn't applicable) so we had to go without water until this was repaired. I put a 2 quart pan under the leak so we could at least take a shower, and it filed up in 30 minutes -- yep, 1 gal/hour leak. Also, we just discovered the hot water in our office/main floor bedroom bathtub is not working since we never use it. Again, no shutoffs so can't repair it without turning off main. Add these up, and we have had 5 major plumbing issues in *less* than 5 years in this house causing major damage to our house, costing thousands of dollars to repair, and reducing the value of our house by over $10K since water damage and mold must be disclosed by law when we go to sell our home (which we are in the process of doing). Thanks JTB, you are ruining poeples brand new $500K homes by cutting corners and shoddy install, and have cost us $12K to date. Please fire the crew that worked on our house (if you haven't already), and please don't blame us for all these issues. They clearly are all related and clearly do to workmanship, not settling, or whatever other excuse you are going to spin to CYA.