Allen Plumbing & Heating Inc

They were quick to call back, scheduled next day, came when scheduled. Polite and professional. Fixed a definite leak, but did not solve my entire problem. I will have to get them to come back.

It went really well. We would definitely use Allen Plumbing again.

The actual disposer has a retail cost of $239.00. The technician spent less than two hours installing it. The charge: $935!!!! When I called to complain about the cost I was told by Michael Allen that his overhead costs are very high, and that they don't charge by the hour, but by the job, and they reward their "fast" technicians by paying them more. Essentially, I was charged $350/hr for this job. Michael Allen, owner, told me that if I could get an estimate from a reputable local plumber that he would refund me the difference. I did so, from a local, reputable plumber, and sent the estimate in. So far, two months later, no response. Also, no response to my request for a copy of the warrantee and instruction manual. Very, very poor service for a $935 disposer installation. I would only use Allen Plumbing if I had a lot of extra cash sitting around and nowhere else to spend it. Buyer beware.

Mike was on time, careful not to make a mess, and made a better connection than I imagined. It is working excellently.

With the cold weather, we started running our furnace. At first each time the furnace kicked on we smelt a very faint odor that was a bit like natural gas, over this past week the smell intensified. At that point we called a few providers to see if someone could come out and take a look at our furnace. Amongst the providers I called Allen was one of the more professional outfits. It was both little and big things. For example, as part of the the scheduling process they offered to give me a call ~30mins prior to the service call so I could get other things accomplished rather than wait at home for the entire time window. More importantly, the plumber they sent out, Jim A, was knowledgeable, professional and personable. Jim A inspected our furnace and discovered the cause of the gas-like smell pretty quickly. It turned out that the exhaust pipe become disconnected from the combustion chamber. This meant that our smell was carbon monoxide and unburnt gas. It turned out that the root cause of our problem was that the original installer had mis-glued the pipes. This had led to some condensate pooling and a poor seal between the furnace and the exhaust pipe. (The original installer had tried to remedy this with some clamping). Jim removed the old PVC and installed a new set of pipe that weren't back pitched. Finally, he ran a leak test over the entire area to make sure that he'd solved the problem. Overall, I enjoyed working with Allen and if we happen to run into any more plumbing or furnace issues I'm going to give them a call.

The three decker apartment building we live in is about 90 years old. When we purchased our condo/apartment 15 years ago, the building inspector told us we could expect to have to replace the furnace within a few years. As of last winter, the old furnace was still chugging along, but the heat had always been extremely unevenly distributed; we seemed to be keeping the basement warmer than the living space in our apartment, the next level up. I called Allen Plumbing to schedule a date for an estimate. Michael and an assistant came out on the appointed date and time, arriving punctually. They were very pleasant and easy to relate to. Michael and his assistant did a walk through and review of our existing heating set-up, including efficiency testing of the old system. We discussed various system options and pricing. While there that first visit, Michael's assistant installed a new toilet, which we had needed to do, but only spontaneously thought to ask Michael while discussing other matters that same afternoon. (The assistant happened to have a Toto toilet on his truck and the time to take care of the request then and there.) Within a day, Michael presented a written estimate. Shortly thereafter, he and I established a start date for the work. Since their first visit took place during the August heat wave, we had flexibility in scheduling the installation of the heating unit. After a couple of mutually compatible changes in the date, the work was initiated in mid October punctually at the appointed time. In addition to being skillful and obviously experienced, Michael's new assistant was pleasant, courteous, diligent, and hard working. He laid down a tarp and carefully took apart the old system, carrying it up piece by piece to the spot for removal later that same afternoon. At various points in the job, both Rob and Michael worked together on the installation. Rob cleaned up the area at the end of each work day. Everything was done neatly and carefully, with good attention to detail (sealing around spaces between pipes and exterior walls, wrapping and sealing the insulation on all of the ductwork, installing the new duct work). Michael was very good about laying out what the job would entail, how long, approximately, they expected the work to take, and on giving updates. Everything went pretty much according to schedule, there being only 1 additional day of delay part way through the job while the ducts were being fabricated. Now that it has gotten cold, we have had a chance to use the system. It works well. Heat is evenly distributed throughout the apartment; there seems to be much less ( or no) dust from the basement seeping into the apartment through the heat registers. Time will tell if our heating costs and use of energy (gas) are reduced. I would definitely recommend Michael Allen and his company and would call on them again for other work related to their areas of expertise.

They have done a good job. Each time, they came right away and did good work. He is a nice person to deal with and they honest in their pricing. I really like their attitude and how they run their business.

They did good work and their price was high.

Fast, responsive and competent. I needed a gas range installed quickly and someone came very quickly after my initial call. Everyone was great from my first call to the work being completed.

Everything was excellent except for a slight hiccup concerning the diagnosis fee for the first visit. My condo co-owner thought we shoiuld get credit toward the second visit because Michael didn't find the problem when he first visited. He felt he hadn't received enough of a detailed desription of what was happening ti find the probvlem on the first visit. A faulty motor is a faulty motor.... We paid the fee and Michael honored the AL coupon. In the end, I was very glad that Michael was there, so knowledgeable, and very thorough.

On 3/23, I arrived home after a long day to a very chilly apartment. I called Allen's emergency # and discussed problem with service tech, Chris; we established that the best thing to do was to wait 'till the next morning to solve the problem, and set up a time. Chris arrived promptly the next morning, and figured out the problem. We scheduled a return service call for today; I received a call yesterday confirming the appointment, and a call this morning to give me a specific ETA. Chris got the work done expeditiously, but did not depart until he'd thoroughly tested the system, and made sure that the temperature was comfortable and would stay that way.

It was the weekend when we had the horrible rains. He got back to me immediately and told me they really couldn't address my needs because they were in the middle of several emergency responses. I was really impressed that he called me back a couple of days later to make sure I got my problem solved. I thought that was a very nice gesture. He was very polite and upfront about it. I would consider using his services if I needed to in the future. I appreciated his professionalism. I understood the situation. It was that terrible weekend of the deluge. I knew it would be hard to find someone, but he got back to me within 15 minutes which is what they said they would get back to just to tell me that he was unavailable because he was committed to so many jobs. There was no reason at all for him to worry about me and call me several days later to find out whether or not I had solved my problem. I was quite impressed that he did that. If I needed to I would call him first.

They were clean. We felt that they didn't listen to our concerns, but they put in a good toilet that was of quality. Whoever had put the toilet in before put it in crooked. They put it in just a little bit crooked, but it was better. The toilet is still functioning. There was a problem with the handle on the toilet. It was very hard to flush because it is one of those new ones. They didn't do anything wrong; it is just the way some of those new toilets are. Some of the new toilets are very hard to push the handle down. My husband bought something that made it so I could flush it easier. They didn?t work with us on the handle. They did come out quickly. They were pricey. We would probably not use them in the future because we found another company that we like.

I called Allen Plumbing one Saturday morning when our furnace had given out. It was about 50 degrees in the house. They had someone over really quickly. The guy who showed up, Chris, was really professional and great to deal with. He diagnosed the problem and had the furnace back up and running within a couple of hours. I was impressed overall with both Chris and the company. I would definitely use them again.

The diagnosis of the gas fireplace was pricey ($165); however, he was friendly, competent, and answered questions unrelated to the repair. Work was clean and quick.

Everything went very smoothly and the service was fantastic. Highly recommend.

We were surprised at how quickly it got done (less than two hours). Because of this my husband was displeased with the price, and felt it was too high for the time spent at the house. I thought it was a LITTLE high but appreciated the work getting done quickly. The new disposal is working like a charm!

They were here on time and cleaned up after themselves. They were friendly and professional and they did the job well. I would use them in future.

I had water leaking from the edge of the ceiling above my shower. I called Allen Plumbing. A plumber arrived. He concluded that the problem was due to a leaky wax ring around a toilet in a bathroom on the floor above the shower. He told me that it would cost me $210 to have him replace the wax ring. I, naively, agreed to this, being a new homeowner and having no experience with plumbing. The change of the wax ring took 15 minutes: removing two screws, lifting the toilet off two bolts, removing the old wax ring, putting in a new wax ring, placing the toilet over the two bolts, and adding two screws. There was no sign of water around the wax ring when the plumber raised the toilet. This seemed to me to be a rather steep price for this work. Earlier reviewers have noted that Allen Plumbing?s rates are high. Unfortunately, the leaking resumed 2-3 days later. I called Allen Plumbing on a Saturday, noted that the leaking had resumed. They informed me that there would be a $150 weekend surcharge, just to come back to my home (any service that would be done would be on top of that fee). I noted that this was a follow-up to a problem that they had been called in to fix earlier that week, and had failed to fix. They said that this didn?t matter. I also spoke with the original service man. He said that he would ?put every bit of money? on the idea that it was a leaky toilet seal that had caused the problem, that it was ?definite? that this was the problem. However, in that conversation he agreed with me that, when he removed the toilet to replace the seal, there was no evidence of any water around the seal. During that conversation, he also said that he was positive that there would be water stains underneath the toilet that would verify his hypothesis. To try to avoid the $150 fee, a friend and I then decided to look into matters ourselves. The leaking that weekend seemed to have coincided with the start of rainfall. We therefore guessed that the leak might be coming from a narrow roof area that was above the edge of the bathroom, including the shower. When it stopped raining, the dripping stopped. When we then used a hose to run water down the roof, the dripping resumed. We also hypothesized that the earlier dripping was due to a combination of rain and a rooftop watering system that drained onto the narrow roof area. At this point, we also determined that the toilet on the upper floor was not close to being above the shower on the lower floor. Furthermore, underneath the upper-floor toilet, there were none of the water stains that the plumber had promised would be there. At this point, I contacted Allen Plumbing. Given the mis-diagnosis and the failure to solve the problem that they had been called to solve, I suggested that we split the ?loss? for the service call--that I pay $105 rather than $210 for the ?repair? call, since they had not repaired the problem and had simply carried out an unnecessary replacement of a wax ring (in 15 minutes). At first, they insisted that their original assessment was correct. When I suggested that they come to my home and look at the position of the toilet versus the ceiling of the shower and look for water stains, they refused. Instead, although they had mis-diagnosed the problem and performed an unnecessary ?repair?, they insisted that they should be paid the entire $210 for the 15-minute repair job (see the description above). In the end, I have had a leak around a vent on the roof repaired by someone else, and that has solved the problem. I would not recommend Allen Plumbing, based on their mis-diagnosis and their poor customer service.

The project never happened. Allen took itself out of the running for what would have been a pretty substantial job by having some very strange business practices.

Estimate was too high so we went with another company.

Found company on angies list. Called; bored sounding phone dispatcher refused to give any kind of estimate on the job beyond the obligatory 'you're out 75 bucks the second the guy steps in the door,' thing. Guy comes over, on time, after the usual five day wait. Asks 'what do you think the job should cost?'. I'm uprepared for the question; I expected an hourly rate plus materials. He quotes me 325.00 bucks and does the job in 30 minutes. Let's say the bracket and short length of metal connecting piple costs 50 bucks; then I paid him 550 bucks an hour. Good work, reliable, but you have to haggle.

Needed the work done in a hurry (unexpected international house guest arriving with 5 days notice) and Allen Plumbing was available and prompt--showed as promised. Completed the work within the estimated time frame, price as estimated. Once the new kitchen faucet hardware was installed, I asked if that would stop the annoying whine when hot water is used with the hand sprayer. I was told, yes, but it still shrieks. Because that wasn't part of my original list of needed repairs, I can't complain too much.

They are very responsive, prompt, and effective. They are not cheap though. They do the work quickly when you need it and I am happy with their work.

Allen Plumbing called me back later in the day (a Monday) and said they were very busy that week, and could come out that Friday, but said they could try to send someone out that day if a slot opened up. They called me back that day and said someone had canceled, and someone showed up within an hour. He wasn't familiar with that particular type of valve (it's apparently not a common model) but took down the model number and said he would call me back, which he did the next day. It turned out the valve was a known dud and had been discontinued a couple of years back, and he said he could order a newer model and have it installed later that week. He came out that Friday and replaced it as promised, and it's worked flawlessly. Great experience overall!