The John E. Ruth Co.

I've used him for over 25 years. He's very reliable, and always does a top notch job. He is a little expensive though, but the quality of work is great!

I have always been very happy with the services I have received from John E. Ruth Co. I have always found Jim Arnold to be very helpful in discussing our options for projects and prompt in providing in depth estimates. The company has always been very punctual in scheduling work and on days that work was being done. I have always been very comfortable with all of the workers that have been in our house and felt that they were all very competent and easy to work with. I live in an old (1925) house and all work has been done in a manner that I felt was very respectful and careful. They have always worked through any unforeseen issues that have arisen in a deliberate manner and discussed the options and consequences with me prior to doing the work. I don't think that they are the cheapest plumbers around but have found them to be competitively priced and I appreciate that they are local, available in short order, and familiar with my house. I will certainly continue to use them in the future and will recommend them to others.

Jim Arnold thoroughly discussed our options for the new water heater and provided a detailed estimate for all options. In addition, he was more than willing to allow me to choose and provide the shower fixtures for the renovation. The plumbers reviewed all the items that I provided for installation and made sure that there was no accessories missing that would prevent them from being installed in the manner that I wished. All the work was done quickly and competently. As always the workers were respectful to both me and our home. They cleaned up after themselves and did good work that I appreciated. I will continue to use them for future projects and recommend them to others.

I have used them before in the past. I have probably spent about $5000.00 over the past tow years. They are very good. They cleaned up. They had to cut into the drywall which can be a mess. The plumber got down and cleaned the floor with water and rags and I appreciated that. They are very courteous, friendly, and timely.

Ruth Co. sent a service technician who "fixed" the problem. Two weeks later I got bill that detailed that the heating system needed new vent valves which they said they would order and install and possible clogged pipes to be determined when they installed the vent valves. Repeated inquires on my part lead to the assurance that they had the vent valves and would install them. Repeated calls from the tenant indicated that they had never contacted her nor had they been back. Its a month later and nothing has been done. I have engaged another contractor to fix the problems which were not about vent valves.

This is a perfect reflection of what happens with customer dissatisfaction on one job. I have used John Ruth a number of times over the years for various plumbing repairs in an older house, including: installation of 2 new faucets specially designed for "special needs" individuals, installation of new washing machine hoses, removal and installation of an entirely new sink and vanity cabinet, cleaning of clogged water drain. In each instance, the plumber who performed the job for John Ruth did a superb job (and it was the same plumber for each job). And as often happens, I have meant to indicate my satisfaction with the company by submitting a service evaluation report with Angies List. Life being what it is with other responsibilities, the moment passes and I neglected to submit a service evaluation report indicating my high degree of satisfaction. Now, a different plumber from John Ruth does not do a satisfactory job on perhaps the most simple plumbing task compared with the others and, unfortunately, I now have an incentive to submit a service evaluation form that reflects my dissatisfaction. So, I want to be fair to John Ruth Company and indicate that I had a high degree of satisfaction with their work in the past, but I take strong exception to the idea that they should not lose any money or time when one of their workers makes the wrong judgement call and did not do the job correctly the first time. As I told them, I have plans for a complete renovation of one of the two bathrooms after the winter, and unfortunately, I sincerely regret that I will not be contacting them as one of the companies to provide an estimate for that job.

During the deep freeze winter, I heard intermittent, brief, gushing water sounds from the basement through the water pipes. I could not pinpoint the source. I suspected some type of valve was faulty and determined that the water was being channeled out through the water main. After I got my next inflated water bill ;-) , I called John E. Ruth Co. I've used them before. The mechanic Mike G. came out with a helper, Justin, and he replaced the valves which solved the problem. The price included a $50 service call charge. As usual, they were a pleasure to deal with and professional.

Sadly this has been one of the most frustrating jobs we have done in the house. From day one we heard nothing but excuses from this company. After a while " I am sorry, I am overwhelmed" wasn't good enough anymore. Our contact had one story after another. We should have walked away instead of giving them more chances. But the contact seemed sorry and promised to make it worth our time and frustration. ( HE DIDN'T ) The plumbers we had come to install the bathtub were very nice, even though they had to come back twice to stop the tub from draining out all of the water. But when all was said and done, we were left never having a contract, being given a bill for an incorrect amount that took 3 months to get straight so we were not overpaying, and when we went to pay we were told they won't take our credit card. Even though we asked before any work was started. I really wanted to give these guys a chance. But we were left very frustrated that we took a chance on them. My husband and I both feel like this company has a lot to learn about good customer service. Thankfully we used Angie's list to find a new plumber and we are so happy with them, we have actually saved money on our house remodel with our new company and learned a valuable lesson with John Ruth.

We were doing a complete gut/remodel job on our kitchen and adding a bathroom where there was a covered back porch. My husband and I were interested in doing portions of the work ourselves, and the John Ruth company was more than willing to coordinate with us on this. We did the demo down to the studs, and they came in and took out the load bearing walls, adding support beams (with a structural engineers plan) and then proceeded to frame in the back porch. At every step of the way, when Will and Mike anticipated a problem that we would encounter when working on our part of it, they explained it to us, and were more than helpful and accommodating. In terms of plumbing, every old pipe in the house was replaced, they roughed in the bathroom according to our plans, and installed the shower pan. They also serviced our old heater and made some tweaks to the system, very knowledgeable about older homes and hot water/steam heat systems. We can't say enough good things about this company - everyone LOVES our kitchen and we loved having the guys here working. Totally trusted them to come and go with house open. They were clean and respectful, and always cleaned up at end of day. Seriously, you want this company to do work for you!

We were very satisfied with their quote. They were very forthcoming and had some good suggestions.

Kitchen went well. Bathroom was more difficult. Didn't have the right parts but was able to perform a make shifht fix with different parts. Main thing, before he left the problems were resolved but it probably cost me a little more because of the additional time to fix the bathroom.

It went very well. It took a full week. They had to tear everything out. They removed the walls, ceilings, and drywall etc. They installed new flooring, drywall and the new handicap features we requested. They used mildew resistant paint. This really helps the problems we were having mold and mildew.

He had to install new handles in the shower as well. He did a good job and was able to get the problem resolved quickly. I liked that I did not have to wait for him to go and get parts or anything like that. I would use him again.

I called them on Monday 4 Jan and they showed up about 8 am the next day as promised. I explained the problem I was having with the drain and showed them the laundry room, kitchen and bar sink served by this drain and the location of the cleanouts. The cleaning went well until they began to run large amounts of water through the drain to flush the loosened grease and other muck out. The large volume of water caused the debris from the drain to overflow from my bar sink in the basement onto the floor, and surrounding shelves. The area around my basement bar (tile floor, wood shelves/cabinets, carpet, furnace room) was a watery mess. It took them more than 4 hours over two days to clean most of it up. They did a good job of cleaning the dirt and water that was easy to get to, but my wife and I are still trying to clean up the black muck that got into the various crevices and on some of the shelves and other surfaces under the bar. What I expected to be a straightforward drain cleaning job turned into an upsetting, time wasting experience. Professional plumbers should have enough forethought to realize that flushing large amounts of water down a clogged drain could cause an overflow further downstream. A little forethought and precautions such having someone monitor the bar sink could have prevented this mini-disaster. They were honest in admitted to making a mistake, professional in making a reasonable attempt to make things right, but it never should have happened in the first place.

They were quite good across the board. They were prompt and did a good job at a reasonable price. I would hire them again.

The initial evaluation was $100, and included an estimate of the work required to fix the leak and ensure that the upstairs bathroom would be watertight to prevent future leaking. They advised that the subfloor might need to be repaired and the flange might need to be replaced once the toilet was removed and they were visible for inspection. The subfloor was not damaged, but the flange did need to be replaced. I asked how much more it would be to replace the sink as well as the toilet, and was pleased with the combined price. Tom and Lesley, the team who came to perform the repairs, were very friendly and professional. They came one week after the estimate was performed, were punctual, and detail oriented. Tom noticed that the chrome trap arm from a previous sink repair had never been properly soldered and was just inserted loose into the wall, and he fixed it to prevent leaking into the wall. While waiting for the wax seal to harden, I asked him to evaluate my downstairs shower and he suggested some possible future renovations. At no extra charge, he even installed a shower massage that I had not been able to install correctly. I was very pleased with the quality of the work and the customer service.

The water pressure in the bathroom sink had decreased to a trickle. I called the company on a Monday morning and they scheduled someone to come out Tuesday morning (they offered to send someone later Monday if it was an emergency, but I opted for Tuesday). Doug arrived about 10 minutes early, and got right to work. He checked out the water pressure at other places in the house and then began to disassemble the faucet, beginning with the aerator. The clog was right there, a much easier fix than I expected! Unclogging that returned the water pressure to normal and revealed that the sink drain was very slow, so Doug offered to take apart the p-trap and see what could be done. He listened patiently to my explanation of what had happened the last time someone tried to take apart the trap (it connects to a very old pipe and was extremely difficult to reattach), and then carefully proceeded to take apart the trap again. Unfortunately, the trap was clean, indicating that the clog was farther down the line. Because of the age of the pipes, Doug was reluctant to try snaking the pipe and suggested letting it soak with a strong bleach solution to dissolve some of the soap scum. This worked like a charm. Then he got the trap back together with minimal issue and no leaking. Doug also discussed what would need to be done to fully repair these pipes, which involved cutting through the wall to replace the drain pipes.

I was not happy with the work done by the initial plumber that John E. Ruth sent. The work was incomplete, the quality was not what I expected for $100/hr, and was not happy with the number of hours billed vs. work actually done. I filed a negative Angie's List report, and forwarded a copy to the company. Jim Arnold of John E. Ruth contacted me. He came to the house, finished the job, and offered $100 off the bill. I accepted, and agreed to edit my Angie's List report accordingly. Jim was very polite, professional and friendly, and I consider that the issue is resolved to my satisfaction. If things had been done right from the beginning, I'd be comfortable with all "A" ratings. As it stands, I appreciate that the company made it right, but wish that things hadn't gone wrong in the first place... hence some of the "B" ratings.

Our sump pump became unconnected from the drainage pipes and was therefore running continuously. We had been out of town and came home to find this on a Sat morning. We had plumbers at the house by 2 in the afternoon and they were done within an hour.

When I called the company for recommendations about brand/type of garbage disposal to purchase, they were VERY helpful. When I purchased the disposal, they scheduled the work for the following day. They called ahead when an earlier time slot in their schedule opened up. The plumber arrived 10 minutes ahead of schedule and completed his work in a timely fashion. When testing the sink after inserting the disposer, he found that the drainage pipe in the other half of the double sink had problems and replaced it. Great work. When done, he demonstrated the differences between our old and new model. Very helpful.

Water intake of toilet was leaking. Called them, and they were able to come out a day earlier than expected. Plumber was very quick to fix the problem, friendly and told me exactly what had been wrong. I will be calling them again when I need a plumber.

The initial price was lower than 2 other companies we priced, but after a few unexpected issues turned up, the price was comparable. The workers who performed the job (Tom and Lesley) were always on-time, friendly, and listened to my concerns. They cleaned up after each day of work. Most importantly, they performed excellent work and seemed to take pride in a job well done. A small leak was found a few days later after the job was complete, and they came right out and fixed it (no charge). They took pictures of the job all along, and e-mailed them to me afterward. It turned out that I used one of the shots of the open wall when doing some other work myself.

Woke up to a very cold house and saw that my thermostat looked dead. Replaced the batteries but that did not fix the problem. Called original contractor at 7:10 but they still had their answering service on. Called John E. Ruth Co. about 7:20 a.m. Over the phone, they asked about the batteries (to save me a service call). Once I told them I'd already swapped out the batteries, they promised to have someone at my house by 8:00 a.m. George arrived about 7:40 and quickly and efficiently verified the problem. He also turned on the heat for me so I would not be cold. I told him the brand (Honeywell) and type (5/2 programmable) and George went to get what I wanted. I especially appreciated this because the last company only carried the White-Rogers brand (with the contractor name stamped on it) and it certainly proved to be unreliable. George showed me how to use the new thermostat and finished up by 9 a.m. I was a little surprised by the price of the thermostat itself ($95), but otherwise I am extremely satisfied with the service and the quick response.

I have been using this company for years. They are prompt and are reasonably priced.

Overall it went very well. I contacted Jim Arnold and he came out the next day to make the estimate. We discussed several options and they were all itemized in the estimate we received. When I called to accept the estimate I was told that it would take "a few days" to order the required heat exchanger and that he'd call to set up a day to do the work. I had to contact him the next week for status, but they had the part and they did the work two days later. There was some confusion locating the house's water shut off and whether that should be replaced, but that was my fault(what I thought was the main shut-off wasn't). But that was all resolved when the actual shut-off valve was found. When the system was apart they recommended replacing the expansion tank(whose bladder had ruptured, so needed)and a system filler valve which we agreed to so they came in slightly over budget($2000 vs estimated $1750). The two workmen(Mike and Mike)were professional and pleasant to deal with and their work was good. They finished the job that was quoted to take "most of the day" in little more than a morning even with the additions. The clean-up was excellent, they may have left the area cleaner than they found it.