King & Sons Plumbing Co

I will NEVER use this plumber ever again! Where to start? My water heater went out on a Sunday and he DID respond quickly to my emergency call that my water heater was leaking, the young man was prompt, and kept in phone touch as to status of how long it would take him to pick up parts and get to the house. However, once there he made a horrible mess in the furnace room. While draining the water heater he flooded the furnace room, which shorted out the circuit board in the furnace that turns the fan on when the air conditioner is running. It was one of the hottest days of the year and I now had a flooded furnace room, a non-working water heater AND no air conditioning . The floor drain was stopped up, and apparently it didn’t occur to him to stop draining the water heater and address that issue. I'm not talking about a small puddle - I'm talking about a puddle that encompassed the entire furnace room several inches deep. He didn't inform me of the problem, and I wouldn't have known if I hadn't walked back to investigate the security alarm going off (water sensor on the security alarm). The furnace room is tile, but the rest of the basement is carpeted and the carpet surrounding the furnace room was SOAKED. He then asked me for a plunger (what kind of plumber doesn’t carry one?) to try and resolve the drain but I didn't have one large enough. THEN he tracked water and dirt all over the carpeting going back out to his truck. Bringing the new water heater in, the entryway door didn’t open wide enough and rather than let me open the other door (french doors) he tried to force the hand truck through, nearly breaking my door. I had to yell to get him to stop trying to force the door wider and let me try to get it open for him. Finally he did get the water heater installed, and it was installed well. Apparently, knowing that the drain in the floor wasn’t working it didn’t occur to him to either let us know or to fix it properly. I awoke at 3:30 in the morning when the security alarm went off because there is a water sensor in the furnace room – the room was flooded AGAIN. While the water was not coming from the water heater he installed (it was coming from the water softener which drains water into the floor drain during it’s cycle, it did force me to call him a second time to fix the floor drain problem. In all fairness, he did come out at 2:30 am to fix the drain. The second flooding was even worse – broke the air conditioning AGAIN and I had to take a vacation day on a Monday to deal with the problem. I spent the rest of the morning cleaning up the second flooding problem that NEVER would have happened if he had just done the job right the first time. I will NEVER call this plumber again, the cost in clean up of the flooding and him tracking water all over the carpets and the cost of the repairs needed to the furnace far exceeded the promptness and good job he did installing the water heater. Several weeks later I realized he used my shop vac to try and suction up some of the water on his initial service call. He didn't tell me, & didn't dump the water. I went into the furnace room due to a foul odor & realized that the shop vac was full of nasty smelling water. I tried cleaning up the vac, but it was damaged from all of the water sitting in it. So in addition to the water damage he caused, I also had to replace my shop vac.

It was part of the installation from an appliance we bought from Lowe's so we didn't have to spend anything. They were great; they were fantastic. I would definitely use them again.

They did a good job. I did not get them off Angie’s List but I did it through service contract. In terms of price, I got it less than what it would have been if I had to pay their full charge.

I paid Home Depot (H.D). for the cost of the unit and the general cost (up front) of installation. My general installation cost was higher because H.D, and/or King and Sons required two technicians to come out for the install since my water heater had to go into my basement. H..D. notified me I would be responsible for any other expenses incurred during the installation. The two technicians arrived on time and were friendly. Though they were competent about installing the water heater, I'm not sure I would use them for other plumbing issues. I talked to them about another plumbing issue I was having, thinking I could schedule their company to resolve that issue in the near future, but they couldn't seem to make heads or tails of it, but then neither could I or two others. They reiterated that I could pay more for the install if certain issues came up during the install. They fully explained these four possible issues and the individual costs. I mentally totalled the costs (approx. $200 I believe) figuring that was what I would end up paying them. During the install at least one of them was always idle as it was really a one person job except for getting the unit downstairs and taking the old one up. After the unit was installed, they both were diligent about checking for gas leaks, finding small bubbles that indicated such, and correcting. I felt the unit was safe for my family and I. Of the four installation issues they had mentioned, I was pleasantly surprised that only one of them had to be implemented so I ended up paying much less than I was expecting. The technicians cleaned up their work area before leaving.

I took off work to have King & Sons replace the shower & drain mechanisms in our basement bathroom. The plumber was punctual and quite frieindly. He came down to the bathroom and said that the fixtures were probably more than 20 years old and had no name engraved on them, so he would have to take a picture of them and go back to the office to confer with the "old timers". I had him snake the tub drain while there, especially since I was going to be charged for a service call anyway. Nothing was repaired that day. I was promised a call to reschedule for repairs. Three days later, I called them. We rescheduled the appointment. On the day of the appointment, the same plumber called at the appointment time. He said, in a very nonchalant tone, that he would need to spend the morning looking for parts for the shower and that he would call me later. I told him that I was having trouble taking time off from work for the same thing over and over. He said he would call the office. The office manager Tom called me shortly thereafter. He said that the faucet was a vintage 1980s Delta faucet and nothing around now would fit it. We would need to reschedule. I told him that was ridiculous as they had pictures of my faucet for nine days already -- and they hadn't even looked for a faucet??!! He then informed me that we would need to tear out the wall in the laundry room to get to the valve, so they could change that to fit a more modern Moen system. SInce it was Friday, he agreed to have someone come on Saturday without charging us the weekend rate. The same plumber showed up 15 minutes late. No big deal. He forgot to shut off the water supply, so when he loosened the old valve, he got soaked -- as did our laundry room and inside the wall. When done, he had been at our home for two hours. We did not use the shower for two days to allow the caulk around the fixtures to cure. The drain mechanism was still not repaired, as it was Saturday and no one was open to buy the parts. I think he should have bought the parts on Friday. Monday morning we had a home inspector coming to do a pre-inspection, as our home is up for sale. As I was going over the house real quick before he arrived, I noted that the caulk around the tub faucet was not sufficient to cover the gap. I had to get some caulk out in my office clothes to quickly put another bead around the faucet. I called King & Sons to have them return to repair the drain. Wednesday, they returned to fix the drain and then to replace the leg tub faucet, which we had decided to have them do at the same time -- saves a service call. Seemed logical. Again, a picture was taken of the drain's parts. The drain parts came as a unit, two pieces that work together. Of course, they installed only the broken piece and kept the other new piece, charging us for the total package. They then measured the leg tub faucet. They said it was a 4-inch spread. I knew that was incorrect, as I had measured it three times, center to center on the water supply lines. They didn't think they could get a 4-inch faucet. My mother was the one at home for this at the time. They told her they would have to come back and charge us yet another service charge to install a new leg tub faucet. At that point, I told my mom that we would NOT be rescheduling. I called the office immediately and told them they were not to return to my home. Now, ten days later, we discover a nice large trickle of water rolling down the wall, coming from the base of the shower head that they had installed. I would NEVER have these plumbers in my home again. I would not recommend them to anyone. The nonchalant way that "service" is handled by their personnel is appalling, and their work is certainly substandard.

King & Sons installed the dishwasher that we had purchased from Sears. They showed up on time, were friendly enough, and mostly cleaned up after themselves. It wasn't until the installer had left that I noticed how off the installation was. He had set one side flush with the cabinet leaving a quarter inch gab on the otherside where you could see the insulation around the dishwasher. The front of the washer stuck out past the counter lip, and was off level as well. So, I called and left a message—this was a Friday evening—and they got back to me Monday morning. I explained the issue, and they sent someone else in the next day to fix the installation. The second installer did an excellent job. Our dishwasher is snug in the cabinet space and perfectly level. He didn't even muss up the stainless steal finish. Overall, we were satisfied with the service, but having to have them come out a second time was a hassle. Lesson learned, don't let the installer leave until you take a thorough look at their craftsmanship.