Skillings & Sons Inc

Derek Skillings, Tim (Service), and Bill (our tech onsite) did an awesome job at assessing the condition of our well pump and jumping through hoops to get us back up and running in a few days despite being down one truck. No "up sell" like some of the others out there. Just honest and professional service.

We had an intense electrical storm that knocked out our cable, etc. One of our outside light circuits was also tripped by a nearby lightning strike. Our water was also not working and circuit breaker appeared to be okay. The well pump was not running for some reason. We called Skillings & Sons - they were able to come next day but not until late afternoon. They assured us that they would have us up and running before they left. They came, diagnosed the problem as a tripped breaker on the generator power transfer switch and got us up and running. They also added a back flow valve on the water line in the wellhead. Very knowledgeable and fast at getting us our water back. Will use them again without hesitation.

The job went very well. They came on time and completely the job in just under three hours, no issues. It was a straightforward installation of a secondary sediment filter positioned after a neutralizer tank. We have a finished basement so we also had a water detector alarm/pump cutoff switch installed as well.

The second day after closing on our home we lost water pressure. Skillings had done our presale well inspection, so we called them late on a Friday afternoon. First thing Saturday morning their crew was there and worked about five hours (in a pit in a drizzle) to diagnose and fix a problem with the electrical cable running to the pump in the well. They pulled the pump, removed and replaced the cable, put things back together, made sure we had pressure again, and explained how to flush the system after they sanitized it. And did not charge weekend rates because I had called on Friday. Seemed like a technicality, but I appreciated it. The crew also did not charge for time spent correcting a wiring error they made because a previous job had left the wiring in an unusual configuration. Both guys remained pleasant and courteous, even as they got more and more frustrated by the problem. Would definitely call again - quick response, hard work.

Very pleased. Prompt service. Had to excavate and cut off casing to access water disconnect. Made two trips to house and waited for excavator with no extra charge. Would use them again, very professional.

My pump went out and Skillings was very prompt in setting up an appointment the same afternoon. The crew was very professional and courteous. They did a great job diagnozing the issue and replacing the pump. They also did tune up for the water pump equipment indoors and explained me how to bleed the water before turning on the water. Very happy with the service and prompt response. Their rates were also reasonable for the service they performed.

Skillings & Sons were the only company interested in even coming to survey the property for a drilled well quote. Showed up with printed out quote as well as some local water availability information. Very professional. I hope to hire them when the time comes to get the well drilled.

Our project was to select a water filtration system and installer to solve our moderately high iron issue. We had problems with red staining of clothes, toilets, sinks etc. and potential build up of iron bacteria. We spoke with many installers and researched many solutions. A priority for us was a non-softener/chemical treatment solution. We ultimately chose Skillings and they installed a Water Right / Impression Series oxidation system. Our water has never been more clear. (Didn't realize it was that bad until it was gone.) Skillings was professional from start to finish. Scheduling was good. Estimate right on target. Timing took 1/2 day. Clean, courteous, knowledgeable, etc. Two weeks later we discovered a small leak near where the work was done. They came the next day to assess. When knew piping was installed, old piping got lose and created the leak. They replaced and fixed with no questions asked. Highly recommend.

Excellent service all around. Called Skillings & Sons for an emergency visit as a result of very low pressure. Everyone I spoke to was very helpful and was able to schedule a visit the same day. After assessing the situation, they presented me with my options and provided an estimate that fell in line with the final cost. While it was clear my pump needed replacement, I opted to replace the entire system given its age. They had everything they needed to complete the job.

Thanksgiving 2014 brought a big snow storm and a power outage; when the power came back on, our water filter sprung a leak and we could not have the water on (after three days of living without running water or electricity already). We could not get a hold of any plumbers who would either return our calls or agree to come out to do the repair, and Skillings and Sons get a gold star just for being responsive and prompt. They came to do an emergency repair to bypass the leaky water pump, and then returned to install an upgrade pump. The work was done quickly and professionally. It might be a bit pricey but you get good service for your money.

Excellent work. They also pay attention to items like placing rubber mats down on the cement walks so their crane doesn't destroy it. Not much else to report on a company that drills wells for geothermal. After using geothermal for 6 years I have learned that Skilling is the #1 contractor in the Northeast to drill geothermal walls.

Exxcellent work, but a little pricey

Great work - guys were very professional.

Besides the great sales contact, the experience with Skillings was bad. Although I'm sure their work was done right, they were very sloppy and did not care about the mess they made, which included spillover into my neighbors property after being promised this would not happen. If DEP saw their work, they'd be in trouble.

I'd been having intermittent water pressure with sometimes no water coming out of the faucets at all. The Skilling and Sons representatives arrived within 20 mins of the beginning of the time window their appointment service said they would. The two gentleman came in and took some electrical readings and looked over my system and fairly confidently concluded that my pump was in the process of dying. With this being my first home, and my first experience at replacing a water pump I asked several questions of a "newbie" and the guys were detailed in their explanations, and walked me through what was entailed in my type of system. I felt the answers were direct and without a lot of extra "up selling". They went over all the options - from a standard replacement through the cadillac of constant pressure systems. I decided a direct replacement of the current system was prudent in my case and I was not pressured into any kind of upgrade by Skilling and Sons. As a matter of fact when the guys pulled the pump up it was a lot more shallow than they expected, requiring less horsepower than the estimate they had initially provided. And so they recommended a bit smaller horsepower pump (meaning less money) to meet the pressure i'd been used too. This was both an honest and technically appropriate recommendation; this garnered my trust and appreciation. He could have installed the original recommended HP at a higher cost and I would have never known the difference. Quality Service in every sense of the word in my mind. Because i did not know what was wrong with my system i could not do the research to determine if their price was comperable to other vendors... and for that reason i marked N/A. But i feel as though i paid a fair and reasonable price based on the professionalism and quality service Skilling and Sons provided.

They were able to give us a same day appointment. When they found that they could come extra early, they called us to let us know (so helpful!) and we agreed to have them come out early. They were able to quickly triage the issue and point out other problems that they saw. Everything was done by the end of the day and we were very happy with the results. They replaced our well pump and the wiring running down to it.

They were able to get in the well and replace the fitting and solved the whole problem in a short time. As soon as they got to my home, a person explained the whole situation to me and was very thorough. He also kept me posted during and aftrerwards. I certainly wasn't left wondering anything because they were so very thorough. I found the price to be very reasonable considering it was an emergency call. They were able to call in their own resources to get a backhoe there within an hour and a half. And that part only cost me a fraction since they weren't really doing anything while they were getting the backhoe to my home.

Skillings did a great job, from their initial consult through the time when they connected the well to the camp's electrical and plumbing .

Skillings was called before 6AM to ask about service for our submersible well pump had stopped working. A live person answered gave me the cost details of what a visit would cost. I got a 12-4PM arrival window and they arrived at 12:20. They quickly found an open winding on the pump when measured at the well head requiring the water pipe and pump had to be pulled to check the winding right at the pump. Our well pipe consists of individual 20' sections coupled together instead of a single continuous pipe. They offered to replace the pipe for $500+ but respected my desire to not go for that. The best part of their operation is their ability to pull a pump without the need for heavy truck backed up to the well head. Last time my pump was replaced, that truck left 3-4" gully's in the lawn where the wheels were. Skillings uses a motorized device that sits over the well casing. Powered by the 220vac intended for the pump, the device can pull up water pipe and pump without the need for the lawn crushing truck tires. Confirming that the wiring was OK (wires only 3 1/2 years old) the failed pump was replaced with an equivalent at roughly 3X retail $, checked and reinstalled. For whatever reason, they choose not to reinstall the 4-5 water hose spacers that were at the bottom of the water pipe that are intended to keep the wiring from rubbing against the casing that's the reason for the B in quality. Hopefully the wiring won't prematurely fail. Even with those nits would still recommended them for any residential water projects.

Called Skilling and Sons on Saturday evening at about 7PM because we had no water. Left a message with the answering service. Within 15 minutes we received a call back stating that they could get to us on Sunday, but they had a few jobs ahead of us. We had them add us to the list. At about 12:00 we received a call alerting us that they were headed out and would be there in minutes. We were not home at the time and told them we would be there in about a half an hour. The men were professional and appeared competent. After checking for electrical and/or switching problems and checking the water line pressure, they determined that the pump was running, but not delivering water to the house. They pulled the pump up from inside the well checking the water line as well. They eventually showed us a hole in a coupling at the base of the water line where it joins to the pump. Our pump was working fine, but due to the age of the pump, the crew asked if we would like to replace it. We elected to use our existing pump, forgoing a new one. After replacing the coupling and lowering the pump back into the well, the crew chlorinated the well and then capped it off. They schooled me on how to purge the chlorine and then were on their way. The only hiccup we encountered was in billing. They showed their start time as 12:15 while we showed it as 12:45. I pointed this out to them and they corrected the bill. In all fairness, when they showed up at our house, we were not there. They could have been billing us for the time they waited for us. I didn't ask them. They didn't argue with me over the start time, they just changed it. Labor was high, but it was an emergency weekend call and they were working on Sunday. The price to get them to show was $145. The labor rate was $157/hr for a crew of two. From start to finish, it was 1.5hrs. Bill breakdown: Parts and materials: $117.70 Service Call: $145 Labor: $235.50 Total: 498.20 We will use them again in the future.

The two gentleman were very helpful and gave me useful advice, answering questions I didn't even know to ask. One example -- although my tank was not leaking, due to its age, they recommended I replace it. The expense was more than I had planned on, but how happy I am that I took their recommendation! When the old tank was removed, it had two corroded spots that would have burst very soon, flooding my basement. The reason I rated quality as "good" was because it's only been a few weeks. T he quality of their visit was excellent -- they set my expectations for how long they would be, clearly explained what they did and why, and were very nice. They were very neat and worked efficiently. I did not rate the price because I do not have any perspective on that. My well was a long way from the house, in the woods, with no path to it. So they had to hike a ways to get to it, increasing the time they had to spend. They were about 30 minutes late, which was no problem. I just wish they had called to let me know they were running a bit late. They were good-natured, helpful, and I plan to use them again. I highly recommend them.

Good experience. Skillings was recommended by my preferred geothermal installer. Unfortunately said installer couldn't perform the work because of distance to my home for service calls. They recommended I speak with Derek at Skillings and get his recommendations for installers closer to my home, of which I selected one. Initial consultation visit was right on time, very thorough in explaining the process, potential issues, etc. No surprises because they were effective at managing expectations. Expressed some concerns over the sizing prescribed by my installer that I wish I had given more credence to since one of the two systems installed isn't running as the HVAC installer described, but that's another review in the future. Fortunately I did add a bit to the wells to accommodate any potential issues as a result. We ran into some road blocks in the permitting process, through no fault of Skillings. For whatever reason the town had our property marked incorrectly and an independent surveyor confirmed that the planned well locations were within code. We opted to move them a few feet off the property line to ensure no future issues. Install was a bit of a process because it spanned multiple holidays. Had the drilling rig on my lot for longer than I had hoped, but pretty understandable given the weather and holidays. Not really and issue at all honestly. Easy to recommend these guys. Derek and TJ were easy to deal with and effective at managing expectations. I didn't meet the drillers because it was less than 10 degrees outside and I wasn't inclined to go outside and have a conversation. I forget the name of the guy that did the final connection to the house/pressure testing, but like Derek and TJ, he was laid back and easy to have a conversation with. All in all, no complaints about the crew or work. Due to ground freezing, the final clean up is incomplete, but is scheduled for later this spring. No big deal and understandable. My interaction was positive enough that I've schedule them to put a new well cap on my existing water well when they're back out here to remove some of the excavation dirt this spring. Happy to recommend these guys.

Great experience. Their service center was friendly and knowledgeable on the phone. A representative arrived promptly, and at my convenience to provide a bid to replace the water tank. While on site, the rep stated that my well needed a sanitary cap, and would also need to replace the PVC (about 15' from the top) with stainless stell pipe to make it up to current health and building code standards. They arrived early the day they were schedule, but were kind to ask permission upon their arrival if they could begin ahead of schedule. They then immediately began work outside by excavating around the well. Within the first couple hours they had removed the old PVC and welded a stainless stell pipe w/ sanitary cap. Promptly after that they went indoors and began working in the water tank. Within an hour or two, they had the old one removed and new tank fully installed (with all new valves and switches). They also went above and beyond by sealing the well hole in the foundation where ground water was leaking into; they did this without hesistation and didn't charge any additonal fee's. All their work was done within the timetable they promised, and their craftmanship was neat and secure. When the water came on, there wasn't a single leak. During the whole process, the two guys were friendly and professional. Also as a footnote, the products they recommended/installed all have great reviews online. Best surprise of all however, was that the final cost was $600 BELOW THE BID! Prior to this experience, I had used skillings to test my wells capacity and water quality, and that experience was also excellent. Skillings has me as a customer for life; they're the professionals you want and need for any private well concerns. -Brandon

overall is good, i had bad experience with service call about a year ago, this time the 2 crews worked very efficient on the replacement and a new tank was installed faster than i thought

The team of two arrived within the specified time window (at 2:00 for a 12:00 to 3:00 commitment). They checked to see if the old pump could be reused with a new control box, determined it could not and proceeded to replace the pump. The work was completed in 1.75 hours (they charge by the hour for labor). They disinfected the well and gave me instructions on how to flush the well and explained the warrantee to me (5 years on the pump, one year on the work). They required payment at the time of service and accepted a personal check. The work site was left clean of any debris. Overall I felt they did the job very professionally and at a fair price.