ROYAL PLUMBING & TILE

This is the second bathroom that we have had remodeled by Royal Plumbing. We are very happy and excited with the results. We purchased the vanity at a furniture store. Gary brought tile samples, including an accent tile to our home to match the new vanity. We were given one weeks notice for the start date. Gary worked every day until completion. He was happy to accommodate extras that we requested as the project went along. He is always pleasant and professional and we feel that we got a great result.

My lower level, which is finished, had water and I called Gary of Royal Plumbing to diagnose the problem. I was surprised to learn that the drain line from my kitchen (which runs under my concrete slab one level below) was leaking. This was really a shock since I had paid another company over $5,000 several years ago to break up the slab and replace the pipe. Gary came up with a great, low cost, quick solution. He capped off the old drain line and ran a new one in the ceiling. This obviously saved us time and money.

Royal Plumbing & Tile is a very small company. The owner is about 55 and has been in business for a long time. He is a licensed plumber and is excellent, not just for the plumbing work, but he lays the tiles really well. He does the drywall work very well. He is very good at what he does. He is very dependable. He will be at our house Monday to Friday till 7:15 or 7:30 or even as late as 8 o?clock. He makes remodeling a painless job since he has been doing it from a long time. He brings a helper with him and is really good at planning as to what he is going to get done each day. He also has 24 years of experience. We like him a lot. He does impeccable drywall work. He is very good about fitting things in. He is in the process of almost finishing the remodeling of our master bathroom. He got a little delayed because we ordered for special type of cabinets which took about a month. We selected the granite may be a month ago and the people from the granite place are coming tomorrow to fix the granite. So they are coming out to fabricate the granite top of the undermount sink. Gary will then come back to hook up all the plumbing. The work will probably be done within the next 10 days. The price that he had charged for the downstairs bathroom was very good. The price for the upstairs bathroom was less, but we supplied the cabinets for that bathroom. We also supplied the sink since we wanted the granite. I would recommend him to anybody without hesitation because he is really excellent.

RP&T came to give me an estimate. I couldn't tell from the Angie's List profile that you pretty much don't get a choice of what he's going to install. He has a fixed package deal and either you like it or you don't. That's fine for some people, and I would have been more open to considering it if he had brought more examples with him. He only had examples of the tiles he would install. I asked about the fixtures and he didn't have any samples of those and couldn't remember the brand he uses either. He said he had "no idea" how much it would cost, which seemed weird since he installs the same package (even down to the paint color) everywhere. He called me back a couple of days later with an estimate which was within my price range. I asked him to send it to me in writing. A couple of days later I got an email with a list of bullet points in it of everything he was going to do, and a bottom line price (not itemized). It seemed unprofessional and he didn't give me an exact date he would be available to do the work. I'm sure that the work he does do is good, if you want the package deal he's offering. But he's inflexible in terms of installing anything else.

I did not choose this contractor to perform the work because I was looking for one contractor to do all of the work connected with the remodel. Although the contractor was extremely knowledgeable, he said he did not do electrical connections (like running additional wiring, etc.). Since this was going to be part of the remodel, I chose not to hire this company.

It was mediocre. Their work wasn't so bad, but I found the owner of the company a little difficult to deal with. I had a long punch list to check for quality for these guys that they didn't really go over. They are very paint by numbers. If you need anything a little out of the ordinary, that becomes an issue with them. They wanted to leave a light over the vanity off center, and this was a real indication of how much they actually cared about their work.

Gary was able to fit my job into his busy schedule did a great job. When you hire Royal Plumbing you get Gary - he does all the skilled work and is accomplished at dealing with the inevitable surprises inherent in remodeling work. In my case the tub fit in just fine but everything about the drain connection was a challenge. Regardless, he persevered and found a good solution. Knowing tile, he made sure the tub was level and ready for successful tiling on my part. Highly recommended.

He arrived at the time he said he would and worked diligently while here.

Excellent job all around. We are very pleased. Gary worked with us on tile selection, and ultimately his suggested choices were perfect. In a 130 year old house, the bath had been somewhat poorly remodeled and he corrected problems.

We were in need of a craftsman who could do not only plumbing work, but who is also skilled in tile work. We found Royal Plumbing and Tile through Angie's List, and he is a licensed plumber, and he has had his own business for over 20 years. He has a small showroom, and is meticulously organized. He brings all sorts of samples with him when he meets with you, and you can also view additional samples in his showroom. The samples he brought to us were great, and he made wonderful suggestions. He was willing to completely redo the drain system to accommodate a jacuzzi tub I decided upon. I appreciated the fact that he does all of his estimates on Saturdays, and completes the work through the week. He cleaned up after himself thoroughly, and finished within the time frame he originally gave us. He was just a pleasure to work with, and he made remodeling painless. He does beautiful drywall work, and it is unusual to find someone who has all the skills he does. His prices were very reasonable for the quality of work he performs. He is very knowledgeable about all aspects of plumbing, and is very open and honest in his estimates. We were so entirely pleased with him that we are now planning to employ him to remodel additional bathrooms in our home.

This was our second experience with Gary. He is responsive, reliable, and trustworthy. Highly recommended for quality work at a reasonable price.

He was experienced, very responsive and communicated well. He discussed ideas but did not tell me what I need to do and did exactly what I wanted him to do. His pricing was very reasonable as well. The quality of his work was good and I was satisfied with his service.

Gary is a pro. He did a great job from beginning to end. He even fixed a couple random things unrelated to the job, just because he noticed them. He really seems driven to quality workmanship by more than the paycheck.

Although I didn't select him, he came in a very close second among all the estimates I received. He was responsive, professional, and thorough. He gave me experienced insight on what caused our leak, and information that helped me be a better-informed homeowner as I went thru the estimate process. His price was extremely competitive. We chose another contractor based on slight differences in scope of work. I am certain that the quality of work I would receive from Gary would be top-notch. I will certainly call him back to compete on our next project.

He was there promptly every day. Very pleasant/reliable. The total job only took him 4 days. It looks great!

Gary did a great job from start to finish. I got the chance to actually see his work, since he did my upstairs neighbors shower first. Their shower was leaking down into my bathroom and after 9 months of other contractors not being able to fix their problem, Gary came in and saved the day. He redid their entire shower and was able to fix the leak without any problems. After I saw what a professional job he did with their shower, I had him come and do mine as well. I picked out the tile from Mosiac Tile (his recommendation, great store!) and he did everything from there. He was always on time and showed up every day until the job was finished - right on budget. The final price was exactly the price that he estimated. I will definitely use Royal Plumbing and Tile again.

This job went as advertised from beginning to end. Gary was finishing up another job nearby when we called. He was very accommodating in making time to come over and do an estimate. Then when we decided to go ahead with the job, Gary also was very willing to move around his schedule to complete the bathroom before the arrival of a house guest. From the day he started the job, he was in the house every work day until it was complete, which is not always the case with other contractors. In a period of about two days, Gary knocked out the walls of the old shower. It was a square shower and the bathroom is a small space so there was little room for anything else, not even for a full sized vanity. So, we decided on an angled shower, but for it to fit, Gary had to remove the 'back' wall of the shower and make a large coat closet a little smaller. He did the demolition work in about two days, and discovered water pipes in one of the walls, leading to the bathroom upstairs. So, those pipes had to be rerouted from the basement, up through one of the other shower walls and then upstairs. Gary did it all for minimal extra cost, and still within the time he had alloted for the entire job. The shower enclosure fit well into the space, allowing for more floor space so that a full vanity could be installed and so that there was more space next to the toilet. Gary also put in a new tile floor, new tile on the shower walls and new tile on the bathroom walls. In this case, he did install the tile over the floor and wall tile. I was happy with his suggestion since this saved money and time for no loss. The walls and floor were all the original 'mud' construction, very solid and difficult to remove. Except for the shower floor, where an original owner had allowed a leak, the remainder of the bathroom floor and walls were fine. We also liked the idea of not tiling the shower floor, since tile and grout can eventually leak and might have to be replaced at some point. He did a thorough job at setting the shower, so it has a solid, stable feel to it -- not hollow like the shower floors in some of those big new houses. In the end, we went from a tired, old, unusable white tile bathroom to a very usable, very attractive small bathroom. The beige tile he suggested looks like much more expensive stone. He did a thorough and attractive job with the white grout and added some nice touches (built-in soap dishes and decorative tile work inside the shower). What you get with Gary is a person who is on the job from beginning to end, who is able to do all of the work from the plumbing to the carpentry and who takes pride in artistry of his work. And he saved us several thousand dollars over the larger companies. He completed the job on time, including helping us out with a couple of other small needs.

We were very pleased with Gary's expertise, honesty, and responsiveness and of course, the way our bathroom looks. Before the renovation, our circa 1950s bathroom was in BAD SHAPE! We had cracked, old, rotting, stinky tiles and a leak behind our tub that allowed shower water to constantly drip down the walls into the subfloor, creating a nasty rotten stench. We had 4 plumbers (most from our home warranty company) inspect our stinky bathroom prior to Gary's arrival, none of whom could figure out the source of the smell (dead animal? Mold? No smell at all?!?) My husband found Royal Tile and Plumbing through Angie's List and called up Gary for an initial phone consultation. He seemed pretty enthused about Gary's credentials and we had him over for an initial consultation. During our initial meeting, Gary was able to quickly seal and caulk our leaky tub issue and gave us an estimate for the renovation. About a week later, the renovation had begun. Gary is incredibly responsive, answers phone calls in the evening (5-8pm) and on weekends, even after Redskins games. The one time we had to leave a message, he had left his phone in his van. We had a great experience at the tile store he recommended (Mosaic Tile in Merrifield, VA). Gary does not sub-contract, and brings in his own employees only on days when there is MAJOR demolition. The renovation did not disrupt our daily lives much because we were able to leave Gary a copy of our house key so he could work while we were at work. Most of the time, he worked alone. Which brings me to another point, Gary does not work other jobs while working yours-you get undivided attention. Gary likes to make recommendations on the materials that the customer selects themselves (paint, accessories, sinks, etc) but respects customer's choices when it comes to style, etc. The reason price was higher than estimate (by only about $400) is that we purchased tiles that were more expensive than the tiles that he already had on-hand. He also charged us for a replacement the toilet flange, which was much needed and would have cost us much more with another plumber. Two weeks later, our bathroom looks amazing and best of all, doesn't smell!

Very friendly and helpful on phone, was able to set up an appointment at a good time for me right away. On the morning he was due to arrive to look over the work, he called and asked what I wanted done. I was confused. I had already told him over the phone when we first spoke, and now he was on the way here. Hmmmm? I began to tell him again and he stopped me and told me I could not convert a tub into a shower stall as it was against "code" not to have a tub in a home. I reminded him that this was a one bedroom condo and that no children lived here. Surely the choice to have a shower stall instead of a tub was permissible. He said no. I asked him if this was his way of saying he didn't want to bid or to do this job. He told me no, it was that he could not in good conscience break the law by taking out the home's only tub, knowing I would have to pay to install a new one when it came time to sell. Good grief.

Gary arrived to start work on time, and eager. We discussed the job for a few minutes, and I gave him a 50% deposit check to start. I was called into work for a few hours, so I left him to work. When I returned from my office, I found a note next to my deposit check at the top of the stairs. The note said, "This is not the same job I looked at in January, the size and scope have changed dramatically. I am not interested in doing the updated project". Gary had left the job. I called him immediately, and he told me that he didn't want to charge me more money than the initial bid, because it creates an adversarial environment. So, I have a completely gutted bathroom that NEEDS to be finished quickly, as my roommate uses it on a daily basis. Gary was not interested in re-bidding, or doing ANY work at all. If the job wasn't what he expected, fine...give me a new price - don't just leave!!! While Gary's work and references seemed great, I've never had a more unprofessional experience.

Gary arrived on time to do the estimate, with product samples and pictures of some of his completed projects, and he provided a fixed dollar estimate within 24 hours. Upon acceptance of the estimate, Gary scheduled the work, beginning and completing it on time. The workmanship was excellent, and there were no hidden costs or extra charges. The items provided by Gary met or exceeded our expectations, and we had only a few minor touch-ups to do after the job was completed. As before, Gary was very courteous and dependable, and we are very pleased with both of our new bathrooms. We would definitely choose Royal Plumbing again if we had another bathroom to remodel.

Gary showed up promptly to do my initial estimate and I was very impressed with his depth of experience in the bathroom remodeling business. We scheduled a date to do the actual remodel and he showed up exactly as scheduled and the work was completed within budget and on time, in spite of numerous challenges encountered (old townhouse!). He and his assistant were very easy to work with and the quality of the work performed was outstanding. I was glad to see that they cleaned up as they went and they put protective cloth down on the floor so as not to damage anything. I plan to have them return to remodel another bathroom in the near future! Overall, this was a very positive experience and the new, improved bathroom is wonderful!

The bathrooms turned out very well. Gary was friendly and easy to work with. He even went the extra mile and got rid of the ants that had nested in our old wall board. It was a good experience.

I have been a project manager for commercial interior construction for 20 years. I cannot express how smooth this project went. Gary works alone and accomplishes a surprising amount of work each day. There were no extras on my project. Everything was included in the original estimate. Gary's estimate was less than 1/2 of the three others that I got. My hardwood floors were covered before work began. The site was cleaned up everyday and the dirt was kept to a minimum. Gary was a pleasure to work with. He was always pleasant - even to the dog. The work was completed by the date that he told me it would and the end result is fabulous.

I received two estimates, and both came in around the same price. I ended up choosing the other company only because they had already done work in my condo complex and had experience working with the management.