From Google
R K
I hired Howe and Bassett for a bath remodel. Communication was very challenging. They did not read emails, including the design drawings I had sent them weeks before they started. Phone calls and texts were not reliable either. I never knew when to expect them (including on the first day of work). I asked them to let me know by 9am on days they were planning to work. They never did this and apparently caused them a lot of confusion. They would only send one or two guys for a few hours of work each week which resulted in them coming to my house for about 6 months. They eventually stopped showing up once the project was almost complete. The shower was not installed correctly and required several attempts to stop leaking around the base, door, and shower head. The toilet was installed too high on the floor and also did not have adequate flushing power (I hired another plumber to come out to solve both issues). Trash bags were left in my house which leaked sewage on the floor, and I had to clean up. I had to remind them each time to lay floor protection down (they scratched the LVT flooring outside the bath and left the carpeted stairs a mess each visit). I asked them to provide dust control at the door and eventually provided my own since they did not. Tools and materials were left in the house and garage for weeks or even months. They mixed concrete on my neighbor's lawn and left chunks of dried concrete in his yard. I disposed of a couple of pick-up truck loads of trash and debris to save them time. They also left the water turned off to my kitchen for a weekend, and I wasn't sure if it was okay for me to turn it back on. I let them order the plumbing fixtures through their supplier which resulted in initial delays of placing the order, a broken sink upon arrival, and an empty faucet box upon arrival. I was not given an arrival date and just happened to be home when it all arrived. Luckily I was able to quickly make space for them in my garage where they sat for weeks. They boasted doing electrical work too. It took several attempts to install a dimmer switch to work properly. They were unable to color match new outlet covers to the new electrical outlets they installed. And after several months, missed attempts, and many excuses of them trying to match an existing outlet cover, I ordered it myself on Amazon for $7 and received it in 2 days. They gave a lot of excuses, but the main excuse they consistently gave was that it was only a "basement bathroom." I had tried to make it clear to them from the beginning that we wanted the bathroom to feel like an extension of the upstairs. And although the quality did not need to match the upstairs, we wanted it to match the quality of the rest of the finished basement. I did not press them to complete the job quickly because I understood they were busy. Sometimes I wouldn't hear from them for weeks. When someone would show up, it would be unannounced, and they would only stay for a few hours. Most contractors recognize this is an inefficient work plan because several small trips are more costly than a full day of work due to a redundancy of travel, set-up, and clean-up time. Contractors can save money by planning full days of work. Overall, I would not recommend Howe and Bassett. I cannot endorse the quality of work, professionalism, or reliability. Negative Responsiveness, Punctuality, Quality, Professionalism Services Faucet installation, Shower installation, Toilet installation, Plumbing pipe repair