About two years ago, we decided to hire Hillcrest Plumbing, as they were close by & our local paper had noted that they won the consumers choice award for our area a number of years in a row as the best plumbing company (or something along those lines).
We just had granite countertops installed in our kitchen, and had purchased an under mount sink & wanted it professionally installed to ensure it was done correctly.
The company confirmed that they could do an under mount sink install and we decided to set the appointment. Hillcrest assured us the plumber that they were sending had done many under mount installs in the past, as well as he could install the drains and hook up the dishwasher after installing the sink. I asked what time they would come out, so that I knew how much time I had to go to Home Depot to buy the ABS p-trap, couplings and pipe for him to work with. They assured me that they could supply all material as they had "a store on wheels". I didn't ask at that point what they charged for their "store on wheels", but I should have.
The plumber came out & got to work on installing the sink. I left for work and told him that he could call me when he was almost done & I would come home (I work very close to home). He called after a few hours & I came home and inspected the work.
The seam in our granite counter top is in the middle of the sink. The way that he attached the sink, he had to screw clips underneath to hold the sink to the underside of the countertop. Rather than using the clips provided by the manufacturer with the sink, he used "all around" (I think that is what is called) to secure it. He really put the screws in tight using his DeWalt impact driver, and that moved the granite. When I got home to inspect the work, he stated that the granite guy didn't know what he was doing & he shouldn't have seamed the granite in the middle of the sink, as it is the worst possible place to put the seam. I expressed to the plumber that I wasn’t happy with the sink install in the fact that it was visually apparent that it had affected the granite. The plumber stated it was granite issue & not a plumbing issue. More concerned about the granite that we just had installed, I quickly looked over the work & reluctantly signed off on it that it was okay. I told the plumber that while I was signing off on the work, I wanted to ensure that I wasn’t going to be bounced between the plumbing company and granite company if there was an issue, and that one of them was going to have to ensure that counter & sink was correct.
Afterwards, I spoke with granite installer & he had to tweak under mount sink install in order to fix the granite alignment that the plumbers under mount sink install created. Further, I also had to deal with the bill from Hillcrest Plumbing.
I couldn’t' believe that they wanted $500 for the sink install & dishwasher install. The plumber was only there for about 2.5 hours, but they also charge from the time he leaves their store!! I couldn't believe it & questioned the bill. It appeared that the driver was charging me from 8 am, yet he arrived at my house close to 9 am. The store is only about a 5 - 7 minute drive from my house, so I questioned why I was being charged for an hour. I didn’t get much of an answer from Hillcrest on that question, but they stated they would knock off a half hour off the bill, but I felt it should have been more. Speaking of time charged to me, they charged me until he physically drove away from my house. I walked the plumber to the door and noted the time that he physically left my house, but they have a GPS in his van and charged me until he drove away, which was 15 minutes after he walked out my door.
Lastly, the amount the company charges for supplies is outrageous. I went through the list of supplies by phone with the supervisor, as they were charging something along the lines of $12.00 for a P-trap (can be bought for $5 at Home Depot), $5.00 for an ABS coupling (which can be bought for roughly $0.75 at Home Depot). The list of expensive materials went on, and on top of that they also charged a flat fee for miscellaneous shop supplies (which I believe was $25.00). Considering they charged me for every single piece of material they used to create the drain, the only thing I could think was miscellaneous supplies would be ABS glue. Considering one can buy a whole can of ABS glue for $5.00 at Home Depot, a “misc shop supply” charge is just another kick in the teeth. When I pointed out the outrageous costs, they said that they provided the “convenience” of bringing the store to me. I could have saved at least 50 - 60% on the cost of their materials by doing a 30 minute shop at Rona or Home Depot & that was worth more to me than their so-called “convenience”. I wasn’t happy with the costing, but was at a point where there was little else I could do in speaking to them, so I left it as it was.
After a few days, I noticed some things that I would have liked to have had done differently. Regarding the dishwasher install, he didn’t use the rubber trim pieces between the cabinet & dishwasher. Considering that I had already put the braided water line on the dishwasher & put it through the cabinet along with the drain line, all he had to do was put on trim pieces, slide in the dishwasher & the secure it to the cabinets. I ended having to pull out the dishwasher, put on the trim pieces & then slide it back in myself.
As for the drains from the sink he didn't attach a tailpiece to the drain; he simply attached the tailpipe directly to the strainer. The sink is a double sink, and he put the tailpipe on the left side with about 16 - 20 inches down from the sink before putting on the p-trap. The right side ABS pipe then comes down at a 45” angle and attaches to the left tailpipe above the p-trap. This set up was done rather than two horizontal pipes meeting into a vertical. At the time, I thought it was an interesting way of doing the drain, and it provided room under our cabinet for a garbage can (as the sinks are very deep). However, in doing the drains this way, the water had to fall 16-20 inches or so before hitting the p-trap. So after doing dishes or running water, you can hear the drips from the strainer to the p-trap and it is very loud and annoying. Lastly, the p-trap he used doesn't have a clean-out, and with the kitchen sink the most likely to have food debris put down the drain, it only makes sense to use a p-trap with a clean out.
In all, it was a pretty bad experience with Hillcrest. On the other hand, I haven’t dealt with many plumbing companies so I don’t know if this is par for the course. I would say that if you are in the market for hiring a plumber that works for a larger company, I would ask them what supplies you need in advance & make your purchase at Home Depot or Rona to save yourself some cash. Further, I would have had the plumber sign something indicating what time he started & what time he finished work at your place. I believe I was over-charged by about an hour of labour on this job, and they simply said they were going by his GPS, rather than the time he actually spent in my home working
