Amherst Swamp Cooler Repair

My big deal was for $149.00 for 3 hours of electrician services.  I was informed ahead of time that I would have two people for 1 1/2 hours which was fine.  They arrived promptly, set to work and communicated promptly any problems they encountered.  They finished within the specified period and I am very pleased with the work that was done.

Top notch. 5 star. This guy really knows what is is doing. Additionally, he is polite, a good communicator, and an honest man. In dozens of construction transactions we had, he really stands above the rest. He was able to pick up the slack from many other subs who were not performing to standards of practice and complete plumbing, wiring, drywall, finish carpentry...all to an excellent degree. His crown molding is a work of art. The vinyl flooring was installed with micron precision. His suggestions for the scope of work and his help in making decisions were very valuable. For example: where do you end the tile on the tub wainscot? finish the edge of the hardwood floor? how wide the pass-through? Is it worthwhile to relocate this heat vent? And his suggestions (on how properly duct the upstairs dryer, etc.) helped our house get tuned up like a sports car.

My aunt had family visiting from Europe so she really needed this problem fixed. She had used this plumber brfore and thought why not call them back for this emergency. The job was completed. In the process one of the workmen had cracked a toilet and the toilet needed to be replaced which they did do... after my aunt reminded them that they needed to replce the toilet. Then my aunt went along with normal life thinking everything was okay... Later the spring of 2013 she noticed a foul odor coming from the basement. She had her HVAC guy check out the heat vents and he noted to her that her basement was extremely damp and the crawl space was very damp... the AC vent work had been disconnected and left lying in the dirt (of the crawl space) He thought that maybe a mouse had crawled into this disconnected vent work and died... so He replaced the all the vent work in the basement. In August 8, 2013, we experienced torrential rains... My aunt  was awakened by the sound of water gushing.... Her basement was filling with water spilling out of the crawl space. into the finished basement area... the water could not be stopped. My aunt called and we immediately went over to find ( my husband had to crawl into the flooded crawl space... an open sewer drain, he thought a storm sewer drain that had been cut in half and left open hanging through the crawl space wall... with water running out of it... My aunt called Ben Franklin and they came and yes they knew they had left a drain pipe open which had poured water into my aunt's crawl space for 9 months...so they packed it with concrete and closed off another open drain. We called Rainbow...($5,000) they came and performed black mold remediation, it was everywhere, my aunt had been breathing it for months (the foul odor). We called Indoor Air Professionals ($1600.00) to clean and disinfect all the vent work. All of her floors had warped...her carpeting on the first level was full of black mold. She lost the finished basement, all wall to wall carpeting, hardwood flooring, and her health...Ben Franklin is insured and has done nothing to reimburse my aunt...We had to hire an attorney and Ben Franklin is stalling- stalling...

My husband and I are first-time homeowners, and this was our first big remodel job we had done. I was hoping that all we had to do was pick out our materials, and the rest would be handled by the contractor, but the process was a bit more difficult than we expected. I think there was a lack of communication among the staff at Munro that we figured out a little too late. We found that the guy doing the estimate told us one thing, the foreman who came to our house to go over the job before it started told us another, and the guy actually doing the work seemed out of the loop. That being said, everyone we worked with was very friendly and competent, they just were all on different pages. We worked with a helpful woman in the showroom/office who did ordering, scheduling, and billing. She said a few times that we should order everything through her because she gets the best prices, but when we checked the prices online for identical items, they were almost 50% cheaper than Munro's prices. We were able to save over $500 by ordering our fixtures and hardware ourselves. Also, make sure to mention the Angie's List coupon right away. I completely forgot to do so even though I told them I found out about Munro through Angie's list, and they wouldn't honor the 5% off coupon on this site, but they did take $250 off as a consolation. The first day they worked on our house, they didn't turn off the water valve and when they removed our tub, a pipe broke and our basement and hallway below it were flooded. They did replace the ceiling below it free of charge, and thankfully our sump pump took care of most of the other water. They said they had trouble finding the house line valve, and when they finally did turn it off, it started to leak. The valve was old, and from our research, it seemed like the leak was a common problem. However, it was still a few hundred extra dollars to have the valve replaced, plus an evening/morning without water (which we had to discover on our own when we got home from work). After that, there were more hiccups that made us realize that everyone at Munro was not on the same page. They were supposed to replace our insulation, but we noticed they were continuing the work without having done so, so my husband asked about it. The guys weren't aware that was part of the job, so there was a slight delay while they figured that out and waited for the materials. There was also electrical work to be done that they didn't know about until we reminded them. They had trouble installing our heat diffuser where they had originally planned, so without asking us first, they grouted it into the floor under the bullnose tile so it can't be removed or replaced without removing the tile. They did offer to try and remedy this for us, but the vent in the floor can't be moved, so there wasn't really a way to fix it that made sense to us. For our floor, we were never asked about how we wanted our tiles spaced, and the grout changes colors throughout it. Most of it is dark grey like it's supposed to be, but there are places where it's almost white and shades between. The woman in the office said the discoloration was a natural result of the grout mixture and that it would even out over time, but it hasn't yet. They also installed the shower valve upside down, so hot water was on the right and cold was on the left, but they were able to fix that once we pointed it out. It just seemed like there wasn't much attention to detail, and if we didn't catch their mistakes then it never would have gotten done the right way. Throughout the process, we always were emailed updated invoices right away that reflected any changes, but I wish that prices on the invoices were a little more transparent so we could see the breakdown of how much each part of the installation cost. For instance, our bathroom fan was quoted to be moved and re-vented, but then we were told it didn't need to be, and we saw no decrease in price. Then our heat vent had to be moved unexpectedly and we saw a $200 increase in price. When I pushed on the fan change, we did eventually get $100 off. Overall, the job was done in 2 weeks, 10 business days, and we were only without a shower for 4 days, which was nice. Our bathroom looks good and we get compliments on it, but it took a lot of work and calls and back and forth on our part. My sister had her bathroom done right after we did. She used a different contractor, paid about $2,000 more, but the job was seamless from start to finish AND it included a full paint job which ours did not. In hindsight, I definitely would have paid more money to have an easier process.