Armstrong did an excellent job for me on a full house repipe. This is a 3-bath, two story house built in 1985. I decided on a repipe after discovering a slab leak. I talked to and received quotes from 5 contractors in all and decided on Armstrong because after meeting with Matt Farmer (Operation Manager) I sized him up as someone who knew what he was talking about and would be conscientious in execution. His quote for the work, as I discovered, was reasonable and fair. I liked very much that with Armstrong, the person who gives you the quote and explains what the job entails is also the person who does the actual work, at least in the case of a big job like this. Before deciding on what company to use, I want to have met and taken the measure of the actual, principal worker. (With some contractors, an estimator comes out but then they in turn hire whomever on their list happens to be available.)
One thing Armstrong did for me is surely not typical of plumbing contractors. I told Matt that I wanted to do the drywall repair myself instead of using a drywall contractor. (I had been told by then that my cost for the drywall work, not including repainting, would likely run $1,500 - $1,800.) I am handy in a general way and although I had never done drywall or anything related to construction, I figured I could learn to do it. (I was right.) When I told Matt my plan to do the drywall repair myself, he said that they could make the cuts neat and rectangular, and do it so that I would have wood exposed that I could drill into; that they could even put in a piece of wood for screws as needed. They were also careful to keep any cut out square that was still in good shape and were able to put two of them back in the wall. Not only that, but they told me what tools to buy to do the drywall work and I went to Home Depot and got the few hand tools I needed, a dimpler for my drill, the mud they recommended (Westpac premixed lightweight) and a first spray can of wall texture for doing the texture called knockdown. As I was doing my first repair, on the wall behind where the dishwasher goes, they gave me pointers and Matt demonstrated with the drywall knife. When I was looking at having to do my first texturing on an area behind a toilet that was ready to go back, Matt actually did the texturing for me so I could watch and learn to do it. (If you have knockdown at your house versus, say, orange peel you are lucky because knockdown turns out to be easy and fast to do.) The intro to drywall that Armstrong gave me made it possible for me to get started right away and achieve good results. I completed the work needed so they could put two bathroom mirrors back in place and reinstall a toilet. With the other openings, which are in ceilings and walls and will be visible, I will slow down and take my time.
When I have told people (that would be two neighbors, a family member and a staff member in the construction dept. at Home Depot) how Armstrong helped me get started on the drywall, their reaction has been uniformly along the lines of, A contractor did that for you? They did it and they did it with good grace.
A final thing stands out for me. The dishwasher was put back at the very end of the job. (I don't use the dishwasher day to day because I don't generate enough stuff to wash to make it worthwhile.) When we ran a test, in the in the dishwasher's drain cycle the water started spewing out of the release over the sink. It turned out that the guy who initially installed the garbage disposer some time back failed to remove a plug that allows the dishwasher to drain through there. The plug is supposed to be removed by the installer before the unit goes under the sink. Matt was able to get in and remove the plug, after which the dishwasher drained properly. I consider it a courtesy on his part to have done this troubleshooting, seeing as how not only was this not his mistake in the first place, it was, truth to tell, outside the scope of the repipe he had quoted and that I was paying him for. I'm pretty most contractors would have said, this is a separate problem and I will fix it for X amount. So, Matt, thank you for that.
All in all, I feel like I hit the jackpot with this company. They are professional and easy to work with. They communicate well. They will ask you what your preference is if there are different options at some juncture in the work, and explain each option. The team of two, that would be Matt and another plumber, worked very well together. The three people in all who did work here all were very experienced plumbers, not trainees or novices. Matt himself has about 20 years experience and it shows.
A 5 star performance.