Albert W. Chepulis

Let me start with the few positives.  (a) His quote was fair; we got 5 plumbing quotes and his was comparable to 4 others (the 5th was completely out of the ballpark).  (b) He is a pleasant fellow with an amicable personality.  (c) He seems to take care in running the pipes behind the walls neatly.  (d) He did an adequate job replacing the water heater, no issues or errors and reasonably responsive. 

As for the rest of the work, in short, he made numerous errors, caused countless delays, incurred additional costs for our project, was completely unpredictable, unreliable and unprofessional.  Here are SOME examples of the problems we had with Chepulis.  

(1) His first day on the job, he arrived one hour late, took his initial payment, worked for about 30 minutes (disconnected a few appliances), made up an excuse for why he had to leave and then was unreachable by phone or email for nearly 2 weeks.
(2) When he disconnected the main plumbing stack during the demolition, the vent out through the roof slipped and broke the flange, creating a leak through the roof, causing some flooding when it rained.  As with most of his errors, he never noticed.  Fortunately, our contractor noticed and fairly quickly so we were able to deal with it and the damage was not major. 
(3) He never read any instructions and piped our shower incorrectly.  So when he installed the trim, it did not work properly.  He said he was proficient with the Hans Grohe shower fixtures that we bought, but turns out he was not.  By sheer luck we did not have to rip out the tiles to fix this.  After calling in the Hans Grohe representative we learned that if we bought a more expensive trim, this would remedy the situation.  Of course, we were stuck eating up the extra cost of Chepulis' error.
(4) He installed the shower trim upside down and did not notice even though the Hans Grohe logo was upside down, the numbers did not align with the settings and there was a vent hole on top which over time with accumulate water and cause tile damage.
(5) He installed our Kohler pedestal sink improperly.  After a few uses, we noticed that it rocked when leaned on.  
(6) He lost the plug to the trap under the pedestal sink.  
(7) He installed our Toto toilet improperly.  After a month it started to rock when we sat on it.
(8) He set up the plumbing rough in inspection but then vanished before the inspector came so that I was left doing his job for him.
(9) He cut an electrical wire when installing the kitchen sink.  Something that could have been prevented had he run the pipes up before the kitchen cabinets were installed.  
(10) Much if not most of his work was completed outside normal working hours (after 6 pm) or on weekends.  He always had something going on (usually something personal) during normal working hours.
(11) He never cleaned up after himself and was by far the messiest of the workmen.  Left garbage and not just plumbing debris but also coffee cups and personal items behind and not just in his work area but all over the house.
(12) There were numerous instances of him disappearing for days at a time with no word on when he would return to finish the job and failing to return repeated phone calls. 
(13) There were countless times when he did not show up when promised.  It got to the point when 1 hour lateness did not even register for me.  If he showed up that day I was relieved.
(14) The length and variety in the list of excuses he gave us became comical to infuriating.  Here are a few of them:  fighting with his wife, doctor's appointments, buying sneakers, picking up his son from middle school, gardening, meeting his child's school principal, etc.  All of these "reasons" popped up out of the blue when he was supposed to be working on our kitchen or bath.  

We ended up working with him for 80% of the project (too long in retrospect but we are generally patient people and willing to giving someone the benefit of the doubt) and then called in another plumbing company to finish the job.



UPDATED JULY 10, 2012:



I am amending my quality rating from D to F because in that one year, we've noticed the following problems with the plumbing job he did.(1) Waste disposal started to leak after 6 months, which turned out not to be a disposal issue but an installation issue.  He did not install the disposal properly and water has gotten into the unit and rusted it's interior.(2) Most of the caulking he installed in the tub has come off.  This started within 3 months of him completing the job.

Al is a perfectionist, and it shows in his work. He does things right. He is professional, and very easy to work with - a very nice guy. All the work was completed in the expected timeframe, and has worked flawlessly since. I highly recommend Al for your plumbing and gas needs.

I thought his work was good.

He has $75 service charge. In an emergency, he is there immediately. He is very easy to work with. He communicates through out the whole experience. I would recommend this plumber to others.

He is honest. He is a pleasure to work with. All the positives apply, I can't say enough good things about him. He gave us very flexible scheduling, which really fit in with our busy lives.

Al is very professional- he explains what is needed to be done, and does it in a professional timely manner. Very responsive, his work is top notch and reasonably priced