AFA Plumbing Heating Mechanical Sewer & Drain
About us
We offer a full range of plumbing, heating and mechanical services, including service & maintenance agreements. Easy payment plans, including credit cards Fully trained field personnel. We are licensed, bonded and insured.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Plumbing, gas boilers, heating, home improvements, kitchen and bath renovations, oil boilers, oil tank removal, small repairs, water filtration systems & electrical., water heaters
Amenities
Emergency Services
Yes
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
---|---|---|
82% | ||
7% | ||
3% | ||
3% | ||
5% |
I asked if they could also install a French Drain on the ground level of the house (which by the way is ALOT of work), they said
they could and started doing both parts of the job (although if they knew the additional amount of work was going to be a problem
I wish they would have just put that part off for a later date). They cut through the slab on the ground level in the exact place I told
them to avoid and wound up halfway crushing the water feed pipe into the house (they never informed me that this had happened
and they never fixed it). They showed up very sporadically (I'm talking 2 weeks between visits) and eventually just stopped
coming leaving the job undone, they just disappeared. And in the process of disappearing they stole one of my drop cloths
( I have no doubt that they grabbed it by mistake ). I told them that they had my drop cloth and they promised to return it, which
they never did.
Once the permit paperwork was actually filed, there were a few delays, one of which was supposedly National Grid's fault. At this point I was dealing directly with the owner Anthony at all times The actual boiler/hot water heater install started in Mid-May and took two weeks to finish. They didn't work two weeks straight, just random days here or there within the 2 weeks. I never knew which days the workers were coming until the last minute, sometimes the owner would let me know the night before, other times I would be texting or calling him to find out since no one let me know. The workers weren't always sure when they were coming back because they were doing other jobs in the days between being at my house. One worker told me that they were overbooked with conversions. I was happy with the guys who did the actual work. The lead guy Mike was great. After the job was done, Anthony was supposed to get me paperwork to get hundreds of dollars in rebates for the equipment. After multiple communications between us, and many promises of having the paperwork done "soon" or "this weekend", I have still gotten nothing 5+ months after the job has been done. I reported them to the Better Business Bureau, who tried to contact them for the rebate paperwork and they got no response as well. I contacted National Grid to see if there was a way to get the rebates without the boiler receipt, which AFA has since they purchased the boiler, but they said there was not.
The performance of his system was very uneven that first winter; he had to come back several times to make adjustments but the floor never maintained constant or even heat. This past winter (an unusually cold one) was terrible: the room was freezing.
We called several times but did not get a reply for two months, then we kept missing each other.
By chance, a friend of the family who is a plumber visited and inspected the system. The bottom-line is that the entire job was done wrong!
Because many hot-water hoses are utilized to distribute the water throughout the floor, mixing or balancing valves should have been installed to maintain an even distribution of heated water, thereby avoiding cold spots.
The thermostat includes a floor sensor that should have been buried in the mud in the center of the floor to register the average temperature of the floor. We found it loosely shoved into the first few inches of the floor's perimeter.
An insulating board should have been laid to prevent heat loss into the ground but we never saw such a thing during installation.
A wire mesh should have been installed to evenly spread the heat - again, we never saw that during the installation.
The bottom-line is we now have a dysfunctional floor in a room with no other primary heat-source, and one which would require a major job to fix.
I would recommend AFA Plumbing.
AFA is working as fast as they can and we are all waiting on inspectors (and were waiting for National Grid previously).
I definitely recommend this good group of people that work at AFA.
Another review to come after the work is completed!
*** Post job review: Unfortunately this is a very, very small business who overbooked themselves with oil to gas conversions.
We had to turn off the heat and hot water in Oct and didn't get hot water until the day before Thanksgiving with a temporary hot water heater they lent us.
We didn't get heat until January. I'm glad we finally got the work done, but it took so much longer than it should have.
In addition, the company is terrible with it's paperwork so even after emailing and calling and following up, they never submitted my National Grid rebate for my new gas equipment. It's now June of 2015 and no rebate. The work was good, but the scheduling was horrendous and the communication/paperwork end wasn't great either.
I really, really wanted to like this company and tried to stay positive and stay in touch, but unfortunately they just overbooked themselves and had no one in the office to deal with the paperwork/rebate part.
The team was very professional, trustworthy and cordial. Seemed to be in control of their craft. The highest integrity.
They had the proper tools, worked quickly together, and even worked around another emergency job that arose in the morning.
Worth the rating on Angies! Will probably use them in the future!
Licensing
State Contractor License Requirements
All statements concerning insurance, licenses, and bonds are informational only, and are self-reported. Since insurance, licenses and bonds can expire and can be cancelled, homeowners should always check such information for themselves. To find more licensing information for your state, visit our Find Licensing Requirements page.
*Contact business to see additional licenses.