Nichols Inc.

From the minute Luke appeared at my door with a stack of drop cloths and laid one down in the front hall to wipe his feet, I knew I was in good hands. A cracked drain stack necessitated the removal of one of a matching pair of 75 year old custom built, wood and plaster shell motif china displays from my oval dining room. These are architectural gems and I was sick about what might happen when we tried to remove one.

Luke, along with the company owner Jerry, patiently and methodically cut through multiple layers of paint with razor blades and hand sawed through ancient nails in order to prevent splitting of old wood. They removed each piece of intricately cut and curved molding, the domed plaster shell and the demi-lune cabinet in complete and undamaged pieces. This was an amazing feat given the fact that no one knew how many pieces the cabinet consisted of or how it was installed in the wall. Luke and Gerry?s painstaking care and thoughtful consideration about each step of the process resulted in a perfect job.

Once the plumbing was repaired, Luke returned with 2 helpers and reinstalled the cabinet, piece by piece, ensuring that everything fit back together properly. Everyone I dealt with at this company was polite, professional and most important to me, respectful of my home and the work they were doing in it. I am beyond happy to have this cabinet back in place and truly grateful to Luke, Jerry, et.al for the absolutely splendid result. It?s obvious that everyone at this company takes pride in their work. I cannot recall any circumstance when I have been more pleased with a contractor!

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Our sump pump failed in our crawl space and water was standing. We called our home warranty company who came out (plumber) and indicated that he couldn't do any work until the water was gone and "conveniently" recommended Nichols. The plumbing company indicated that they would be out on the same day to do their work after Nichols pumped out the water since they could not replace the sump pump until the water was gone due to safety concerns.

Nichols showed up on the date and time expected and the technician went under the house to determine how much water needed to be pumped out. My husband was also out of town. I could not get the technician to offer any estimates on cost - he kept going outside and using his cell phone and coming back asking "do you have homeowners insurance?". After indicating I did, he went out and made another call, came back in and would not provide a price but said "you really need to consider filing a homeowner's claim". At this same time, the plumber showed up and indicated that he would be back - went to the warehouse to pick up the pump. I finally got the Nichols tech to quote a price - around $550. Knowing that the water had to be gone, I agreed and signed the form for Nichols to begin pumping.

The technican hooked up a very small pump with a normal garden hose attached. It was pumping very little water at a time. Lo and behold, the plumber arrived and WENT UNDER THE HOUSE IN THE STANDING WATER AND REPLACED THE SUMP PUMP (after insisting he could not do so!! He said "time is money") about 30 minutes after Nichols set up their equipment. The Nichols tech left immediately after he started pumping and the water, thanks to the newly installed sump pump, was gone quickly since it was pumping out triple the amount of water to the street that the measly equipment from Nichol's was doing!
 
I called Nichol's office immediately after the pump was working and told them exactly what had happened and that this pumping was completely unnecessary and I was instructed to shut off their pumping equipment and they would be back to pick up the next business day.

When I received an invoice from Nichol's for the work, it was for the full amount. My husband even called their office to indicate that we did not feel that this full amount was warranted. We went round and round for weeks and finally relented into paying. We strongly feel that this was a concerted effort between the plumber and Nichols and feel we got ripped off all the way around (the plumber tried to rake me for an extra $300 when he was here after the pump replacement [we upgraded to a higher HP] and I refused because I knew exactly how much the pump cost that he was installing).

Would NEVER recommend Nichols to anyone.

After the service, the air flow has improved dramatically. There is much less dust being generated by the heating system. Overall, this was a very positive investment.