Jamie in Milton

I really don't understand the poor reviews of J. Currie Plumbing. I have been using them for almost a decade and have never been disappointed by their professionalism. They are punctual, reasonably priced, the plumbers are professional and they are not prone to price-gouging. On my most recent call, the plumber talked me out of a project I had been mulling over, citing the poor cost-benefit ratio and the fact that I might be opening myself up to further headaches. She instead suggested a fix that cost less than $5. I have used J. Currie at least 7 times over 9 years and would not hesitate to do so again.

On the advise of my wife's colleague, a real estate guru, we hired Igor to remove some badly worn carpet and unsightly blue ceramic tile the previous owner of our home had chosen. Igor and his partner Robert came to the house to give us a quote and noted that the carpet was in poor shape. Robert looked at the tile and rolled his eyes. He said he could tell the tile was laid by Italians and they would be more difficult to get up because the Italians are such craftsmen. The job went well and took about 2.5 days to complete. Robert was correct in assessing the difficulty of removing the tiles. What would normally have taken half a day took most of a full day. My only minor complaint is the quaility of some of the replacement quarter-round. I will probaby replace it myself in the next year or so. A word of advice: Robert speaks only speaks a little English and Igor has a very thick Russian accent. I speak a little Russian so we were able to communicate reasonably well but anyone who has trouble with more than a slight accent might find it challenging.

I had the pleasure of meeting Elia in August, just a month after we moved into our two-year-old house. The basement wasn't finished and we wanted a recreation room for us and our three-year-old, plus storage space and an exercise area. We were also considering adding another bathroom, possibly with shower, where the rough-in exists. The first thing Elia did was talk us out of the bathroom as we already have 2.5 baths in the house. He saved us $6,000 and that enabled us to put the space to better use. Elia listened to what we wanted, gave suggestions and the benefit of his experience, and we all came up with a workable plan. He estimated the job would take between four and six weeks. Work started as promised on November 2, finishing on Dec. 4 -- five weeks. The workmanship was great and the few times we ran into minor challenges, they were quickly resolved to our satisfaction. Everyone was very friendly and respectful of our home. They even felt sorry for our dog whom we had barricaded in our bedroom to keep him out of their way when were weren't home. The price was exactly as quoted, not a penny more. We would absolutely not hesitate to recommend the Home Improvement People to family and friends and plan to use them again in the next few years when we have other home improvement projects.