Schede Plumbing & Heating

Helen L.

I am very shocked that how rude the people there could be. I called few weeks ago and was told that they could come to do an estimate for us. One week before the appointment I called them to confirm and I tried to explain what I was told last time and the person said""I don't care what you were told.?????!!!!!!!"" And then she continued:""I am the owner!"" Well, so what?! Just because you are the owner, you should care more about your service and your customers! I am just so shocked and I have never ever seen any company of this kind of rude attitude before.

NOT RECOMMENDED for any of you. Unless you would like to have a very rude person working for you.

Jon P.

Yelp shows our address as Massachusetts, but that's our second home, we also are in NewCanaan/PoundRidge. We found Schede Plumbing on HomeAdvisor. They were highly rated there. I called on a Saturday and expected a call back for an appt on a weekday. Our problem was not enough heat from a heat pump.Nothing urgent. I spoke to the owner Lou Schede who said he was on his way to a call, but if there was time he would come afterwards. If not, did I want him to come the next day Sunday. Wow he was going to come on a weekend. He called me later and said he could come saturday afternoon and when he showed up he suggested some solutions to the problem. 1. replace air filter. 2 contact mfg to see if speed of air blower could be increased. 3. add inexpensive auxiliary electric heat. He said he felt adding a heat zone or increasing duct work would not give a very economical return on investment. I was impressed that he didn't try to sell me anything, just offered suggestions and said call back if they didn't work. And, he didn't charge for the consultation. So, to sum up: came on a weekend; diagnosed problems and offered solutions; didn't try to sell any product or service; didn't bill for his time. As far as I'm concerned he our guy for any future problems. I couldn't wait to write this review. And, I'm delighted to recommend him to others.

Grace G.

Great and affordable service. Our heat stopped working right after we moved into our new house. They came over quickly to repair our heating system. Very happy with the service from Schede plumbing! Looking forward to them doing our bathroom remodeling job next year.

D. J. O.

We had a catastrophic leak in an upstairs shower that was sending large amounts of water into the wall and the downstairs ceiling. Lou is extremely professional and took the time to carefully explain what were the likely causes. As I don't have any expertise in this area, he was very patient to explain each detail repeatedly and even came out himself to inspect. We had to open up the drywall downstairs and replace the lower 2 feet of tile, concrete foundation, and pan liner for a natural stone shower. Needless to say, this was not going to be cheap. However, as this loss qualified for a claim on my homeowners insurance, it provided an excellent test of Lou's assessment and pricing that he quoted as the insurance adjuster also made a detailed inspection and of course, had every incentive to make sure they did not overpay for the repairs. Lou's initial assessment was spot-on according to the insurance adjuster and the amount they would allow for the repairs ($4000+) was almost exactly what Lou had initially quoted me. Although the shower door that was remounted has a slight alignment issue, we're satisfied overall with the quality of the repairs for the shower (especially the match on the stone) as well as the drywall that they took out downstairs. Not only would I use Schede Plumbing again, I actually just placed a call to Lou a few minutes ago for a problem with our ejector pump in the basement - so I'm now a repeat customer.

Ru S.

They did a quick and clean job removing my old boiler and installing a new boiler. They arranged town inspection on behalf of me. Overall I am satisfied with their service and recommend them to others.

Jennifer J.

I had the misfortune of going with Schede and got ripped off. The office quoted $175/hr. When they showed up, they charged hourly and then almost a 100% mark up for a part. That's double what everyone charges. When I questioned the enormous bill for a 20 minute job, the owner said he has to make a profit. So, a $285 part in his view of how the business should be run, became a $575. He shamelessly took advantage of me not having water. If you want to get ripped of, get treated with disdain and disrespect, and have someone lie to you about their supposed warranty, then you can go with them.

Lauren L.

I hired this company for two pieces of work. Both times the plumbers who came were extremely courteous and professional in their manner, but that's where the positives stop. The first piece of work involved replacing a shutoff valve under my sink. The second piece involved running hook-ups for a washer - to connect to pipes under the sink where the shutoff valve was. Not only was the job drastically underquoted (the cost at the end was twice their estimate!!) but the second plumber said he could not complete hooking up the new pipes to the water source since the shutoff valve (installed by their company a few weeks previous) was not properly installed. I immediately called the company and they said no problem I would just need a building shutoff and they would come back and fix the work. So I paid for the work already done (mistake) and the guy left. Over the next three weeks I called Shede Plumbing repeatedly and was treated like dirt. Not only did they refuse to come back unless I agreed to PAY for them to fix their mistake - an estimated $300 according to them - but while explaining my issue on the phone to first the owner's wife then the owner in what I viewed as a reasonable manner and tone I was repeatedly told to ""calm down"", ""be reasonable"", ""stop shouting"" and that there was ""no reason to be so upset"". I was also told I couldn't possibly know they had done the work wrong since I'm ""not a plumber"". Once I brought up that their plumber was the one who had told me the work was wrong they switched the story saying it was done that way because my building superintendent was ""rushing"" them (something I don't believe was true either since I was there and saw no signs of it). As a side - the only reason the super was there was because he said there had been past issues (in his words) with plumbers taking advantage of young female condo owners in the complex. Three weeks I called them and put up with this derogatory behavior - three weeks they promised to discuss the situation and get back to me. Zero times did they actually get back to me and each time I called them back when they failed to call me I had to remind them in exact detail who I was and the whole process started over again. Finally I gave up which I am sure was their intention. I would rather pay another company $300 to fix their Schede job than work or indeed talk to them ever again. I will never hire them again and for your own good you shouldn't either.

Leah K.

We have used Schede Plumbing several times- ranging from an emergency call at 10pm because of a leaking radiator to our recent conversion from oil to gas which Schede Plumbing and Heating took care of from start to finish. It was a pleasure working with Lou and his staff, especially Kilroy who managed most of our gas conversion and made sure everything was perfect. We highly recommend this company for their fair prices and professional service. Our house has old plumbing and we have already used them again to fix another leak and continue to be satisfied with their work. Although we hope we don't need their services, we are happy knowing we have found a reliable and trustworthy company we can use when we need it.

Matt M.

I called them to come over to fix a faucet that was dripping a good amount of water steadily. We were going away the next day and didn't want to leave it dripping that whole time.
They came out and spent a grand total of 15 minutes at the house with my wife, and told her we needed a new part for the faucet, and it would be about 2-3 hrs of work to install the part. They then showed her where the ater shutoff valve was, collected their $125 minimum charge, and left.
When I came home, the faucet was still leaking terribly, I went online to the manufacturer's website, found a link for how to clean the valve, and spent 15 minutes cleaning it and then putting it back on. The leak COMPLETELY stopped and has not leaked a drop since then (2 weeks ago).
I called them up and the owner called me back. After talking to me like a 3-yr old and explaining his 30-yrs of experience, he couldn'r grasp the fact that for $125 his plumber should have attempted to ACTUALLY FIX THE LEAK. If they told us we still needed a new part to make sure it was a permanent solution, I have no problem with that. But to walk in, not even take off the fixture to inspect it, tell us we need a new part (which by the way they said would cost us about $250-300 to install), and then leave, is the definition of lazy, poor work and serice.
The owner also told me that if they came in and ""cleaned the thing off and told us it was fixed"" that we would think they were crazy. BUT THEY DID NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO FIX IT in the first place.
I have no doubt they also took advantage of the fact that it was just my wife home, and had I been there I would not have accepted that lack of effort on their part. She was managing taking care of 2 newborns at the time so it's not her fault, the least they could have done was spent 15 minutes trying to get it fixed.
What might be the WORST part about it...the owner acted like he was doing me a favor by offering to take $25 off of the NEXT service they came back to do at our house. Nice consolation? It would be, unless you know that anybody can go on their website and print out a $25 dollar coupon for service. So he offered me as a ""concession"" the same exact coupon they put on their website for everyone.
THIS IS THE WORST SERVICE I have experienced dealing with a local tradesman. I honestly will be calling Roto Rooter next time and strongly advise NOT TO USE THIS COMPANY.

Anna G.

I have mixed feelings about Schede Plumbing. They did a good job and were reliable. The problem is that they will likely try to overcharge you for their work. It seems like they try to charge as much as they can get away with and do not disclose huge ""hidden"" costs.

I needed a replacement of a garbage disposal. They quoted me about an hour of work at $125 per hour plus $90 for new disposal. It was about $10 more than amazon so I agreed for them to do everything to make things simple. So I expected to pay about $215 plus tax. The work took less than 50 minutes and I was presented with a bill for $495! When I questioned the bill because it was more than double of what I expected, they told me that they also charged 1 hour for driving time (Stamford to Stamford) and have additional 20% mark up on the disposal. Even with these fees the numbers still didn't add up. Then the guy that was actually doing the work figured that they're trying to charge me for a different garbage disposal that costs a lot more. After that the owner Louis told me ""Just give me $350 and we're done"". They tried to make me feel bad as if I didn't want to pay them for the work. After 15 very stressful minutes and a couple of phone calls, the last words that the owner told me were ""OK, pay me what we originally agreed to and never call me again"".

This is not a unique experience because after I told a neighbor of mine about what happened, he told me that he had had the same experience with Schede Plumbing a couple of years earlier and swore to never use them again.