We answer our own phone. Same-day bookings most weeks. Fixed-price quotes before we lift a spanner. No call-out fee in Hackney, Walthamstow or Leyton. Three of us, one van, twenty-seven years of leaks fixed.
Most jobs, we can give you a fixed price over the phone once we know the make and model. Below are the typical ballpark prices for our core work. Anything unusual, we come and look first, no charge.
Kitchen, bathroom, outdoor. Ninety percent are fixed inside an hour. If the washer or cartridge is rare we'll pick one up on the way.
Service, repair, replace. We fit Worcester, Vaillant, Ideal. If your boiler is twenty years old we'll tell you honestly whether to fix or swap it.
Kitchen sink, bathroom, outside drains. We use a drain rod and a small jet, no mess and no jackhammer.
Full bathrooms and en-suites. Tiling and electrics subcontracted to people we have worked with for twenty years.
Burst pipe, no hot water, no heating in winter. We keep evenings and Saturday mornings free for this.
Annual Gas Safety Record (CP12) for rental properties. Booked and signed the same day if the boiler is accessible.
A quick note, because every plumber says "twenty-four hours, cheap, reliable". Here is what is actually different.
Not an answering service. Tom or one of the boys. If we do not pick up, we are under a floorboard. We will ring back within the hour.
Before we start, you get the number. It does not change unless we find something unexpected, and if we do, we stop and tell you before carrying on.
We put down a dust sheet. We take our boots off. We hoover before we leave. If you can tell we have been there, we have not done our job.
Every job, twelve months, free return visit if something we fitted goes wrong. Parts we supply come with the manufacturer's guarantee on top.
Tom Ashford started the business in 1998 out of a Bedford van with a single spanner and a phone number written on the side in masking tape. Twenty-seven years later the van is nicer, the toolkit is serious, and Sam and Joe, his two boys, are full partners on every job.
Sam (the older one) does most of the boilers and gas work. Joe handles the bathrooms and the bigger installs. Tom does whatever needs doing and answers the phone.
We work mostly in Hackney, Walthamstow and Leyton, and occasionally as far as Stoke Newington or Dalston if it is a customer we have had for years. We do not advertise anywhere except local notice boards and word of mouth. We like it that way. Keeps the calendar sensible.
"Sam came out on a Sunday when the upstairs bathroom started dripping through the kitchen ceiling. Ninety minutes, fixed, and he stayed to help clean up. Cannot fault them."
"Joe fitted a new bathroom from start to finish in under a week. Quoted a fair price. Stuck to it. Left the place cleaner than they found it."
"Tom talked us out of a £3,000 boiler replacement and got another three winters out of our old Vaillant. Honest people, rare as hen's teeth in this line of work."
We keep our patch small on purpose. That way we can be with you within the hour, not when we have finished another job across London.