Houghton Plumbing and Heating

Chris Houghton commenced work on our house in Jan 2014, the scope of which included fitting a new central heating system, bathrooms and all associated pipework. 8 months later, after lots of issues with his work, several reminders and giving him every opportunity to finish his work, Chris had still not finished, and we had to appoint another plumber to finish and fix the outstanding faults. We understand that any tradesmen should be given a chance to put things right. However, when no further progress was being made after 8 months, and we no longer considered Chris to be competent, we had no option but to go to a reputable plumber. Since then, more and more issues have arisen, all the evidence of which shows very poor workmanship and a lack of skill and care by Chris. The saga of faults caused by his work is still ongoing after 14 months, incurring considerable extra cost to us. This list is only a small sample of the issues: 1. A total of 5 separate leaks on one shower system, and further leaks to the hot and cold water supplies, all traced back to Chris’s work. These leaks ruined the newly plastered and decorated lounge and kitchen. Fault finding and access to repair these leaks required cutting out large sections of the newly decorated walls in two bedrooms. Chris’s response was that he had completed a pressure test on these pipes. 2. Two shower trays were fitted incorrectly; still loose after 3 attempts by Chris. It transpired that Chris hadn’t secured them with cement as per manufacturer’s instructions, despite several reminders. 3. Incorrect radiators fitted, one of which we later found was not connected to the system, and we had to use another plumber to fault find, locate the pipes and connect when Chris was unwilling to tell us the location of these pipes. 4. Bath taps and sink taps fitted incorrectly – another plumber identified that washers were in the wrong place and connections loose. 5. In addition to the above, housekeeping and reliability was very poor. Calls and reminders to Chris were rarely answered. The list goes on and on… Despite our plentiful evidence, Chris has refused to take responsibility for these issues, so we have had to escalate with the professional associations as we complete further investigations on his work at this house. Our experience is that Chris is unreliable, untrustworthy, overpriced, and does not complete his work with any reasonable skill or care. In my 15 years’ experience as a landlord, using local plumbers on a regular basis, the experience with Chris has been by far the worst. Chris was appointed via a local builder who was completing major works on our house at the time. On a positive note, the building and electrical work was completed to our full satisfaction, and we understand that this builder no longer uses or recommends Chris for similar works.