I don't like leaving reviews. I usually only post reviews if a product or service is surprisingly good or surprisingly bad. In this case, I would have preferred not to post a review at all, but Core Plumbing asked me 5 times for a review - once via text message and 4 times via email over a 5 day period. So here you go. Careful what you ask for.
I had a failed solder joint in the hot water copper pipe running through the wall. When I first noticed the water, I began ripping everything out of the little half bath. It was all pretty ugly and old, anyhow, and I didn't mind remodeling it as part of fixing wherever the water was coming from. I ended up cutting out a chunk of drywall to expose the exact leak. No mystery. Just need to cut out the bad soldering job and solder in some new pipe. I figure a 30 minute job for someone skilled at soldering pipe. Maybe 60 minutes if I do it myself, but I don't do it often enough to feel confident I'd do a good job on something that's going to be sealed up inside a wall for decades to come.
Plumbers are hard to hire right now. Core was the fourth plumber I tried. After waiting almost a week for another plumber to call me back, I was happy when Core could schedule me for the very next day. Then Core had a scheduling problem and had to push the appointment back a day. That's fine. It happens.
Don and his apprentice showed up on time and looked at the problem. I don't know the name of the apprentice, and that's just as well because *none* of this review should reflect badly on the apprentice in any way whatsoever.
Plumbers don't just charge for time and materials anymore, it seems. I miss that kind of billing. Instead, Don comes back with an estimate of $450 for the repair! (Pro tip: When a plumber gives you an estimate it is actually a firm fixed price for the job. Why they call it an estimate is beyond my understanding. You will pay exactly that amount unless something surprises them and they find an excuse to charge you more.) I challenged him as to why it was so much since it seems like such a simple job. He explained that it did not matter how long the job takes. If it's a 20 minute job, then it's $450 for 20 minutes. I was paying for his expertise. I really should have told him to go away, but I also wanted the leak fixed and did not particularly want to do it myself... although in retrospect I should have. Plus, maybe he is also a Yale educated lawyer who argues before the Supreme Court, so $500 to $1000 an hour is a reasonable fee.
OK, so let's see Don's expertise in action! Wait, the apprentice did most of the work. But Don talked a lot. Maybe that is his area of expertise.
We had to shut off the cold water as well as the hot water, even though the leak was only in the hot water pipe and you could fully drain the hot water pipe without bothering with the cold water system at all. But fine, Don has all the expertise.
After the apprentice cut the new pipe, Don reminded him to ream the pipe. It's 2021. That's probably not the best thing to say in front of a homeowner. The politically correct term is to deburr the pipe. Reaming is what you did to me when you charged me $450 for this job.
Don was happy to explain to me that they would be removing TWO couplings! Wow, that sounds like you are simplifying my plumbing system. When I looked at what he had done afterward, it became clear that what they did was to cut out two couplings, an elbow, and two small lengths of pipe, and then replace it with two couplings, an elbow, and two small lengths of pipe. This is not the kind of thing I would have pointed out to the homeowner, but I'm not the expert plumber.
Time to light the torch and solder. Now Don does the work. Apprentices don't solder. He reminds the apprentice, Never point the torch up when you're inside a wall! Sounds like really good advice to me! He had to solder a total of 6 joints: 2 each on the couplings and elbow. By the fifth and sixth solder joints, the torch was pointed up. Then he sprayed some water on the hot solder joints to cool them down and ... Wait, that's what they all tell you Not to do! You're supposed to let the solder joint cool down slowly. If you try to cool it down too fast, it becomes a weak solder joint.
Finally time to turn the water back on. I tried to help but was told my help was not needed. OK, fine. So what was Don doing for the next 10 minutes walking back and forth between my garage and bathrooms? All I can figure is he was trying to get the air out of the lines. But after he left, I went around to all the faucets and each one still had plenty of air that needed to bleed out. I guess maybe getting air out of the lines isn't part of Don's expertise that I was paying for.
They were here for 90 minutes. I just can't believe it. The only thing preventing this from being a one star review is that they actually achieved the desired goal of fixing the leak. But I wouldn't hire Core again.