Miguel M.
01/05/2015 12:00:00 SA
Edward was referred to us by our contractor when we first moved into our house in 2008. That first year, we had to call him out twice for drain problems. By the second call, it was clear there were roots in the main pipe, so he installed a clean-out in the front yard, but didn't charge for other work.
Both times he showed up on time (or a little early). He's always very friendly and willing to answer our questions in depth, and his crew is courteous. They're very neat, which might sound like a funny compliment for plumbers. But we have polished hard wood floors throughout the house; no one on his crew has ever tromped in dirt or mud. Not even during the rooter visit when they spent most of a morning going between house and yard as they tried to power through tree roots without the beneficial angle of a clean-out.
In May 2013, we had him rooter throughout the whole house. He and his assistant explained everything they were doing. We learned enough that the next year, my husband rented an electric router from Home Depot and did it himself. :)
But the big finale, and the reason I'm finally getting around to writing this review, was last September's BIG PLUG UP. The bath clogged up out of the blue, with none of incrementally increasing slow draining that had previously heralded drain problems. I called Edward in the afternoon and made an appointment for the next morning. (When Edward is swamped, he asks how urgent the problem is. In this case I couldn't in fairness claim our backed up tub was more urgent than the people who's toilet wasn't flushing.)
A camera run down our entire main line proved the problem was where our line meets the main sewer pipe. It was cool to watch the camera footage, and reassuring to see our clay pipe was in really good condition, considering its age and the size of the three 40-year-old maples surrounding it.
It was less cool to know repair costs were going to include digging up the street to get to the main line. (I don't know who pays for this type of work in a regular city with public roads, but we're on private roads and we each own our own section of road.) However, it was reassuring the Edward knew exactly what to do. He booked his crew for a whole day to jackhammer through the street, dig down to the pipes, and repair the problem.
In the meantime, I frantically Googled for Bee Whisperer as the crew would be working 4-5 feet away from two wild bee hives. (Kudos to Angel Powers for coming down to smoke the bees during the jack hammering stage.) Angel left when they stopped with the jack hammer. But the day kept getting hotter, the bees busier, and the hole deeper. Around noon, I noticed smoke coming from around the hole. Turns out the bees had stung one of the crew. He'd gone to the construction crew working next door, gotten a few pieces of discarded wood and started his own smoke fire. It was working great to keep the bees at bay. All in a plumber's days work! I don't think he'd even have told me if I hadn't and come out and asked.
When they finally dug out the connector between our main line and the city sewer line, they found a huge tree root jammed in at the join. Amazingly, the root was from a pine tree that had been removed the previous year. Edward rushed off to buy a new connector, and the whole job was done by about four, including the asphalt patch.
It's never fun to need plumbing work, but I'm glad I can count on Edward when we have a problem.