Lev's Plumbing

Lev is a good person, very thorough, and very trustworthy.  My shower controller had stoped working correctly. He fixed my shower controller and contacted the manufacturer and got them to mail me the pieces for free since the fixture was still under warrantee, saving me $375! I received it, and called Lev and he came over the next day and installed it in an hour and a half. Good as new!

He then helped me cap off a gas stove that needed to be move to a different unit.  

On top of all that, he's a funny guy.  Would recommend to anyone.  He can handle anything that has to do with pipes, water, gas, whatever...

Lev is a great plumber. He fixed 4 Japanese toilets for us that some plumbers would not work on and replaced two kitchen sink faucets. He also replaced a worn out hot water recirculating pump. There was no job we asked him to do he couldn't handle, and it's all working. He was on time and easy to work with. He also worked with Sears Home Warranty for us, which many quality plumbers do not do. Finally, when we had a problem with one of the toilets leaking again, Lev returned to work on it again, and to negotiate again with Sears (and they are tough, and somewhat annoying for the plumbers to work with, it seemed). Overall we were fully satisfied and would definitely recommend Lev to others.

The plumber came out and spent approximately 2-hours and most of that time he was on the phone.  A job which would of taken 10 to 15 minutes, he only fixed one issue and did not even attempt to make repairs to the other issue.  This is very irresponsible.  He did not even recommend what our next steps should be.  
I would not recommend Lev's Plumbing to do anything in the future.

We own our house for over 30 years. During this time it was Lev Sherkhod, who owns Lev's Plumbing, who always came to our rescue. During the remodeling he installed new plumbing fixtures, and as years progressed I was calling him for any big or small repair problem we would have with our plumbing repairs or replacements. I strongly recommend his services.

Manny Kagan

$150 to do an estimate.  

Update: Lev felt I was unfair and called me to tell me as much.  He said he never said it was $150 to do an estimate, but it's his service fee for coming to my house and figuring out what the problem is.  

Perhaps, yelpers, you understand the difference. I do not.  I told him as much, however he wouldn't let me talk and kept talking over me (he didn't, however, yell so I give him credit for that.) At some point he said you don't go to a lawyer and expect it to be free, you don't go to a doctor and expect it to be free.  

Well actually yes, when I go to a lawyer, I do expect a consultation to be free, I don't expect the work to be free, but I expect for the lawyer to tell me what will be involved in the work and an estimate of how much that work will cost me.

Anyway, as he wouldn't allow me to ask him the difference between what an estimate is and what coming out and figuring out the problem is and  I told him if he didn't let me talk I'd hang up. He didn't, so I did.

Since I know he is reading this, I invite him to give me the answer as a response to this review. What is the difference between and estimate and coming over to figure out what the problem is.  Why is one free (the estimate) and the other costs $150.  Since I couldn't have this conversation with you civilly on the phone, I am more than willing to have it here.

Contacted this plumbing service today for a quote for a specific problem we need to get taken care of. The response I received was, I am busy.

Lev repaired my leaking sink and shower control valve. He is professional, does quality work and advises you on how to get replacement parts from the manufacturer if it's under warranty. He had to come back several times depending on when I had the replacement parts and was always on time.

I had several plumbers tell me that my leaking faucet couldn't be repaired until Lev said he could fix it. If you need a reliable plumber, I wouldn't hesitate to call him. Plus, he's a funny guy.

I have been using Lev for all my plumbing needs for almost 10 years. He has a long history in the business and can be trusted for reliable, honest work. Not only have I called on Lev's Plumbing for personal projects at home, I use him for all of our in-house office projects and have recommend him to clients & friends.

Most notably, as a manager of several rental properties in San Francisco, Lev has been an invaluable resource. He is available on short notice, works with us to schedule directly with our renters (which is not always easy), can be trusted with keys & difficult instructions, and never fails to fix the problem at an affordable price. His estimates are always fair and he communicates the problem through every step of the way so there are no surprises when it's all said and done.

Last but not least, Lev is an extremely nice guy who we love to work with. I recommend Lev highly!

In my house, we know about plumbers and contractors.

Lev is awesome.  Not a little awesome, not kinda awesome.  Awesome awesome.

Reliable estimates, honest work, has enough street cred with the plumbing department to throw down when that's what it takes.  Seriously, Lev will make it happen.

Just one little story.  My downstairs neighbor once hired a plumber who got halfway through a job and then explained that it would be $2,800 (coincidentally, his name was Chito).  We politely excused him and paid our final offer of nothing (not contested - hmmmm) and called in Lev, who  took care of it for $400 for time and materials.

Because this is a relationship issue, I need to get out in front of this.  I honestly didn't know my neighbor was checking out other plumbers.

And the last time I saw him, his son Boris had a Baltic Fu Manchu.

I think there is nothing I don't love about Lev.  We buy him presents.  You should hire him to fix your plumbing.

Lev was great! When my sink broke he was available for a quick, professional repair. Thanks Lev!

I called Lev a couple years ago when we had a cracked pipe, going through our garage to join up with the main stack, from a drain in a paved area behind our house. The symptom was water leaching through a concrete wall and puddling on the garage floor. Lev came up with one of the best plumber-employment-scheme diagnoses that I've ever heard: he insisted that I had water seeping up through the garage floor (seepage is not a problem in this house, nor have I ever seen any sign of seepage) and so what (he said) had to be done was dig out all the concrete and put down a couple feet of gravel for drainage and also dig out the back area (concreted, with a retaining wall) and more drainage work there, and you get the idea.

Lev refused to believe anyone would have run a drain pipe through the base of the wall (in fact, it had been run alongside the foundation and the concrete is only a shell). He would not believe me although I had been present when the pipe was Roto-Rootered a few years previously and had heard the snake going through that section of pipe. Lev therefore could not give me an estimate for repairs.

I used a different plumber for this repair, a plumber who opened the concrete shell wall and replaced a cracked section of drainpipe, adding supports to keep it from cracking again.

I do not recommend Lev.

Lev is great! I'm a General Contractor and use his company for any plumbing needs my clients have that require permits or are too complex for my company, Handywomen for Hire,  to take on. His rates are good and his work always passes inspection immediately. He's nice, and funny too.

We have relied on Lev for the past seven years to keep our condo up and running. From hard to find leaks to (what seemed a simple at first) swap out, he gets it done.

I have interacted with Lev three times so far:

The first time, Lev came over and repaired a bathroom fixture.  He was prompt, provided an estimate which reflected the work he was going to do, did his thing, and helped out with a few tips.

The second time I called him to look at a broken waste disposal in the kitchen sink.  He did not have time to come over that day, but took the time to explain to a novice (know-nothing) plumber like me what I could do.  His advice saved him a trip (and deprived him of a check), but I was able to resolve the jammed disposal on my own.  I was proud of myself, but admired Lev for helping out even though he did not get paid.  

I ran into Lev on the street yesterday and let him know about my clogged drain in a courtyard.  He said that this was not his gig and advised who I should call.  He ribbed me without smiling for not writing a review after I said I would, in follow up to our numerous calls regarding the waste disposal, given how happy I was with his work.

So behind what some may perceive as a gruff exterior, there is a wonderful, witty, sensible and excellent plumber in Lev.  I trust him and recommend him without hesitation.

I have been using Lev as a plumber for my small building in San Francisco for over seven years and without hesitation refer him to anyone who asks me for an honest and reliable plumber in the bay area.  I referred him to another friend with a small building and she too had nothing but good things to say about his skill level, work product and honesty.  

This month alone I had plumbing issues in two separate apartment units.  Lev came out himself to fix one and sent one of his staff people to deal with the other issue.  Both matters were handled in a quick and efficient manner.  I received the bills in the mail last week and was satisfied with the charges.  I know with Lev I will never have an unexpected surprise once the bill arrives and the quality of the work is simply the best.

I also used Lev for a pretty complicated job on my main sewer pipe several years back.  Water was backing up into the ground level garage so Lev advised me to obtain a video of the pipe from the garage to the street in order to ascertain the cause.  We discovered that the roots from a large tree in front of my building cracked the  pipes and the gigantic roots were obstructing the pipe almost entirely.  Lev gave me an estimate for removal and replacement of the entire pipe which would have required us to tear up the whole sidewalk and part of the garage concrete floor (this is what another plumber had suggested as the only alternative).  However, Lev suggested that we attempt a more conservative fix before undertaking the expensive and time consuming route suggested by the other plumber.  I ended up saving thousands of dollars and have experienced no problems for the past several years.

I will never use another plumber.

You can trust Lev's Plumbing!!!

I first met Lev nine years ago and he has taken care of my plumbing problems in a professional manner.  He is very experienced, straight-forward, down to earth business man.
I have referred Lev to several friends over the past several years and they have ALWAYS been happy with his work and appreciative of my referral.
Once you have Lev as your plumber, you will have no other.

Like doctors, plumbers often begin their appointments as though they run the show: they arrive late, recommend excessively costly procedures, and then require a return appointment. I've found Lev's Plumbing to be a refreshing -- and less expensive -- counterpoint to this syndrome. Operating for more than 30 years with a small family business, Lev shows up on time with no nonsense. And he's creative, once helping me devise a simpler solution to a problem (another worthless Instant-hot kitchen faucet) that saved me space, money, and earned him less money too.

I can't recommend Lev highly enough.  He's done jobs both small and large, including household remodels, even new gas and plumbing lines to schools.

Lev can perform basic plumbing jobs with competence but when it comes to more challenging problems which involve creative solutions, you would do better with another tradesman.  He's not as neat and conscientious about his work as one would like a plumber to be, not cleaning up very well after job completion.  The last job he did for me involved a lot of extra time consumed running around for parts which he should have had on hand and, of course, I was charged for that time.  What should have been a pretty straight-forward job turned into an unnecessarily involved and expensive undertaking.

Trust in Lev!  Honest work and prices.