I apologize for the length of this review, however, I wanted to include enough detail that I hope will help anyone in need of this service circumvent the issues that we encountered and had to find out the hard and expensive way. Unfortunately, we had to learn the hard way/go through a couple of not so professional or honest companies before we found these good ones. It took a bit of research and homework but was worth it in the end. I hope this information will be valuable to others who find themselves in this situation.
Scott from Jackrabbit plumbing was excellent. A real professional; he/his truck was well equipped... he had every tool, piece of equipment he needed (unlike the first 2 plumbers we brought in who didn't even have a ladder or maybe didn't want to get it off their truck). And most importantly, as it says on the side of his truck... he was HONEST! Rate and travel charges were fair and reasonable. When he accidentally broke a piece on our washer, he said he would either turn over to his insurance or come back with the part and repair it... a real class act.
We were referred to Jackrabbit by American Leak Detection Service from Stateline, NV, who also was excellent, btw. It was nice to have a more scientific approach to finding the leak, e.g. they used the inert gas helium to pressurize the system and a helium detector to hone in on the specific area with the problem vs. cutting open all of the walls and spraying with a soapy solution as had been used/recommended by the others who diagnosed/quoted the job. They found the leak within an hour of when they arrived. Fyi, Scott indicated that he also had a leak detector which used CO2, similar I imagine to American Leaks Helium detection which also may have been a viable alternative. Evidently, a professional plumber has this in his tool bag/has the capability to do smart detection as well. He did use CO2 via a tank he carried with him to pressurize the system, which probably aided him in confirming the leak as well. Again, he was well equipped and very professional.
Unfortunately, we had two other not very professional (or honest) plumbing companies come in and used the soapy water old school approach using only compressed air to pressurize the system, opened our wall for no reason, tore apart our fireplace, and were no closer to finding the leak than when they started not to mention left a gaping hole in the wall, a huge mess in our living room, and were very expensive for basically achieving nothing. And, they wanted to open more walls and recommended cutting/capping pipe to find the leak; I'm sure this would most likely have been the most expensive approach which worked out well for them, not so well for us. We figured that there had to be a better way. Btw, I will be posting appropriate reviews of these Angie List A+ Certified/A rated providers (Ha! Very misleading and not reliable at all!) re: what I thought of their service and character; see Angie's list and/or Yelp for these reviews.
Scott did use soapy water to confirm the leak, however, didn't have to track the leak that way or cut pipes to isolate the issue as he was informed as to where to look vs. the approach that recommended by our first 2 plumbers diagnosis. I still have to wonder why these other plumbers couldn't find the leak (it was a significant leak) with the soapy water as it evidently was easily identified by Scott when he used the soapy water (albeit, Scott did know where to look, however, he indicated it was very visible even with soap and water!?). It would appear they just wanted to spend as much time as possible just looking for the leak; might as well tear out a few walls while we're at it, right!? It's all billable!? We have a slab floor, so all of our pipes are in the attic with drops to each area requiring service, e.g. kitchen stove, dryer, etc. The leak was in the 90 directly above the dryer which should have been one of the first places it should have been found... fairly easily.
Jackrabbit/Scott was then able to confirm the source of the leak; he came right in, confirmed the issue and fixed it promptly. There was minimal invasive wall cutting; he cut into the wall only for what was needed, had the right too to cut the wall, and did a clean cut which will be more easily repairable. Honest and professional. He even had his own ladder... imagine that!
We will use Jackrabbit for all of our plumbing needs in the future.
