Best Pipe Repair in San Francisco CA

Hi y'all.

I want to pass this on to anyone that needs to hear it or know it that Brandon was GREAT. All three times he came out, he was friendly, respectful, knowledgeable and helpful. He explained everything from start to finish. And he did a job that another company said could not be done. The caulking hasn't yet dried, but I couldn't be happier.

Here's a letter I just wrote to the manager of Mr. Rooter in Oakland:
Hi Steve,

I just wanted to give you some feedback about the job we had Carl come out for yesterday.  We needed a gas line capped from a defunct hot tub (left behind from the previous owners of our house).  Carl came for a free estimate yesterday.  He pointed out that the part of the pipe that was visible and above ground was PVC, totally illegal and dangerous.  He said he couldn't see where the PVC connected to a main gas line, whether under the deck or under the house.   We suggested he look under the house.  He said he couldn't see anything and was too big to crawl into the crawl space so instead he told me to hire someone to pull up the boards of the deck to see where the pipes lead.  Carl told me that it would cost $400+ for him to come back after the deck had been opened up and he left.  He left a job that he said was the most dangerous he's seen in 9 years but was unwilling to go into our crawl space to look around and figure out how to deal with it.  

It immediately got someone over to pull up the boards that Carl recommended.  This handyman arrived before Carl even left, but he wouldn't wait till the boards had been pulled up (obviously didn't care at all about getting the job done, keeping my home safe or anything like that).  First of all, the area he recommended we pull up the boards wasn't where the pipe actually was.  And when we found the pipe, it just went underground and there was nothing to see or do under the deck.

Through a personal recommendation, I got another plumber, the one I will certainly be employing from now on,  named Andrew Carothers-Liske, to come to the house that evening.  The minute he walked in the door he said that the place to cut off the gas to that pipe would be under the house.   He shut off the gas to the house, went into the crawl space and in less than an hour, he had cut the gas line to the hot tub and capped it.  The whole job cost me $132.  This plumber was courteous, smart (he knew right away where to find the gas line and it DIDN'T require cutting open our deck) and was willing to do what it took to fix this very dangerous situation while he was here.

On the most basic level, I wouldn't recommend sending plumbers out to jobs if they aren't willing to go into the crawl space of a house.  Furthermore, he didn't know what he was doing, and wasn't willing to do what it took to find and fix the problem.  And he wanted to charge 4x what another plumber charged.

Your telephone hold message has a whole spiel about how your plumbers are courteous.  I have worked with several plumbers in your firm and there is a similar attitude amongst them: flippant, rude, zero customer service and frankly, somewhat incompetent.  They are not responsive to what the client wants and needs, and don't take any pride in getting the job done right.  We've met you and worked with you and this didn't seem to be the type of attitude you would want from your employees. And yet, it is very consistently what they are like.

We certainly won't be coming back and I thought you'd like to know.  I'm glad I at least have found a good plumber to work with in the future.

I have used Tromborg Royal for years and have always been very pleased with their service and price.

Nick came to the rescue right away and fixed my clogged sink in less than an hour. He was responsive, fairly priced, and did a fantastic job. Definitely recommend and will call again for future needs. Thank you!

Joven is responsive (even on weekends) and does high quality work at a fair price.

I needed a simple sink, garbage disposal and dishwasher install done. My father was helping me with a kitchen remodel and had to fly out unexpectedly to take care of another property. This left me without a functioning kitchen. I called two other highly reviewed companies on a Friday. The earliest someone could come out to give an estimate was Monday or Tuesday. I called Joven and he was there that evening to give me a bid and the next day to do the job. I'll definitely call him for all my plumbing needs in the future!

Quick and timely service showed up as promised.  Called back in only minutes while I was on the phone trying find other plumbers available, and came right over.   Fixed everything well and explained the issues.  Made recommendations for future problem avoidance.  Will be our new plumbing company to use in the future for sure!

We had a great experience with Edgar and the crew; we dealt with Edgar on the phone and by email to set up an appointment to install an automatic shutoff valve for our gas line (after the recent quake, can't be too careful!) Edgar responded quickly to both phone messages and emails, told us what we'd need to have installed to reach the goals we wanted, and then arranged for a crew to come out and take care of it within a few days. When the crew came out, they did the work quickly, cleaned up when they were done and even came inside to relight our pilot light without being asked! Will definitely use Pipe Arts again the next time we have a plumbing job to do. We've worked with a lot of contractors in the last year and they are great.

I've been stressing trying to find a good reliable plumber.
Long story short, my go to plumber who I usually hire to do minor things said my sewer lateral may be broken or cracked because they had to unclog the clean out and their drain snake got stuck. They recommend me find another plumber to get it fixed asap since he does not do sewer replacements. My plumber gave me a company name/info he knows that could do it and I was a bit relieved but... Unfortunately the recommended business has poor communication and I felt left in the dark. I was losing hope until I reached out to Luis at Excalibur. This is also why you should always get multiple quotes.

There was some minor yelp communication hiccup but Luis was able to follow up with an appointment. Luis even communicated with me after hours! Communication is key with a lot of business and if they have that, it is 5 stars in my book.

After scheduling an appointment for an estimate, Felix came out and ran a camera down the clean out. They found three areas that needed repair and my heart sank! The other businesses I reached out to didn't even bother to schedule an appointment around the time I am available so we can talk about options and what we should do. I reached out to Luis after Felix did the inspection and Luis sent me the proposal the next day highlighting what needs to be done and the cost. I paid what was quoted as well.

They are very honest about the options and they also will take care of the permits with the city so you don't have to worry about anything else. I asked if they could start the project on a certain day which they were very accommodating.

Felix came back out a week later to mark the lines and let me know their plans. The communication is amazing!

The day of the project, Luis and his team started around 8AM and they completed by 5PM. The city inspector came out to do the inspection before they completed the job. Once everything was inspected, they finished off by pouring the concrete. The current clean out I had is no longer usable and they installed a new clean out at near the bathroom. They noted that I wouldn't really need to worry about any more clogs because the entire sewer line is replaced. Which is honestly amazing.

I do recommend someone being home when they do the projects. Only downside is that you cannot use any plumbing while they work on the sewer like faucet, toilet, shower, etc... They needed access to some electrical and access to areas that are fenced/gated off.

If I have big plumbing jobs in the future, I would definitely use Excalibur again. Quick responses and very competitive pricing.

Beder was super helpful and friendly. He arrived early, solved all the problems we asked for help on (plumbing and lighting) quickly and was done in an hour. I will definitely recommend him to friends and use him again for future projects.

Do yourself a favor: Zayah is the real deal. Totally skilled, Honest, fair pricing!! Found solution, fixed plumbing, saved me time and $$$. Adept. Win-win.

I usually don't write reviews, and I don't think I've ever written a negative review.  But after I read a one-star review below that was similar to what happened to us in many ways, I figured I should share our experience in case it spares others what happened to us.

While replacing a sewer pipe, the technicians piled a huge amount of dirt in multiple places on top of new landscaping, causing $1K worth of damage, even though we have a big gravel driveway with plenty of space, AND it was agreed before the start of the project that we didn't want to damage the new landscaping.  When we brought up what had happened, they apologized and agreed it wasn't what we had discussed, and also agreed that Harry Clark would cover the cost of the damage.

We then had a series of frustrating interactions including: the toilet didn't work after the sewer pipe was replaced because they didn't test it (with no explanation), the new gas line was not installed to code, and various other problems that needed to be fixed but we hadn't noticed until a contractor pointed them out to us.  They did acknowledge the problems and said that they were planning to fix them later -- but they had never mentioned this to us.  It would take up to a week for them to return emails and phone calls, and it was often impossible to get ahold of someone who knew about our project.

While we were settling the bill for the first part of the project, we sent an invoice for the landscaping damage, but they started trying to negotiate and tried to only pay a small portion of the landscaping damage.  They took forever to respond and ended up blaming us for it taking so long.  At that point, Brad Marshall denied we had been told they would reimburse us for the landscaping damage, claiming that whoever told us that didn't have the authority to do so, even though it was in writing. He was shockingly rude and had no explanation for why we should have to pay for landscaping damage his team had caused.  The interactions with Brad basically made the whole thing so miserable there was no point in continuing, so we paid for the work that was done to that point and terminated the contract. We've had extensive work done on our property with various companies over the last few years but the project with Harry Clark, and primarily the interaction with Brad, was by far the most unprofessional experience we've ever had.

One star for coming on a Sunday when our water main broke.

No stars for charging $200 per hour and being very very slow about everything.  

No stars for complaining a lot and making it seem like she was doing us a big favor.  

No stars for bossing everyone around and telling them what to do when she could have done things herself.

No stars for constantly complaining about her ailments, and actually having a kind volunteer perform all of the repairs for free, and charging us almost $450.  

I think the only reason that the pipe got repaired at all was because someone else really qualified, who was not associated with her business, took over and did all of the work.  Really really disappointed.

Seth came to fix my drippy shower and was professional and efficient. Thank you for the good work.

Loved working with Ben. He was very professional and offered great advice / help. He completed the tasks doing quality work in a short time. We have a small baby and he was very respectful in staying quiet while working. I highly recommend Ben and will hire him again in the future for any task my home needs!

My Wife and I have been using Wizard Plumbing for last five years or so. They have taken care of both our residence and our rental property. We recently had Gregg out to take care  of a faucet issue. He couldn't have been more friendly, and professional. Showed up on time, and got right to work. Settled the issue for what we thought was a very reasonable price. I must also mention Johnny Higuera who fixed a major drain problem at our house due to a faulty installation when we remodeled our home seven years ago. The problem didn't show up until a few months ago. Johnny was extraordinary in his dedication to getting it right. I find this attitude of friendly professional competence (at a competitive price) is typical of Wizard employees.

I had a very simple, but annoying problem with a locked-up single lever shower valve. I called Alansi's late in the day, and Jasmine from the office took my information, then 30 minutes later Moe, the plumber called to ask what the issue was. I was able to give him the make and age of the shower valve (from 10 years ago). He arrived the next morning first thing with a replacement (he researched it - the original was discontinued) and he was here less than an hour carefully replacing it. The old valve was definitely broken. He was expert at trimming out some tile around the old valve, replacing the valve with the new one, and was professional and friendly throughout. The bill was exactly what he predicted it would be the evening before, and of course he was careful to explain then that it was an estimate that might change once he got into the job. I'm grateful for Moe and Jasmine and having a new go-to plumber for all my needs!

Craig E

I was relieved Oakland Rooter and Plumbing was able to send us a plumber within 24 hours for an extremely slow tub drain. Eddie was prompt, polite & professional! We will definitely be calling Oakland Rooter and Plumbing for future plumbing issues!

These guys were awesome. Delightful, on-time, professional - they managed to trench up the backyard, moving plants and a tree, and REPLACE EVERYTHING AS IF THEY HAD NEVER BEEN THERE.

We now tell stories about the sewer lateral replacement as if it was the plot of a Michael Bay film: And THEN? They had this thing that looked like a bullet that they pulled through hydraulically and it had FINS on it that busted out the existing pipe, and you could feel this WOOMF. WOOMF. WOOMF. underground.

Are they sewer lateral ninjas? Quite possibly.

Money Grubbing Outfit. The guy that used to own the company sold it and this is a new owner. They came to my house to find and hopefully fix a leak in my Garage. They said it was an irrigation problem and they don't fix that. They were here no more than 5 minutes and most of the time we're waiting on hold, waiting to report back to the boss. They charged me $225.00.  I expect a charge for coming to the house and finding the leak, even though they didn't fix it, but they are located in my the neighborhood. They didn't travel far, the second guy didn't even get out of the truck. $225 is over the top. They will never have my business again. Doesn't seem like they give a hoot anyway.

When my water heater leaked the other day, I checked out the nearest and highest rated plumbers here at the site. Luckily Frank was able to send Shaun over to check what the problem was. Turned out that my 25 year old heater was on it's dying stages. Frank came back the next day and replaced it. He was fast and meticulous. Nice guy. Highly recommended.