Kinsey Interiors and Plumbing Services

I had taken advantage of a City of Austin program to acquire low flow toilets at a very reduced price.  Kinsey quoted me $75 per toilet for installation so I scheduled an appointment for them to install them.  After they arrived, they strongly suggested I also have the faucet supply hose replaced as well, told me they had some in their truck, and charged me $40/each for them.  Later, I found out that the hoses were $10 at Lowes.  Had I known beforehand, I would have picked up new hoses before they came.

They do good work, and for the most part, their prices are reasonable.  I just wish they would let you know ahead of time if there may be parts needed so that the homeowner can buy them ahead of time - the homeowner can always return unused items for a refund.  My suggestion is you ask them if any parts may be needed and buy them ahead of time.

We called the team out during a bad winter storm. We had water in our living room. They called to give update on time of arrival. They took 48 hours to come out. Other companies had is on waitlist for two weeks. The team that came out was incredible. Johnny was so helpful and quick.
This would be a company I would hire again.

Last month, we experienced the unfortunate incident of a water/sewage backup via the toilets and bathtubs in our home. We contacted our home warranty (Old Republic) and they sent out Devin from Kinsey Plumbing Services for the repair on the same day. Initially, Devin could not locate the sewer cleanout line outside and informed us that it would cost $295 (which Old Republic didn't cover) to remove our guest bathroom toilet and perform the cleanout there instead. Since we didn't have much of a choice, we told him to go ahead and proceed with Plan B. Regrettably, this option resulted in a huge and costly mistake...

First of all, Devin's sewer snake machine was faulty and kept shutting off repeatedly, resulting in a very pissed off plumber with lots of cursing. When the unforeseen clog didn't budge, he had an idea to use our garden hose and attach a blow bag to it to try and forcefully hydro-jet it out. Well, herein lies the problem: all those gallons of water made its way back through and flooded the guest bathroom and adjacent rooms inside our home, making a bad situation much worse. Frantically, my husband tried to use a steam cleaner in vain to suck up as much water as possible since we didn't have a Shop Vac on hand. To rectify, Devin immediately called a water damage restoration company, but they wouldn't be able to arrive until the next morning.

A few more plumbers showed up from Kinsey, and after much digging around, Devin and my husband finally located the cleanout valve outside of our home. Again, he tried to clear out the clog with the sewer snake machine, but it was unsuccessful. Devin then waived the charge to send a camera through the main sewer line and upon inspection, stated that he found two separations that were located underneath our driveway.

The following morning, Devin showed up along with A-Best Water Damage Restoration & Carpet Cleaning. He reset our toilet and waived the $295 charge since the cleanout line was located outside. A few days later, a rep from Kinsey Plumbing called and was trying to charge us $200+ for the manual labor of digging around trying to find the cleanout valve when my husband did roughly half of the work, which was then settled for $100.

For a second opinion, we got an estimate from S&D Plumbing to perform a trenchless sewer diagnostic via video camera and found that we only have one separation located right next to the city sewer tap near the street, not two separations underneath the driveway as previously stated from Devin at Kinsey Plumbing. Choosing to have the repair with the latter would've resulted in unnecessary demolishing of our driveway just to get to the main sewer line, and who knows what exorbitant price tag that would even entail.

TL;DR:
Get a second opinion.

Buyer Beware! My family employed the services of Kinsey Interiors, Inc, through Toni and had a very bizarre and disappointing experience (and my parents have worked with a bunch of designers over the years).

Kinsey asked us to pay a large upfront amount for 10 hours of work while offering very few details and being incredibly vague about the expected work product.

We didn't worry about it because they came with a reference. But we couldn't be more sorry! All Toni wanted to do was to send us internet links with sparse details, like - what do you think? She claimed to do several hours of internet research - but for $120/hour you'd think you'd get a little more than a few google searches!

On that note, we looked and they are not registered interior designers. If the service/product was good, we wouldn't care, but in this case...

When we expressed our disappointment with their work, Toni got defensive and told us that most people she works with don't actually want to leave their houses to look at anything in person and are happy just to look at internet links. Really? In our experience, a designer is supposed to come over, listen, share their ideas, and listen again.

What we got here fell far short of that standard.

On two different occasions, I called them because I needed some basic plumbing help (replace kitchen faucet, hook up espresso machine), and they were able to come the same day. I love that! Sean was very polite and professional. I highly recommend this company.

We have been long term customers of Doug Kinsey, the owner of Kinsey Plumbing. However, in Dec of 2015 we asked for him to come out and do 3 repairs/estimates. 1. To check the drain system in the kitchen and laundry room since whenever we do run water in the kitchen it leaves a bad smell in the laundry room. 2. Install strainer cups in our back sink. 3. Repair the leaking taps in our shower.

For the first time, Doug did not come to do our service. He sent his journeyman plumber, Sean(shawn?) to do the service. My wife was the primary person when he got here. His attitude was horrible, he simply did not appear to care about doing the repairs.

On the first request, he didn't even look at anything and told my wife that we would likely have to rip out the wall to find out the issue.

On the second request, he installed the parts we bought. The sink began not to drain soon after.

On the third request, he replaced the parts my wife had bought at a specialty plumbing store. We have an older home and it requires parts that are not normal for newer homes.

My wife called Shannon, the receptionist at Kinsey Plumbing, and told her that she didn't care for Sean's attitude and that only 2 of the services were done. She advised that, even only a few days after Sean was here, the back sink was not draining/draining very slow since the service and her shower was still leaking. In addition to the leaking, the hot water now didn't want to flow correctly and the pipes were making a weird keening/banging noise. She requested that Doug Kinsey come out and look at the issues, since we had no faith in Sean.

She was advised that Doug doesn't come out on minor jobs any more and that Sean was their best guy. She offered to send him back out. My wife refused because we had no desire to have him back in our home. We were denied access to Doug.

So, we decided we would just have to live with the issues since we didn't want Sean here again and we couldn't afford to have another service from a different company so soon after the failed one. We couldn't get in touch with Doug, it seems that Shannon is filtering contact with him or something.

Fast forward to April 2016. The back sink was fully stopped up and my wife's shower doesn't work right, plus it sounds like a bunch of pots banging around. I am disabled, but I was able to clear the back sink drain with liquid plumbr and snaking around in it. An odd plastic like substance floated to the surface and finally it drained. I have no idea what the stuff was, but I would like to reiterate that BEFORE Sean touched it, it drained fine. We only had the new cups installed because it was leaking around the old ones very slightly.

At this point, we decided to try one last time to get some sort of resolution from Kinsey. We asked again if we could have Doug come and please try to fix what was NEVER fixed when Sean came. Again Shannon told us that Sean was the only available plumber and that we were probably beyond warranty. We said we had called in very soon after the first service to report problems and had requested someone other than Sean, but she said that didn't necessarily matter. Desperate for some sort of help, we agreed to have Sean come out again for a 'possible' warranty service.

Today, 5/20/2016, Sean arrived with a helper. He was very non-professional looking and acting. I walked him to the bathroom since I had already fixed the issue on the back sink, which I told him and he just grunted. I explained what was happening, he played with the water a bit and then turned to his helper and told him to go get some stems. He then advised me that there would be no warranty service and that we would be charged for a new call. I told him that he could leave the premises, since we would never pay for that man to work on anything plumbing related in our home again. I told him some of the things I have listed here and was told repeatedly that it either didn't happen or that my wife was basically lying.

I called Shannon and asked for her to have Doug call me, but I doubt I will hear from him. I want to note that all the work we ever had Doug do was excellent, it is only the work done by his helper that is bad. I don't know why he is so hard to get in touch with now and can only hope that Shannon isn't keeping people from talking to him.

We will most likely have to pay out of our limited funds to have another service provider repair the issues that Sean has left behind. Mr. Kinsey, if you somehow read this, please be aware that Sean is a toxic negative to your business.

I called them and made a appoingment for three days latter which was there first available. i told them i had a mobile home and they said they work on them. I got a reminder the next day saying call to confirm. i called and confirmed also asking it they do mobile homes again to make sure. They said hold on let me ask and when they came back on the phone they said yes they did work on mobile homes. The next day about 30  min before they were supposed to arive they called and said they dont work on mobile homes. Three days waisted for there incompetience

I hired Kinsey Plumbing to install a hot water on demand system I had already purchased. On the initial appointment the plumber could not perform the install due to not having the correct parts. The second appointment went better as he brought additional parts and was able to install the system. However, during the installation the plumber needed too remove a connection for the reverse osmosis system that was already installed. The reverse osmosis connection appeared to have been damaged after re-installation but was not lacking. Kinsey provides a 30 warranty on leaks and they will not waver as I now have a leak 39 calendar days after their work was completed and they want to charge me for the leak repair. This leak would never have occurred had there plumber not damaged the part to begin with.

Shout out to Seth and Randy for their services.  We had a water leak in my son's room. These awesome guys came and helped us out. They were very friendly, professional and explained everything that was going on. Thank you guys so much!!!

I recently called Kinsey Interiors as I needed window treatments for our new home in Sun City.  I was working with another person from another company who didn't seem to want my business...also, they were extremely expensive.  It seemed I was always the one who was initiating the calls.  I then referred to my Sun City magazine and called Kinsey Interiors.  GiGi came out and measured (no charge to bid on window treatments- unlike the $150 I paid the other company) and gave me a quote for all the windows.  Wow!  A big difference.  Not only were their prices reasonable, but most of all she was EXTREMELY professional and knowledgeable.  I am excited about our choices and can't wait to finish my windows with the treatments we chose.  I will refer Kinsey to anyone I come in contact with who needs help with their interior services.

I'm writing this review because of Kinsey's unwillingness to complete a job that is warranty work. Long story short, we purchased a home and Kinsey was contracted to do one of the repairs in the shower drain pan before we moved in. The pan was replaced, and the shower tile looks great. However, it has been over a month in my new home, and I have yet to use my shower once.

It is a frameless shower door so you need to have sweeps installed on the bottom and edges to make sure it doesnt leak, however my shower leaked very badly at the bottom where the curb sits against the sweep. I couldnt figure out the problem, tried a few different sweeps, still major leak. Had a couple shower professionals come out and tell me that whomever installed the tile, had it sloped the wrong way. Sure enough, you put a level down, not only is it not level or slant towards the shower, it is a steep angle out of the shower. Basically any water that hits the door, will run down the door, get to the curb, and pour out the bottom.

I had Kinsey come out twice to look at it, I even emailed the owner with NO response. After a few calls to a very nice technician named Billy, he politely informed me that his managers said that the curb wasnt in the original 'scope' of the shower pan fix, so even though they re-tiled it during their work, they wont re-slope it.

I dont care about scope. All I know is that it didn't leak before,they replaced the pan and it leaks now. This fix was about 2k worth of work, and I have yet to use my shower. I would stay away from Kinsey, not sure of their other services, but we basically paid 2k to have an un-usable shower. I feel bad writing this review because they seem like nice people, however I didn't pay to talk to nice people, I paid to use my shower.

Charged us $595 to spend 45 minutes installing a water softener.  Then left salt stains all over our driveway.  Not impressed.  Will not use their services again.

Kinsley Plumbing came to my home to repair a water leak located after the city meter. Shannon coordinate the call and Javan repaired the leak in 30 minutes. Thanks to Shannon and Javan for excellent customer service.

Great local and family owned business with prompt, friendly, professional staff; excellent experience. We have had minor plumbing work done by Kinsey Plumbing and will be using them again soon for a major plumbing project we have coming up soon! I would highly recommend calling them for your plumbing needs.

Doug Kinsey and his team are fantastic.  Over the last year they fixed a slab leak, reset the very large tub in my house and replaced a broken lawn hydrant in my yard.  Both times Doug's guys showed up within 12 hours and charged a reasonable amount for high quality service.  Their professionalism and honesty are exceptional and rare!

I have used Kinsey for a number of plumbing jobs in my home. Their pricing has always been fair and the work has always been done quickly and well. They have completed the following repairs for me on a number of different occasions:

1. Replace shower cartridge to fix leaky shower.
2. Install new toilet
3. Install new faucet
4. Install new garbage disposal
5. Replace cheap builder grade shutoff valves (the ones that have a integrated supply line and shutoff) with standard compression fittings and supply lines.

The toilet, disposal and faucet I bought myself so I could get exactly what I wanted. Kinsey provided the labor for the install. I am very happy to recommend them.

I have had Kinsey out to my home on multiple occasions to install water heaters, a new disposal, and clear clogged sinks.  Each time they show up on time, complete the work, and are very professional.  Their pricing seems fair for the work.  I would definitely recommend them.

Hands down, these guys are the most honest and do the best work I've experienced in town! They have been to my 1938 house several times now for various reasons and have always done outstanding work! They have even taken on a few little additional tasks I throw at them and aways say we'll take care of it, no problem!! I would recommend this family business to my mother, grandmother, friend, or anyone looking for an honest-to-goodness great plumber! Now, if only they did electrical! AMAZING!

Did not get very good service using this company, they arrived late and  not prepared for the job that they knew had to be done. Very unprofessional attitude and lack of communication.