The Plumbing Works

The Plumbing Works was contracted through my home warranty company to diagnose and repair a slab leak near my kitchen. Two days after getting the job a man named Jim comes to my house, takes his $ 60 deductable, knocks a hole in my wall and makes a dent in my foundation with some kind of drill instead of a saw.
After getting that far, he basically backs away and tells my wife he won’t be able to do the job, and that he didn’t even have the tools to complete it anyway. He says he’ll reach out to my warranty company to let them know that he can’t do the job, then leaves.
I call him the next day and ask about scoping the pipe or other avenues of testing for a leak. Putting off a snotty tone, Jim tells me he wished they had that sort of, «Nano-​technology.» Jim then admitted that his company is only a two man crew that mainly specialized in frail line stoppages and clearing. Him assured me the hole in my wall and dent in my foundation would be repaired by the next plumber that would come out. That just wasn’t true.
I later find out that this guy billed my warranty company upwards of $ 170 for I don’t know what.
Do yourselves a favor and find someone more reliable. The guy lacks basic customer service skills and based on the little work performed, I have doubts in his ability to tackle mediocre jobs.

I called the Plumbing Works after reading Dawn’s review. We have an older house — built in the 70’s — and one of our showers stopped working. So, we needed a plumber.
Being new home owners, we didn’t know who to call, and we didn’t know any plumbers, so I turned to Unilocal.
Thanks Unilocal.:)
I called them yesterday — a Wednesday. The person who answered the phone when I called was very patient with me and very easy to talk to. He answered all my questions and seemed very laid-​back and friendly. He said a guy could come out tomorrow (today, Thursday) and that for what I was describing it would probably take an hour to an hour and a half to fix, but that it could take longer depending on what was going on. He said the guy would be here between 1 – 3.
So today (the next day after calling) I get a call from the same man I spoke with yesterday, and he asks me if it’s OK for the plumber to come early, as he was running ahead of schedule. Of course I said Sure. I really appreciated them calling ahead to check in with me rather than just showing up. I think when home repair people call you and keep you informed in that way, it is very professional of them. I value good communication.
So the plumber shows up, Jim. Jim is great! He was very polite and very knowledgeable.
So Jim is here for one hour, almost exactly. And in that hour, along with very pleasant conversation, he manages to:
1. Fix our shower, which was our main complaint. He had to replace a leaking cartridge and he also put some white tape stuff in various places.
2. Shows us where our water main and shut-​off thingy is (Yes I said «thingy»… this is why we call professionals…).
3. Shows us how to drain our water heater, and in the process of doing that tames one of our annoying kinky garden hoses (the hot water makes it behave itself better). Part of our shower problem was that small plastic bits from the hot water heater were clogging up the shower. Our home was a rental for a long time and I seriously doubt the hot water heater had ever been flushed.
4. Shows us how to use the serial number on the hot water heater to determine its age.
5. Educates us on what would probably be the best way to go if we were to upgrade our current hot water heater, and informs us about «hybrid» water heaters, which we’d never heard of.
6. Educates us on how to turn off the main water supply, and how we are supposed to call EWEB before we do so or we can get a big fine. (We didn’t even know where our main water supply or shut off thingy was before Jim showed us.)
I mean, he was just a walking encyclopedia of plumbing knowledge. For those of you too young to know what an encyclopedia is… he was like a walking human manifestation of Google for plumbing. And he cleaned up after himself, too.
He also identified an interesting rock — perhaps an opal — in our pea gravel. :)
He did all that — and with a smile — and the grand total for the job was under $ 200 bucks. We’re very happy.
We are planning on gutting and redo’ing our bathroom within the next two years or so, and we will definitely be calling them again and requesting Jim for the plumbing work we’ll need to have done at that time.
Thanks Jim. :)

These guys are awful! Stay away!

Charged over $ 300 to install a kitchen sink. (Not sure why it took so long.) Ended up having to return because they refused to properly caulk in the sink the first time. I have used them before, but will call someone else in the future.

If you’ve got an old house, then you’d better learn about Plumbing Works – especially as winter approaches!
My 1920s cottage needed a bathroom remodel, and a new tile job for the shower was the finishing touch. Now, as any owner of an older home knows, a remodel with an old house is a terrifying game of «Would you Rather?». This job was no exception.
I’ll spare you the details of all the plumbing drama and just say that we ended up backed in to a corner with two choices: Option 1, find a valve that would allow the old pipes to accept the new faucet (new faucets have some sort of «no scald» feature for safety reasons. Something that just wasn’t an issue in the 20s). Option 2, re-​do all the pipes in the shower. Needless to say, I was hoping that Option 1 was feasible.
Jerry’s staff had never even heard of the pipe layout that we were dealing with, and had never seen the old valve that we had brought in. They recommended PW, saying that «if they can’t help you, no one can.»
My favorite part of the PW visit was the look on the guy’s face when we showed him the old valve and described the current state of the pipes. It was something between wistfulness and intrigue at a new problem to solve. And solve the problem he did. I’m happy to report that the shower project is complete, looks beautiful and works great. We’ve put it to the test for 3 years now, and it’s still holding.
My willful naïveté when it comes to home improvement keeps me from giving 5 stars to these guys, but, if you don’t trust me – trust Jerry’s!

i’d like to save you the precious little time and energy it would cost you to come to this shop. my husband and i were in search of a specific water valve and were referred to this shop by a helpful sales associate at home depot. he did however, give us fair warning to expect bad service. and they did not disappoint! in a nutshell: they are unhelpful, disgruntled and to top it off, will more than likely not have what you need. take my word for it, don’t even bother.