A Real Good Plumber

Paul Shay (da boss) and his men are amazing. I think they are the best plumbers in the city. They have come day and night (I’m serious, any time of night) and have never disappointed. Paul and his crew are pros and know what’s up. I’m bummed that I know them so well (chronic prob in my building), but I challenge you to find a better plumber in this town. Booya.

I called them to get an estimate for some HVAC work at our apartment — two nice men came and took a look at our systems and promised to provide an estimate. All fine… except that they never followed up. I called them twice and both times someone would promise to call back. then NOTHING. What a waste of time.

Paul and Greg did an amazing job! They replaced my toilet which had a crack in the tank very quickly, and when the original toilet was out of stock at Home Depot thy upgraded me to a high efficiency model at no additional cost. Quick, effective, nice and did a great job — what more can you ask for?

We live in an old apartment building with quirky plumbing. Rosevelt has come out a number of times, and resolved the issue (s) quickly and effectively. Very professional and knowledgeable. Peter Shay is also a great resource on plumbing upgrades on renovations. They are not cheap, but they are very good.

Greg and Juan located and fixed a massive, hard to reach leak in my kitchen ceiling that was causing huge damage in my apartment. This was not easy and they did it all effectively and efficiently and quickly, and couldn’t have been more polite and more honest and more straightforward about through the whole process. Easy to communicate with. I asked them to write up a page description of the damage for my insurance claim and they didn’t hesitate for a second — went above and beyond the call of duty. Good guys.

When my shower fixture broke I called «A Real Good Plumber» right away because I had used them before when I renovated my apartment and I knew they would be good. They came promptly and fixed it a few times but warned me it that the part that was broken was no longer manufactured and that I would have to replace the whole unit soon. Finally, I had to get a whole new fixture but because it was an emergency (I had to shower at a neighbor’s) there was no time to wait for a special order. The plumber who came, Roosevelt, went out of his way to get the closest thing to what I wanted. Although it’s not ideal I can shower now, and later on they told me I can just replace the outside parts when I find something that I like better. I am grateful to all the other workers too including Steve, Jeronimo, Ernesto, Barry and a few others whose names I can’t remember who were very knowledgeable and competent professionals.

My apartment gets much too much heat in the winter. I turn all three radiators off and keep the place warm relying on the risers in four of the rooms. One day, I spoke with Paul Shay, the owner of A Real Good Plumber and I mentioned my excessive heat «issue». He said, oh, that’s really easy, you just need to install Danfoss thermostatic radiator valves on each of your radiators. So now, I have a thermostat on each of the radiators. NOW, I control the amount of heat each radiator is giving out.

AVOID
Had a clogged drain that I had already tried to snake in our Manhattan apt. They came out and spent 2 hours doing what we had already tried (snake) and didn’t fix (maybe ok), but they didn’t tighten the sink pipes and instead left them seemingly connected only for us to discover after 1 gal of water flowed to the floor that they never tightened. Sloppy! Did leave big bill however.
After several calls they finally came back out and spent 4 hours trying to troubleshoot (the drain later somehow fixed itself). The only real work they did was replace the pipe under one sink (new in 2009) but left several parts, seals, putty, debris, and other mess strewn across the floor and under the sink (took us 1 hour to clean up), a disconnected sink plunger, and a STILL leaking sink! BUT they did figure out how to leave us with over $ 1K bill! Replacing a sink p trap pipe is a weekend handyman job and a so called professional plumber couldn’t even do that. Not to mention the poor professionalism and sloppy work. After 10 days they did finally come back out to fix the still unfixed mess (they were «kind» enough to offer this part no charge — seriously?!)
If you need a real plumber there are so many better choices.

WAY overcharge.